Camaro's New Engine Still Can't Hang

[6T9PONY]

Him: '92 Camaro RS, 327 bored to 333, .563 lift/270 duration, 750 carb, Torker II intake, 10.5:1 flat top pistons, balanced and blueprinted, lightened rods, World Products 2.02/1.60 heads, 2800 stall, B&M shift kit, stock 2.73 peg leg...whole lotta money put into it. Very mismatched.

Me: '69 Fastback, 351W, stock bottom end, STOCK HEADS (sucky sucky), .496/.520 lift; 224/234 duration, Performer RPM intake, 750 carb, 110 gph fuel pump, 2400 stall, B&M shift kit, Currie 9" with 3.70s and traction-lock. Runs fairly rich, need to rejet my carb. My stock heads are a major bottleneck, but due to college being very expensive, I can't afford new ones!!!!!

We meet at the Runza restaurant near the I-80/Hwy 385 interchange just outside the city limits at 9:30. From there we took the 15-20 minute trip southwest of where I live to an old, quiet, rarely travelled section of highway. We have had some big street racing nights there with 15-20 cars racing and about 100-150 other people spectating. We have a starting line and a finish line painted across the road.

We arrive and pull onto a side road near the starting line. Both of our cars run fairly warm so we sat and shot the bull for about 45 minutes letting our machines cool off. It was a beautiful night. Clear skies over us, a few shooting stars, and a thunderstorm about 30 miles north of us with a great amount of lightning. Him, his cousin, my girlfriend and I just talked, hung out, and threw rocks at a stop sign.

We figured it was about time so we got our cars ready and fired them up, backed them onto the highway, did a quick little burnout to clean the dust off the tires, and staged. His cousin started us.

I put the car in neutral and pumped my brakes to build pressure and help them hold at the line. I loaded my stall converter up to about 1900/2000 rpm, at the drop of the starter's arms I mashed the pedal and released the brake.

I instantly pulled a carlength on him, he had all sorts of traction but my tires were struggling to hook. My back end kicked out a little to the right but I got full traction again in about 10 yards. I pulled another couple car lengths on him. I knew I was going to jump him HARD out of the hole, but I figured he'd have the top end to run be down and beat me to the stripe.

I shift at 5200 and take a peak in the rear view mirror. I'm still pulling on him. I get about halfway through 2nd gear and I notice him starting to inch his way back up to me. I shift into 3rd gear and he stops gaining. I am pressing as hard as I can on the gas pedal. I cross the finish line and keep on it for about 2 or 3 more seconds. When we crossed the stripe I was about 4 carlengths ahead of him. I saw his nose dive so I hit my brakes and stop. He pulls up next to me and we talk for a couple seconds, he says he didn't have traction problems but his carb is all messed up, I tell him I spun fairly bad so we head back to pick up the passengers.

I stop at the start line and shine my lights on where I launched from. My tire marks tell the whole story, although the starter thought neither of us had spun.

We all stand at the starting line and talk for a few minutes. We agree to come back out and run them again once we play with our cars a little.

Once he gets some gears and gets his carb tuned better he should beat me, but who knows. This was my first real drag race in my fastback and it was a good one! I was happy!

Just thought I'd share. Sorry it's long but I like reading stories with details rather than "I raced a Camaro and beat him pretty good." kind of things. Hope you don't mind.