What stole your attention from HiFi?

Pat: I don't doubt your times or horsepower figures one bit. I say that because my old Mustang with a cross-rammed 302 ran in the high 10's. Then again, it couldn't get out of it's own way until about 5000 rpm either : )

I would only add that if you were runnng a Barry Grant based carb / fuel system, you could have probably went even faster / made more power with a David Braswell carb system. Every time we've gone from a BG carb to a Braswell carb, the power and times are inferior. Having Air Flow Research do your heads was a wise move. They are the kings when it comes to doing small block Chevy heads : )

It is amazing to me how some of these guys have "decent" parts, but can never get them to run the way that they should. As a case in point, one of my friends had a 1970 split bumper Z28 small block Camaro. It ran decently, but i always new it could run better. One weekend, i told him that we were going to get that car running like it should. Most of the difference in power came from making sure that the basics were right i.e. plugging small vacuum leaks ( less vacuum means less torque ), proper power valves in the Holley, proper jetting, proper timing / advance curve, proper valve lash ( solid cam ), proper pressure in the tires, different launching strategy, etc... The difference in before and after times was almost 2 seconds in the quarter and GOBS more torque and driveability on the street. Sean
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WOW! A lotta muscle car fans here eh?

My stang is gonna be a total project car. Im gonna pick up an old beatup honda civic as mu bad weather / commuter car. I really dont want to void the warranty though, so other than getting a new throttlebody and plentum there aint a whole lot more i can do. Maybe get a good chip tuner so i can adjust all my ratios without removing the chip and voiding the warranty. :)

I would like to get some rally stripes from lip to butt and get a fiberglass ram air hood with hood pins. :)

Ill put a couple updated photo's with the badges on my virt system,. ;)

Pardon me about exploding. I'm sorry. The thing is I just sold it last week and the reason for parting with it sucks. Guys, this was the real deal. Drove it a lot and it was very dependable. As far as hooking up goes I just recreated a Chrysler super stock rear spring leaf and custom made my own invisible traction bars. Used Rancho motorhome six way adjustable shocks for different conditions. Rear tires were Mickey Thompson ET streets 28.5 x 10.5; essentially slicks with two small grooves. I tried four whiz bang carbs on the dyno with a BG being one of them. The 950 HP series Holley tweaked by myself made as much hp but didn't have quite as smooth a torque curve. Not really much less smooth. I owned the Holley, the BG was on loan for the pulls. I couldn't justify spending a couple of grand for maybe .15 seconds with one of the exotic race carbs. Besides, I drove the car and streetability is an issue with real race carbs. If I wanted to get kicked off the track for doing under ten seconds all I had to do was drive to a sea level track in Washington or Oregon and bust into the high 9's on a nice day. I haven't checked for a very long time but at firebirdonline (local track) I should be listed in the 100 mph club when I went out on actual street tires (N50x15)and did, I think 121 or so spinning them the entire length of the quarter. Change tires, front shocks, center section and put on the front roll bar and it was legal for the Nevada road races in the 180 mph class. I think it would likely have done an honest 170 with the aerodynamics of a brick. It drove like a dialed in Camaro in street attire.

Well Lugnut, your later descriptions of your Nova sure shed a lot more light on what you went through to build your car, than did your first post. Sounds like you really loved that machine...sorry that you had to sell it!

Maybe the subject should have been What Hot Rod stole your attention from HiFi?

Very nice cars guys...sounds like WE all had some fun at one time or another....cheers!....Pat