Who would have ever thought

-
pittsburghracer

pittsburghracer

Legandary Member
Legendary Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2016
Messages
17,732
Reaction score
41,130
Location
Freeport, PA.
That members with a 372 CI and 408 CI engines would go to the track and on their first night at the track with that combo run the equivalent of 10.60-10.70’s and be disappointed. Lol. Are we living in the best of times performance wise or what. Years ago I would have given my left nut to see times like that. As gearheads we are never satisfied and strive for more.
 
Yeah, I can remember a time when if your car was in the 12s, it was fast.
And if it was a street/strip car, it was insane!
 
Dartnut said:
Yeah, I can remember a time when if your car was in the 12s, it was fast.
And if it was a street/strip car, it was insane!
Click to expand...

I ran 11.80’s with my 340 street car back in the 70’s and guys still talk about it. I didn’t lose many races and had guys coming from 30 miles away.
 
pittsburghracer said:
That members with a 372 CI and 408 CI engines would go to the track and on their first night at the track with that combo run the equivalent of 10.60-10.70’s and be disappointed. Lol. Are we living in the best of times performance wise or what. Years ago I would have given my left nut to see times like that. As gearheads we are never satisfied and strive for more.
Click to expand...
Your lucky you have the extra left nut to give. Both of mine have been in my wife's purse for years...LOL
 
I just want my car to be consistent and run 1970-71 pro stock times
 
I'm still in the old times.. if i could run high 11's and be a nice driver still, i will be happy :)
 
I was happy with 12.20's with my 70 Duster 340, Hemi 4-speed, 4.88 gears in 1981. Had a full blue crushed velvet bench seat interior! The straight through side pipes had an awesome sound! It was fun putting a B-Body trans in an A-Body...

70 Duster 1981.jpg
 
pittsburghracer said:
That members with a 372 CI and 408 CI engines would go to the track and on their first night at the track with that combo run the equivalent of 10.60-10.70’s and be disappointed. Lol. Are we living in the best of times performance wise or what. Years ago I would have given my left nut to see times like that. As gearheads we are never satisfied and strive for more.
Click to expand...
The 9 Sec Offerings from
Chrysler out of Detroit
and tech they posses probably some to do with this ! They defy all offerings before them.
 
Back in the early 80's I had a bone stock 1971 340 Demon with 100k miles on it. it's run 8.95 in the 1/8th mile with h-78-14 tires. Around here I could beat any stock muscle car except for this one guy that had a 1970 Torino Gt with a 429 SCJ . He'd pass me at about 1200 feet every time we raced.

Also in the mid 80's I had a 1971 340 Duster I saved up and bought a home ported set of W2's , flat top TRW's , the old 590-312 DC purple cam, strip dominator intake, and a thermoquad, all steel car with a 8 point roll bar . It would go 10.95 in the 1/4. I was really proud of both of those cars.
 
Last edited:
Icetech said:
man i miss going to milan... used to have the best hotdogs in the world there :)
Click to expand...
Good advice, maybe I'll try one. Last Wednesday the concession stand was open. I had a blast last week, my best was 12.19 @ 110mph. I gave it a couple more degrees of timing, we'll see if it likes it! 65'
 
tvt59 said:
Back in the early 80's I had a bone stock 1971 340 Demon with 100k miles on it. it's run 8.95 in the 1/8th mile with h-78-14 tires. Around here I could beat any stock muscle car except for this one guy that had a 1970 Torino Gt with a 429 SCJ . He'd pass me at about 1200 feet every time we raced.

Also in the mid 80's I had a 1971 340 Duster I saved up and bought a home ported set of W2's , flat top TRW's , the old 590-312 DC purple cam, strip dominator intake, and a thermoquad, all steel car with a 8 point roll bar . It would got 10.95 in the 1/4. I was really proud of both of those cars.
Click to expand...
DeJa'Vu, I had a 71 Demon 340/4spd 100k in 1980 used a quart oil a week. Street car. (Valve seals but too young to know). Only 2 cars could beat me. My Mopar Guru friend with built 70 Dusetr and a ford falcon with a 428 in it.
 
pittsburghracer said:
That members with a 372 CI and 408 CI engines would go to the track and on their first night at the track with that combo run the equivalent of 10.60-10.70’s and be disappointed. Lol. Are we living in the best of times performance wise or what. Years ago I would have given my left nut to see times like that. As gearheads we are never satisfied and strive for more.
Click to expand...
Guess I just had low expectations. I built the avatar (408) street/strip car with a target of 11.30. After a bunch of tuning, I got it from its initial pass at 11.87 to now it's gone [email protected]. And I've been happy with that! (OK, ok...now I want to see a 10.9x out of it but that may never happen down here in Florida!!) Think I just need some PBR porting!!
 
SS Lancer said:
The 9 Sec Offerings from
Chrysler out of Detroit
and tech they posses probably some to do with this ! They defy all offerings before them.
Click to expand...

Ya but they need a power adder to do it. That alone loses my interest. And they aren’t good weekly race cars.
 
tvt59 said:
Back in the early 80's I had a bone stock 1971 340 Demon with 100k miles on it. it's run 8.95 in the 1/8th mile with h-78-14 tires. Around here I could beat any stock muscle car except for this one guy that had a 1970 Torino Gt with a 429 SCJ . He'd pass me at about 1200 feet every time we raced.

Also in the mid 80's I had a 1971 340 Duster I saved up and bought a home ported set of W2's , flat top TRW's , the old 590-312 DC purple cam, strip dominator intake, and a thermoquad, all steel car with a 8 point roll bar . It would got 10.95 in the 1/4. I was really proud of both of those cars.
Click to expand...

Mid 80’s I was in the high 9’s on super stock springs but it took a bunch of junk parts in a stock crank 440 to get there.
 
pittsburghracer said:
That members with a 372 CI and 408 CI engines would go to the track and on their first night at the track with that combo run the equivalent of 10.60-10.70’s and be disappointed. Lol. Are we living in the best of times performance wise or what. Years ago I would have given my left nut to see times like that. As gearheads we are never satisfied and strive for more.
Click to expand...
never satisfied.....haha. hopefully the weather holds out for the weekend so he can gets more passes before we start to make some changes
 
I remember if you had a street car that ran in the 10's everybody thought it was crazy fast. It seems like now if your street car doesn't run 10's it's slow....times have definitely changed...for the better. Gotta love big cube stroker motors...lol
 
Yep! my current motor .. 410 c.i. ( 360 Magnum block ) ,W2 heads , 585/595 lift cam , 9.5 to 1 compression on pump gas makes as much h.p. on the dyno as it did with 11.5 to 1 compression , stock stroke on race gas and it makes 70 more lbs.of tq. Also my 410 makes 25 hp more than my old 340 with stock stroke , 12.5 to 1 compression on race gas , 627 lift roller cam , same W2 heads... back then I ran 4.56s and 4.88s now I run 4.30s with the stroker motor and my 60 fts. are the same

IMG_0177.jpeg
 
Last edited:
pittsburghracer said:
That members with a 372 CI and 408 CI engines would go to the track and on their first night at the track with that combo run the equivalent of 10.60-10.70’s and be disappointed. Lol. Are we living in the best of times performance wise or what. Years ago I would have given my left nut to see times like that. As gearheads we are never satisfied and strive for more.
Click to expand...
Data/information has definitely helped performance evolve. Sometimes it's fun to think how much faster my first deal would have been if I could apply what I am now to what I had. ANOTHER aspect that's helped performance evolve is the SHARING of what works. That's something I never seemed to be the benefit of back then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top