Everyone at Insignia Auto Sales is sure busy!

     Hello car freaks, gear heads and all the rest of you cats that just love cars, got a lot going on these days around the Insignia Auto camp. So, let's get rockin',fire that bad-boy up and and smoke 'em til you're just spinnin' on the steelies!

     When I left you last week I was just a few miles from the Sky Harbor Airport just off I-10 East in Phoenix, AZ.  Trying to get to the Delta terminal to pick up my partner in crime, Mike Stinson, and the Sky Harbor airport is not an easy place to figure out on your first go round, no, that place has (4)terminals and each of those has a north and a south, meaning of course you only have (8)choices for which to make a wrong choice. Well, I made several of those as I burned laps around the harbor in the sky. I made several calls to Mike too, "where the he.. are you Man? Ah, finally we connected and all was good, so off to the Sleep Inn on Scottsdale Blvd., and to the concierge to check-in, easy enough, thank you Patrice.

     You may have caught Mike Stinson's blog from this past week, as he kind of took you on from this point and onto the Russo-Steele auction just up the road from our motel. Mike mentioned
how cool that auction was for a Friday afternoon, with thousands of car folk on hand and hundreds of bidders spending easily. I couldn't help being drawn to the early 60's GM and Fords up for auction, especially as we had gotten word from one of our restoration contractors in upstate Michigan that our very own 1963 Pontiac Catalina coupe was nearing the finish line and would be ready for transport back to Erlanger, Kentucky by the time Mike returned home from Scottsdale.

    

Wow, this is juicy stuff, because this Catalina is not just any long big body by Fisher mind you. No, this "Cat" has a tiger under the hood, a huge punched-out 421engine, bored out to be about 436 cubic inches, and our engine builder, John Teenier of Teenier Race Engines in Saginaw, yep, that Same Saginaw in Michigan ran this High Output HD Pontiac big block for several hours in a "break-in" mode on his dynamometer, better known as a "Dyno" , to assure of a happy marriage between the brand new high-lift cam and it's accompanying flat tappet lifters, very important to do when not using a "roller cam" set-up.

     The numbers Mr. Teenier was able to achieve on his initial "pulls" were impressive to say the least

but the final "pulls" are the one's that got Mike and John himself and your's truly really excited! How about 390 horsepower @4900RPM and a gnarly 480 Ft. lbs. torque @ 3500 RPM, that's peak, but the fact that this hot-rod engine produces over 405 lbs. of torque from 2300RPM all the way through the power band and though peeking at that 4900 rpm mark, it continues to pull and make great torque, 405 lbs. @ 5100rpm. This ole' Catalina will definitely haul the mail and pull the Bass boat to the summer cottage without working up a slather. Giddy-up! More about the long awaited Catalina later.

     But I first want to try to share some of the noteworthy highlights of our Arizona Auction Week in Scottsdale, it was a blast, pure and simple. The cars, wow, classics, exotic euro cars, sports cars, customs like you've never imagined, everywhere you looked. mind boggling even to a car nut such as myself!  So I will touch base back with you in a few for more on this as well.