Take note the fun of Christmas buying groceries? No longer the mall, now not Santa, now not Christmas track till you puke…the instant you had been within the toy retailer and your oldsters stated they might get you one present…however you discovered two. F-body fanatics, right here’s your second. ’74 Nickey Camaro vs. ’74 Firebird Professional Traveling. One is completed to the nines with all the excellent stuff thrown at it. The opposite is a fresh-from-the-dealership badass, a unicorn, a time tablet. Each are sinister, in very other ways, and each will get up you, your neighbors, and most certainly the useless. Just right good fortune opting for one…we’re suffering ourselves!
Behold, certainly one of McTaggart’s guiltiest pleasures, the “shovelnose” second-gen Camaro, whole with railroad ties entrance and rear. When the 1970 Camaro was once born, it was once praised for it’s “Detroit does Ferrari” styling, dealing with prowess, and plentiful energy. When the 1974 vehicles came over, they had been panned. You realize the regimen…5-mph bumper regs, gasoline disaster, the dying of the musclecar, it all. However a few the dealerships that cranked out scorching stuff weren’t finished but. Movement constructed a Segment III automobile this is now Iran’s most famed hot-rod. And Nickey Chevrolet cranked out this closing beast.
Your usual 1974 Sort LT Camaro may slightly cough out 250 horsepower out of it’s L82 350ci small-block. Nickey idea it would do higher. How does an L88 short-block 427 with iron ZLX heads sound to you? This 12.5:1 thumper inhales thru a Holley double-pumper and blasts violence thru a TH350 to a 10-bolt packing 4.56 gears. That is no cruiser. This automobile has one undertaking, and that’s to overcome the contest mindless. Who would consider a ’74 Camaro was once succesful? Even with the Cragars, the Hello-Jacker stance and the Lakewood bars, this automobile was once nonetheless enjoying the sucker’s recreation. There have been sufficient pretenders, however there was once just one king…and that is that automobile, the closing that may be produced ahead of Nickey referred to as it an afternoon.
This 33,075-mile, completely restored system is the way it was once. Subtlety was once a punchline. This was once a last hurrah ahead of the gub’mint stepped in and put a prevent to the joys. This was once how vehicles would glance if the Musclecar Technology didn’t have an finish. That posh Sort LT inner was once simply icing at the cake.
If the Nickey Camaro is the way it was once, then this 1974 Firebird is the way it might be. Not anything towards the Camaro, however it does have a couple of drawbacks: a throttle pedal like an on-off transfer, gears that put your cruising pace someplace round 50 mph, and gasoline intake that may get you a customized greeting card immediately from OPEC, only for starters. For the reason that Nineties, Professional Traveling-style builds have became automobiles just like the second-gen F-body into all-singing, all-dancing machines. Those aren’t simply rapid in a immediately line: they care for, they prevent, and extra frequently than now not they characteristic extras that no best recovery can have. 
A Dart mill making monster energy wasn’t an choice in ’74. Detroit Velocity was once many years clear of cranking out suspension parts and steerage techniques. The six-piston Baer brakes would’ve been witchcraft. And the Tremec six-speed guide trans could be a godsend when you sought after to do extra than simply put round the city. Upload within the power of the Moser 9-inch out again and the luxurious inner and we wager you’ll be on Google Maps monitoring down the most efficient winding roads round your neck of the woods.
So, there are your two possible choices. A from-the-dealership side road racer that was once dressed like a mellow mid-Seventies system, and an all-black, all-business street burner that behaves like a late-model automobile. Be selective when opting for…if you’ll be able to make your thoughts up, in any case.
