oil4kids
Well Known Member
Just rereading a thread from Fred Totten he posted on another Chevy site
http://www.chevytalk.org/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1119952&page=0&fpart=8&vc=1
It would be nice to see some of his races he had on film.
heres his reply to a Z11 thread
Guys, a lot of the times you are remembering were match race times. Very different than nationals times. Tracks fudged times to have the fastest cars. Several cars you have mentioned could not have passed NHRA or AHRA tech when running those numbers. 63, 64, 65 I know were limited to 7" tires in sanctioned competetion. Put 9" tires on, and times went down quick. I had a 63 409 that ran high 11s in 65 on 7" rubber. This was fairly stock. Erson cam was about all. Did not have any Z-11 parts. The stage 3 wedge mopars were hard to handle. The hemi was not in the same league. Now, several big names could handle them, but this was match racing. Different story. Can't say how much the Z equipment helped, but this car weighed 3750 lbs. Had a good traction bar set up. Do remember beating a Z-11 in Kentucky. Went around him in high gear.
The 09 was a good engine. I never found it to be worth while to twist them up over 7 grand. Shifted most of the time 6800-7000. 7" tires, launched at 6K. Erson cam was a 990B grind, and a real kicker for the 09. Have movies converted to DVDs from those days. Took it to the west coast in 65. Stayed at Hayden Proffitt's shop, and LEARNED a lot. Ran at Lion's a couple times, and Carlsbad, both gone today. From mid 65 on, I don't think an 09 would hold a candle to the Ford and Mopar cars.
A little story, true, too. The Ramchargers had headers built in CA, and Chrysler paid the tab. The headers were dynoed, and copies given to all the factory Mopar teams. They wouldn't fit any of the other cars. It was checked and found that the Ramcharger's car had the engine set back 2". That's why they didn't fit the other cars. Ingenuity ran rampant back then. Don't know how long they got away with it, but stuff like that was always going on. The tech equipment available today, wasn't then. I knew of one guy that had a Pontiac that had 7 cylinders bored 1/8", 1 stock. They only pumped one cylinder to test. He had another engine with all solid lifters but one cylinder. If protested, he would crank the rockers down on that cylinder only. Never got caught.
My gosh it was fun. Wish it would happen again. Those days were the best of drag racing. No brake lights BEFORE the traps. Run them all out for the whole quarter mile. Just isn't the same today, with stutter boxes, throttle stops, delay boxes. AUTOMATIC Trannies. Trans brakes. Bring back the flag man.
Fred
--------------------
F. Totten
63 Impala SS 409/425+ 11.51@ 117.5 ( 7/21/06 )
2002 Silverado 5.3, LaPole Custom Headers
http://www.chevytalk.org/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1119952&page=0&fpart=8&vc=1
It would be nice to see some of his races he had on film.
heres his reply to a Z11 thread
Guys, a lot of the times you are remembering were match race times. Very different than nationals times. Tracks fudged times to have the fastest cars. Several cars you have mentioned could not have passed NHRA or AHRA tech when running those numbers. 63, 64, 65 I know were limited to 7" tires in sanctioned competetion. Put 9" tires on, and times went down quick. I had a 63 409 that ran high 11s in 65 on 7" rubber. This was fairly stock. Erson cam was about all. Did not have any Z-11 parts. The stage 3 wedge mopars were hard to handle. The hemi was not in the same league. Now, several big names could handle them, but this was match racing. Different story. Can't say how much the Z equipment helped, but this car weighed 3750 lbs. Had a good traction bar set up. Do remember beating a Z-11 in Kentucky. Went around him in high gear.
The 09 was a good engine. I never found it to be worth while to twist them up over 7 grand. Shifted most of the time 6800-7000. 7" tires, launched at 6K. Erson cam was a 990B grind, and a real kicker for the 09. Have movies converted to DVDs from those days. Took it to the west coast in 65. Stayed at Hayden Proffitt's shop, and LEARNED a lot. Ran at Lion's a couple times, and Carlsbad, both gone today. From mid 65 on, I don't think an 09 would hold a candle to the Ford and Mopar cars.
A little story, true, too. The Ramchargers had headers built in CA, and Chrysler paid the tab. The headers were dynoed, and copies given to all the factory Mopar teams. They wouldn't fit any of the other cars. It was checked and found that the Ramcharger's car had the engine set back 2". That's why they didn't fit the other cars. Ingenuity ran rampant back then. Don't know how long they got away with it, but stuff like that was always going on. The tech equipment available today, wasn't then. I knew of one guy that had a Pontiac that had 7 cylinders bored 1/8", 1 stock. They only pumped one cylinder to test. He had another engine with all solid lifters but one cylinder. If protested, he would crank the rockers down on that cylinder only. Never got caught.
My gosh it was fun. Wish it would happen again. Those days were the best of drag racing. No brake lights BEFORE the traps. Run them all out for the whole quarter mile. Just isn't the same today, with stutter boxes, throttle stops, delay boxes. AUTOMATIC Trannies. Trans brakes. Bring back the flag man.
Fred
--------------------
F. Totten
63 Impala SS 409/425+ 11.51@ 117.5 ( 7/21/06 )
2002 Silverado 5.3, LaPole Custom Headers
bang 