Although the motor mount set-up is different & easier in my Riv. than your A-Body cars you definitely need a chain to keep from breaking mounts. Way back I would break the left mount at LEAST once a month. Since I chained it down haven't broken one in 30+ years & that's with pulling the left front some dozen or so times in '04 alone. When I come up at one point in time I will show you. Then you can mail pictures to whomever you would like.
Solid mounted my drivers side and rubber mounted the pass and strap it down. On a 03 cobra we run we run nitto drag radials ( I think they are 883)@12 psi and it hooks! But I think the tread wear is under a 100 on those tires. Rhett wouldn't mind in the spring if a few of us could get the nailheads together and run them as a group and compare and post. I have no idea what I will run but I do run a cleaned up manifold , 1spacer. CSU built Holley4150 hp , headers and the blow thru turbo setup and I am hoping 650 tq and over 500hp with 7-10 psi boost. If it make that should put me high 11's. Would love to get a bunch of Buick guys for a test and tune one day... Paul
Love to do it, I'll keep my eyes out for the first track rental day at Lebanon and let the group know....I'd love to see what the turbo will do, and looking forward to meeting some of the folks here in person...
Rhett, pard,,,, just to get things in perspective here,,,,in 1965 any,any, stock bodied car that would run 13's or better was considered to be ''bad fast''.....at least on the slick southern drag strips around Houston......:laugh:
I saw a lot of claims of 14.0's in stock trim. I wonder what the 60 foot was back than? Tire technology has come a long way. I am sure with the right setup on a drag radial a 1.60 is doable. Big pig what was ur 60 foot? ---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ---------- I would love it!! Maybe I can pick Tom up on the way and make it a buickguy outing...
66LarkGS - You're right, I was looking over old road tests for 65 and there's a couple in there.. if you look at the May 65 issue of Car Life, they have a great comparison between a GTO, 426 Coronet, 442 and Gran Sport - the GTO was a purpose built Royal Bobcat, the rest were stock with 3.08-3.55 gears. The GTO went from 14.5 to 14.0 with slicks, but the Dodge (4spd/3.55) went 15.4 @ 88, the 442 (2spd/3.23s) went 15.5 @ 89 and the Buick went 15.3 @ 88 - it looks like Popular Hot Rodding had a Z16 chevelle that ran 14.6 It looks like Motor Trend had a 66 Gran Sport that ran 14.4@ 90 and Car and Driver had a 66 442 that ran 14.5 @ 100 but most of this stuff is migh 14's/low 15's - I'd bet their 60fts were horrible on those tires - all I see is 0-60 times in the tests, and they're all in the high 6's/low 7's My 0-60's are 6 flat (as measured by G-Tech) and my (good) 60fts range from 2.10 - 2.17, and a whole slew of 2.20's. If I spin, I go 2.3-2.4 at best. Thats all on 3.23 gears. 1.6 sounds achievable with the right set up? I'm a long way from knowing what that's like!
Sorry Rhett, even with the right "Set-up" I don't think you'll ever see 1.60/60fts. Not with a 2spd. & 323's without small O.D. slicks. It would be great if you could then you could drop 1.2 secs. in the qtr. & be in the 13's.
rhett, are you running a posi? what type of spring and shock in the rear? adjustable rear upper control arms? sway bar? i run a detroit locker, 3:55, sway bar, adjustable rear shocks ,air bags and adjustable front air struts. you need to make more power to get that 65 into 12's. To me it is doable but does cost$$$$.. but thier is no bank in heaven so spend it.. lets turbo another nailhead. got one under the belt or hit it with the spray.. just to put a area where i am i am 30 minutes from providence RI, when spring breaks lets go on a beat ride in my skylark!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh80Xg1SYFQ he runs a ls.. this car hauls!!!
No guys, I'm not talking about me, I was just anwering a question ..I'll be lucky to break into the 2.0 flats with this car. Someday I'll probably have Tom build a motor, but it'll always have manifolds and 3.23s - My goal is an honest, stock 14.5. After that, the car gets retired from racing until we get the numbers matching motor out and stashed....I've got a 66 Wildcat 401 to send down to Tom. 66Lark - I'm running an Eaton (or Auburn I forget) LSD, 3.23's, sway bar off boxed arms, all new rubber bushings, weak stock springs, NAPA cheapo gas shocks and airbags. I generally run the left bag empty and the right bag at 5-10 lbs and keep the rear end low..the stock springs allow the wheel openings to drop almost to the top of the rim...glad I didnt change them! I'm also running 1/2 worn 215/70/R14 Silvertown redlines on 7 inch rims. I'm right over in Hartford, I'll go for a ride! I was psyched to see the rain out here washed all the salt away yesterday but more snow due tonight I hear..... How's it look out your way?
