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Edelbrock intake

NEIGHBORHOOD SEDAN

We’ve all heard stories of fellow street rodders who have searched far and wide for that special car. Weeks are spent on the Internet, days are spent stumbling through hot, dry, cold, wet, dusty or muddy swap meets, and even more time is spent at major rod runs, car corrals and cruise nights. Even with all that effort, time and expense, often times you still don’t find a particularly special car. Of course, you could do what Cecil Watts did and walk next door while your neighbor is having a barbecue for the hot rod club and say, “I didn’t know you were going to sell the Fordor—I’ll take it.” It was really that simple, and the best part is that the car is really special.

High Performance Rebuild

The small-block Chevy has enjoyed a long, happy life. Sure, the current LS1/LS6 version is quite far removed from the original, but thousands upon thousands of little mouse motors continue to provide the sole means of motivation to everything from stationary irrigation pumps to Le Mans-winning C5R Corvettes. Naturally, this list also includes all manner of boulevard bruisers, street stompers and resto rockets. Heck, we’ve even seen little Chevys under the hood of “Brand X” machinery. The continued popularity of the small-block Chevy is not surprising. Take a look at the combination of power potential and parts availability and multiply that by the cost quotient, and you have the makings of a real success story. Add to this equation the millions of project motors just sitting around  junkyards throughout the world, and it is easy to see why enthusiasts continue to embrace the mighty mouse motor as the performance powerplant of choice.   

CARB OR EFI?

What makes more power: carburetors or computers? While the ultimate answer is that a sophisticated electronic fuel-injection system will virtually always outpower a carburetor, the real question may be whether the power gains are worth the extra expense and complexity of installing an EFI system.

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