Runs excellent! It's certainly no slouch even at stock boost levels and an untouched PCM! Punch this thing from 70 and you it jail velocity really quickly! As I had some launch shudder I refrained from any boosted brake torques and just flat pedeled her around. I have a punch list of little things to fix, tweak pinion/driveshaft angle, power steering pressure is too low, needs a trans cooler, etc. I also need a REAL wheel alignment as we basically set the toe to go! But we got nearly 28 mpg on one leg drafting the Fram trailer a bit.
Power is very good even though we left the calibration and boost levels bone stock for Power Tour sanity. We made more friends than enemies and when these guys realized that we saved our non running little Valiant from the crusher and that our entire drivetrain cost us only $2,100 delivered including electronics the cries surrounding the engine choice sort of slipped into a bit of envy on those puzzled faces.
As a late in life Mopar fan with a bone stock Slant 6 Scamp and this car I still feel a bit of an outsider as I don't have a numbers matching 69' Charger with a 440 Six Pack. That's more of the purists giving me crap.
I was honored to have some really talented car crafters, engineers, and personalities, including Rutledge Wood from Top Gear take pics of the car and compliment me, (and by proxy Tim Skardoutous), on our Scrapyard Scamp build. I was sure to tell them that this was a collective effort by dedicated friends to just do something different but something that's attainable in a garage with a lift, a band saw, a chop saw and Mig Welder.
When you think about all of the REALLY AWESOME cars on display that we had to compete with it's amazing that someone wants to spend 15-20 minutes in a walk around with the car.
For me that's all the validation I need to know that we at least had an interesting car to display. The Fram brand love on Power Tour was beyond amazing and I cannot stress how honored it makes me feel to be on the Fram/Prestone/Autolite marketing teams as a car guy.
We drove every leg except for the last one as I was just exhausted from the last month of sleepless nights and it finally caught up with me so we had Pilot Transportation take Scrapyard to the last stop and I slept Friday morning with my coworker driving the rental car!
I got a chance to plug my pal Peter Bergman and Bergman Autocraft as the stance, wheels and tires were some real focal points bringing guys in for a closer look. Once folks peeked underhood you could hear the "I have no idea what that motor is, but it's fits like factory and looks really cool". The DigiTail taillights were also a cool piece!
I feel we did our Mopars proud as we had many many Mustang and Camaro guys commenting on what a pretty car this was and what a cool platform this is to build., "This car is just the RIGHT size for a hot rod!", "I never heard of a Scamp!", to "I like the fact that you swapped that Duster clip on to that old Dart!", "This is too cool!", "That's a SUPRA engine, you SIR ARE BADASS!" of course we had, "You better not show up at the Mopar Nats with this abortion!" and "What a dumb choice for an engine!"
I think we were the only vendor that did the whole tour with an A body Mopar, but American Powertrain had their very nice 69' Valiant, with Aluminum Big Block on hand for most of the other stops from Memphis on.
