Big talker pays up....modded LS1 vs MODDED LT1
 

Well, here's a story a good friend of mine was telling me the other day....

At the track in Idalou, they open up at 10:00 pm for a street-racing style grudge match. No tree, no times...just basically turn on the lights, collect three bucks, make you sign a waver, and run what you brung.

Anyway, someone rigged up a home made tree so that we don't have to have a flagman.

I didn't make it to the track that Saturday, but John was telling me about the action. There were a ton of people and cars there. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of red necks that clog up the staging lines with their look-at-me-I-can-spin-one-wheel-and-go-faster-than-you-bacause-my-tailgate-is-down trucks, but there are some pretty fast street cars showing up from Lubbock and surrounding areas as well.

One of the faster guys running there in a street driver is a guy named Manuel. He's got a 30th anniversary T/A automatic with some decent work done to it including stall, programmer, and a little blue bottle. He runs MT Sportsmans and still has traction problems while running mid 12 second times (at 3400 feet, mind you).

That night the track was packed. There was this little rich kid who shows up with his builder and their recently finished LT1....only it is now a 383 stroker with a huffer and the squeeze. The builder is talking all kinds of trash to everybody there about how "his" car will take Manuel's car, no problem. Well, John's not sure, but he thinks the kid is running street meats on that beast....no way he's gonna be able to put the power to the ground. John walks over to the pair to shoot the breeze.

"Nice looking car you've got there."

--"Yeah, thanks."

blah blah blah...small talk

"So what tires are you running."

--"Who the hell are you, the tech inspector?"

Well, that last little statement pisses John off who is being friendly with this loud mouth. John says, "No, I'm not the tech inspector, and that is a nice car you've got, but I don't think you've got enough tire to hold it to the road."

I guess that wounded the builder's pride, so he starts talking more trash and says the kid will race Manuel.

They line 'em up and the builder puts a little cash on the line with one of the guys who knows Manuel. The light turns, and the kid is sleeping at the light. He must have been there a full second before he takes off. Meanwhile, Manuel is gone. John is waiting at the finish line with three other guys, and Manuel wins by like three-four cars.

The builder pays up, grumbling the whole time about how the car is faster than Manuel and how the kid was sleeping. He tells the kid to get out of his own car, that he is going to run him. Well, a little more substantial cash is laid down this time, and they line 'em up to go.

This time, they both hit the lights hard. Manuel, just skipping his sportsmans on the edge of losing traction, shoots out of the hole. The builder, meanwhile, is spinning like crazy, just like they figured he would. Manuel crosses the line first, and the builder pays up and shuts up. Although he claims that he was pulling hard on Manuel at the line, John and the other guys were at the finish and Manuel took him by two cars, and all of them swear he was holding his ground.

Anyway, the guy's suppose to be back today with some sticky tires, and they will probably run again. I have no doubt that the LT1 is fast, but we'll see who can drive 'em. It should be a busy night. :)

--nathan

I wouldn't even think about racing from a stop with a combo like that unless I was on slicks.


I can't even get my wimpy stock 5.0 to hook up properly. :rolleyes:

That scenario is more common than one might think. The sad truth is that the engine builder may be right as to who has the most power. Just because you might have a more powerful engine doesn't mean you're gonna win. It's the combination of the whole car and the driver's ability that counts.

Rev

Good story, Nathan. ;)

The first 60' can make or break your race.

E

Just goe to show that you can make all kinds of power but if you can't put it down then you will loose to a lesser powered car.

Sounds like the builder didn't exactly put it together right. A supercharged, N20 injected, 383 stroker going down to an LS1 running mid 12's?

I'd expect that 383 to be WAY stronger than that. Oh well, Skyman has proven a bunch of times the 383 can be a crap pile for the money.

I'm sure that the 383 is putting down more power, but, like mike said, if you can't get it to the ground, it won't do you a bit of good.

Unit, yeah, it seems maybe that the combo isn't running right just yet...of course you've gotta remember, Manuel's mid 12's up here equate to 11's at sea level cities like Houston.

I was at the track last night...it was packed. I got there early, and still waited in a line backed up a 1/4 mile to the highway....it stayed that way for about an hour even after I got in. Lots of guys out. Unfortunately, Manuel didn't bring is T/A...his automatic is slipping on him, and he wants to get a cooler before he runs it hard again. His brother Joey was there and had just finished putting on a nitrous kit identical to Manuel's on his yellow T/A. He was having major problems with traction, however, and ended up hog-legging it bad off the line and losing to several other juiced T/A's.

The 383 was back, but the builder wasn't, so there wasn't near the amount of trash talked up. He raced a yellow fox GT convertable twice and lost both times. The GT is running a stock bottom end with TFS track heat heads and intake, cam, AOD with PI converter and a Lentech VB, and a healthy shot of juice. The AOD pulled the 383 HARD out of the hole, and the bowtie was running slicks this time...still no traction. The second race was much closer than the first, so maybe after the guy learns to drive it, it will perform more like it should.

There were some other fast cars out...an early model Camaro with a 8-71 blower and no hood...some big block, straight pipe, "street" cars running 11's, and a few drag cars in the 10's. Of course, there's always the truck crowd doing one-legged burn outs and slowing down the races.

I can't believe how big the Firebird/Camaro crowd is out here. And a good many of them are on the squeeze with other mods. There's a good supply of Mustangs as well, but only a handful have any serious mods to speak of. I didn't run my car, as I'm waiting on the valve body to get it. I'd hate to lose my OD right before the fix....

Anyway, take care.

--nathan

Yea i swear bye a good tire,

i've had guys get out of their car cussing at me asking why i brought e.t. streets to a streetrace, i just say, because they are d.o.t. street tires? I told that to a guy in a foxbody with 373 grs 1.7 rockers, cobra intk, and an e-cam, I pulled him good, and with a good launch i held him at bay all the way up to around 120 mph, noone believed that my car was an original motored stock 5.0 lol....It was all traction.

Does everybody run the juice out there???

Yup. :D

Seems like it. It's very rare that you see a supercharged car running up here. There was one red GT with a supercharger, and the 94 Camaro is running a Novi, I believe, but nitrous seems to be the big fad right now. Here in Amarillo, there are more guys running blowers along with a couple of twin turbo Mustang setups, but again, there are a whole bunch of guys running nitrous. Of course, there are the other 100 guys who show up at the track running completely stock or only mildly touched up cars.

I don't know...I guess it's just the easy way to go fast so all the guys are jumping on the bandwagon. I've got a friend with a carbed 347 stroker in his 85 GT, and he's plumbed for a 150 shot. So far he's only managed a 12.3 at Idalou with some serious tuning problems. The engine is out of the car right now while he does some work, but I expect to see him well into the 11's up here when it's all said and done.

I've thought about a 75 shot for my GT, but with the alloy pistons I'm running, I hate to think about blowing a ring land off. We'll see.

--nathan