Open Road racing anyone?

[Chris Gal]

You talking about the Sliver State Classic, I think that is what its called.

That is one of them.

 

[Chris Gal]

Thought this was about road racing as in close a section of road and go racing. Like in 20 second miles.

Yup! In Ely, Nv, they shut down 90 miles of highway and some racers are going 200+ MPH! It's addicting!

 

[Chris Gal]

Not many places one can do that kind of racing.

True, but there are about 4 with a couple in Nevada

 

[biomedtechguy]

Yup! In Ely, Nv, they shut down 90 miles of highway and some racers are going 200+ MPH! It's addicting!

THAT is the race I would like to have a Hellephant powered Superbird with a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission and the BEST front and rear suspension for handling available...1,000HP/950TQ in a wing car....

Or maybe settle for a twin turbo Gen 2 or 3 Hemi...
Or if I really had to "slum" it, a centrifugal blower.

 

[biomedtechguy]

Like this cloned 'Bird, twin turbo, 1,337HP 572 Gen 2 HEMI....

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Eve...OUTH-ROAD-RUNNER-SUPERBIRD-RE-CREATION-225203

 

[moparedtn]

I ran my '89 5.0 Mustang the first couple years I had it in SCCA racing, in the SSGT (showroom stock) class.
Wasn't supposed to modify anything and had to run stock size tires, any street legal ones (DOT);
in those days, there were no drag radials or any of that, so we ran shaved Gatorbacks from Tire Rack.
Those were good for a couple events, so you bought about 3 sets per season at $800/set.
Brakes on those were awful; I tried them all, but stock Mustang brakes sucked, so a set of those every weekend.
Despite being down a bit to the IROC's and Corvettes in the class, I won the championship two years running -
and it was my daily driver, too.
They'd eventually overtake on the long front straight, then I'd chew their bumpers off in the corners.

 

[dart4forte]

Thanks for the info. I'll look that up!

Yeah and he has a cool 65 Coronet test mule he’s run on the open track

 

[mopar 3 B]

THAT is the race I would like to have a Hellephant powered Superbird with a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission and the BEST front and rear suspension for handling available...1,000HP/950TQ in a wing car....

Or maybe settle for a twin turbo Gen 2 or 3 Hemi...
Or if I really had to "slum" it, a centrifugal blower.

Wing cars were a bitch to handle in curves. Thats one thing Petty complained about the fact they alway wanted to go straight.
Dont relish going off a cliff in excess of 150 with only a rear wing.

 

[70chall440]

As much as I like old iron, I think I would be looking at modern muscle for this task. I'd try and find an SRT (Challenger or Charger), modify the crap out of it and go racing. if you wreck, go and get another one, you can "wing" the crap out of it if you like and put all sorts of aero on it. Parts are plentiful and available.

 

[mopar 3 B]

Was supprised at the handling capabilities of the 99 Avenger even in stock form. Just need to turbo the 2.5 to get top end power at redline.
Surprised there is no computer speed limiter. If it were not for getting caught would like gps verification of its present 140 top end. Think its capable of more just not enough ump to get there.

 

[biomedtechguy]

As much as I like old iron, I think I would be looking at modern muscle for this task.

That depends on the "why" of why one would want to participate in the race.
I'm certain that there are modern Chargers and Challengers that road race, I've seen them.
The thing is, when you take a 60s and 70s era muscle car, outfit it with modern aftermarket and/or custom suspension upgrades, and take THAT and go make a decent showing on the race track, THAT gets people's attention!
To each his own. If the GTO that my wife drives was mine to design and plan the theme of, I would make that car the corner carving road racer, and have my Roadrunner for straight line performance. The 65 GTO comes from the factory with a "4 link" rear suspension, and although we have gone in the restomod/cruiser and drag strip direction with the GTO in a similar manner as my Roadrunner, I did a complete upgrade to the entire rear suspension. It has a Ford based 9" Quick Performance rear axle assembly, UMI upper and lower control arms, control arm frame braces, and I'm in the process of having the replacement rear axle housing set up with a coilover conversion kit.
There is a wide and deep variety of corner carving suspension parts for the 1965 GM "A body" readily available, and that is just the image that I am naturally inclined to see when I look at that car. It's going to be and is already a fine, fun car, and very soon I believe that my wife's goal of driving it to a 1/4 mile time of under 12.8 isn't that far away. That's my dad's winning time that captured 1st Place in his class at LaPlace Dragway back in 1965, when he beat another 65 Goat for the trophy that he still has today!

 

[Chris Gal]

Like this cloned 'Bird, twin turbo, 1,337HP 572 Gen 2 HEMI....
View attachment 872983 View attachment 872984 View attachment 872985

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Eve...OUTH-ROAD-RUNNER-SUPERBIRD-RE-CREATION-225203

Holy Smokes! That is one nice looking bird!

 

[70chall440]

I looked at that car in BJ, well done to be sure.

 

[Chris Gal]

As much as I like old iron, I think I would be looking at modern muscle for this task. I'd try and find an SRT (Challenger or Charger), modify the crap out of it and go racing. if you wreck, go and get another one, you can "wing" the crap out of it if you like and put all sorts of aero on it. Parts are plentiful and available.

