I'm not THAT old, But I do have nostalgia for when "the Drivers were fat and the tires were skinny".. AKA: "when Racing was dangerous and sex was safe."
Some other stories that I thought was hilarious, when the rules stated he could not "port and polish" he would coat the inside of the intake ports with epoxy and form it to smooth the flow.. also he pre-dated the "extrude hone" process in an effort to skirt the laws about using factory intake manifolds.
There is an often mistold story (and I may be mistelling it) of his exploits with the early Cammaro, He built one in 1968 to his interpretations of the Trans am rule book. once again he would never cheat, but if the rulebook did not say something was disallowed he considered that a chance for innovation. so he towed the car from his shop in daytona to a road race in califorina. worked his magic to get some track time, Borrowed a set of tires and proceded to eclipse the track record by a large margin, after which he returned the tires and packed up the car, it was "too fast to race"
Since it never raced offically, little was known about this car untill after his death when a collector bought it to restore. when replacement parts were ordered nothing fit, it was found that Smokey changed every dimension on the car. flared fenders, lowered nose and roofline, just enough so it looked right, and throughout the restoration things were consistently found that still challenge modern builders comprehension.
you can't tell me it's not completely gorgeous and made 490 hp from 5000cc (302Ci) with 1960's technology
