Barn Find 66 Buick Hits the Autocross! - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 18 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this bonus episode of HOT ROD Unlimited

Transcript

00:00 It's Finnegan and Freiburger and you are expecting roadkill right now.

00:08 Sorry, you're not going to get it.

00:10 We suck.

00:11 What happened?

00:12 Well, instead, we're actually going to give them some good stuff.

00:17 Remember the '66 Buick we dragged out of a backyard in Arizona where it had been parked

00:20 for 33 years and we drove it home?

00:22 Well, now we're going to hop the thing up a little bit, turn it into a daily driver,

00:26 so check this out.

00:27 We're going to turn the thing on the autocross with all-new Classic Performance product suspension.

00:43 So about two weeks ago, Freiburger calls me up and says he wants to test a car at El Toro.

00:47 So I say, "Yeah, okay, let's do it."

00:49 He pulls up in this and I'm like, "You're kidding, right?"

00:54 If you follow Hot Rod Unlimited, you might know the story of this '66 Buick.

00:57 We dragged it out of the desert where it was parked, neglected for 33 years.

01:02 We got it running and drove it home from Phoenix to LA.

01:05 But now, I'm going to live up to my promise to thrash on it here at El Toro Marine Base

01:10 where we're going to run the autocross, the slalom, and do some brake testing.

01:23 The really amazing thing about this car is how little it needed after being just buried

01:28 for three decades.

01:30 As a matter of fact, it ran so good that we decided to just turn it into a competent daily

01:35 driver.

01:36 That involved boiling out the fuel system and we put a new radiator in it, spark plug,

01:40 spark plug wires.

01:41 But the big deal is the suspension was clapped out.

01:44 And so now, we've gone through it front to back, all with parts from a company called

01:48 CPP.

01:49 Well, here in the Hot Rod shop, I just got done updating the chassis on this '66 Buick

01:54 Convertible Special.

01:56 We took all the stock suspension parts off the car that were rusty and worn out.

02:01 You know, just kind of outdated and replaced them all with classic performance products.

02:05 Tubular control arms, we've got the lower and upper control arms here.

02:09 We've got their drop spindles.

02:10 It's a two-inch drop spindle with a stock height spring.

02:14 We have 11-inch disc brakes that replace the old worn out drum brakes.

02:19 We have a heavy-duty inch and an eighth sway bar for the front, as well as all new steering

02:24 components, tie rod ends, this billet adjuster sleeve, center link, pitman arm, power steering

02:31 box, and even a rag joint.

02:33 So the front suspension of this thing is all dialed, all new, ready to go, and should work

02:37 well.

02:38 Here in the back, we took out all the stock suspension, the stamped steel trailing arms

02:42 with the worn out bushings, which is pretty typical with a car this age, and replaced

02:46 them with classic performance products.

02:48 Here we have these heavy-duty upper and lower control arms for the rear.

02:53 They're tubular instead of stamped steel, which makes them a lot more heavy-duty, and

02:56 they even have these tie-in brackets to tie in the suspension with the rest of the chassis

03:00 in the car to help stiffen things up.

03:03 We have a heavy-duty sway bar for the rear, as well as drop coil springs to lower the

03:07 ride height, as well as new shocks.

03:09 So the back of this thing should handle just as well as the front.

03:12 With all that suspension and brake work, obviously we also needed wheels and tires, and Treadsource.com

03:17 hooked us up with these Falcon Azenis tires, which are like incredible racy overkill for

03:23 this pile, but we're good with that.

03:25 And it's also got Wheel Vintique's Steelies on it.

03:28 They're 17x8 and 17x9.5, and I really dig this powder coating that we had done at MB

03:33 in Orange County, California.

03:35 But now we're going to go thrash on it, right there at the autocross.

03:38 Let's go.

03:40 [00:01:00] [silence]

03:47 [00:01:30]

03:52 [00:02:00]

03:57 [00:02:15]

04:02 [00:02:22]

04:07 [00:02:33]

04:12 [00:02:40]

04:18 [00:02:44]

04:23 [00:02:50]

04:28 [00:03:00]

04:34 [00:03:10]

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04:53 [00:03:26]

04:58 [00:03:30]

05:01 Not that the car is really, really fast.

05:03 It was just way better than it should be, considering how it looks.

05:06 I couldn't believe how flat it was and how much it stuck.

05:10 A lot of that is the tires.

05:11 If it had a posse in it, we'd be somebody.

05:13 It was actually spinning the tires off the corner.

05:16 As a matter of fact, we outran a late model Mustang.

05:19 It was stock and it had some like 400 tread wear tires.

05:22 These are 200.

05:24 It ran 114 at the autocross and we were at a 113.2.

05:30 Man, that was fun.

05:31 When Nick and I were going around in the car together, we were just laughing our asses

05:35 off.

05:36 Now, we're going to get back with Nick and head over to the slalom and the brake test.

05:41 To my surprise, we take the car through the slalom course and it handles great.

05:55 It went through at 6.34 seconds, which is equivalent to 45 miles an hour.

06:00 That equates to just a little bit worse than a brand new Camaro.

06:07 After the slalom, we brake tested the car and it stopped in 166 feet, which again, looking

06:12 at the car, you would think it would be a lot worse, but this car stopped great.

06:19 So now that I'm convinced that Freiburger really wasn't trying to kill me because the

06:22 car does handle well and it stops well, I think we've had enough.

06:26 You know, I tell people we're going to leave this car just the way it is and they stare

06:30 at you like you just set their dog on fire.

06:32 But that's what's cool about it actually is people not getting it.

06:36 But for me, this thing is a reliable and now really fun daily driver.

06:40 And so it's done.

06:42 Off to the next project.

06:43 [00:03:50] [silence] [00:04:00]

07:03 [00:04:15]

07:18 [00:04:26]

07:24 (explosion)

Barn Find 66 Buick Hits the Autocross! - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 18

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