[Steeveedee]

Crazy speed stories should probably be a thread of their own. I had a '66 Le Mans with a Stage III 400 in it, (not properly rebuilt- just a ring and hone, with new shells, though I did not know it at the time) by one of my younger brothers. I was driving past many people in the Nevada desert between Las Vegas and Tonopah, Nevada (national speed limit was 55 at the time) in '75, and ran it up to 6800 RPM, which I discovered the hard way when the needle on the tach popped off the adjustable red line (set at 5500 RPM) when we bottomed out in a dip, and the headers lost quite a bit of material. That RPM translates to 143 MPH. When I got slowed down to about 80 MPH, I could hear the rods knocking. Then it started blowing steam like a tea kettle, and I coasted to the side of the road. All those people I had passed just cruised right on by! I had some big 11" retreads that had tubes in them on the rear, and am lucky that they didn't just explode at that speed. Lucky to be alive, to be honest. We started walking towards Goldfield, and some guy with his son took pity on us and let us ride in the bed of his truck.