I decided to take my '72 Grabber to the 1/4 mile at Virginia Motorsports Park yesterday during a nostalgia event that they were having. The car has a 302 roller motor with stock GT40 heads, unknown cam, Edelbrock Torker intake and a Holley 600 carb. It has long tube headers with 3" exhaust with an H-pipe, Flowmasters and over the axle pipes. The trans is a C4 with a shift kit and the rear is a 8" with 3.40 gears and a mini spool. The car weighed 2,805 pounds with a 1/4 tank of gas and then 3,040 with me in it (I'm 235 pounds). The runs were made on regular 255/60/15 Cooper Cobra radials. The air was good all day and the DA was right around zero or a little below but there was about a 10-15 MPH cross/head wind all day. I made 5 passes. My best pass of the day was a 13.76 @ 101.95 MPH. The other four were a 13.79, 13.81, 13.85 and 13.93. 60 foot times ranged from 2.13 to 2.20. I was pretty happy with the way the car ran. The car is a little sluggish out of the hole until it gets to around 3K RPM's then runs pretty decent for what it is. I think the Torker intake is killing the bottom end. I would like to change to an Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap. Might be a winter project along with a few other things. Here is the timeslip for my best pass.
I would do a 3500 ish converter and some et street radials first. I think you could come close to high 12's to low 13's
Kewl, would have liked to have gone myself... With almost 102 MPH it's making power once rolling but definitely lazy on the bottom, what converter are you running???
Just footbraking the car to about 1,500 and nailing the gas the car never did spin the tires. The Torker intake/cam is just not giving the car much off the line. Thanks!! I think if it wasn't for the wind it might have ran 103 trap speeds. The car feels pretty good in the 3K-6K RPM range. It just has a stock stall in the trans. I just got this car for a cruiser, but would like to get it to run as good as I can without sacrificing drivability.
It'll still be plenty driveable with a 2400-2800 converter and assuming good traction, will knock at least two tenths off your short time(which will be at least three tents on the big end)... I have same going into my Comet and it's going to be 99% a cruiser...
Thanks for the info!! 95% of my cars over the years have been stick cars/trucks. I haven't had too many automatics so the modding of them is a little new to me.
i got a custom 3500 stall in my car...honestly i thought on the street it would suck but its awesome and im totally happy with it, would never have gone smaller.
I was theretoo,however,did`nt notice your car though because I was hanging out w/ Andy Walker & the stick guys.Hope you got a chance to talk w/ Gary in that green Maverick,you could learn a lot from him.His car is not fancy,but well built w/ the right combo,408 w/ vic jr hds,4500 stall,9in w/ trac bars,went 9.88 @ 132 & made it to the final round.Lost to that girl in the faded stock red GT mustang turning 12.68.I`m pretty sure she was using a delay box because her lights were to good all day.Gary said he could have caught her but he would have broke out.The last 3 cars she raced all were turning 9.80s,she cut an .03 light on Gary,hard to do that all day by chance.Andy`s day was`nt so good,he said the tires were old & the track was to cold.He went 9.06 @ 153,8.95 @ 147 & broke out 1st round w/ a 8.88 @ 143,plus his gear was a little to low as he was bumping the rev limiter all day.He normally runs 1/8 mi w/ a 5.14 gear,was using a 4.56 Sat.,Makes me think I might have to swap out my 4.56 for a 4.30 when I get my car at Dinwidde next year,we`ll see,had fun all day.
347, AOD w/trans brake, some kind of traction bars, sticky tires, etc, etc... there are a lot of things you can add without...sacrificing driveability...
I was pitted two car up from the green with black stripe '72 Maverick from WV. He never had the hood off the car all day. It was a nice looking car that ran VERY well!! The girl in the faded red Foxbody is Jenna Burks. She is a regular at VMP and runs the car on a regular basis. She is a killer on the tree and I'm pretty sure she doesn't run a delay box because she was cutting the same kind of lights at FFW this summer in the no electronics class. She either won or finished runner up in one class (she ran in more than one). Her boyfriend runs a red '67 Fairlane 2 door sedan that also runs high 12's. His name is Wayne Hand. Here is a picture of my car since you missed it.
You have a beautiful car there! Have you ever had the car on a chassis dyno............would be interesting to see where it makes peak Torque and peak HP. I would say that a converter in the 2800/3200rpm range should really help your launch, but again it would be helpful to know where the peak torque is......this would enable you to get it right the first time. What 71Gold said, a number of things that could push the car into the high 12's............some stiffer gears with an AOD would really wake up the car along with some sticky tires.................and then some type of traction device like CalTraks or traction bars..............IMHO
Thank you sir!! I just bought the car about a month ago and don't know that much about the motor in the car. I haven't had it on a dyno. I know a converter would be a good addition to the car. When I bought the car it had 4.62 gears in it. I just put the 3.40 gears in it a few weeks ago so that it would be more street/highway friendly. I think a sticky and shorter 26" tire (I currently have 27" radials) would help with the launch too, even though with no converter in the car it didn't spin at all at the track.
If you get a 3500stall,some cal-tracs,the air gap w/ a 650 holley,9in slicks & a 3.89 gear which won`t kill the drivability,low 12s could be in your future.Also,get some adjustable drag shocks for the rear so you will be able to adjust the squat on launch w/ the cal-tracs,you need to get your 60 footers down to 1.6 or better yet 1.4s.
Yes, shorter tires will work and I think if you put a 2800/3200rpm converter in it you may find yourself looking for some way to control the wheel spin. Does the car have any traction aides now, looking at the picture you posted it doesn't.
