Livin' the old daze!!!

[Tripper]

My buddy that found the Nailhead for me & I have been runnin' around a lot lately & were talkin' about the old daze & started talkin' about how back in the day... cams grinders used to sell them as 3/4 race & full race. Seems really funny now but back then it was serious business!!! ; - >

BoB

 

[Bonehead]

Sure, a 3/4 cam was hot stuff.

 

[chopper tom]

i wander what 3/4 really ment? or full race?
Thats what all the old timers talks about is 3/4 ,the sound and fill was differant?

 

[bob w]

Being elderly, my recollection is that 3/4 race meant it was streetable and full race meant it was not. As I recall, there were very few grinds. I think Isky had maybe 2 or 3 for the flathead. We didn't look at cam specs much because of the limited choices. We simply relied on what the cam grinder said it was good for. Even in the early 60's, when I helped on a NHRA winning C/Gas Willys, I think Racer Brown had only 2 or 3 roller cam grinds for a small block Chevy. Some historian with old catalogs could prove me wrong however as the passage of so much time could have me making incorrect statements.

 

[donsrods]

I always assumed, like Bob, that 3/4 was tamer for the street and full race was too radical. We all lied and told people we had all this mystery stuff in our engines anyway, so who knows what we actually had. I used to pull the vacuum line off of my '64 Chevy engine when I went to the local hot dog hangout so it would idle like it had a more wicked cam than it did. When people asked what the hissing sound was I told them it was fuel injection, so I kept the hood chained down.

I also remember the very first set of mags I ever saw on a car. A '57 Chevy came into the hangout one night with California plates on it and Rader wheels.....we were all blown away. He also had one of those Cal Custom aluminum bolt on hood scoops, so we KNEW it was bad.

Yep, those were simple times.........but man were they great.

Don

 

[gassersgarage]

A kid I know is really into traditional stuff. He has a real cool 34' 3 window highboy with a 37' Flathead. He put a 3/4 cam into the flathead and was disappointed it had a very mild idle. He's afraid to go full race as it's his daily driver.