A tale of 4 Tunnel-Rams....2 screamers and 2 dogs....

Still ranting about bad advice that magazine tech editors give to people that write in or email them. The one that irritates me the most is when people inquire about using dual quads or 3 2bbls. The stock answer is always "You'll go faster and have less grief with a single 4 barrel." Or my personal favorite-"If a Super Stock Firebird can run 11.30's with a Quadrajet on an iron manifold why do you need a tunnel ram and two Holleys?" Well I remember back in the '90's when "Pro Street" was all the rage-cars built to look like Pro Stock drag racers-narrowed rear ends and tubbed fenders to clear monster tires, and usually a tunnel ram or a blower sticking out of the hood. If you wanted that look, you wanted that look. And you certainly wanted the performance to back up the image. I know 4 guys that attempted this, and 2 of them built badass, fun cars and 2 of them built complete slugs. Here's how it transpired. Badass # 1 Was a 1970 Chevelle with a 396 and a 4-speed. It started life as a small-block 2 dr Malibu, not an original SS, which is why the guy didn't feel bad about cutting up the hood, and gutting the interior for an 8-point cage and fiberglas racing buckets. The engine was a 402 that came out of a '71 Monte Carlo in a junkyard, and the T10 4-speed came out of a wrecked '77 Trans Am from the same junkyard. He used the stock oval-port heads and Hedman Shorty Headers ( for ground clearance ) that were only 1 3/4 inch in diameter. Most Rat builders use 2" or even 2 1/4" inch full-length headers. The smaller headers would lose some on the top end, but would really boost low end and mid-range torque. He used a Chevrolet "Marine" cam that's recommended for boat racing. It had a badass lope, but stable idle, and a broad flat torque curve. He used a Weiand tunnel Ram and two 450 cfm Holleys. He also had 4.33:1 gears in the rear end. It sounded wicked, but it actually had pretty good drivability-even with the motor buzzing at 3,500 rpm on the freeway. Other than that, and the loud exhaust, if you weren't hot rodding it, it was actually pretty pleasant to drive. And it was fast. It just kept pulling like a freight train on that mountain of torque like only a big-block Chevy can. He'd shift it between 5,800-6,200 rpm. He showed his taillights to many a 5.0 Mustang or Buick Grand National owner that sneered at his car that was "All bark and no bite." As they learned, it had a helluva bite-because he built the motor to have maximum torque, and geared it properly, and despite the look-it wasn't over-carburated-900 cfm certainly won't hurt a Rat motor with a stick and 4.30 gears. Dog # 1. Was also a 1970 396 Chevelle. This one was a real SS, so instead of cutting up the Cowl-Induction hood, the owner just took it off. It had a TH400 and 3.31:1 gears. This guy used a huge Isky solid-lifter cam, and an Edelbrock tunnel ram with two 660 Holleys. It sounded badass, but it wasn't even as fast as it was with a stock cam and a Q-jet on an iron manifold. It idled about 1,500 rpm, and the guy had to kick the tranny into neutral at stoplights. ( To keep from creeping into the ass end of the car in front him! ) If you punched it, it would just fall on it's face. Finally, about 4,000 rpm it would clean out and start to really move,and when he shifted at 6,500 rpm it would bark the tires into second. But by that time whoever he was having a "Stoplight Gran Prix" with-my 442 for one, a buddy's stock 351C / automatic '73 Mustang for two-would be long gone. He was severely disappointed. He needed to go one of two ways-if he wanted the huge cam and dual 660s, he should have used at least 4.11 gears, maybe even 4.56s, and he should have got a torque converter with at least a 3,000 rpm stall speed, maybe even 3,500. It might not have been the most pleasant thing to drive, but it would have really rocked when you hit it, instead of bogging like it was stuck in the mud. The 3.31 gears and stock converter just couldn't get the rpms going fast enough, and 1320 cfm was like flushing a toilet right off-idle. He's lucky it only bogged and didn't die completely. Or he could have kept the 3.31 gears and stock converter if he had used say an Edelbrock Performer cam-one that builds low-speed and mid-range torque, and used dual 390 cfm Holleys. 780 cfm-would have given it decent off-idle throttle response-it certainly wouldn't have bogged-the stock Q-jet was 750 cfm. He just threw parts at it without thinking. Badass # 2. Was a 1972 Chevelle Malibu. This guy built a 383 stroker small-block. He used 305 heads which gave it like 11.4:1 compression. He used a Competition Cams 280H Magnum cam, an Edelbrock tunnel ram and two 390 Holleys. He had a B&M 3,000 rpm torque converter and 4.10:1 gears. He worked at a place that sold racing gas so his high compression ratio wasn't an issue, and it was a toy, not a daily driver. But, it was very drivable and surprisingly docile at low speed. When you hit the loud pedal-it felt like a big-block. He had drag radials and ladder bars and a good posi rear end. It would actually pull the front wheels briefly on a full power launch. Again- he had the right combination-the engine was built for max torque, so that offset any lost by the intake manifold, he had the proper gears and converter to quickly get the engine up on it's powerband, and 780 cfm was not overcarbing it. It probably would have ran just as quick or maybe even quicker with a Performer RPM intake and a 750 Double-Pumper-but he wanted the "Pro Street" look and sound, and he certainly had the performance to back up the image. Dog # 2. Was a 1969 Nova that was originally a six-cylinder / 3-speed model. The car looked and sounded like a racer, but it was a total slug. The guy swapped in a 350 and a 4-speed that he took out out of a wrecked '78 Camaro. Then he did everything wrong. He swapped in a Comp Cams 292H Magnum Cam, got some 1 7/8 chrome headers, and used a Weiand Tunnel Ram with two 600 Holleys. It made a lot of noise, and if he popped the clutch at 4,000 rpm it would smoke the tires, but it wasn't as fast as it was with the stock 350 with iron intake and exhausts and a Q-jet. My buddys bone-stock 318 / automatic '73 Charger and another friends 305 / automatic '84 Firebird both blew his doors off so bad it wasn't even funny. The big tube headers and huge cam would have been ok in the other guys 11.5:1 compression 383, but they absolutely killed the 8.2:1 compression 350. Plus, he had 3.08:1 gears in the rear end, and 31 inch tires which dropped the gear ratio further to like 2.41:1! What he should have done was used a cam that's designed for low-compression engines like the Comp Cams 260H or Edelbrock Performer cam-one that builds low-speed torque and cylinder pressure and "fools" the engine into feeling like it has more compression than it actually does. He should have used small-tube headers and he should have used the dual 390 carbs, and he should have used at least 3.73:1 or 4.11:1 gears. It might not have been an absolute rocket, but he certainly wouldn't have got his ass kicked by a 150 hp 318 Charger and a 165 hp 305 Firebird!! Poor bastard, I actually felt sorry for him. Anyway-you can run radical stuff on the street, if you package all the components right. Mastermind