Moderately souped-up Sprint owned by Rich (from Wisconsin?) These shots
were originally from Jim Pelot's site at
http://www.geocities.com/ikesgto
Jeremy's 72 Ventura.
The mistreated vehicle on the lower right will be a Pro Street car when it grows up! Good luck to ya, Jeremy!
As you can probably tell by my high-tech, gallery-quality cartoon, there will be a lesson to be learned here. But first, here's Jeremy's '72 project car. It doesn't have a pretty face right here (photo 1) and seating is not really comfortable (photo 2). But the main problem was the buckled section in photo 3, which he had to hammer out, cut and weld. Let's let him tell us what happened:
Even though he was in the middle of a move to a new state, Jer took the time to send these shots of his project car. It's looking a lot nicer!
Jeremy writes: "I wanted to send you a recent pic of the primered pro street project for PV.com. I finished primering just a few days before making the trip. When I mounted the fenders, I noticed a severe alignment problem with the driver side...I warped the crap out of this fender! I will attempt to correct it, but I think this fender is wasted. Just to get it close to alignment, I actually had to use my whole body to force it into position... The fender is under so much stress right now, it could actually turn itself inside-out at any time! So here are a couple of pics (no details) for you" Ah well, live and learn, especially dealing with thin sheetmetal...we appreciate the update and wish Jeremy well in Montana.
On e-bay, March 2003. Very nice
shots. The car's seller later had a computer melt-down... but thanks
to this site, he was able to retrieve his treasured photos again.
"...I have been a frequent visitor to your web site and am very pleased to see that so many others have a passion for Pontiac's little X-body. I think you do a great job running the web site and wanted to send along some pics and my story in the hope that you might include it with the other reader's rides.
"My project car started out in 1999 as an ad for a tired old six cylinder car with faded Shadow Gold paint, ratted out seats, deteriorated rubber floor mat and plenty of rust. The owner was in a hurry to get it out of the back yard, resulting in my picking it up for $600.00 Canadian. The idea was to fix it up as cheaply as possible and then drag race it, but one thing led to another and the original plan was amended to create the car you see today.
"When the dust settled on my Ventura it had not developed into a quarter mile terrorizing muscle car. Instead, it took the form of an economical performance car built on the principle that made the Nova SS 350, the 340 Demon and Duster, and the AMC Hornet 360SC great cars - horsepower in a light weight package. As you can see by the attached pictures the car became my interpretation of some of my favourite themes from the '64 -'72 muscle car era. It is a tribute to the spirit of performance-oriented dealerships (such as Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac), and to the concept of the "no frills-all business" muscle car which is best exemplified by Chevrolet's COPO cars.
"The colour is 1969 GM Code 72, a.k.a. "Carousel Red" ( "Hugger Orange on a Nova/Camaro). It has a fresh interior including Sun tach and gauges. The car rolls on the tires of my youth, BFG Radial T/As, which are mounted on nice light steel rims with poverty caps (remember the theme?). The Royal Bobcat decal is just a kind of twist that gets people asking questions at the local show and shine. Again, this car is not about authenticity, but honouring the spirit of the muscle car era.
"Mechanically the car sports a 1971-vintage Chevrolet 350 bored .020 over with 9:1 compression; L-79 spec cam; Weiand Stealth aluminum intake; Edelbrock Performer 500 carb; open element air cleaner; Hedman headers running to dual exhaust with race ready cut outs and low restriction mufflers. The original aluminum case Powerglide transmission was retained, as was the 10 bolt rear with 3.08 gears (for now). It's good for mid 14 second e.t.'s.
"Once I have finished detailing the engine compartment and trunk I would be glad to send a few more pics. Thanks again for making pontiacventura.com available for us enthusiasts". James Raposo Surrey, British Columbia, Canada"
Note: Fender emblems are from a '71, James thinks the fenders may have been swapped before he bought the car. -Ro
(R) We have a multi-car X-body fan, Troy Smith (
tnsmith10@cox.net )
"...my blue Ventura is a
'72 that I got for $800 and put in another $1000 just to get it road worthy,
still got a long way to go with it..." His other Ventura is a '76 SJ,
see it in the '76 section.
He's got a fine, straight car to work with.
Rock Ringer furnished these nice shots of his newly-acquired '72. This was his first encounter with the car, at a show in North Carolina.
Very nice indeed!
"She has a stock 350 that is about to undergo a modest performance upgrade and I will send before and after photos when complete. The plans are to add a Competition Cam, Edelbrock Aluminum intake, Edelbrock 600 CFM, (4 barrel naturally) carburetor and some chrome dressing for the valve covers and air cleaner. Also, I will upgrade the ignition set up. But first, I plan to upgrade the brakes to power front disc brakes and recondition the rear." Stay tuned for further updates!