Les, now your talking as that little 290 was a screamer after a little works done to it. A friend had a 66 American Rogue 290 4 speed that gave my stock Scrambler some trouble until I started working on it. Pulled the 390 out of the Javelin which was camed and ported, installed it in the Scrambler, too guttless went to a 401 which grew to a 458. That broke trans, drivelines and rearends on slicks besides a handful on the streets. Gas war and smog tests put the Scrambler and Javelin in storage for many years until they became smog exempt. Got a big offer from a friend on everything AMC I had including 5 motors, 3 390's and 2 401's.
You mentioned SCCA now that was a great era with Camero, Mustang and AMC. My friends had 65 goats and 442's, hated me as they got beat by a Rambler on the street as well track.
Les, I grew up on G80 Matchless, 9 out of 10 starts are one kick starts if properly tuned and you know what your doing. My dad refused to let me buy a Matchless twin so I got into 850 Nortons.
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