OK, it's not a Chevelle...but it is a 540" pump gas motor with a stick trans in a 3600 lb '67 Vette convertible with 3.07 gears.

Got in several runs yesterday at a Fastest Street Vette in TX shootout. They have several classes and I was in the Naturally Aspirated. No N20, blowers/turbos etc. I ended up winning the Fastest Qualifier Trophy (even faster than the blower/turbo/N20 guys in attendance!) and got runner up in the N/A class. I won last year, but this time I took a long nap on the line and got drilled. He ran a 10.15 and I had the 10.04 and couldn't catch him. What can I say....haven't been to a track in a year!

Preparation consisted of changing tires, uncapping headers and installing a 1" carb spacer. All runs made on 93 octane, no additives.

I've pretty much got the motor doing well. All runs were in the 138-139 mph range. I hit a bracket race string of a 10.25, another 10.25 and a 10.26 back to back. Later there was a 10.16.

I've got a LOT of suspension work to do. It was definitely not launching real clean and I had my hands full on a cold slippery track. It did get better later in the day. I'm going to install a much stiffer rear spring and some adjustable shocks as well as limit front end travel to get it to hook. Friends were filming it all and commented about how violent the runs were. They told me I was getting 3-5" of air under the front tires on the 1-2 shift. I called them liars until I watched the videos....unreal...just a reaction to all the bouncing going on I guess..but it did look cool..even if it did help make it slow!

To give you an idea...all the 60's were in the mid 1.60's until the final run I finally got a 1.55. I really think it can pull a high 1.40 or a low 1.50 and get a 9 second time slip.

I've already been getting ragged on for not *doing some stuff* before the race. Like...

Change 20/50 Dino oil to some light synthetics
Remove fixed 7 blade stainless steel flex fan
Try some header extensions
Defintely some suspension work
At least check the plugs/jetting
etc etc....


But I WILL be back!! Just .05 hundredths to go!!


Here's the combo.

540" Merlin/Eagle/SCAT/SRP stuff
Ported Brodix 2Xtras
Custom Engle solid roller 266/272 on a 112 LSA .712/.731 lift
11.06 compression
Edelbrock Super Victor
Holley 1050 Dominator
2-1/8" Hookers

Engine has a couple of years of street driving on it this time around including a 2000 mile round trip driving from Houston to Bowling Green KY last summer for a Vette show.


JIM

Jim
Congrats! Awesome numbers! Just saw your post on the Corvette Forum, too. Looks like you had a great day.

Dick

Nice runs. Congrats on having a nice quick ride.

Jim,
Outstanding, your nine is not far away with that MPH graemlins/beers.gif

Jim, new bests and you didn't even mention it to me?

Congrats! It won't be long and those 9's with 3.07's will be in the bag.

What's maximum E.T.'s are we looking at with an almost 140mph trap speed? :eek: I can't wait to ride in this thing.... :cool:

Hey Jim what kind of stick setup you running?

John

:cool: Hey Jim, next time try taking a leak before the race or maybe just pass a little gas around the 1000ft mark and you'll be in the 9's@140. tongue.gif tongue.gif

No replacement for displacement.

How do you think your motor would go in a relatively(???) light '67, First Gen. car with an M-20, 3.31's and no more then "slappers"??

pdq67

I hope you aren't running the stock IRS. If you are do something so it won't crash if you break a half shaft or short axle. You haven't been able to run an IRS in that fast a car for a long time for a good reason.

I'm using a G-force trans. It's really great other than the price. But it was all I could find to handle the HP and the weight. They are great folks to deal with...fantastic service.

You can pretty much tweek these 540's anyway you want them. I've purposely done things to move powerband upwards and kill some bottom end. My heads are huge, the intake is huge etc. The first version was a TQ monster in the 4000 rpm range. I've worked to scoot it a little higher and get the car to hook up.

Interestingly, the only changes from last year motor wise was a smaller cam and bigger headers. The 1/8th mile speeds are up almost 7 mph as well as trap speeds the same amount.

The rear is a custom built Dana 60 IRS setup I stuck under there with 3.5" halfshafts and 1480 series joints, 35 spline inners and 31 spline Toms outer axles. So far so good! Broke lots of stock Vette stuff before that!


It's all starting to come together finally!

This is the fun times. Now if I can drop the '60's a tenth or so I'll be in business!

Think how much fun it could be with a little 250 shot?


JIM

Hi Jim, We got my son's car down some more this year also. Your Corvette is a very aerodynamic vehicle, now if it only had a little more rear end gear it would make everyones jaw drop. Slide some 3.54s in there and a good tire and see what it can really do.

Originally posted by 540Hotrod:



Here's the combo.

540" Merlin/Eagle/SCAT/SRP stuff
Ported Brodix 2Xtras
Custom Engle solid roller 266/272 on a 112 LSA .712/.731 lift
11.06 compression
Edelbrock Super Victor
Holley 1050 Dominator
2-1/8" Hookers

Engine has a couple of years of street driving on it this time around including a 2000 mile round trip driving from Houston to Bowling Green KY last summer for a Vette show.
JIM 2000 miles with that engine :eek: . What kind of gas milage do you get and how often do you change the valve springs?

