Too cut or not to cut?

[junior636]

Probably very high 12's or low 13's. That's all.

You should be just fine with some good tires and leaf springs. My car had stock leaf springs and old Mickey Thompson indy profiles with slapper bars on the springs and it ran 11.70's on spray and 12.70's on motor. Shouldn't be too hard to get that thing to hook up. I am not one of those guys who really cares about cutting these cars up if its something you want but no sense in it, if its not needed.

 

[Dartnut]

I would say cut it. It's what you want to do, or else you wouldn't be asking. The world won't stop revolving if you do.
Do that and optimize the suspension and you'll love it.
Just think guys, ''back in the day'' when these cars were new or almost new, nobody worried about matching numbers and production figures, and as a matter of fact, a lot of famous race cars that we all look up to are actually rare cars that were cut up ''back in the day''.
That being said, it is possible to optimize the car without cutting it up, check out the stock eliminator cars and the new F.A.S.T. series.
Perhaps find a car that is less than desirable to cut up for a race car if you want to go that way, only if you have a feeling of future regret about cutting a rare car up. Then sell yours to the resto crowd to finance the build.
That's what i did in my build thread, and i feel good about building a slant 6 car for what i wanted to do ultimately instead of the real L code 360 4 speed car that i still got.......
Truthfully, i'm in a dilemma similar to yours as we speak with a very similar car. (Not my build thread car).
It's your car, your choice.
Just my 2 cents,
Tom.

 

[qkcuda]

I have run 11.50's at 118 mph on super stock springs and 275/60-15 tires. Right now I am dialing in a new set of drag radials, but my slicks were similar in size. No cutting or spring relocation was necessary. When I switched to big bolt pattern axles I had to roll the fender lips a bit. You would have a problem mini tubbing a fastback and retaining the fold down rear seat and side panels anyway.

 

[abodyjoe]

Probably very high 12's or low 13's. That's all.

thats it? hell just tires and crappy suspension should get you close.

my dart ran well into the 12's with small block torsion bars up front and 100,000 mile stock slant six springs with air shocks out back. and a 26x9.5-14 hoosier QTP. used to go 1.69 60' like that..

hell the first time i ran the car it had these big old bias ply tires on it.. it went 14.5 and was sideways at half track... by the end of the day it went 12.81. babied the hell out of it past the 60' mark.

here ya go.. the my first 12 second run in the car. first time out in it.. bul old *** bias ply tires on it..

http://www.abodyjoe.com/pictures/71 Dart/12 sec run.MPG




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[D-50394]

28/9in Hoosier slicks should fit and they are good hooking slicks for the money. I had a set on my 69 Valiant and it would run 7.20's at the time. That should be low 11's in the 1/4.