Hey y'all, I think you guys might enjoy this. It's a beautiful weekend day so I go on out to our local cruise night in my tube chassis Nova Stage2 455 car. After it ends I take the car home and go to dinner and a movie in my truck. In the parking lot is a Toyota Supra with a nice set of drag wheels and drag radials on it. Has that "fast" Supra look to it. I go to my movie and when I'm walking out I see two college age kids getting in it. I leave and go home about 11pm. I get a little bored so decide to roll the Nova around town for a cruise. I stop at a local station to fill up and the same Supra pulls up to a pump next to me. The guys get out and immediately walk over to look at the Nova. A few seconds go by and the driver asks me what under the hood. I tell him and he gets a glazed over eyes look since he doesn't really know what a Buick 455 is. I get the how fast question and I tell them low 9's in the 1/4 on pump gas and I expect 8's next time out. The kid looks at his buddy and says "That's quick, my car was made for roll racing. It's got 850hp to the tire but no chassis mods like you." I say "That's cool man." He says "Yeah, you'd get me in a 1/4 but I smoke big blocks all day from a roll." I tell him that I haven't really roll raced my car but it's got lots of torque and lightweight. He asks if I want to play but not be surprised when he blows by me at 100 mph. I'm thinking "I got you now." and tell him I know a deserted stretch where we can safely get in a run. All the way out there I know he has no idea how hard a big torque motor in a light car can explode into motion at ANY speed. We get to the spot and agree on a 30 roll and start when we pass a sign on the side of the road. We go out match up and when we get to the sign I pin the throttle and nitrous at the same time. I run it to 6000 in third(150 or so. Basically 6 seconds worth of run) and clip it. I have no idea how bad I won since in a single digit car it's best to drive the car and ask questions later. I pull over on a side road and get out. He pulls up and walks over to me with this weird look. Before I can ask how far I beat him by he goes "Dude, Hoply Sh*t. We hit the gas and before my car came up on rpm you had 2 cars on me. It was almost like you materialized in front of me magically. By the time I was at full boost you were 4 or 5 cars in front and G O N E. I told him I figured the out come beforehand and tried to explained to him the advantage of a big motor and the instant 860lb/ft of torque at the wheels I get right off the hit of the throttle. From a roll means no waiting for boost to thrust me forward, the car just GOES. I kinda figured they were gonna be a couple punks when I first met them but they turned out OK. Mutual respect was given all the way around and he even talked about getting a V8 with a turbo for more punch on his roll races. All in all, a lesson was learned and at the very least maybe when the kids are all jocking about how bad their giant turbo small displacement cars are and old school muscle is slow, this guy will relate this story and give them a little area under the curve lesson on power production.
Thats a good story and is also the reason I spray my turbo car as well. That jump a big motor car gets is hard to make back up.
Good story! From the sounds of it, they actually knew what they were doing, just underestimated your car. I can respect these guys that actually have fast cars and work on them themselves. It's the guys with the accords and a small turbo that swear the car is in the 10s that get my goat. You know, the car that consistantly runs 14s but it'll be high 10s/ low 11s once they get the kinks worked out.
Great story. There's nothing like that torque. I just recently got my car running again after my big block conversion and driving it puts a smile on my face every time. My buddy that helped me build it used to drive a 318 duster. When we were building my car he was (not trash talking) saying that he thought it would kinda be a dog because of the 2.73 open diff that I have yet to replace because the duster had a similar gear and would do close to 150 but bogged like crazy down low. Long story short, and my car is by NO means fast, but he was very impressed by the difference all that torque made on take off with high gears. I guess the BBB is just something that you have to experience yourself. I sure wouldn't have it any other way. Great kill!!
My 1st car, a 69 Electra had 2.73 gears, doggy off the line, then I put too big of a cam in it, all top end (I was young and didn't know better) Off the line it would beat ordinary cars but dropping it in low at 30mph, man, it jumped and hauled quick enough to blast past even the best cars out there. Never took it over 90mph on the city streets but that car was all top end. Wonder what top speed was???
