Harold Mills' 1980 AMC Spirit
Harold bought the car in 1988. It had caught fire under the hood and had
blistered the hood, roof and broke the windshield. Needless to say the
engine compartment was roasted. He asked his friend, Mike Miller, about
helping build the car and help him sharpen his driving skills competing
in SCCA Solo II events. It started out with the stock 258 6 cylinder
with a small cam and headers. We later added a Clifford 4 bbl intake.
Not happy with the performance level of the engine, i.e., we were
getting beat with regularity, we scrounged the wrecking yards and came
up with a 4.0L Jeep engine. The engine was rebuilt, a Mopar Performance
cam installed, the cylinder head received a GENEROUS porting job by
Mike who also made a wiring harness to mate the injected 6 to the non
injected car. We utilized a Mopar Performance computer to control the
injection and timing.
After a couple of times out with the car it was apparent that the
Hoosier Autocrosser tires were not up to the task of keeping the car
hooked up, we changed to 10 inch wide road race slicks on all four
corners. This was just the ticket and the handling was superb. In 1993,
Mike took 2nd place in the Texas region in the "C-Prepared" class that
was packed full of V-8 powered Mustangs, Camaros and the like.
Feeling the need for more speed after three seasons of running this
combination, and after the oil pump decided to lock up, we decided to go for broke and built the 360 AMC V-8 that is currently in the car. After changing
to 12 inch slicks and still not being able to get the car thru a turn
without smoking the tires, we retired from Solo II and decided to do
the thing we both missed very much.......go drag racing.
Doing nothing more than changing the front springs and removing the
stabilizer bars and making a set of slapper bars, we took the car to
Kennedale and started flogging it. We have been quite pleased with the
results. The car hooks up good, goes straight, and is a blast to drive.
Our best run to date has been a 6.91 at 98.44 mph. Harold's son Aaron
has also been driving the car and is learning a lot about drag racing.
We are currently going through the heads ( we bent a few valves at the
Motorplex this spring ) and should have it back together soon. We never
get in a hurry to do anything drastic without giving it a lot of
thought. Running an AMC requires that mentality to make one run good
because of the lack of good performance parts available.
In building the engine, we have utilized Chevy pistons and pushrods,
Mopar lifters, Delco distributor, and are currently stuffing the heads
with 440 Chrysler valves. We share in the responsibilities of building
everything that goes into the car and everything is talked about
between us before a descision is made on what to do next. A lot of components
on the car had to be made or modified since not much is readily
available for it.
It has been a very good racing relationship that most teams only wish
they had and one that will continue for a long time.