Well with the great inconsistency my car has, ran 1/8 mile yester day and my times ranged from 6.57 to 6.96. I am seriously considering back halfing this car. Does anyone have any recomendations for people to do the work. The guys that did my cage wants $5500 + parts for a back-half...I was hoping that I could do better than that. so what do you guys have for me?

My guy gets $2000.00 plus parts.....For just the back half...I am paying him $3000.00 plus $4000.00 parts to do all new floors and new 2x3 frame up to the front cross member...He is also putting a 14 point cage in mine...That also includes gas tank,new pipes etc...I dropped my car off last month and plan to pick it up in a few weeks...I will drive it home.....So for 7 grand I'm done fron head to toe.....Hope this helps.....Scott.

It's really sad to see so many really nice muscle cars cut up needlessly.

For the cost of having your nice car cut up, you could look in National Dragster and find a decent rolling chassis that is already done waiting for your engine/trans.

It's always cheaper to buy someone elses ride in which their upgrading to a faster car, retiring from racing, etc. Let them take the financial loss and build from what they had.

It will take some looking, but there are always a good selection of race cars out there to be had.

My car was far from being solid underneath and was just a Malibu anyway....I wanted MY car to be tubbed because I know what I have......

To each his own ...... :rolleyes:

and was just a Malibu anywayOuch... I bet there are a lot of folks out there who would want "just a Malibu". I'm happy with my rusty little 300 though.

Originally posted by blaauboer:
My car was far from being solid underneath and was just a Malibu anyway....I wanted MY car to be tubbed because I know what I have......

To each his own ...... :rolleyes: You building a car to match that camshaft you bought? tongue.gif

I would say you have some serious suspension/tire issues.I haven't changed my dial in 2 months and last week was with track temp of 145* and ran within .006 all day.I take great pride in beating the tubbed cars,running faster in a lot of cases and more consistant.I believe you run those radial slicks that's the first thing I would get rid of, they are nice for the extra et but once they spin they don't recover and cost extra too boot.Lots of other tweaks can be made for far less than the price of a back half.If you have your heart set on it then more power to you, just not needed IMHO.

Sorry I didn't choose the cam you wanted master...........There are alot of other combo's out there ya know......

Everyone is so critical on this site it's sick.....I think he was looking for some help not to be ripped on.....and as usual he got ripped on....I give my advice and I get ripped on.....Bunch of crap if you ask me....Again sorry that we all cant be Pro's here Ken...Like you..................

I am tubbing my car because I WANT TO . Not because I think it's gonna make me go faster....I really dont care ..I just wanted a Pro street car..... graemlins/hurray.gif

fatrat,

what size tire are you running, what brand...I just bought a new set of the radial slicks, and don't want to spend any money for another set until these wear out...maybe that is the next thing to try. That would only cost <$500. What size rim are you running on too?

Seems like the one with the attitude on this thread is you Blaauboer. Chill dude.

I was simply giving an alternative to cutting a solid car up. I tend to agree with Pat that there's no real reason why Mike's car shouldn't hook consistently on small tires and stock suspension. it can be done if one is willing to put forth the effort needed. If you having trouble, work with a good chassis shop/tuner before you decide to cut up a nice car.

If then he decided he still wants to tub the car, then fine. But I truly feel there are alternatives which can be explored before he spends $7-10k on backhalfing his current ride.

Not being critical as you put it, just giving options. It's up for Mike to decide which direction is best for him.

As far as costs are concerned, shop rates will vary accross the country, so it's hard to compare east coast to west coast to midwest, etc. I can only recommend he get quotes from several shops and look at cars that this shop has built prior as well as speak with current and past customers about their experiences with the shop and how their car performed once completed.

Originally posted by blaauboer:
Sorry I didn't choose the cam you wanted master...........There are alot of other combo's out there ya know......

Everyone is so critical on this site it's sick.....I think he was looking for some help not to be ripped on.....and as usual he got ripped on....I give my advice and I get ripped on.....Bunch of crap if you ask me....Again sorry that we all cant be Pro's here Ken...Like you..................

I am tubbing my car because I WANT TO . Not because I think it's gonna make me go faster....I really dont care ..I just wanted a Pro street car..... graemlins/hurray.gif *Sanitized for the masses* Appears you lost your sense of humor along with your OEM frame graemlins/thumbsup.gif Hey, I never said I was a Pro? I'm a rookie at best :D As for cam choices, you called me asking for advice and I spent a couple hours of my time digging up specs and cam cards in an attempt to help you. The fact that you didn't take my advice is/was your decision. I still think that your car would have been quicker with the smaller cam, but hey it's academic at this point.

I myself was not 100% impressed with the consistency of radial slicks for a bracket type ride. At least to me, the Hoosiers were a bit soft for hotter track temps. I understand Goodyear offers some harder radial compounds which are better suited for hot/slick start lines.

While the ET and R/T are nice with a radial, a bias ply it tough to beat for consistency.

Its also a matter of the track. Irwindale runs around 600 passes per lane on a with no cleanupat all!

They also have no capabilities for cleaning up oil spills, etc.

just to give you an example, of the 5 cars left in the pro class, 3 were in the high 6s the rest in the high 7s for the 1/8.

