Concours guys want performance too!!

Had a couple inquirys from the Concours crowd on how to go faster, and yet not lose points at shows. # 1, this depends on the rules. I've seen organizations that dock you points if you have the wrong kind of hose clamps on your radiator hoses, and I've seen others that are ok with replacement parts as long as it's the same type-I.E.-They won't dock a '70 Z/28 points for not having a correct carb as long as it's a 3310 Holley, even if it doesn't have 1970 date codes. Check with your individual club or organization-A Mustang club may have different rules than a Chevelle club. You can tailor your "stealth" mods to fit the spirit of the rule, if not the letter. That aside, here's some general advice that you can get away with when building a Concours show car. # 1. Stroke it. Extra cubes always means extra power even with a bone-stock engine. Most show judging organizations will check numbers on the block, but they don't tear engines down. So you could make your 350 Chevy into a 383, or your 389 Pontiac into a 421 or 400 Mopar into a 451, and no one would be the wiser unless you told them.  # 2. Camshaft. Judges don't have X-ray vision, so no one can tell if you upgrade to a slightly hotter cam in the search for more grunt. # 3. Induction. Here's where you have to check the rules-some organizations demand that the manifold be dead stock right down to the date codes. Others are ok with a "Stock Type"-i.e. you won't lose points on a '68 GTO because the manifold is off a '72 Catalina-it's an iron Pontiac intake that mounts a Q-Jet, so it's considered "proper". I have also seen the "Stock Type" rule allow some aftermarket intakes-i.e.-since a '70 Z/28 had an aluminum intake from the factory, they allowed a Holley #300-36-which is an exact replica of the original Z/28 / LT1 intake. I have also seen a Pontiac Concours club allow an Edelbrock P65 Dual Quad intake on a SD389 restoration and a Performer on a Ram Air IV GTO because the factory intakes were aluminum, and the aftermarkets qualify as "Stock Type" replacements. I have also seen Chevy clubs dock serious points off an awesome '71 SS454 El Camino because the iron intake came off a '69 396. Yet if you want to buy a service replacment iron MKIV Oval-port Q-jet 4bbl manifold from GMPP-there's only one part number listed from 1967-72.  Like I said each organization has it's own rules. You could also do some port-matching from the manifold to the heads.  #4. Head work. Judges will spot aluminum heads a mile away, but you can port stock iron heads. Depending on make, for example the difference between "standard" small block Chevy heads and "Hi-Performance" heads is hi-perf heads have 2.02 intake and 1.60 inch exhaust valves and screw-in rocker studs. "Standard" heads have 1.94 intake and 1.50 inch exhaust valves and pressed in rocker studs. The port sizes are the same. Any competent machine shop could put the larger valves in standard heads for a nominal fee. Ditto for 350 Olds heads-the vaunted "W31"'s had larger valves, but the port sizes were the same as standard heads. Pontiac heads can be milled as much as .060 inch to gain a full point boost in compression. # 5. Mechanical advantage. In 1971 when compression ratios were lowered across the board and power down, GM lowered axle ratios on most musclecars to minimize performance loss. They advertised this as "Tractive Force"  "The net result of all the drivetrain components."  You can do the same. If your car has Salt-flat's gearing like 2.56:1 or 2.73:1, switching to something in the 3.23 to 3.73 range can drastically improve acceleration without hurting driveability too much. If you have an automatic, a mild performance converter can help immensely. By mild I mean a stall speed of  no more than 2,000 rpm. This will give you a much better "holeshot" than the stock converter ( which will stall anywhere from 5-600 rpm less ) without hurting driveability. A 3,000 rpm converter is a waste behind a basically stock engine; it will hurt low-speed driveability and on anything 360 cubes on up, you'll just blow the tires off, which is not conducive to quick acceleration.  All of these tips will help your "Show Queen" develop some claws that no one can detect, while their looking at tailllights, and wondering how it happened. Mastermind