a little background, most of you know that I'm running a '75 bracket car, with more motor than tire (as of right now). Basically the motor puts out about 550 HP on 10.5" slicks but on marginal tracks it's very inconsistent. I think I could benefit from larger/taller tires, thus the question. Now I know most of you are maverick biased (and honestly so am I!!) in your opinion do you think it'd be a better choice to tub the maverick, and install a MII front end, then use my little 351 in it, or should I just swap dad, he's got a '78 fairmont Futura with a mild 302/c4. I was thinking he could use his 302 and trans in the bracket maverick (just like it is...stock front and rear suspension) and I could backhalf the 'Mont with frame rails, cage, and some late model mustang front end goodies (that bolt right on) and bracket race it? I think the 'Mont would look cool with a pair of 14x32's on the rear, slightly raked in the front and decent paint. Kind of torn on what to do.... on another note, Sunday's races went well, went 4 rounds...had the win chalked up if the carb hadn't acted up. Bought the stage RPM up to 3000, light came down, pedal met floor...but car didnt move. I looked at the tach, showed 500 rpm, then it left. 60' was a miserable 1.55, reaction was a total wash at a .698 to his .599. Had been cutting the tree all day with .5-teens 'til then. Anyway dad won that round behind me so I stuck around to help out, and in the meantime, I decided to fix the carb. Turned out to be a linkage problem, I was running all day (and for god only knows how long) on the primary butterflies, and the rears were only opening about 1/8" total. Figured a 1.41 60' and 6.65/103 in the 1/8 wasn't bad on a 2-barrell!! Looking forward to next raceday!! By the way...dad went out in the 5th round, took home $25 for his efforts! Way to go!
I think you already know my answer one of these days after I get to drive mine for awhile I want to back half mine........but all in time......Righet now I just want to drive it and on a note for the MII after messing with the wifes 4 Door (302) I am really Thinking that one of these days it will find a MII under it as well.....it's pretty bad that on my car (with a big block ) the plugs are so much easier on mine
Here's what I think you should do!! Mini-tub the Mav so you can keep the back seat, put you some good mono leafs and cal tracs on (if you don't already have them) and put on a set of 28x11's and you're ready to go!! Or, put you a full floater setup under there and you definitely wont' have any traction problems!!
Already there....have home made 'caltracs' already installed and adjusted. I kind of like them, though there a bit of a pain to adjust, as they're both right hand thread (unlike the real things that have one end right and one end left-making adjusting a breeze.) Car hooks great on a good track and drives straight for the most part, but a video shows a good cloud of "blacktrack" behind the tires as it leaves the line and for about 80-100 feet out. Goes away at the top of low gear, and shifting to high. You can actually see the tire marks on the strip. They are 28x10.5-15 ET Drags, hooking a best of 1.39 in the 60' (the norm is 1.45-1.47 on hot greasy track.) Still have stock leave springs under the car and it is SO easy to drive anyone could do it. On a good track you can let go of the wheel and it goes perfectly straight. Track has to be PERFECT though LOL. BTW the back seat has been gone for 10 years or better...worked great to start a brush fire in the back yard! It was deemed excess weight and tossed. Pretty torn up anyway, so it was not really worth selling, or giving away for that matter.
I am a firm believer in "to each his own" but since you ask......I am very partial to a little tire car going really fast. I got more people coming to the pits the 1st week I took the mav. out this year. Never made a full pass, but with 1 pass I was all over the track(wrinkling those little slicks) and another pass with the wheels a foot and a half off the ground(launching at idle with a 4500 stahl) and carrying them for the first 30 feet, will sure get peolpes attention.
IMO, if I were gonna do the fairmont thing, I would go all the way and just pick up a 79-93 stang. You can pick one up for next to nothing, + they are lighter than the fairmont. I just went to the drags on Saturday, Saw plenty of stangs. but NO mavericks. Around here, it is especially rare to see a mav, especially at the drags. Keep the Mav, it is different, and will get you nothing but stares and respect from everyone around you.
I think I've basically made up my mind, though I wont get started until sometime "later on". I'll have to be sure to add some pics to keep you guys up to date as well. As far as the mustang thing goes, if I didnt already have the maverick, that's what I'd do...I already have an '84 model hatchback that I just got through building another motor for (but broke the clutch already LOL) and that would have been the new race car. But since I already have the Maverick, I'll just have to work with what I've got. I'll keep the Mustang for a daily driver. Besides, since my brother's driving my other maverick, I've got to have something to pound the streets with on the weekends!