There are a few Challengers that run the SSCC and NORC. That would be an "easier" way to go, but like many others, I've always wanted a wing car. Plus growing up in the 60's and 70's I was/am and big Petty fan. So I have always wanted to drive a Superbird in excess of 200 MPH. I work for the government, so I'm not wealthy by any stretch of the word. I'll be building this a liitle at a time.
I have the car in the fab shop getting the required roll cage installed right now. I have a couple 440's that I plan on building, 1 mild for the lower speeds and then building one later for the higher speeds unless I can save up for a Hemi. That is one area I'm looking for tried and proven combinations for power.

 

[Chris Gal]

Wing cars were a bitch to handle in curves. Thats one thing Petty complained about the fact they alway wanted to go straight.
Dont relish going off a cliff in excess of 150 with only a rear wing.

The cool thing about the SSCC and NORC is that there are a lot of straight sections for reaching top speeds. One in particular is about 14 miles! However there are some turns and curves and the Narrows section which forces you to slow down.

 

[70chall440]

Absolutely nothing against wing cars, I thought hard about going that route myself once or twice. I think the wing cars are very functional and if built well can certainly handle, personally I think I would go resto mod and use a modern drive train, but each to his own.

 

[Chris Gal]

That depends on the "why" of why one would want to participate in the race.
I'm certain that there are modern Chargers and Challengers that road race, I've seen them.
The thing is, when you take a 60s and 70s era muscle car, outfit it with modern aftermarket and/or custom suspension upgrades, and take THAT and go make a decent showing on the race track, THAT gets people's attention!
To each his own. If the GTO that my wife drives was mine to design and plan the theme of, I would make that car the corner carving road racer, and have my Roadrunner for straight line performance. The 65 GTO comes from the factory with a "4 link" rear suspension, and although we have gone in the restomod/cruiser and drag strip direction with the GTO in a similar manner as my Roadrunner, I did a complete upgrade to the entire rear suspension. It has a Ford based 9" Quick Performance rear axle assembly, UMI upper and lower control arms, control arm frame braces, and I'm in the process of having the replacement rear axle housing set up with a coilover conversion kit.
There is a wide and deep variety of corner carving suspension parts for the 1965 GM "A body" readily available, and that is just the image that I am naturally inclined to see when I look at that car. It's going to be and is already a fine, fun car, and very soon I believe that my wife's goal of driving it to a 1/4 mile time of under 12.8 isn't that far away. That's my dad's winning time that captured 1st Place in his class at LaPlace Dragway back in 1965, when he beat another 65 Goat for the trophy that he still has today!
View attachment 873137 View attachment 873138 View attachment 873139 View attachment 873153 View attachment 873154

 

[Chris Gal]

That depends on the "why" of why one would want to participate in the race.
I'm certain that there are modern Chargers and Challengers that road race, I've seen them.
The thing is, when you take a 60s and 70s era muscle car, outfit it with modern aftermarket and/or custom suspension upgrades, and take THAT and go make a decent showing on the race track, THAT gets people's attention!
To each his own. If the GTO that my wife drives was mine to design and plan the theme of, I would make that car the corner carving road racer, and have my Roadrunner for straight line performance. The 65 GTO comes from the factory with a "4 link" rear suspension, and although we have gone in the restomod/cruiser and drag strip direction with the GTO in a similar manner as my Roadrunner, I did a complete upgrade to the entire rear suspension. It has a Ford based 9" Quick Performance rear axle assembly, UMI upper and lower control arms, control arm frame braces, and I'm in the process of having the replacement rear axle housing set up with a coilover conversion kit.
There is a wide and deep variety of corner carving suspension parts for the 1965 GM "A body" readily available, and that is just the image that I am naturally inclined to see when I look at that car. It's going to be and is already a fine, fun car, and very soon I believe that my wife's goal of driving it to a 1/4 mile time of under 12.8 isn't that far away. That's my dad's winning time that captured 1st Place in his class at LaPlace Dragway back in 1965, when he beat another 65 Goat for the trophy that he still has today!
View attachment 873137 View attachment 873138 View attachment 873139 View attachment 873153 View attachment 873154

Vey nice!

 

[Chris Gal]

Absolutely nothing against wing cars, I thought hard about going that route myself once or twice. I think the wing cars are very functional and if built well can certainly handle, personally I think I would go resto mod and use a modern drive train, but each to his own.

While I appreciate your point of view and would typically agree with you in most cases. I want to keep this project "old school" with a few exceptions, like the brakes. I am planning on an overdrive to help with the top end and a some improvements like that. I also want to keep it naturally aspirated, maybe a 6 pack setup.

 

[70chall440]

Hey, we all have our visions of what our cars should be and obviously there is nothing wrong with yours. I have a whole shop full of vintage stuff so I am on-board. I am running EFI 6 packs on my Cuda (416) and Challenger (440) but I grew up running 440 6 packs and always loved them, but that was back when I was driving them all the time. I had a traditional 6 pack on the Challenger, but it was such a pain to get it running and to be honest it never really performed as I wanted it to (some of that was timing, some of it was tuning). I went to the EFI 6 pack and its like a new car (in terms of power, response and reliability).

The 70 RR I am working on now was originally going to be a superbird clone project, however it has a tilt front end and I would have had to rebuilt all of the inner fenders and front structure just to start the project, then there is the cost of the conversion as well. I decided to keep it more as a street brawler type car complete with a 66 426 Hemi and 4 speed, however I do keep thinking about the wing...