Automotive Catch 22 - wtf

DrCharles said

OK, that gives us a starting point for suggestions. Keep in mind the wisdom of the ancients: "Speed costs money, son. How fast do you want to go?" :)

You can "relatively" easily construct a big-block A-body to run low 11's or even high 10's (on all motor) without super-deep gears. A 10.90 car should also be capable of a ten mile cruise if you don't cheap out on the cooling system. If you build a decent 451 or 470 (see the articles/threads by Andy F.) you can run that number.

Is that the kind of info you're looking for? As people have said less politely above, you're not giving us a whole lot to go on. But I'll take a stab. Hope that helps ;)

-Charles
ps Remember that faster than 11.49 is going to require a 6-pt. rollbar, at least by NHRA tech.

EDIT: Just saw you have a 360. You'll want to stroke that, and can make it well over 400" if you want to stay with a small block. The 904 may not hold up under big torque and full-throttle shifts...

Click to expand...

Thank you.

The biggest problem I have not is that I simply don't have enough information. Plain and simple. In fact, I have so little information that I can't ask the right questions or know what questions to ask. That's what the original post was about; that I don't know enough...yet. But I'm working on that. It's a process. I did ask in another thread about experiences and/or problems with going to a big block. I believe that it's the best way to make big power but simply not feasible for me right now, maybe later. So that is why I'm going with a 360. Posters have asked questions for which I don't have an answer. One question was what size rear tire and what gears. The problem with answering that question is that I don't have tires since I'm not racing yet. The gears I haven't picked out yet as I haven't figured out the rpm of the combo yet. I'll probably go with something in the range of 4:10 or 4:30 with a 28" tall tire. As one poster mentioned I can't really gear it for finish line rpm or go with a 5000 stall converter as that's not practical for a car that has to be driven to the track. Agreed.

I don't know what else I can say but, seriously, I do appreciate the suggestions.