Well,,,, it has been my experience, experience,mind you,,, that when i went to a lower gear and posi... I got way less spin off the line... talking 4.11's here... and in the mid to late 60's unless you had something lower than 3.90, you were not serious about racing.... I am talking street driven cars.... the 3.90 gear sets were real popular for street/strip.... but,,, back then gas was .35 a gallon for the very best stuff....most popular for street fighting was 4.56 or 4.88 with a few 5.14's.... and untill you get some gears like that, you most likely aint gonna do it.... Btw... Rhett, You need to run about 2-3 lb. in that left bag to keep the bite even.... the cars with a 3'rd member type differential had a advantage because you could set another gear set up and have one for cruising and one for drag racing.... With the 4.11's ,,, I could put enough hole shot on the competition that it would take them further than a qtr. to catch up with me.... :laugh::laugh:
My goal is an honest, stock 14.5. After that, the car gets retired from racing until we get the numbers matching motor out and stashed....I've got a 66 Wildcat 401 to send down to Tom. P Sounds like you need a lot more tire under that car and more hp/tq out of that nailhead I am shooting for 12's and i feel I got plenty under the hood to get me their. I make custom turbo headers that are ceramic coated and installed a garrett 67mm turbo. My 401 is .038 overbore and run a Ross forged pistons and ARP head Studs and ARP rod and main bolts. We had to go that strange overbore so i could get a good quality rings.Suspension shouldn't be a issue and I have tried to make all systems be able to support big numbers. You started this thread asking what it would take to go into the 12s and I feel it is a lot more than a 500 or 600hp nailhead. it is a fuel system that can support big numbers, I run areomotive a1000 with a 10an feed and return. Said to be able to handle over 1000 hp. I went with a aftermarket and narrowed 9" that is easily tunable with adjustable control arms and adjustable shocks and air bags. I run a 6btm MSD ignition box and MSD distributor that is fully locked out with no vacuum advance set @32 degrees with boost reference timing retard and boost reference fuel pressure regulator. A run a built th400 and would like to go to a 200r4 so I would get a better highway gear.i have currently a 285 rear tire feel I can get a little more rubber under their. I did cut the inner lips out and rewelded them. It can and will be done to get my GS into the 12s but purely to make a point to non nailheaders/ls fans that you can overcome the flaws of the small valves and use it to your advantage. I apologies for running on.. Paul 66larkgs Turbo 401 nailhead I would love to make a EFI turbo setup one day on a nailhead.
Dont forget it was 66GSConv who was asking the question - I'm sooooo far away from those numbers it just doesnt matter. So 66GSConv, there's the recipe for success and Paul, I'm serious - I want a ride in that car! Sounds like a very cool and well thought out combination. I'm totally jealous of the 3rd member rear - what gears do you run? I get your comment, I drive up to the track on 3.23's and I blow by tons of guys on the Mass Pike who are are just slowy screaming down the road (and burning tankfuls of fuel for the pleasure!) You're right - more tire and HP would help for my (much more modest) goals...But tire size is limited but Pure Stock rules, so my only option is bias ply, which is not a bad option if I was trying to recover from tire spin. But the chassis is set up that I can pretty much go full throttle launch from 1700 rpm or so, and it generally doesnt spin if the track is good, so I'm doing OK traction wise. I took a video this weekend of how the front rises while torqued, kinda like Gessler's old black car..it's neat, and I'll try to figure out how to get it on here or you tube. The car is definitley ready for 20 or so more HP, and I think that would get me the .2 I'm still looking for. Toms Rockers or suggestion of solid lifters are two great ways to get there, but specifically against the PS rules. So I'm kinda stuck with cleaning up what I've got ..I'm not ready to do the blueprint build that Doc suggested, but I may get some gain by doing the heads - no porting or polishing, but a really good valve job and clean up that restores some compression. Maybe also play with carb spacers and see what that does. I made some great progress this weekend when I got the transmission to work right, and probably will gain almost a tenth or better from the shift, but I'm probably gonna give that back when I go back to the correct AFB from the Q-Jet. I've got a season ot get it as right as possible.. Only .2 to go!
I started the thread to see if anyone that has run in the 12s would chime in. Guess there arent many. Of course we have tom and bobs bad ass 66 gs, and I know of Toms friend with the henry j. I know there was a guy in texas a few years back running high 11s. I guess that makes what gsgtx did,12.70 somthing pretty good with 3.23 and 2 speed. Just not many poeple trying to get alot out of nailheads. Paul, I cant wait to see how your set up runs. I think my next build might be somthing like that. Thanks for sharing your build. How close are you to having it back up and running? Rhett, I like what your doing. Like I said I wish I had tried to ring out everything I could of before I started building. As for me I started collecting parts for 8 years and am finally going to hopefully be done this spring.I have a couple of things up my sleeve for this spring that I hope is gonna get my convertable into the 12s. Who knows mabey none of it works. Lots of parts out there now that we didnt have 10 years ago. Like I said, cant wait for spring
got a couple of questions,,, you convertible guys..... how much difference in the wt. of a convertible frame and a regular frame,,,??? and could you swap them out???? or would rules prevent this????:idea2::idea2:
Doc I am not sure on the wt. defferance between the two. Paul, did you do any head work? Also wondering what cam you went with? Cant wait to see another video of your car wfo , I hope:TU:
Frame is the same- both "boxed" Unless you wanted to use a non GS frame, then it would be unboxed and lighter. My Special Wagon frame is not boxed...and it is light for a wagon.
that is what I am getting at.... just how much could a convertible car be lightened up by using a plain skylark frame ?????
