More on building a Pure Stock Drag winner....

A lot of people wanted more info on building a Pure Stock drag car. I aim to please, so here's some more tips. # 1. Engine size. I love this rule. You have to be within 15 cubic inches + or - of the original size. This gives you a lot of leeway, and saves you a ton of money. For example-let's say you want to build a 1962-63 "Super Duty" 421 Pontiac Catalina clone. You don't have to search the galaxy and mortgage your house finding a 421. You could take any 400 Pontiac block-( 15 million were produced between 1967-79 ) bore it .030 over, buy a 4.00 inch stroke rotating assembly cut down to 400 size-( crank, rods, pistons ) from Butler performance or Kaufmann Racing and you'd have a 433 inch Pontiac V8. Within the 15 inches of the original 421. And the original "Type" rule is the gift that keeps on giving. The heads have to be iron, no aftermarket aluminum ones. But that means you could run the plentiful "6X" heads which are the best breathing Pontiac heads except for RA IV's and Edelbrocks-your not confined to the small valve, "bathtub" heads that came on '59-'66 389 and 421 engines. You could run an Edelbrock or Offenhauser dual-quad manifold and two 750 Edelbrock carbs-because the 421 SD had an aluminum 2X4 manifold and ran 2 AFBs. The manifold's are aluminum and we all know the "Performer" carbs are AFB clones. No spending a mint for a "real" SD manifold and vintage AFB carbs. The best part is the cam. Again-it has to be the original "type." That means if your car had a hydraulic cam, then you can't run a solid lifter cam or a roller. But there's no restrictions on lift or duration. Yay!  If your a Ford guy and want to run a '65-68 Shelby GT350 Clone-again-don't search the galaxy for a Hi-Po 225, 271, or 306 hp 289. You could run a Ford SVO 345 hp 302 crate engine. It's within 15 cubes, and has Iron heads. You can run an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and a 750 Holley carb. Again-original "type" it doesn't have to be a Shelby Manifold and vintage 715 cfm Holley. If you want to run a big-block Mustang, Galaxie or Fairlane you don't have to sell your soul for a 427 or a 428. Millions of 390s were used from 1961-76, and their still plentiful in junkyards. Many-especially the pre-74 truck blocks can be safely bored .080 over. With a custom crank with a little extra stroke-this gives you 415 inches-within the rules. "Thunderbolt" clone-fine-run dual quads and a solid cam. Mach 1 or GT500 clone? An Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and 750 Holley will work. Doesn't have to be a factory CJ intake and ultra-rare 735 cfm Holley. A hot setup for Mopar guys is to take a 400 block and put a stroker crank in it to get 451 cubes. Hey-your within the 15 inch rule of the 440 that was optional in your Charger or Road Runner or whatever, right? If you built a stompin' 451 for say a '74 Charger-you could run a remanufactured 1000 cfm Thermo-Quad on it-same "Type" remember? # 2. Transmissions. The same-"type" rule applies here. This gives you some lattitude to push the limit of the rules. For example-Most small-block Novas and Camaros had "Saginaw" 4-speeds. The Muncies were reserved for Z/28s and big block cars. The "Standard" Saginaw 4-speed has a 2.54 1st gear and 1.61 2nd. However the version used in '75 and later Vegas,Monzas,Skyhawks,Sunbirds, etc-had a 3.11 1st gear and a 2.28 second. This gives you a lot more mechanical advantage off the line, and through 2nd gear without changing your final drive ratio. By the time you hit third, the car's going 60 or 70 mph anyway and gear multiplaction doesn't matter that much. The big "drop" to third gear won't be that much. Some BW T10 4-speeds have a 2.20 or a 2.43 low gear and a 1.52 2nd. There are optional versions-that you can buy from Summitt-that have either a 2.88 1st and a 1.91 2nd, or a 3.44 1st and a 2.28 2nd. The downside is they only have something like a 375 lbs ft torque rating so they won't stand up to big-blocks. However-if you have a small-block car-i.e. a high-winding 302,327 or 350 Chevy-this might help you. And if you drive the car at all you can run an axle ratio between 2.73 and 3.42-and have the best of both worlds. It'll launch like you have 4.11:1 or 4.56:1 gears in low and second, but you'll still have reasonable cruising rpm on the freeway. # 3. Gears make it go. You can run any axle ratio you want. But you have to match the gears to your motor and valvesprings. 4.88:1 gears in a '77 Trans Am that starts wheezing at 5,000 rpm isn't going to do any good. Especially with big block cars-err on the conservative side. A guy with a 454 Chevelle ran a 12.80 with 3.08:1 gears and only ran 12.40 with 4.11s because the motor was built for max torque-it couldn't rev enough to take full advantage of the stiffer gears. # 4. Never under estimate your opponent. A buddy of mine lost a ton of money betting on his 440 Road Runner that got smoked by a 302 Maverick. It looked like a mis-match-an econobox tugging on Superman's cape? But this gutted Maverick weighed about 2,600 lbs, had a TCI prepped C4 and 4.30 gears and a high-winding 302, and the three-car length holeshot he got on my bud's big bad 440 Mopar that lit up the tires was too much to overcome. Good luck and happy racing. Mastermind