when I was first getting into building fast cars , it was almost mandatory that you selected a fairly light weight car like a nova, camaro ,vega ,mustang, pinto or dart, or maverick , and then you found a larger car that had been wrecked to salvage a 389,400,421,428,455 Pontiac, 396,427,454,400 chevy ,455 Buick,,472,or 500 caddy,
keep in mind the stock 500 caddy engine has over 500 ft lbs of torque and with a cam and head swap 600 ft lbs of torque is extremely easy to obtain.
440 dodge, 392 chrysler or 426 hemi
you usually tried to make as much of the larger cars original drive train fit and function as you could and had a local shop narrow the rear differential,shorten the drive shaft and change the u-joints or yokes as required, and then you tried to stuff the largest tires you could fit in the wheel wells.
the object of course being to produce a reasonably light car with decent power.
I rarely see that being done, now I see guys who think just the simple act of throwing a cam,headers and intake swap on the original engine in the cars going to make it noticeably faster.
now theres a thread on here where RICK has built a T-bucket with a well thought thru engine,
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/tbucket-engine-project-dart-shp.3814/
that engine has the potential to make 480 hp-500 plus hp, but what makes the car potentially really impressive is the car probably weights under 2100lbs
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...asonably-fast-in-street-trim.3404/#post-41453
IF we assume ricks T-bucket has about 400hp-430hp and with him in it it weights 2300 lbs you can see the power to weight ratio has a good deal of potential.
http://www.wallaceracing.com/et-hp-mph.php
http://www.tciauto.com/tc/racing-calculators/
http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/how_to_measure.html
it should be obvious that building a far lighter weight car is much easier on parts breaking and easier to accelerate , and that the larger the engines displacement, the more torque and potential power can be had at a reasonably low rpm.
if you build a 327 and it makes 1.2hp per cubic inch thats close too 400 hp, build a 454 that makes 1.2 hp per cubic inch and thats near 545hp, the big blocks about 100-120 lbs heavier, but stick the small block in a 2800 lb car and thats about 7 lbs per hp
stick the big block in the same car that now weighs 2920 and you see 5.35 lbs per hp even with the slight increase in weight, I can assure you the difference is easily 3/4 of a second faster E.T, times for the big block car, IF ITS PROPERLY SET UP TO USE THE EXTRA POWER
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...-a-472-500-caddy-engine-in-a-z.862/#post-1347
http://www.wallaceracing.com/et-hp-mph.php
keep in mind the stock 500 caddy engine has over 500 ft lbs of torque and with a cam and head swap 600 ft lbs of torque is extremely easy to obtain.
440 dodge, 392 chrysler or 426 hemi
you usually tried to make as much of the larger cars original drive train fit and function as you could and had a local shop narrow the rear differential,shorten the drive shaft and change the u-joints or yokes as required, and then you tried to stuff the largest tires you could fit in the wheel wells.
the object of course being to produce a reasonably light car with decent power.
I rarely see that being done, now I see guys who think just the simple act of throwing a cam,headers and intake swap on the original engine in the cars going to make it noticeably faster.
now theres a thread on here where RICK has built a T-bucket with a well thought thru engine,
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/tbucket-engine-project-dart-shp.3814/
that engine has the potential to make 480 hp-500 plus hp, but what makes the car potentially really impressive is the car probably weights under 2100lbs
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...asonably-fast-in-street-trim.3404/#post-41453
IF we assume ricks T-bucket has about 400hp-430hp and with him in it it weights 2300 lbs you can see the power to weight ratio has a good deal of potential.
http://www.wallaceracing.com/et-hp-mph.php
http://www.tciauto.com/tc/racing-calculators/
http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/how_to_measure.html
it should be obvious that building a far lighter weight car is much easier on parts breaking and easier to accelerate , and that the larger the engines displacement, the more torque and potential power can be had at a reasonably low rpm.
if you build a 327 and it makes 1.2hp per cubic inch thats close too 400 hp, build a 454 that makes 1.2 hp per cubic inch and thats near 545hp, the big blocks about 100-120 lbs heavier, but stick the small block in a 2800 lb car and thats about 7 lbs per hp
stick the big block in the same car that now weighs 2920 and you see 5.35 lbs per hp even with the slight increase in weight, I can assure you the difference is easily 3/4 of a second faster E.T, times for the big block car, IF ITS PROPERLY SET UP TO USE THE EXTRA POWER
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...-a-472-500-caddy-engine-in-a-z.862/#post-1347
http://www.wallaceracing.com/et-hp-mph.php
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