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Finally made it to the track

66 Sat

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Went to the drags last night after 2 miss starts (one weather related, one Covid related).
Did 3 runs, nothing spectacular but solid for a 318 poly, 3.23 rear, factory exhaust manifolds, 3,750 lbs incl driver. Each run was within a tenth and 1 mph. Best was 15.3 @ 93 mph.
I was shifting manually at 5,500 rpm, and my son reckoned the car was one of the best sounding (and slowest!).

A set of TTI headers would probably get me into the 14's.
Had a lot of fun regardless.
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I'm sure that was a great experience. 15.30@92 is very good. Summer of '72 was my 1st trip to the strip was, '70 Barracuda 383 had a newly installed 4 bbl & cheap headers. It was a 15.30, maybe down to 15.0, 12" convertor & 3..23, Polyglass, Wasn't a good bracket car but got me hooked. Two years later bought my '65 Coronet 426W drag car and the racing story exploded.
ENJOY!!
 
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Everyone has to start somewhere. You'll be hooked and want to go faster! Wishing you good luck and enjoy. ruffcut
 
Glad to hear your journey was a success this time out 66. That you and your son do this together is very special. If he hasn't done so already, I would think he'll be hitting you up to to let him get behind the wheel and make a pass ot two himself. The best to both of you!
 
Beautiful car !!

The best times are always ran when your kids are with you.

Contact Bruce Toth. He is the go to man for Poly Performance.

Good luck !
 
Went to the drags last night after 2 miss starts (one weather related, one Covid related).
Did 3 runs, nothing spectacular but solid for a 318 poly, 3.23 rear, factory exhaust manifolds, 3,750 lbs incl driver. Each run was within a tenth and 1 mph. Best was 15.3 @ 93 mph.
I was shifting manually at 5,500 rpm, and my son reckoned the car was one of the best sounding (and slowest!).

A set of TTI headers would probably get me into the 14's.
Had a lot of fun regardless.
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That is a nice run, can only get better!
 
Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I'll be pulling the engine in the next few months, I've got a Scat forged stroker crank and the Scat I beam rods to go in. I've gone for the 3.58" stroke for the better rod ratio than the 4" crank, which will end up about 354 cubes. Pistons will be custom.
This first trip to the track was to get a baseline - the car is mainly a cruiser and I'm hoping with the stroker and headers it will be a nice torquey engine but will still run pretty hard.
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Although I have zero experience with the poly motors, sounds like you have a good plan. Cruising & driving will surely be fun. More torque makes for more fun.
 
Thats about a second faster than I would have guessed by the description. Nice job.
Edit: your second half of the track is better than your first half. Typical of cars with stock gearing and converter.
 
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I may have shared this with you before, My buddy's 390 stroked Poly.
This thing has un-believe-able torque and power in his 64 Polara Stationwagon.
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Well I got back to the track on the weekend with the new 354 cube poly stroker (3.58" crank).
Completely unchanged set up from before - same cam, same carb (600 Holley), same 3.23 rear, factory convertor, full street trim, same super-restrictive factory exhaust manifolds, nothing changed except engine rebuilt with new rotating assembly, and bigger valves (1.94" / 1.60").

On the street the car feels much more torquey than before so I was happy anyway, but interested to see if it made any difference at the track.

Before rebuild 15.3 @ 92.5 mph
After rebuild 14.8 @ 96 mph.

My technique is basically a fast street start, load the convertor slightly and then floor it. I tried shifting at 5,000 and 5,200 rpm but it didn't make much difference. 5 runs all very consistent.

Headers next - I really think they will make a difference with the bigger capacity - the difference in the transition between the manifold downpipe and the 2.5" exhaust is ridiculous - the manifolds are like pea shooters.

Some nice cars there, a couple of nice Chevelles (forgive me but I like them), a nice Ford Falcon XY GT.

Didn't get home until after midnight, not easy sneaking in with glasspacks...

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