In car video of this pass: • GOPR0115.MP4 Joel Nystroms 67 Hemi 4 speed GTX runs against Dave Dudeks record holding 69 Hemi automatic Road Runner At the 2010 F.A.S.T. Summer Nationals.
My grandfather had a 440+6 4-speed Coronet that he got to go 11.9's @ 113-114 by simply removing the mufflers and bolting on a set of massive hoosiers back in the day. He had the shortest gearing he could get from the factory, I forget exactly what it was. There was a buddy of his with a 71 Hemi Cuda running the same setup at his track, stock w/ no mufflers and fatass hoosiers, running 11.7's @ 115-116. 4-speed. My guess is the 440's and hemi's were underrated by a good 30-40 hp on average.
My old land barge 69 coronet R/T 440 mag stock ran a 13.65@100.84 mph on skinny tires.Weighed in at 3974 lbs with me in it. Only thing I did was advance timing.
They also don't know that these tires are not like the ones we had on them stock in the day. Just because they are street legal doesn't mean they are old stock tires.
The way people go on about the legends vs. reality, you might think these cars were stock. I once had an argument here on youtube with a guy who insisted that Super-Duty 455 Trans Ams/Formulas had 500 + horsepower from the factory. I stupidly bought into the argument with logic, and found links to old magazine reviews where these cars were running high 14/low 15 second quarter miles. Hemi cars, less reviewed than 440 cars, had 1/4's in the low 14's/high 13's stock.
You could order some way low gears--4.56 and lower (higher numerically) from the factory...it would turn these cars essentially into factory drag cars, but like you wrote--drag tires are the key to these times
Considering that a Hemi Superbird breaks 200 mph, considering a 383magnum challenger does better than the times you listed, i would have my reservations about the magazine and it's drivers capabilities. A 75 bosch injected VW beetle can hang with the times you posted, and i seriously doubt it is any match for a 440 455 or 426, otherwise everyone would have bought them.
Really? A beetle runs tens in the quarter mile? These F.A.S.T. class cars really push the envelope of what is possible while looking totally stock, and running a STOCK TIRE
I knew you were sarcastic; I was telling you about me responding to people who think the old muscle cars were running 8 second quarters and had 800 hp stock from the showroom floor.
Old magazine articles are meaningless. They could not get those cars to hook up to the track back then and did not have particularly capable drivers. These days, cars you get have traction control, launch control on some, etc. and any moron like camiroz can take one down the strip reasonably competently. As for the FAST series, these cars are heavily built. They only appear stock. Anyone with real knowledge knows that those times were crap given what they were truly capable of.
Choo Choo! Here comes the clue train, you're the last stop! "These days, cars have traction control blah blah..." ...and low profile tires that are hopeless without it. Ever see a car hook with 18's? Eliminating wheel spin doesn't win races. Actual race cars control it. Strict rules dictate the usage of factory engineering for both cars in the video. Answer me this rc0101; If it was so 'inferior' to current practices, how are they putting the power down more efficiently than a zl1?
