American Graffiti - A Falfa 409?

[RCE1962]

American Graffiti was set in the year 1962 and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Milner's coupe had a SBC. I realize the 55 in the movie actually had a 454 and this Big Block didn't exist in 1962. Plus, I don't ever recall seeing an "engine" shot of this car, in the movie.

For overall dramatic effect.... if the engine would have been shown, it could have been something different from the engine displayed in the 32 coupe. In fact...if providing a difference between the two cars, it may have been more "period" correct, to have an alternate motor type, such as a High-performance 348 or even a 409 (although early) shown in Falfa's black 55'. :grumble:

I always thought the 55-56 & 57's with W's were/are a nice alternate and aside from the using a high-performance SBC of that era. Basically you could think of the 348-409 as being more potentially typical of that period in hot-rodding as an alternative for the Chevy...in 1962!

When I've watched the movie...I'm thinking W-engine anyways..so it doesn't really matter does it?:beerbang

JMHO

P.S. Check out the various "American Graffiti Car" attachments within the link below.

Ron

http://kathyschrock.net/graffiti/index2.htm

[dq409]

If you read about American Graffiti you will find that they had a very tight budget and made due with what they had.
But ,,yes it would have been cool to see the W`s !!

Even thinking more about when the movie was made,1973, I don`t think the W`s were the engine to have and more so the engine not to have,,,dq

[wagon409]

We bought a die cast of Falfa's car a couple years ago for my father-in-law and opened up the hood and low and behold a W-head engine. I was shocked, but what a pleasant surprise.

Marc

[jim_ss409]

I remember there was a line in the movie that said the 58 Impala had a 327 with six Strombergs. (I think they said six):scratch Anyway, the car actually had a 348. I always pictured the 55 as having a 409. That's the kind of power you'd need to beat a hot smallblock in a lighter 32 coupe. It would have been cool if they would have put a line in the movie like... "It's got a 409":beerbang
Two of the American Graffitti-Two Lane Blacktop cars survived. One looks pretty much like it did in American Graffitti except that it's got a nicer interior and a few other changes. The other one looks just like it did in the Two Lane movie. In fact the owner recently took the car back to Richard Ruth, the original builder to reverse some modifications that had been done over the years. Here's a link to the Two Lane Blacktop site... http://groups.msn.com/twolaneblacktophomepage/messageboard.msnw

[Nuts]

This car was featured at a Late Great Chevy Convention in Coure D'Alene, ID a few years back. Very nice car but not maintained at show level, which is actually kind of nice.

I believe his name was Mike, he bought the car before the movie was release I belive... :dunno

[wrench]

In my memory of the times the hot engine was the 301 Chevy. A 283 bored to 4 inches. And three deuces up top. With the right heads and cam, that was THE engine to have. While it was nice to see the occasional W in a 55~57, it wasn't all too common back then. Too many expensive things (for us poor rodders) needed to make it work. Headers, mounts, etc. I remember the first important upgrade to my small block back then was a pair of finned valve covers. :rofl Second was a chrome air cleaner. :rofl Took months to save up for those. Those were the days, huh?

Strangest swap I remember my cousin did was a Chrysler 392 dual quad Hemi in his 57 Chevy convertible. :eek:

[Ronnie Russell]

Wrench. What great memories. The old 301.. Had them " pop up" pistons!! Oh, what good times. Of course , when we were young, all times were good times. :rofl :rofl

[tripowerguy]

I had a 301 chevy with 6 97's in a Scotty Fenn dragster chassis running in c gas dragster. If you have never driven a dragster you don't know real acceleration. A full body car just doesn't come out like that. Back to the coupe of Milner's, remember when he stops at the gas station to uncork the headers? It is a pretty mild sounding small block. I don't remember anywhere in the movie of them saying what was in the 55.:dunno Roy

[Rolf]

It was Toad (Terry Fields) that yelled out the window that he had "six Stromberg", I think it was just bragging as he enjoyed his new ride...I don't think it was said what the car actually had...

...sure looked good peeling out thought :)

[Skip FIx]

The 292 version of the 283 with pop ups was also popluar!

[raymar58454]

buddy of mine had a 354 hemi in a 56 chev step side, another had an 409 in a 63 vette. I had a 392 hemi in a 40 chev business coupe( without cutting the inner fender wells. Total invested in the coupe? 165 for the coupe and 25 for the 57 New Yorker for the engine,trans and rear end. Those were the the days. Of course it was tough to come up with the 190 also back then.
Ray

[oil4kids]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWI34ZRVxI&eurl=

[desapience]

Guys,

Back in 65-66, I had a 55 2-dr hrdtp Chevy, with a 265 and 3-speed... my 1st car. A buddy had a cherry 2-dr post, also with a 265 -- that is until his older brother totalled his then new 327/365 h.p 4-speed Vette... They put the entire drive train into the '55', and it hauled bigtime, with posi 4.56:1 gears.

I also had a buddy with 58 2-dr post Bicayne, 348-tri-power and 4-speed. It never ran for more than a weekend at a time..., always broken down.

Thing is back then the "W's" were simply an unwanted item, and in my circle of friends, we considered them unreliable. When the 396 came out in 65, that was the engine to have, and there soon was a '55' with a 4-speed and a hopped up 396 by '66' when I graduated H.S.

IF I had my present '55' back then.. WOW! The longer we live, the more we learn, huh?

Denis

[Rusty Everitt]

Roy & Denis
You are so right about the old 301's. Back in 62 63 (my highschool days) my first car was a 56 210 2dr hardtop with the meanest 301 in town. The block was a 59 283 truck bored .125, milled .015, the heads were power pack milled .070, cam was a 56 experimental Duntov(valves set .015 across), corvette 2-4's, dual point's , Jahn's flat tops, 4-speed and 456's. That was the best running motor I've had to date. It did'nt even have a fan and it never ran over 180, can you believe it. Back then my weekends were set aside for going to the local drive-ins and hunting down those 409's, made believer's out of them most of the time.
Times were really KQQL back then, you did'nt need alot of money or a sponsor to have a hot car.
Rusty