Flint Flyer??!!

This story sparked my interest as I cruised the v8buick board a little while ago...

I emailed a gentleman regarding information on this car and this is what he wrote:

John Lane owns the car and it is/was a true GS. The original owner took possession from the dealer and drove it around for a few weeks. Once Crane was ready he drove the car there and stayed while the motor and trans were 'adjusted'. The car was supposed to have come with a 4:30 rear but it did not. He called his 'contact' and within a week a truck drove up with a 4:30 rear axle complete with some special brakes. He raced the car on local tracks until he spun two rod bearings in a hiway race against a Corvette in 67, parked the car until John bought it in 2000. Car currently has only 4900 mi.

Since you are in the parts business you will appreciate the following story. When they pulled the motor apart the crank had to be turned. John ordered new pistons and decided to have the crank and rod balanced. His engine builder(Robert) wanted to have it done in Orlando (an hours drive) but John found some place in Ga that would do it for cheaper so he boxed the crank and rods up and shipped them. They haven't been seen since! UPS lost the shipment that they had NOT insured. Robert called King Crankshaft and they built a billet stroker crank with chevy rod size and buick mains which allowed them to use the pistons(with minor machine work, sleeved the rod ends and clearance the tops) and chevy rods.

Will be posting the cam and crank spects later.

Tyler

Here is some more information on the car in the v8buick.com forums...

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20570&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Followup from the last update!

OK all this talk about 'I remember' cars has stirred me to action. This story has the

facts, figures and documentation to back it up. The car belongs to a friend and is

sitting in his garage at this moment. (Heard it run today). It is a 1966 GS 401 that

ran A/Stock and trailed everything in central florida at that time. This car was a

Buick sponsored sleeper. The individual was an ex Buick employee that had run

nailheads in various configurations. At the time Buick was being kicked at the drag

strips by the 396/427 Chevelles, Corvettes,Fairlanes ETC and they did not have an

answer so they devised a way to cheat(Stroker crank-469ci+cam-head work) and to my

knowledge this was never caught. Buick came to him and said if he would buy a new GS

they would send the car out for some special work to make it competive(One of 14). As

you see he ordered a auto GS with PS and 401. The car was then sent to Crane in

Florida for some special engine/trans work at NO cost to the individual. The engine

modifications are noted on a yellow tag, Sig Erickson cam specs and CSC guarentee,

the rear is a 4:30 rear with some special drum brakes(At no cost to the owner). He

ran at Plant City and Oldsmar in central florida. There are some time slips from

those days that we have not gotten from the widow yet that show 10/11 sec times. In

1968 he was street racing a corvette and spun two rod bearings and parked the

car.(The rods were 'boxed' with a 1/4 sq SS bar welded to each side HEAVY)

In 2000 some friends were talking, as we are, of bad cars that they remember from

their youth and this car came up as my friend remembered seeing it rumble through his

small town in 67. His friend said he knew the person who owned the car and he lived

in the next small town, the third guy remembered going to Oldsmar with some kind of

towed hot rod that he was going to run and some guy with a red Buick came up and

asked if he was going to run, when he said yes the guy said save your gas and tires I

have everything here covered including a cheater 427 Chevelle a Chevy Dealer was

sponsoring. When he put the Chevelle down they left the car on the trailer. My friend

wondered if the car was still around and the third guy said he had seen it not too

long ago sitting in an open carport in the same small town. They went to talk to the

owner and found the car sitting with 4 flat tires looking real bad(It had been parked

in the same spot since 1968). The owner was in real bad health and agreed to sell the

car to my friend as he knew he would bring it back to glory. At the time the car had

4,500 mi on it.

They pulled the engine and trans and had the 3rd guy who runs a machine shop rebuild

it. My friend and the second guy are paint and body types so they stripped the paint

down to bare metal and repainted the car and engine compartment. Once they got the

motor apart they decided to ship out the crank&rods to be balanced. They found a shop

in Ga and called UPS to pick up the crank and rods. UPS lost them and to this day (3

yrs later) they have never been found and were not insured. SOOO they called a

crank company the machine shop owner dealt with and for $3,800 they had a new stroker

crank(469 ci) with Buick mains and chev rods built. Since they had ordered the

pistons before losing the crank they had to sleeve the pistons so the the pins would

fit. The 2 speed trans had some kind of electric lockup switch but my friend wanted

to drive the car to car shows and still keep the 4:30 rear so he had local trans shop

build a bullet proof TH 400 with a ford stick shift OD unit on the back of it.

This car is a real piece of Buick history but so far we have not heard of any of the

other 14 cars. We know one was in Jacksonville Fl and have the owners name but he is

never home and does not return msgs. The cars garage companion is a Green 70 Stage

one 455 also a beautiful car. Hopefully I will get him to take it to the Buick

Nationals in May.

Picture/documentation:

1. Bill of sale. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF_Sticker.jpg

2. Cam spects. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/cam_specs.jpg

3. Engine build order. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/engine_specs.jpg

4. Crank doc. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/csc_doc.jpg

5. Instructions. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/drag_ltr.jpg

The car as found:

1. Car. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF05_Before.jpg

2. Car. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF07_Before.jpg

3. Engine compartment. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF03_Before.jpg

4. Interior. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF_interior6.jpg

5. Original owner. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF_owner.jpg

6. Brakes. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/brakes.jpg

Engine rebuild.

1. Block. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/block1.jpg

2. Block. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/block2.jpg

3. Block. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/block3.jpg

4. Block. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/block4.jpg

5. Block. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/block5.jpg

6. Head. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/head1.jpg

7. Head. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/head2.jpg

8. Pan. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/pan.jpg

9. Pistons. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/pistons_bottom.jpg

10. Pistons. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/pistons_top.jpg

Restoration.

1. Bare metal. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF01_During.jpg

2. Parts cleaning. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF02_During.jpg

3. Engine. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF03_During.jpg

4. Hood. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF_hood.jpg

Done.

1. Engine compartment. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF02_After.jpg

2. Engine Compartment. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF01_After.jpg

3. Front. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF10_After.jpg

4. Current owner and restorer John Lane.

http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/FF11_After.jpg

Misc.

1. Protecto plate. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/p_o_p.jpg

2. Build tag. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/build_plate.jpg

3. Vin Tag. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/vin_tag.jpg

4. Bobs plate. http://www.sirgalahad.org/tyler/buick/bobs_tag.jpg

 

 

Tyler

 

 

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