I recently dyno'd my 81 equipped with a lightly stroked, wonderfully throbbing engine and a 700R4 tranny. Being new to all this I wanted to get an idea of what kind of power produced the great ride I was feeling.

I'm getting about 200hp at the tires, but it's the 300 ft/lbs torque that gets my attention. I enjoy manually shifting up through the gears while aggressively accelerating from a stand still to the speed limit on a long and clear road.

But I guess you have to be careful on the street because the attention an uncommon car gets. On one jack rabbit start at an intersection resulted in a driver in a big pickup in the right lane racing to catch up and then giving me a mouthful of something, according to my passenger. Then that older gentleman sped off a great speed. Neither my passenger or I could figure out what torqued him as nothing I did interfered with his driving or posed a risk to his safety.

Then there was the RIDE stop checking for impaired drivers one night. I pull up in my loud, throbbing at idle Corvette. One officer looks over the car and another asks to see my drivers license. In dozens of RIDE checks I've never experienced that kind of scrutiny when driving a SUV. I suspect the officer realized I was just a middle aged crazy (I probably looked younger in the subdued light) and thought nothing more of the throbbing 'vette.

So I'm learning about the price one pays for enjoying torque and throb - you cannot hide.

 

If you like that, check out one a big block in it. Like none other.

 

I heard you could go blind doing that.

 

Go ahead and do it until you need glasses. Life is too short.

 

I have glasses.

 

Its also the gearing in that tranny that gets you going!You'd feel the diff if it had a TH350.I dig the wheels!!

 

Yeah I had a shift kit installed so I can get down to first gear manually. And the PO liked to manually shift so he had the 700R4 beefed up as well.
If I get another 'vette it will have to be a manual.

 

Fellow BC Corvette owner,
Great to see your ride out in the snow! I plan to buy a set of snows on my 1969 if and when it ever gets finished.
But surely there can't be a place in our province called Anarchist Mountain!?!
Nice looking ride! I had often wondered how often I would get pulled over in the city in a fairly loud old corvette. Now I think I know.

 

There certainly is an Anarchist Mt in BC!
And we have a great view of the rocks on the US side of the Okanagan valley.

 

Looks great, nice backdrop also.

 

I agree, I love the race from low speed to speed limit, especially on winding back country roads, its jusst getting harder to find the empty ones so I'm not acting foolish near anyone that would panic or pull in front of me. I'm not a fan of people doing idiotic stuff around me and I afford others the same treatment

 

Well, I'm not prepared to call the pick up driver an idiot for pulling away at very high speed on a city expressway. Some people do that.

 

i was just saying in general, like texting and driving, saw 3 of those 2 days ago in less than an hour, or doing 20-30 mph faster than the flow on the highway and zig zagging through the traffic causing people to brake abruptly, saw that as well. The pickup guy was going in a straight line and doing what he did for his reasons, and I agree about what you said as he wasnt a threat to you, he may have just been an angry person having a bad day

 

Illegal and unsafe driving is a different kettle of fish. I should be clear, I'm talking about spirited acceleration - no tire squealing or burning rubber smoke! It would seem that slightly dipping into a throbbing sports cars performance envelope in a safe and legal manner can en-flame some to do things that are not safe and illegal. Would I have experienced the same reaction from the pickup driver if I was in my SUV?

 

Well I had a great day at the track yesterday, I blew the engine!

I heard a pop while accelerating on a straight away, looked in the rear view mirror and noted I was trailing whitish smoke. Probably blew a head gasket as there is lots of clean oil on the dipstick and the engine didn't look too abynormal.

No more torquing and throbbing for a while... :-)

 

That sucks big time . Hope nothing seriously hurt and up and running soon .

 

Well, turns out it wasn't the head gasket, the engine blowed up real good. The mechanic suspects the hard cornering on the track starved the engine of oil. Live and learn....

 

Crappy, sorry to hear that. Good luck withh the rebuild, hope your on the road soon!!!

 

Thanks. I will torque and throb again ASAP! In a very respectful manner of course... :-)

 

Me too!!!! Again Good Luck!!!