Take a look at any sport in it's simplest form.
Football - guys running up and down a field trying too get a football too the end.
Baseball - guys hitting a ball and running in a square trying too get back where they started.
Basketball - guys running back and forth trying too get a ball in a metal rim placed 10 feet above the floor
They all sound pretty goofy huh? Must be a LOT of rednecks since NASCAR is the 2nd most popular sport in the USA.

 

I had a 10th ('79) anniversary WS6 TA years back. Silver and grey outside and grey leather with all of the buttons inside. Picked up some older 455 heads and upped the compression....the 403 did'nt run bad them. The car was a little over 12K new.
Gary

 

Sorry, but I gotta comment on this one. The Chrysler hemi in stock form wasn't that big of a deal, and an L88 427 would beat it like a rented mule. Stock form, I'm talkin' here, the 426 was choked off to around a real world 425 hp and the L88 was more like 500+. I rode in a hemi cuda all rebuilt to stock specs and it was about like my 460 Fairlane, good runner mind you but the earth didn't move.

The muscle cars you can buy today by and large run circles around those 60's squeaky model T's that everybody is so misty-eyed about today. You can go plunk down 30K for a supercharged mustang that will out accelerate almost every thing made back then and certainly out handle all of them. And that's not a ringer car with very limited production runs like an L88 or 426 Hemi. I was around when that stuff was new.

I love those old cars don't get me wrong, but like looking at a supermodel in a magazine, unless you're up close and personal you don't really know the whole story.

 

Just a matter of time before TOYOTA takes over all forms of car and truck racing.

 

see, i told you so. would you also believe me if i said that 302 chevy motors had 450hp? probably not, cause you only saw the rating at 290. then again, you may differ and say something like, HEY! 302 IS A FORD MOTOR! well, ignorance is bliss

 

SHADYRASCAL

Take a production run vehicle like a 70 chevelle with the 385 hp 454. Put a six 4L80e tranny and a set of fat tires on the back, and go head to head with the mustang svt and I know who will come out on top. The 454 by about 1/2 a car length. The reason why I know this because the 70 chevelle is my set of wheels and I whoop my buds svt any day of the week with the stock 454 with headers and an edelbrock intake. What I'm getting at is put the same technology as the newer vehicles in the muscle cars and you will have a pretty hot machine.

The corvette Z06 has 405 hp with a cam that has about .500 lift some pretty funky heads and of course the state of the art fuel injection, with 10.5 to 1 cr (I think please correct me if I'm wrong). The ram jet 502 FI crate engine from gm has essentially the same setup but makes 510 hp and nearly 600ft/lbs of torque with heads that are not near as funky as the z06 and an intake that has a lot of room for improvement. There is no replacement for displacement.

The fastest gm you can buy over the counter these days is the Z06 vette that will run in the high 11's or low 12's depending on the guy behind the wheel. The 69 vette with the all aluminium 454 (i have to compare apples to apples because the z06 is all aluminum) would run high 10's and low 11's with an old muncie 22 4speed and a rear suspension that was no where near the new Z06.

What I'm getting at is put the same suspension, engine, and drive train technology the older model T's you refer to will have and edge because of brute horsepower.

 

Some good points, Sparky. I agree about displacement which is why I chucked the old 390's I used to build and went to 460's. BIG power cheap. The spirit of my comments is this: sure a 69 ZL1 Vette made unreal horsepower numbers, but they made just a few of these cars. By and large the muscle cars were 14 second items after you put tires on them that worked. Some of them would do much better but very darn few got into the 12's for real without a bunch of aftermarket stuff to make them work. Today anybody with dough can go to Chevrolet and drive that Z06 Vette right off the showroom and have world class numbers with air and cd player and get over 20 mpg on the way to the local SCCA meet.

But your final point is my favorite: today's tech with big inches. If I had money to burn I'd build an all aluminum 500+ 460 with fuel injection and put it in something cool. Alas, kids to put through college....

Today I did see this in town (hamilton mt of all places) AC Cobra replicar, done right, real nice, 460 badges on the side. Almost put the Duramax in the ditch watching this thing go by.
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

460? Was that 460 in the tow vehicle?

 

Hmm, 460 cobra? 427....and 351 I thought. Not much of a replica with 460 badges.

 

Yes real Cobras were either 289 (early) or 427 (later) and a handful of 428's when they ran low on 427 engines. Smart guy 351's weren't produced until 69 (windsor) and 70 (cleveland). I still like the 460 idea though. A faithful to-the-bolt reproduction is not as desirable to me as one with a couple creature comforts, nice leather interior, and more up to date drivetrain like this one. By done right I meant an extremely nice job, not from the authentic point of view.