All three of the cars (all door cars) in the 6's had tires >14" on them.

The tracks in so cal are nothing to be proud of.

Originally posted by chevy_69_chevelle:
Its also a matter of the track. Irwindale runs around 600 passes per lane on a with no cleanupat all!

They also have no capabilities for cleaning up oil spills, etc.

just to give you an example, of the 5 cars left in the pro class, 3 were in the high 6s the rest in the high 7s for the 1/8.

All three of the cars (all door cars) in the 6's had tires >14" on them.

The tracks in so cal are nothing to be proud of. Very true, you've got a point there.

Solution is simple...walk up to the tower and ask (or demand) that they spray the track immediately :eek: graemlins/thumbsup.gif :D .

I had a friend do that at a local "marginal" track and the owner just looked at him graemlins/sad.gif .

hoosier 29x10.5w on a pro star 15x10 with 5.5 bs.Stiff sidewall tire,need to massage wheel well to fit and is far from the ideal tire to run in the heat.Usually a med-hard compound tire is better in the summer.I have tried goodyear and MT with nothing good to say.Quite a few people here run the phoenix with excellent results, I plan on trying a set of those sometime as well.

Originally posted by fatrat70:
hoosier 29x10.5w on a pro star 15x10 with 5.5 bs.Stiff sidewall tire,need to massage wheel well to fit and is far from the ideal tire to run in the heat.Usually a med-hard compound tire is better in the summer.I have tried goodyear and MT with nothing good to say.Quite a few people here run the phoenix with excellent results, I plan on trying a set of those sometime as well. Pat's right on the money here, Mike. I used to run Hoosier D07 compound tires on my ride and it wouldn't hook for crap. I eventually switched to a stiff sidewall MT tire and it made all the difference in the world. I would give a stiff sidewall tire a shot before I did a backhalf, IMO.

I know for a fact the M/T 29.5x10.5w will fit in a stock wheel well with a 10" 5.5 bs wheel.I found them to be a little slower (.05) than the hoosiers and seem to wear out a lot faster about 80-90 passes. I get mine off of a 10.5 outlaw car he puts 5 passes on them then sells them to me for $100 a piece and I put another 140-150 passes on them before I kill the sidewall with a ton of wear left.When I take them off the rim they fold in on themselves.

Originally posted by fatrat70:
I know for a fact the M/T 29.5x10.5w will fit in a stock wheel well with a 10" 5.5 bs wheel.I found them to be a little slower (.05) than the hoosiers and seem to wear out a lot faster about 80-90 passes. I get mine off of a 10.5 outlaw car he puts 5 passes on them then sells them to me for $100 a piece and I put another 140-150 passes on them before I kill the sidewall with a ton of wear left.When I take them off the rim they fold in on themselves. Pat, I don't think that W series tire is a stiff sidewall. I think what you're reporting and what I've seen in my own testing agrees. The common denominator is a "stiff" sidewall tire, whether it be Hoosier of MT. I also think that the medium compound helps, but I believe the stiff sidewall is key. The tires will wad up on a regular sidewall tire. This does two things, it slows the reaction time of the chassis and it also decreases the footprint of the tire. Adding more air may help/fix the wadding problem but then the car will spin. The stiff sidewall allows you to run a reasonable amount of air pressure (14.5-15.25lbs for me), and still keep a good footprint. Car reacts faster/better due to the stiff sidewall.

Mike is your car spinning right off the line? I'm guessing so given the track prep (or lack there of) that you mentioned earlier.

Thanks for that tire info..I think I am going to try that first...the rest of the season I will probably start in second gear to aid with the lack of track prep. If you know of anyone in the southern california area that has aused set of M/T of that size pleas let me know. I would be willing to pay a little for a couple of test passes with them.

Yeah it is spinning right off the start, and then spins through first and about 1-2 seconds into second. In the semis yesterday, the two 6.60 cars that were left I watched from behind, both had tires in the 14" width range, and I watched both of them get squirrlly (sp?) all the way out to about 200ft. Gets really irritating after a while. graemlins/angry.gif , but then again I am not the only one out there with the problem, everyone runs on the same track, thats why its racing I guess :D

soften up the rear shocks some ie... keep more weight on the rear wheels and pull out 6* timing and that should help it get down the track.Starting out in 2nd gear will be quite hard on parts and rather inconsistant as well.

I'm planning a truckarm rear and a 9 inch! to heck with stock!!!! :D graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Maybe try Fontana?
I have a friend out in california that is planning on switching to Fontana.

I've never heard anoyone say they lost a race because they had to much traction.

A lot of interesting replies here. Tub it as you like - it is your car to play with as you please. Do not expect bigger tires to be a given cure to what ails you. I've seen too many over tired cars at Irwindale. As suggested, spending time and effort on tuning and adjusting parts of your current suspension will probably achieve superior results. Irwindale is definitely better than Fontana for traction. Although below what I consider its potential, my '65 laid down a 1.57 second 60' time at Irwindale - I think it will cluster in the 1.4x's after I get it dialed in.

Good luck, Thomas