Budget drag car… B-Body or A-Body?

What ever starts as the cheapest w/an 8 cylinder.

A case in point could be as mentioned a 4 door or perhaps a later year. Perhaps a ‘74 plus. Not so desirable perhaps, but cheap is the key. I picked up my ‘79 Magnum for $500. While the drive train takes all the tricks as any earlier ones do, the iso suspension needs some attending. T bars for drag are not available but if you could weld, earlier ones could be adapted in ez enough. They can become pretty light as well.

A 5.9 Magnum swap is a good move (as mentioned earlier) and only takes a minor flex plate mod or a B&M flex plate. Also, the late B bodies will take the earlier B/E Hooker Super Comps @ 1-3/4.

Big block cars (P code IIRC) will have 9-1/4 rears. 400 B engines can do well even unstroked. But the low low compression is a drawback.

Aspen/Volare’s can also be a cheap car as well. The later year front “Bent Torsion” bars are the draw back as none were made for racing. They also kind of heavy (or can be) to start as well.

Get crafty & slick with lightening your car.
Think! Out! Of! The! Box!
Have fun!

slimjim said

I’ve built A-bodies exclusively over the past 15 years. I know them very well. Understanding that I’m posting this in an A-Body forum, are there secrets about the B-Body platform that give it an advantage at the drag strip? If you were given a super strict budget, which components of each platform would you be looking at? *strict as in <5k*

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