Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You must have been in utero when all this was happening and read about it in a book, right?
I was 7 years old in 1968.
I have read (a lot) about that era of cars (collecting car mags since 1976), have owned/own '60s cars and have talked to owners of '60s muscle cars.
The big advantage many of the bigger cubic inch combinations had, 427 Chevys and 426 Hemis come to mind is their cylinder head flow numbes. Many had the flow potential to make power, but they were choked by low flowing intakes and exhausts with camshaftes that didn't take advantage of the great higher lift flow numbersflowing
Example: 426 street hemi head, 4.350 bore and clay radius tested at 28":
Lift Int. Ex.
700 320 236
With 320 CFM maximum flow the head could potentially support 640 Horsepower without port work. Thats why you see the incredible performance numbers in the race versions compared to stock vehicles. The power potential is there, it's just waiting to be unlocked
Location: Just East of the Southern Portion of the Western Part of PA
1,272 posts, read 3,710,032 times
Reputation: 1511
So in 50 years our cars are faster, handle better, and do it with the AC on and MP3 playing?
This really shouldn't surprise anyone. Today's cars simply perform better. See also TVs, cell phones, the interwebs, aircraft, ect.
The muscle cars from the 60s and 70s had a cool factor that just can't be reproduced today. They oozed Americana and were part of a unique era. That is why people love them so much. You can buy plenty of new cars that will post quicker 1/4 mile times than most of the old muscle cars, but they just won't have that old school feel of the era.
Very cool post. Expecially seeing all those quarter mile times. Now things are completely changed, we have "street" cars (and I mean that sort of loosely) running high 6's at over 200mph... just check out Hot Rods Drag Week which is going on right now.
Everybody knows what a good set of aftermarket high performance heads can do. Many OEMs choked the daylights out of the engine. That goes for headers and exhaust companies as well. "Cherry Bombs" became Flowmaster, Magnaflow etc...
MSD ignition systems as well as THESE help BUNCHES! Ignitor II
I bought a Charger R/T with a 440, auto 727b, new back in 1968. After I had about 3000 sanely driven miles on it I bought a set of American Mag wheels and a set of Goodyear 8" slicks for it. Plain stock, driven to the track, I ran thru the clocks several times at an averaged 10.8 seconds. After a few mods, I managed an occasional high 9 second run but it wasn't real common. The real nasty part was that one of my kuzins had a 69 442 with a 455 modded up that I never could beat. But todays cars are more about computers and programming than a guy and his wrenches against another guy and his wrenches. My 34 D Gas coupe that I had, I only had $750.00 in the entire car....and it'd pull a one wheel wheelie down the track. Now a days a set of heads cost a lot more than that. Times have changed and it's no longer a game that anybody can play. Like they say, the difference between men and boys is the price of the toys.
A good pair of slicks could drop a full second off of any of those cars in the opening post. That's a fact jack.
And bolt on the stuff riverboat gambler mentioned and you are getting serious times. (I'm not even talking about stuff available today....I'm talking about stuff that was available in the late '60's.)
I didn't read all six pages of this but the first page someone saying traction doesn't matter in drag racing....wow...spend some time at the strip man.
I bought a Charger R/T with a 440, auto 727b, new back in 1968. After I had about 3000 sanely driven miles on it I bought a set of American Mag wheels and a set of Goodyear 8" slicks for it. Plain stock, driven to the track, I ran thru the clocks several times at an averaged 10.8 seconds. After a few mods, I managed an occasional high 9 second run but it wasn't real common. The real nasty part was that one of my kuzins had a 69 442 with a 455 modded up that I never could beat. But todays cars are more about computers and programming than a guy and his wrenches against another guy and his wrenches. My 34 D Gas coupe that I had, I only had $750.00 in the entire car....and it'd pull a one wheel wheelie down the track. Now a days a set of heads cost a lot more than that. Times have changed and it's no longer a game that anybody can play. Like they say, the difference between men and boys is the price of the toys.
Did you mis-type when you said 10.8 for a stock 68 Charger, auto, 440 with no mods except 8" slicks? You do realize that in 1968, NHRA Pro Stock cars were running around 10.4? I have a 70 340 Duster that has minor head work, carb, ignition and exhaust and ran it on 8" slicks. The best the car ever went was 13.91 and that was a car that ran 14.85 stock. My friend runs a 70 GTX with a 440 in C/SA, the car runs around 10.6 and the motor was dynoed at 635 h.p. i've been going to the track since 1966 and never saw a stock 440 car run that fast.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
