Like I said in the last post people love to spout numbers and stats-but they don't always have all the information. And this is why "civilian" cars can never match magazine test cars. After 40+ years Jim Wangers finally admitted that Car and Driver's May 1964 GTO test car that ran a blistering 4.6 second 0-60 time and a 13.1 second 1/4 was a ringer. Royal Pontiac had pulled the 389 and replaced it with a blueprinted 421. That's why showroom examples and other test cars could only run mid-14s!! Chrysler did it when they introduced the 440 Six-pack. Their "prototype" that ran high 12s "Under controlled conditions, with a professional driver" is almost as bad. The controlled conditions being the engine had been brought to "The top of specifications"-i.e. blueprinted-the distributor custom curved,the carbs custom jetted,and the car had a 4-speed, 4.30:1 gears, a pinion snubber, and wrinklewall slicks. And the "Professional Driver" was Pro Stock Drag Racing champion Ronnie Sox. Gee, wonder why my buddys 440+6 Super Bee with a torqueflite,3.23:1 gears and street tires was a full second slower!! Hot Rod's '69 Z/28 test car ran a blistering 13.11 et. They said "We almost made the 12s". With headers, rejetting the carb, recurving the distributor,adding traction bars and swapping the 3.73:1 gears for 4.88:1s!!! Wonder why production examples could only run low 14s? A couple of import tests are just as bad. Mitsubishi's claim of a 13.75 1/4 mile time for the 3000GTVR4 Turbo takes real cojones to say with a straight face. The "controlled conditions consisted of the engineers disabling the rev limiter, disabling the knock sensor,filling the tank with 104 octane racing gas, and lowring the tire pressure to 15 psi. The "professional driver" then popped the clutch at 6,200 rpm and powershifted at 7,000, which blew the $5769 tranaxle after three runs. Now how many people are going to run around with 15 psi in their tires, full of race gas, and drop the clutch at 6,200 rpm to jump someone from a light? That's why production examples could only run high 14s. Car and Driver admitted that their Subaru WRX STI's blistering 5.3 second 0-60 time and 13.7 second 1/4 mile time was acheived by dropping the clutch at 5,400 rpm, and shifting at 7,000-500 rpm over the redline on the tach. The writer said he wouldn't recommend such a brutal launch if you wanted the drivetrain to last. When they launched at a more reasonable rpm-say 3,000-3,500 and shifted at or below the 6,500 rpm redline-the times were 5.8 seconds to 60 and 14.3 in the 1/4. Still quick-but more than 1/2 a second slower than the published time!!! Even some punk kids I know that have WRX's don't go around dropping the clutch at 5,400 rpm!! Hot Rod did it in a "Crate Motor Shootout." They tested a bunch of GMPP engines-small-blocks, big-blocks, and LS motors in a '69 Chevelle they had. Besides having a ladder bar rear suspension and wrinklewall slicks-the test mule also had 4.30:1 gears and a TCI TH400 with a 4,800 rpm converter and a trans-brake!! Now Joe average goes and buys ZZ4 350 or a ZZ427 and puts it in his Camaro or Chevelle and is mystified when his times aren't even close. You think a 4,800 rpm converter and a trans-brake might skew the 60 ft and 1/4 mile times a tad? Think a car with a stock converter or even a 3 grand one is going to be a bit slower??!!! So read the fine print and be sure your comparing "apples to apples" before you quote performance figures for any given car. Mastermind
No comments:
Post a Comment