The favorite mantra of every gearhead (and speed shop owner):
"Speed costs money...How fast do you wanna go?"

The problem with C4's (and Vettes in general) is that they were NEVER meant to be drag cars but sports cars. They have the suspension and brakes to work very well on a road course, an auto-x, or other twisty event. They were never intended to hit the tires hard and do the 1320 dance with style; not even the big blocks of the past. Now, don't get me wrong; that's EXACTLY what I do with my Vettes, I'm a drag racer pure and simple. But the road to heady ET's is not only filled with difficulties because of the cars' design but also with expense (you know, because of the car's design). As said above, big motors are only a little bit of the story (let's face it drag racing IS about power to weight); but I've seen many 800 hp cars get the snot kicked out of them by 500 hp cars that had the right setup. Suspension setup on these cars for the strip is guess work at best and downright impossible in some instances. Unfortunately it's also the most important thing to not only getting these cars to ET, but also in getting them to survive. 12 and even mid/high 11's are not difficult on a C4 running drag radials and a semi-stock suspension. My absolute favorite all-around combination out of all that I've had in my car was a heads/cam/SuperRam that ran 12'oh's all day and drove like a pussycat. I bottled it and it went 10.8's but that's when things start breaking (like my cast piston motor). 10's in a car that with an average driver and 1/2 tank of fuel weighs over 3500 lbs takes a lot of two things to get into the 10's: lots of torque and lots of traction. Two things that don't go well together in the C4 platform unless you upgrade a lot of stuff.

I'm not telling you that you can't get there with a lot less investment (Mike Hardin on here is running LOW 10's in his carbed, juiced, TH350 converted/D36 '85 with not a huge investment); but the fact is it if you want to do it right and have it live it costs lots... Hell, my '90 has been down almost two years now and is completely gutted yet I have it insured for $85k just because of the money I have in it! 12's or 11's is simple and safe for a driver, 10's and lower gets expensive (and occasionally unreliable) in these cars...
-Jeb

 

Good engine & trans combination and traction!

 

geez...they made a 9 second car seem simple in "The Fast and the Furious"

 

Sounds like everyone is giving you comparable advice. I'll just confirm that it is at least equally important to make certain you spend time and money getting the car to hook. You can go quicker on less HP if you can dial in your chassis.

The Nova I had before the vette weighed 3,400 without me and ran 11.30s. It only had 480 HP (dyno'd at the crank). But, it would 60' in the 1.48 to 1.52 range. I could out 60' many 10 second cars and was running quicker ETs than a lot of folks making over 500hp.

My point is, like others have made, make sure you spend time understanding how to hook the car up. It will be quicker, and a whole lot less frustrating. Nothing pizzes you off more than spinning when you are trying to drag race.

 

 

Exactly. Hence my reason for suggesting an all out racecar if your serious about getting deep into racing. 2000#, 1/2 backed car can go bottom 10s all day long with a good running 350CI motor, and live for YEARS of racing and be deadly consistant.

Remember 100lbs is ~.1sec or 10hp. You have to make about 150more hp to run equivalent to a 1500lb lighter car. Its cheaper to get lighter than to make more power, and those figures and money go up expodentially as power levels increase to gain more power.

I just got done replacing my U-joints and the roller pins inside the cap were ground into powder from this past weekend of racing. Heavy cars and big power do not go well together.

 

the vette has one of the best suspensions and the best weight distribution from the factory.

I have gone 10.26 1.46 60' with 26X11.5X16 ET Streets on a completly stock 140K mile suspension. There are some little things i do, take front sway bar off....that's it. I have $8K in my entire car including the purchase price. I have switched to a carb( which is inexpensive but alot of work), deleted the A/C, changed the carpet and seats and that dropped some weight. Mine weighs 3000lbs with driver.


My friend has a all stock motor LT-1 94 firebird that weighs 3300 lbs with him in it.He sprayed it with a 200 shot and went 11.003 @120. This took some time tuning to achieve and not hurt the motor, but it can be done.

Just like nitrous sam said, retard the timing, close the plug gap up a little, and run at least 100 octane when spraying 150 or more.

good luck.

 

running fast is the easy part. Put a dial on the thing and win money is the hard part.

 

But the sad thing is the fastest car in the Fast and the Furious ran in the 13s in real life.

 

Yep, if bracket racing is your thing. Some guys just want a car thatis fast for an occasional trip to the strip.


And to add to my earlier reply, I agree 100% that going quick is easier if you add a healthy diet to your car.

 

I ryn mid 10's and looking for low 10's...Waiting on roll bar before I can go to the track since I got kicked out for not having it, also will be adding Alky from ECS