is that a monza? sorry if im way off but i dont recognize the car...were you running a BBC in that?

 

Looks like a Monza to me.

 

It was a Monza. No BBC....Bad word....Just 484 Late hemi with 8-71 and 60% od on the blower. All Steel motor. 3 spd Lenco Crowerglide. The body we got from a place in Texas that made them for all the hot shots of the day. It was so flimsey when we picked it up that it more or less laid in a heap on the floor. I doubt if it weighed 65 pounds. We had to build a set of special saw horses to mount it on in the trailer for the ride home. Ready to run with the chutes on it the weight was about 130 pounds so it wasn't very heavy even in race trim. back then streamlining and other tricks were not allowed so we had to be a bit more suttle.. The car was only 43 inches high originally with 33 inch tires. It was bit hard to see out of especially the tree so we did a little surgery on the windshield. We cut a section out across the top and A post and laid the windshield back about 3 inches. After a lot of glassery we got it all back together and you could not tell it had been altered but I could see the tree now. The rear tires didn't fit at all so we hacked and ripped on the back of the body untill they did. The front tires poked up thru the front fender so we added a bit of a bubble to them. You can see them in the pictures.
As for running..we ran only a very few NHRA races. Usually to get a match race we had to agree to run the points meet so we did. These were big time money losers for us so we didn't spend a lot of effort on them. We ran a lot of match races and circuit races all around the mid west. A lot of the tracks simply could not hold the power so we backed it off in order to get down the track and made some good burnouts which everyone really liked.
7.10 196 was about as good as we ran back then on alcohol. 6.8 205 was the record for a while. then with the addition of the 14-71 blowers it went to 6.6 and 220 on a decent track. We ran 4.5's and 155 eight mile. We ran for part of a year on 70% nitro and ran 6.60 220. pretty easy. This was with the 3 spd. It launched really hard and the 1-2 shift was about as quick as I could get from the brake to the shift button. Never got to run 1/8 on nitro but I would guess 4.2. The car was never a good top ender as we just didn't lean on it that hard.

The way we were.

bentwings.

 

very very interesting...so you ran against the "big names" of the NHRA back then? how long ago would this have been?

i do find it odd that a body made for drag racing (?) didnt allow for good clear vision of the tree!

do you run the ****** now??

 

Who is it that makes the really nice 4 valves per cylinder 32 valve Hemi heads? I'm thinking that it is Indy, I have the Mopar magazine that has an article on them from when they came out, but it would take forever for me to find that issue in my mountain of Mopar mags.

 

i know that the indy heads are 4 valve per cylinder...as a friend of ours is the local PA area indy engine retailer...he has shelves and shelves of them, and he has a few 8 second cars super stock to go along with them...

 

I would love to build a single digit car like that, but that require far too much money and regulations.[&o]

 

This was back in the very early to mid 70's. Actually There were more than a few cars with poor visibility. I drove a Must 2 a few times and it was very hard to see out of. I had to duck my head side ways to see the tree. I think the tree was quite a bit closer to the starting line than now also. Also the alcohol car were a bit lower and the seats laid back more than the fuel car of the day.
Wilfred Boutlier had a Vega I think with a massive "glass" skylite ..Probably the most visible of all of the era. Gotta remember that these body molds were splashed off a rental car then reworked for FC. This was the beginning of FC. There wasn't carbon fiber and kevlar and such. NHRA didn't allow much beyond stretching to 125 inches wb and a 2" chop. All of the big name guys stretched the rulles the limit. We just pulled them a bit tighter in some areas. haha Stream lining was out. we had to remove the head lite "glass" and fought over the front wheel bumps, Even the front spoiler was picked on but thanks to the big guys we got away with it. This whole time was a period of change. We didn't know it then however haha. We though we were leading edge. Old crap now. But I guess nostalgia is in. It would be fun to try it again now but I'm just too slow. My son might. He is trying to buy the old car back.

As for running the car. It weighed about 2100 with me in it and 60# on the front end. 1900 was the low limit. All Steel motor 1/2 in stroke (484) 12:1 pistons alum rods, good 8-71 running 60 % over no delta plate, 3 spd Lenco 2.2 1st, 3 disc Crower glide, 4.10 dana, 33 x 14 tires. (May be 15)We had an Enderle Bird with a 150 Hilborne pump , ports, single Cirrilo mag, .750 lift /Crain roller for alcohol. stock heads stainless exhaust valves with 3 angle grind and port matching only. Best valve springs $$$ could buy. Big tube headers. Chrome moly chassis that I rebuilt and had approved. That's about it. We built the motors right in our garage and bought or made every piece. We never really got after it as we just didn't run on the good tracks that often and to get paid you had to make your laps. I can only recall toasting the plugs on a few runs on alcohol. Fuel was a different story!! You could probably buy a BBC right from SpeedOMotive that would run very well.

There were a lot of BBC back then but they had a tough time with the hemi except for a few that had unlimited $$$. The good blocks had not arrived yet so their life line was short when you leaned on them. The few aluminum heads didn't stay together well. Neither did the "stock" Mopar heads. We had them too ....on the shelf. I think the BBC was about 50# lighter overall. Whether that made any difference I don't know. There were a few BBC that ran better than we did but it cost them. The almighty dollar drove our operation.

Today you could build a bullet proof hemi that would go way in the 6's. 500 inches 14-71 Lenco drive 3.9 or 4.1. Alum block and very good heads are availabel that we didn't have. There is probably 200+ hp just in the heads alone maybe more. I would expect that even with just an 8-71 you run pretty good. On the other hand there are some good BBC heads and blocks available for a good deal less $$$ that you could do the same with. There are probably steel BBC heads that breath better than our old stock hemi head did. Pluss there are mags that really light the fire. We were on the ragged edge back then. There were double mags and some hopped up ones but they were hard to get. If you want an idea of hemi race stuff check out goodvibrations.com all the used race stuff is there. racecarjunk .com too.

as for the ****** well we'll hit the track a couple times just to try it out. It's a streetrod first and anything else second. Maybe 12.5 115 or so I don't know. It really is only 405 hp on the dyno so it isn't all that strong. If it runs that good in street trim I'll be more than happy. It's probably a lot quicker and faster that a lot of the unblown gassers of the 60's. It's 2500 # so it's no flyweight. I would like to do a hemi on the next one. I don't know if you could build a hemi for 10k or not with used race stuff.

To pose a question...Bad...do you really need all the high $$$ stuff?? with a blower you can make some serious power and it is adjustable and ready all the time. frankly before I'd spend 4K or more on an intake system I'd spend it on a blower and leave the 2-4 sucking hind wind. Tuning is easy and stays put. I have to admit that I'm out in right field when it come to brackets but in the quick 8-16 fields against an index you can pretty much tune to run what you want. I'd stay away from the electronic classes but each to their own. I'd think you could build a blown 500 incher a lot cheaper than a 600 unblown.