Guys the race is on. A buddy of mine and I are to line it up at the local track this summer.He's running an Lt1 Trans-am with a lt4 hotcam ported and polished heads with 2.02 valves long tube headers and flow master exhaust.
Im running a 91 corvette conv. 355 with a superram,edelbrock performer heads,zz-9 cam 1.6rockers with stock exhaust with no cats.Do I stand a chance in beating him

 

He has the potential to be faster than you because

Headers, more agressive cam, and the Lt1 make more hp

The advantages you have are a lighter car & more low end torque (for a better luanch if you can hook up)

My advice is to practice launching your car and tune your engine combo in and you will make it tough for him to beat you.

 

BTW what are both cars running for transmission? If they are auto are they both using the stock Torque Converter?

 

you need a set of headers...w/o those I do not think you will win.

Also you need a good 60' time and with that said I think you have a chance to win.

Anything goes now days, but if the race were today, my money is on the Trans-Am.

Get some hooker long tube headers...either 2149 (w/smog fittings0 or 2151 (w/o smog fittings), ceramic coated of course.

:chevy

 

Im running 3.54 gears with an automatic trans. and he's running 3.73 with a six speed

 

What does your car run in the 1/4? I was able to put my car with hot cam and headers into the 12.8 range on a crappy track with crappy traction. That was on stock heads! If his heads are any count he should be mid to low 12's assuming he can get the most out of it.

The problem is that I'm gonna go so far as to guess that his heads are a "bubba port" job. 2.02 valves are completely un-necessary for an LT1. It's simply too big, you gain about 1 cfm of peak flow (well out of the hot cam's lift range) and you give up a LOT of mid lift flow. He shouldn't have gone any bigger than a 2.00 and 1.56 valves. The same thing could be going on with his head intake port size. Sure it might flow 300 CFM but if it's a huge port it's just going to kill his low end torque and gain him little to nothing on the top end. You want to flow as much as possible through the smallest port possible to maintain flow velocity.

Just to sum it up, if the 2.02 valves are any indication of a possible "bigger is always better" theory with his heads they could actually be hurting his performance. If the heads are fair I'd say that you'll take him off the line but he'll end up winning at the other end of the track. As is he should be running a consistent 112 mph.

If you could slap a set of long tube headers on your car it would really help out. I picked up a solid 3 mph at the track with mine, it gave me 23 more horsepower and 32 pounds of mid range torque without sacrificing anything on the low end. If you can gain 30 pounds of mid range torque that might give you the edge you need to hold him off. If you can get hiim on the hole shot the extra torque might be what you need.

As someone had said as well, the tranny will have a lot to do with it as well.
Good luck and keep us posted. :cheers:

 

Thanks Nathan

Would changing the headers need an up grading on my chip

 

If he can drive his car to the limit he'll be deep in the 12's.

Because of the headers I believe his car has the potential to be faster but he has to be able to tap into that potential.

Your auto with 3.45's is gonna make a VERY steep first gear. If you can get that hole shot on him you'll get a very good jump on him from the start that he might not be able to gain back.

Thing is that unless he's really good you'll be able to run very consistently, he won't be. I have trouble launching with my 3.45 gears, he's gonna have to be good. Should be a great race any way you look at it.

 

You shouldn't need any major tuning. If your car is just a least bit rich right now the headers should be able to put you dead on.

 

I dont think youre gonna be able to beat him from a roll or a top-end race.

From a stop, you might be able to.