Well, I've added another name to the list of folks I've had the pleasure of meeting in person after hanging out with them hear on the Forum. In the past I met up with all the CCC in Denver, Lars, Blackbelt and crew, Mark Lefebvre (ML67) in New Hampshire, Nick (Vettemaniac) and Marcus (Zwede) in Dallas and quite a few others. It's always been fun to put a face to the name.

Last week my wife and I went on vacation. We started in San Francisco and worked our way up the coast (Hwy 1 is incredible!) through the Redwoods and up to Portland. From there I made the trip up to the Seattle area to meet Steve Barker and see his incredible car(s).

Steve met me and we went to his house. Beautiful place high up above town. Toured the house and met his wife Kerri who is also a really neat person. Gotta be a great wife to put up with all the toys right?

He showed me the '69 that he and his son are "un-Pro streeting". They have completely redone the body back to stock after removing the tube chassis. Incredible amount of work, but as with everything I see that Steve does...it's being done first class. Then we made it to the "engine room" where I got to drool over that "weenie little aluminum block 540" on the engine stand just waiting its' turn again.

We went to lunch and basically BS'd for an hour or two. Interestingly we found we had lots of things to talk about other than just cars. Work, family and backgrounds. Both of us were "military brats" and moved around a lot as kids, been married for a long time ( he just celebrated his 27th anniversary and I'm about to hit my 24th), kids off in college etc. In fact his son's car of choice driving to college is a bright yellow '69 C-3 with a 300+ RWHP small block and Richmond 6 speed. Bet there's not many of those in the parking lot huh? Steve has managed to raise a kid with "proper car values" in this day of Hondas! After lunch we ran by his office building to look around and meet some of his employees.

We then went back to see the 632" '67. I can't tell you how neat it was to see the car sitting on the chassis dyno after seeing pictures of it for so long. All I can tell you is it's amazing! He has managed to stuff a tall deck 632" motor with Dart Big Chief Pro Stock heads, a complete dry sump oiling system, vacuum pump, nitrous system, 2-3/8" headers (he built himself!) under the hood of a '67 Coupe. The hood is a "little tall" but hey, it all fits under there right? He can even pull the valve covers without removing anything under the hood with some clever engineering. He had the car all hooked up with instrumentation to monitor it on the dyno. He's been in the middle of carb playing so we reinstalled one of them and fired it up. All I can say is that the sound of that sucker going through the new 4" oval exhaust and 4 (!) mufflers is incredible. Steve is right, it's really not loud at all considering. In fact I'm not sure that mine isn't louder than his! He has a .850"+or so lift solid roller cam in that dude and it literally idles nicely at around 800-900 rpm! If you have ever noticed how a Pro Stocker idles actually very nicely you can get an idea of how it sounds. Wide LSA combined with insane .050 duration numbers and lift add up to decent low speed running actually. We ran the motor some to let it warm up and then winged on it a few times. Dyno sheets show 900+ RWHP through the mufflers on pump gas without the N20 yet!

Since it was all strapped down in dyno mode, we didn't take it out for a ride, but I made him promise that next time we will. I have no doubt after seeing and hearing it run that it won't be an incredible street ride. I'm still working on him to make it ready to run the Pump Gas Drags next year or at least drag it out to a Forum event. I told him I'd be his pit crew. I think we can allow him a trailer for something as radical as this! I also got to see his 1700 mile '91 Callaway Twin Turbo Vette that he has tweeked to over 600 rwhp. OK,,,maybe tweeked isn't the word.....re-engineered while looking stock is a better word. He just stripped it to bare glass and had a flat out perfect yellow paint job put on it. He's working on reassembling it now. Also saw the future '69 Camaro project and all the accumulated parts for it already.

Later, Steve and his wife took me to a great restaurant overlooking the city. I think they know everyone in the place, as there was an endless parade of the employees coming by to say "Hi" to them both. They said they had been coming there for years and really enjoyed the fact that they had been able to get to know folks like that on a personal basis even though they live in a big city. Just goes to show you can create anything you want huh?

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along to everyone here, that 1) Steve and his wife Kerri are fantastic, personable and down to earth folks. 2) That incredible 632" monster DOES really exist. 3) Steve is a fanatic about detail and I'm going to have to go back home and notch my efforts up a little! 4) If you ever get a chance, you ought to look up and meet some of the folks here that you chat with all the time. It's really a lot of fun and I've added several close friends that I talk with regularly on the phone and e-mail almost daily. It's really neat!


Thanks,


JIM

 

Sounds like a lot of fun. It is sorta strange to refer to people on the forum as "buddies" without ever meeting them. I find myself every once in a while saying things like 'I have this buddy with a 825 hp 540 in a 67 vette" or " I have a buddy with a 632 in a 67" etc, etc.

Jim,

If you are ever in the LA area make sure to give me a ring.

There are lots of guys on the forum I would like to meet.

 

Jim, I appreciate everthing you wrote here. You have a great ability to take things that have happened and put them into words.

It is too bad that we were only able to spend one day together. It is not too often that I get a chance to talk with someone that has the same interests that I do and can understand what I am going through. Expecially when that person has the knowledge, experience, and intelligence that you do. That ain't sucking up, it is just a fact. You ever thought about moving up here? Just joking.

I regret not having the new carburetor on the motor and the car in the correct condition to take it for a drive. Like you said, there is always next time.

Actually, the carb arrived on Monday. I spent some time getting it dialed in for street driving. Yesterday, after more tuning, I made two blasts on the DynoJet and it made 904 rwhp on the second one. This is with a carb that is 200 cfm smaller than the one it replaced. Plus this one has really good A/F numbers for all types of driving.

I expect to get the car off of the dyno today and actually take it for a drive. Now that will be a new experience.

Again, thanks for taking the time to visit. You went out of your way and it is much appreciated.

Steve

 

 

Very

 

That's great you finally got to meet Steve. This is the real power of the internet in action -- meeting people w/ similar interests and pursuits and developing genuine friendships. Now you'll have to make another trip out there to experience Steve's ungodly beast on the road!

Great stuff!

Take care,

Mark