Choose your car carefully if you want to win at Muscle Car drags...

After the last post I had some people ask me what car I thought would be the best to run at the Pure Stock drags or MusclePalooza, etc. The fact is there's no easy answer. The main thing is to read the rulebook carefully on what is and isn't allowed. And sometimes it's just simple math-power to weight ratio. I remember a few years ago I was at one of these events and a guy in a '66 L79 Nova was matched up against a guy with a '70 W30 442. Even the announcer made a joke-"A small-block Nova tugging on Superman's cape?"  The crowd,the announcer, the 442 owner and everyone but me was shocked when the Nova won easily. I said before the race that the Nova was going to win. My friends grilled me, thinking I had some inside information. I didn't. I just did the math. A 1970 442 W30 has a 455 V8 rated at 370 hp and weighs about 4,000 lbs. A 1966 L79 Nova has a 327 V8 rated at 350 hp and weighs about 3,000 lbs. All other things being equal-the 350 hp 3,000 lb car is going to run faster than the 370 hp 4,000 lb car. 20 hp isn't enough to overcome 1,000 lbs of extra weight!!  Now factor in a couple of things we didn't know before we talked to the owners of the cars-the 442 was an automatic with 3.42:1 gears and the Nova was a 4-speed with 4.11:1s-it really comes into focus. Unless the guy in the Nova redlighted or missed a shift, the 442 had no chance. The Nova had the same amount of power, 1,000 lbs less weight to pull and the mechanical advantage of 4.11:1 gears. I talked with the Nova owner for a bit. His car was a for-real, numbers-matching L79. He said however that he was going to buy another '66-67 Nova-maybe even a six-cylinder car-and build an even nastier racer for the next year. He explained that he knew the rulebook backwards and forwards, but he didn't want to modify the L79. He said he could build another 327 to the letter of the rules that would easily have 450+ hp instead of 350 and still be legal. I asked him to explain. Like we discussed in the last post-the rules allowed quite a bit of leeway. Since the cars didn't have to be numbers-mtaching-he was going to get a 350 block and use a 3.25 inch stroke crank with 6 inch rods ( stock is 5.7 ) and custom pistons. The heads have to be the original "type"-which means Iron-no aluminum. However he could get a set of Iron Vortec heads-their 64cc combustion chambers would give him 11:1 compression with his custom pistons, and we all know that Vortecs breathe better than any other factory head and many aftermarket ones. The heads alone would be worth 30-40 hp over stock 327 / 350 heads. He'd need a Vortec bolt-pattern intake-but again the rules say the manifold has to be the original type. He's claiming to build an L79 spec car-they had aluminum intakes from the factory. And GMPP sells aluminum high-rise Vortec bolt-pattern intakes for small-block Chevys. He could probably slip an Edelbrock or Weiand through-the original "type" rule doesn't dictate brand-and Mopar guys with 340 and 440 Six-Packs have Edelbrock intakes and Shelby Mustang owners have Shelby intakes-but with a GM part number there'd be no argument whatsoever. L79s had Holley 4bbls from the factory-so he could run a 780 cfm 3310, or he said-since the rules again said-"Orignal Type"-he could get away with running an 850 cfm Double-Pumper!!  The rulebook said nothing about how many accelerator pumps the carb could have!! Ditto for the cam-it would have to be a flat-tappet hydraulic design-no rollers-but he could a super-hot Comp Cams 292H Magnum-that would make quite a bit more power than the old "350hp" 327 factory cam. To take advantage of all this extra power he was going to use 4.56:1 gears instead of 4.11s. Now that would be one badass ride that would smite a lot of big-block cars in biblical fashion!!  Am I saying that a '66 Nova is the best choice? No, I'm saying think of the total package-always remembering power to weight ratio. Think of this-cars don't have to be numbers-matching as long as the engine / drivtrain combo was optional on that car that year you can build it-so-you could put a Mopar Performance 426 crate Hemi into a '68 Dart-think that would dominate??!!!  Also-think of this-a 1971 Formula Firebird would be a much better choice than a 1970 model. Because the body is exactly the same-the car is pretty light for a Pontiac-about 3,600 lbs-less than later models with heavy 5-mph bumpers-and the 455 was available in '71. The largest engine available in 1970 was a 400. Remember the rules-15 inches-think a 'Bird with a 470 inch Pontiac V8 with longer rods,12:1 compression,a stompin' cam and ported intake and exhaust manifolds with a TH400 and a high-stall converter and some 4.33:1 gears wouldn't be Jules' Wallet?  ( For those who haven't seen "Pulp Fiction-that means "Bad MotherF$%er" )  And a lot quicker than a 416 inch '70 model?  Or how about a 1969-1970 Nova SS? A 396 Rat motor was optional those years-'71 and later, a 350 was the biggest engine available. For Ford guys a '69-70 Mustang might be the best choice-the mighty 428CJ was the top dog. ( No one is going to build or buy a Boss 429 for this stuff ). In '64-66 a 289 was the big V8. In 67-68 you could get a 390-and most '71-73s have 351C's. ( The 429 was optional in '71, but it would be hard to build one. ) So in my mind the '69-70 would be the first choice. And the 15 inch rule goes both ways-so you could get a 390 truck block bore it .060-.080 over and use a custom crank and pistons and have like 415 inches-within 13 of 428-so still legal. A lightweight '71 340 Duster might be a better choice than a heavy 440 '74 Charger. See what I'm saying?  So read the rules religiously and then decide-the "bigger is better" axiom isn't always true. Mastermind