Calling me out (long)
 

I,m being called out to a classic Chevy vs Ford 1/8th mile duel by a friend (ya I know he drives a chev) with a early 70s El Camino this Saturday at a local track. I,ve never raced 1/8th mile before but welcome the opportunity to hand Mr. Bowtie his @@. I,ve run mid 12s consistantly in the past in the 1/4 but with recent mods (elec. fan, draglites, removed sway bar) I should be running a little quicker. He is running a 350cid with small chamber heads, edelbrock intake, 750 carb, street strip cam, exhaust, and 4.10s w/ shift kit, but stall unknown) on street radials. He has never raced his car before but seems pretty capable behind the wheel. I really have know idea what this car is able to do but I have no choise in the matter because every day since last Saturday he's been leaving messages on my answering machine saying he's calling me and my pony out and he's gonna" run that black horse of mine into the ground". What does 12s convert to in the 1/8th ? Should I be worried by this challenge? Win or lose I will post the results.

P.S
I helped him install the motor and with body work, so I'm confident he isn't hiding any bottles in the trunk. This will be fun!

If you have any of your time slips from the 1/4 it should show an 1/8 mile time. if not then mid 12's is high 7's-around 8.0 in the 1/8th mile.


The local track i run at is 1/8 mile and it's exciting. have to be carefull at the tree otherwise if he gets out ahead you might not be able to run him down! I do it and it happens to me both ways, i holeshot a subaru wrx and even though his time was .2-.3 better than mine i made it to the finish line first cause i had a great reaction time.

What tires are both of you running??

I'm using hoosier DR's and normal 60' for me is around 1.90(not very good) but I've never unhooked the swaybar and I'm now running skinnies up front, so if the track is half decent I'm hopeing for 1.80s.
I'm not exactly sure what tires he is running but I know they are just street radials and traction will be a big issue for him,although he does have traction bars, but El Caminos are pretty light in the rear and he is making decent power. Correction to my original post, he's running 4.11 gears which will probably add to his traction issue.

Your gonna walk all over him. only thing that will help that Elco is a set of slicks. he's going to have major traction troubles when he take off.

Yah that's what I was thinking, but action speaks louder than words so I'm really looking forward to this weekend were I'm sure there's going to be a ton of bench racing and brand bashing (all in fun of course) before we take to the track. Just in case though I've got a 125 shot on order for any rematches. hehe Thanx for the encouraging words lx mike and the moment I return from the track I'm going to post the results.

Spank dat Chebby!

Just got back from the track, and as posted earlier I would give the results win or lose! Unfortunatly the track had problems with thier time equipment today so the times and MPH are way out of wak but here goes. As I had expected it really was an @@ wooping for the Elco. He couldn't launch hard at all and it was at least a 5 car walking (if not more) at end track. He wasn't satisfied with the first result so we went at it again, this time I really hooked well off the line and the results were even worst for the Elco, so after it was over friends in the stand said it was almost 1/3 track difference between the cars and he was losing ground with more track. As I said the time equipment was not working well and the time slips I recieved sounded like this;
tm: 9.20 sec at 93 mph .485 RT (first run)
9.20sec 93 mph .485 RT (sec run)
9.20 sec 95 mph .475 RT(bye run)
These times are obviously wrong due to the extremely high MPH and slow times, talking to other racers who have run the 1/8th mile before they said there times seem to be off by more than 1 sec and MPH were high. It was still a great day at the track all the same and we got to see a lot of fast cars and the HOOTER GIRLS.

Cheers

Way to go!! Is he still talking trash now?? should call him and ask him when is he gonna give you a good run!! :D :D

I seen him today at the shop and there was no mention of the romping he took, I think he now realizes it'll take more horses, tires and suspension work on his part to even give me a good run. So for now I'll leave it at that and let him ponder ! It was such a bad beating that it would almost be cruel to rub it in any more than the memory of the back of the coupe (which he had a good look at all day!). The stang ran really well and it's a shame the timing eqiupment at the track didn't, so I'm gonna go to a 1/4 mile track before the end of the year is up and see what it'll do. By then I hope to have the bottle in the trunk. :D