9s are in the bag with a better 60 ft

I agree with undee70ss, only the 60' times are keeping you out of the nines. Which strip did this shootout take place at? The flex fan hurts also as has been shown in several magazine tests, the factory type clutch fan is much more efficient and doesn't hurt the power much.

I'm working on the plan for better 60's. I'm with you. The engine ran fine all day and I never touched it. I'm sure there is more there, but until I get traction dialed in, no reason to mess with an engine combo/tune that is that consistent on mph etc.

Actually, it does relatively well on gas mileage. Remember, it only has 3.07 gears in it. On the trip to Bowling Green last Memorial Day, it was running a much larger cam on a tighter LSA that had lots of overlap and it still got an average of 12.85 mpg even with the Dominator. It can be done.

The valvesprings were installed about 2 years ago when heads were ported. They have quite a few miles on them. A normal weekend cruise night can easily be 150-200+ miles for me. It's been on trips to San Antonio and back (400 miles) as well as long weekend cruises. The springs I removed were still in great shape too after 2 years on them (probably 18,000 miles or so) but I replaced them for insurance. I attribute a lot of this to the cam design. There are "faster" ramp speed cams out there, but you have to make concessions to street life.

The races were at Hallsville TX.

You know I tested the fan on the chassis dyno once. I ran direct before and after tests where I removed it from the engine. I found somewhere around 3-5 RWHP max between having it or not. I was all set to install an electric one, but decided not to for simplicity and reliability sake. I think a nice electric water pump could help too. I have stock style Overdrive pulleys on it for all the street use.

JIM

Good times :cool: The car is amazing I saw it at Bowling Green Corvetteforum Cruise In this year. graemlins/beers.gif

Thanks....we *DID* have a good time at Bowling Green didn't we?

We took a few "test and tune" rides that night! Quite a few folks were getting on the ride list!

I had a Crane XR1 conversion kit in dist that decided to limit RPM to 4000 or so with that funky little rev limiter. We pulled dist. in Hotel parking lot and installed a 7 year old set of Accel points and were back to 7000+ rpm instantly! Old Tech is good!!

I wonder what mileage I can get this year? I bet I can push 13.5-14.0 mpg easily!


JIM

Originally posted by 540Hotrod:
I wonder what mileage I can get this year? I bet I can push 13.5-14.0 mpg easily!
JIM Slow down Jim your having too much fun........NOT! Nice to hear when it all comes together graemlins/thumbsup.gif

What type of clutch and shifter are you running. Is the G-Force, the G-101?

hilljack, I think Jim put in a GF-5R some time back. Now all he needs are some slightly lower rear end gears in the dana. I'd like to know what the first gear is in the tranny to get that 'vette moving with the 3.07 out back and wonder if 5th gear is overdriven or not.

WOW!!! graemlins/thumbsup.gif graemlins/thumbsup.gif

It's a GF5R trans. Looks like a Richmond 5 speed on the outside, but uses straight cut gears and dog ring sliders. It has a Long H-pattern shifter they did a little custom work on for me and it fits in stock console.

The gearing works out pretty well for what I do with it. The ratios are 3.25/2.22/1.65/1.33/1.00. 5th is just for cruising. That's where the 3.07's come in. They were chosen only for the low hiway cruising rpm. I couldn't find an O/D that I realistically thought would really live behind the HP and weight.

The clutch is a Mcleod Street Twin. It is set up with 200# extra static to make sure it holds.


JIM

Hi Jim, It looks like the 3.25 gives about the same overall gearing as a 4.56 with a 2.2 Muncie 4 speed would. Must drop like crazy between first and second though. A 3.54 might be too much out back with the extra low first. It's cranking out some good numbers so the gearing must be pretty close.

You would think it would be a pretty rough drop into second, but in reality it isnt too bad. I think the combo helps it get a little traction in 2nd. The old Doug Nash was 3.27/2.13/1.57/1.23/1.00, so this is better than it was overall.

I'll be back as soon as I can for another shot at a 9 sec slip!

BTW took it out for a nice drive last night to see some buddies. Got caught in the rain on the way home, but managed to get a few quick rides in! It was another 135 mile night!


JIM

Thats awesome, 3.07's, a G-force, over 10 mpg and your going to go nicely into the 9's with that mph. Plus it seems to be a treat to cruise.... chalk one up for the stickshift boys!!!!!

Yeah and now a magazine cover to boot!

Originally posted by 540Hotrod:
OK, it's not a Chevelle...but it is a 540" pump gas motor with a stick trans in a 3600 lb '67 Vette convertible with 3.07 gears.
Hey now, a few of us have Chevelles AND Corvettes!!

Congratulations on the times and the magazine cover!! I can't wait to see a 9 second pass!! It's good to see an older vette being DRIVEN!!