jeff@qubix.UUCP (06/07/84)
Guy Harris said he was not familiar with the performance of the
muscle cars of the late sixties, in stock form.
A recent issue of one of the Hot Rod
magazines posed the question "what was the fastest muscle car?". They
(the magazine) did some research and listed the E.T. and MPH of the
fastest cars of the day. The general range was 95-110 MPH with ET of
13.2 - 14.9 seconds. The question of "stock form" is very important.
Some of the data they give is suspect in that it is hard for me to believe
that a car like a 1962 Dodge could go 13.2 @ 110 MPH capped up with street
tires. I must digress at this point. This goes back to the question of
0 - 60 / 0 - 50 times. In the net there were dozens of responses and questions
raised about 0-60 times, and yet everybody overlooked an extremely important
point: are these times capped up, with or without slicks or what? To some
people stock means no engine modifications, to others stock means capped
up headers W/street tires. Some of you may be saying "what's the difference?".
With today's 150 HP econosleds, you're right, no difference, no big deal.
If you have a teensy little engine in a Mazda or some other put-put car,
you can't turn slicks anyway, so it makes no difference. Of course if you
only have 150 ponies, you shouldn't care about 0-60 times in the first place.
But let's take a typical muscle car for a second. In show room stock condition
(capped up with street tires) an average time would be 98.5 MPH and 14.2 ET.
This would be, say, a 396 Chevelle. Put a set of headers on it and uncap and
you would go 105 MPH and 13.6 ET. Put on slicks and the ET will drop to
13.0 at about the same 105mph. The 0-60 time would be at least a full second
different depending on whether you were uncapped w/slicks. This example
is just for a run-of-the-mill muscle car. If you use the example of the
fastset car ever built and commonly available from Detroit (A 430HP/427
Corvette, 1969 model) the difference is much greater. I use that as an
example because every Chevy dealership in the country listed that car and
that option. Ordering that car was absolutly no different from ordering
any Chevelle or Mustang. Anyway, that Corvette with just the addition of
headers and no engine, chassis, suspension modifications whatsoever would
do 10.6 ET @ 128 MPH at sea level with 5.13 gears and a four speed, all of
which (except for the headers and slicks) were available DELIVERED ON THE CAR
from Chevy. In other words drive it off the showroom floor, tune it to
factory specs, put uncapped headers on, bolt on slicks, and go 10.6 @ 128 MPH.
That same car with street tires and capped up exhaust system would go 12.4
@ 118 MPH. I know cause I owned such a car and took it to the strip more
times than I care to think about. 0-60 times? Showroom stock time 5.6 sec,
uncapped W/ slicks 2.9 seconds.
--
Jeff Buchanan @ QUBIX Graphic Systems, Inc., Saratoga, CA.
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