my car - the Lilac Attack

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My Car- 1972 Satellite Sebring Plus. The Lilac Attack / Lavender Scavenger ...so named because i wasn't going to buy anymore cars for awhile . It came up for sale locally, and attacked my bank account to buy it, then kicked my 71K mile 73 RancheroGT 351 CobraJet out of the garage and took its spot !

A west coast Oregon/ Washington car. I am supposedly 3rd owner. Very solid / rust free. 400-2bbl motor # matches. Originally Tawny gold. The halo top is the original vinyl. Story is the previous woman owner bought it new, and about 15 years ago had it painted to the lovely Lilac you see here. Basically complete and unmolested. Will be staying a Sebring, but i may have to add the transverse stripes only, as i've always liked them.

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Grille

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Interior - White + black , rear defrost + speaker fader + light group, etc

[CtownRunner]

Very nice.
Any plans beside the strip?

[quapman]

Nice!

That's a canopy top, not a halo.

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Hmmmn, whats the difference between the halo top and a full normal vinyl top ?
is it Halo if there is about an inch strip of body color above the doors/rear windows and the vinyl top stainless trim. Is that what is meant by Halo, it doesn't go all the way down to the upper window drip rails but goes all the way back to the rear window and mostly covers the C-pillar ?

Plans ----1] Pay off loan.
2] Pertronix or Electronic ignition conversion [ I guess the 400 2bbl did not get the elect ignition in 72, like the 340 ? , because there is no sign in the firewall for ECU mount or 4 pin ballast resistor ] - would like to go with the FBO pieces.
3] Stripe
4] Reproduction rallye gage tach ?
5] Figure out what route to go for induction + exhaust [ Thermoquad or Demon, TTI headers likely ]
6] rear gears, haven't gone under and figured ratio but it must be a 2.76 or 2.45 based on acceleration compared to cars with 3.23's i've had.

I want to keep it a satellite sebring plus, but get the drivetrain potential to match the great bodylines.
Have owned a 73 RR/GTX 440 Thermoquad 3.55 gears in the past, and it would have CRUSHED the Lilac Attack in a race
Also owned a 74 RR 318 2bbl dual exhaust 3.23 gears which i think also would have won a race with Lilac by a few car lengths.

[landon1]

if you want to go on a budget, my car's been set up with a holley DP (650 for more response, but want to try a 750), hedman headers with 2.5" exhaust, procomp HEI distributor with accel wires and plugs. i'm not sure how 400s are performance-wise, but being a 2bbl, it's probably a lower compression motor, so gearing may be the way to go for some more acceleration. i also have a numerically low gear-set, but i have enough torque i don't really notice acceleration lacking plus i get lower revs at highway + speeds

you'll get better performance and probably better mileage with a 4 bbl. i had a vacuum secondary holley, but could never get it set right. the double pumper i like much better since everything is mechanical - flawless performance.

headers have a great impact on performance also. i went from headers to manifolds and right back to headers. despite saving a bit of weight, there actually is a set-of-the pants difference while driving

the ignition really is the best thing imo to improve performance on stock cars with points. i used a 'cheap' procomp setup and the difference was amazing on the stock motor and still works well after the rebuild. simple, 2 wire hookup with no ballast resistor to mess with either. might even want to consider a Comp XE cam kit

[quapman]

Yessir, the Halo is the one with the body color strip above the upper window line. I really prefer the canopy and your car is kinda growing on me.

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Thanks gentlemen for the comments

I'll have to look up that Procomp distributor setup. I've done a few of the Mopar elect ignition conversions in the past, but i think pricewise maybe you can get more bang for buck going a different route. Did one Pertronix, it was ok, no seat of the pants performance gain, but i liked getting rid of the points.

Have run a 650 or 750 Holley double pumper [cant remember]on a 1st generation Bronco w/ 302 before, it was ok, i doubt it was tuned well though, so maybe i am shortchanging it - probably was too much carb for the motor also- was younger and hopefully dumber then.
Also had a Thermoquad built by a guy called DemonSizzler performance and "tuned" per that Cudas specs- [although it was built several states away] --it was pricy but awesome.