jeff@oblio.UUCP (Jeff Buchanan) (04/01/85)
> > Yes, Sorry Chevy fans.. Allow me to tell you a TRUE story about one of your BADDEST Rats. My uncle owns a 1969 427 (435 hp) Tri-power vette in nearly mint condition. I owned a 1969 dodge swinger dart which came with a dealer installed, balanced Hi-PO 340, hurst 4 speed, no options, thin door panels, fat tires.. Well, we finally got around to the question as to which was the fastest.. Not just once, but 3 times in a row, my little slo-par dusted his big rat by 2 full car lenghts. Now before any of you Chevy nuts writes something stupid, allow me to tell you why my Dart won..The dealer estimitated, (as I and my uncle agree) that the 340 had almost 400 true ponies. With a 3000lbs (wet) curb weight, good gears, and the quicker revving motor, the 4000lbs slower revving rat didn't have a damn chance... As the race concluded.. Any car that has a better power to weight ratio, and can effectively plant the ponies to the ground, is always going to beat a car with lesser capabilities. Regardless of what name is on the hood.. As to my story, I really love my unclesvette its a powerful brute, but because of its set up its just not as fast a thedart, it says nothing of Chevy.. > > I hope this story was not meant to show that the 340 Mopar produces more ponies than the 435 HP 427 rat, because it illustates exactly the opposite. Your Dart had a 1000lb. weight advantage and it only won by two cars? Two cars is only .2 second in a 1/4 mile drag race, not a whole lot. With a 1000 lb. advantage I'd expect you to win by about 14 cars (1.4 seconds) if you had as much horsepower as the rat which you apparently did not. Since you did not say otherwise, I assume both motors were stock. Actually, most everything you said is true, except the part about "quicker revving motor". Obviously the quicker revving motor will always win if everything else is equal. But the motor with more torque (also horsepower since HP is directly proportional to torque) will always rev faster (with any given load). In this particular case, the Mopar won because of a weight advantage. This story proves that due to a large number of factors (state of tune, factory tolerances) unexpected results happen. Shelby was quite correct in taking exception to a race between a Buick and a Hemi proving that the Buick 455 motor produces more power than a 426 Hemi just because the Buick happened to win that one race. In the referrenced race the Buick did prove to have more HP because it had a 2 - 4 MPH higher speed through the traps, this despite a gearing and transmission advantage for the Hemi. With street tires, the lower gearing would not be an advantage for the Hemi (as Shelby pointed out) but since they ran with slicks the Hemi would have been even slower if it had the same gearing as the Buick. Despite the results of this one race, I would expect that 90% of the time a Hemi would beat a Buick if all gearing, tires, and vehicle weight was equal. And so it is comparing a 435 HP rat to a 340 Mopar. In the above story, the 340 probably produced around 290 HP actual HP (assuming it was pure stock running through a complete exhaust system). A stock 435/427 Chevy puts out around 400 ponies under the same conditions. Judging by the results of the race, I'd say this was probably the case considering the hugh weight difference. Jeff