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Author Topic: in memory....Gary Guffey  (Read 3266 times)

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Offline amc49

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in memory....Gary Guffey
« on: March 08, 2014, 12:32:39 AM »
My old pal, Gary Guffey passed this week on Wednesday. None of you here knew him but for several years in our twenties we ran together, some of it in the most beater white '72 Pinto wagon you can imagine. We used to drive it as a field car on the lakeshore or in a huge high school parking lot in roundy-round ice storm racing. We drag raced (street raced too) a LOT using his '70 Boss 302 Mustang or my AMC Javelin and AMX cars. He would have fit right in here if he had known about the site. I still remember coming down a mountain one night in his brand new Firebird through some of the wildest curves and loops I've ever gone through, he drove over the edge but never lost it. I was white knuckle terrified, no way can I drive that fast around corners, there were maybe 10-12 on the way. We used up BOTH shoulders 100% to stay on the road within inches of cracking up and never got less than 105 mph (my job to watch as we got faster and faster every time we did it) all the way down. Most of it was at 120. I would have never dreamed a factory stock '74 350 inch low spec Firebird had that amount of performance in it and he used every last bit. Back in town we set up a race down the mountain when two Mustangs started lipping us off later. We went right back out and raced again, passing the two Mustangs up almost instantly; within 3 turns their lights were gone. When they didn't show up we went back to find one had flipped several times, narrowly missing any bad injuries but scaring the living daylights out of the 4 un-seatbelted people in the car. It was a sobering reality check but the point is, Gary had the stuff. Other things like Boss 305 inch motor at 8000 rpm and 6.20 gears and 32X14 inch slicks all at once and the resultant millennium falcon tunnel vision that acceleration does when it bleeds the blood out of your brain come to mind. We did lots of stuff like that. The 454 Corvette with one of the first sets of Manley BBC outboard pin boss pistons ever made, it ran in the nines with a two speed ATX. Hairy, man! GTX 440 with Kendig (Predator CV carb). A 12 second 1/4 mi. dead stock GTO w/400 and ATX, NO BODY, the frame only to make an awesome bench seat dune buggy. The 402 BBC Chevelle with Vega converter that ran twelves. The '63 390 Galaxie. Man we had an entire stream of multiplatform hotrods to play with. Every time I saw him he had a new project car........... ..and he was pestering me to help him do something to it.

At the funeral home gathering tonight I discovered that most of our youthful exploits are legendary with the extended family, many who heard my name treated me as though they'd known me forever even though I'd never met them before. Gary had been spreading those stories for years. What a guy. I'm putting this out there in web-land because if I don't I think I'll explode.

I am mostly by nature a loner but this guy was that one friend you get that can never be replaced ever. I gave him flak at times yet he always came back and I didn't deserve him as a friend. He greatly stimulated my mind; that allowed me to produce things and results I would have never dreamed of. I hope he forgives everything I've done to him, I know I sure do him, and miss him greatly. And you're right Gary, Ford DOES beat AMC, but only until the next time.......... .............. ........I got these new carbs, see......and.. .......wait 'til you see what I'm gonna do to THEM.......... .......

Offline 74 PintoWagon

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Re: in memory....Gary Guffey
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2014, 07:04:02 AM »
Sorry about your loss, condolences go out..
Art
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Offline Scott Hamilton

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Re: in memory....Gary Guffey
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2014, 08:04:23 AM »
Amc, wow, you writing this make all of us have an insite into your friend and especially your friendship... Thank you. God bless his family and you.

Scott


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Offline dianne

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Re: in memory....Gary Guffey
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2014, 09:20:27 AM »
Sorry to hear about your loss and that was a awesome memorial.
Vehicles:

- 1972 Plymouth Duster (To be a Pro Street)
- 1973 Ford Pinto wagon (registered ride 195)
- 1976 Mustang II mini-stock
- 1978 Mustang King Cobra II
- 1979 Ford Pinto Runabout
- 1986 Chevy K5 Blazer
- 1997 Suzuki Marauder

FORD: Federal Ownership Respectfully Denied

Offline dga57

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Re: in memory....Gary Guffey
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2014, 10:30:32 AM »
It's never easy to lose a friend... especially a really, really close one.  My sincerest condolences.
Dwayne :)
Pinto Car Club of America - Serving the Ford Pinto enthusiast since 1999.

Offline amc49

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Re: in memory....Gary Guffey
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2014, 02:47:48 AM »
Thanks guys, I don't associate a whole lot and I was fit to bust. That guy and I and to a lesser extent my younger brother were very tight all through the seventies, believe me, I only touched the tip of the iceberg there. I can still hear myself telling him 'you can't set timing that way!' while he got out in the snow to bump timing one way or the other by hand on that 2.0 Pinto. He always messed with it, I was for setting it right and lock that sucker down. He just liked to play with it. We argued friendly on almost everything but it was healthy arguing that usually ended up in compromise and good result for us both. I can still see his Momma opening the door to his bedroom at 3 AM in the morning and saying "WHAT ARE YOU BOYS DOING?' I was staying over that night and teaching him how to port 2 strokes by grinding on cylinders when I was like 20 and he was 18. We were making WAY too much noise even though the bedroom was on the opposite end of the house. His Mom and Dad were so forgiving and straight out of the June and Ward Leave It to Beaver '50s. Fine American stock, best of the best.

Some fool left out antifreeze and cracked the external block on the Pinto and how we got it for probably $200 back then. We epoxied up the block and drove it for like 2 more years before selling it.

I built my 8.5/1 compression small valve 1.78/1.40 304 inch AMC to a bet I had with him, he bet I couldn't get it into the twelves 1/4 mi. with the small heads/no compression on it. I got it into the elevens and he loved driving it. He messed with me every day as I cut and ground the heads in the shop he was working in at the time. I can still hear it. On a dare by him I cut, ground on, bent, broke, warped almost every part that can be modded on a car just to show him (and me) what you can do when you are motivated. I was always one for following the 'rules in the book', he showed me to a great extent how many of them can be broken to good effect.

The 2 stroke (Yamaha 360 Enduro/MX bastard parts mix)? I drove it and came back pronouncing it a dog, he said 'wick it up further, you're not stroking it hard enough'. I thought we were working on a low dog rpm torque engine, not like my Kaw 3 cylinders. I turned back around and this time spun it up hard and it stood straight up and everything I could do to save my life in the next 3 seconds/200 feet. Man that thing instantly doubled and then tripled power like throwing a switch around 5000 rpm or so. Instant stick of dynamite when the trigger got pulled. He was laughing so hard when I came back I thought he was going to throw up. He said at one point the only thing between me and death was two fingers on each hand welded to the handlebar, everything else was a-flappin' in the wind there.