back when...My 88 'TA
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 433
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From: Vancouver area, West coast Canada
back when...My 88 'TA Circa 1994.....
Back in the Day i had an 88 Trans am. I bought it new. I loved the looks of the 3rd gen f-body and it was my first new car. A rompin-stompin TPI 305 it had (Couldnt get the 350 with a 5-speed). 215 HP ! It was a lot of fun though. Handled good and was fun to drive.
Soo soon I found out that it wasnt all that fast. the damn 5.0 mustangs were a lot quicker.(Queue the Ice : rollin in my 5-point-oh, with the ragtop down so my hair can blow). I always watched the Mustangs have their fun....for now
Being a tinkerer and machinist/welder/fabricator, I could not leave well enough alone. By the time the car was 5 years old, I had swapped in a 350 (Gen 1 Old-Skool !), Custom tunnel-ram based injection manifold, T56 6-speed, and Corvette IRS rear end. It came together well
There was no local 1/4 mile dragstrip where I lived; So i didnt know what my car could do on the strip. This being the days before chassis dynos became popular, I got my hand on a computer program ( "RPM analyzer" ) and first-gen laptop (286 !)that read engine RPM
live over time while accelerating and graphed it. The foreruner to a real-time in chassis dyno. I used this program to tune my engine and it showed 425 HP. Equivalent to todays RWHP figures ? maybe. On top of that, I had worked in a nitrous system that came on by electronic control at full throttle and rpm in 2nd gear and up. 150 shot. Plus I had a loud DroneMaster exhaust that made the car sound real mean and crisp.
Soooo one day I am cruising around town and I see a green 5.0 mustang (1990 ?) ******* me. I am a little afraid of street racing as
the cops can bust you big time around here for anything they see as "loud/unneccesary/fun". I much prefer a lone,open road with no one around where I can pin it till I chicken out. This mustang guy is following me around and looking to show me what he has. There is a local highway (freeway) right nearby so i head that way. There is a long sweeping on ramp to this highway. Roll-on racing is much more fun.....
This is the early 90's. My car feels fast, but, This mustang looks just like the ones I see in magazines (sorta stock appearing) that runs 10's. It >could< still kick my *** Big Time. I am wary. I dont do much street racing. I decide to set my car on Kill. The nitrous bottle is located on the trans hump in the back seat, so i can reach around and crank it open. I do that on the sweeper entrance to the highway. I arm the nitrous electrics.
The mustang is right on my *** as the sweeper goes straight onto the highway....I am doing like 35 mph...in first gear....the Mustang is on it and pulls out to go past me and I floor it, I have to quick shift into 2nd, which engages the nitrous... and I am leaving him like a shuttle launch. The thrill is upon me...adrenaline....I leave him way behind but take my car up to 4th at 6500...nuts looking back on it. 150+mph on a local hwy.
I find out later through a friend in the local car biz( who would eventually buy my car) that that mustang had every bolt on available..aluminum heads...gt-40 intake...all of it. After that race the well-heeled owner came in to buy a twin turbo setup. Had some story about a blue Trans Am..... Never saw him again though.
Back in the Day i had an 88 Trans am. I bought it new. I loved the looks of the 3rd gen f-body and it was my first new car. A rompin-stompin TPI 305 it had (Couldnt get the 350 with a 5-speed). 215 HP ! It was a lot of fun though. Handled good and was fun to drive.
Soo soon I found out that it wasnt all that fast. the damn 5.0 mustangs were a lot quicker.(Queue the Ice : rollin in my 5-point-oh, with the ragtop down so my hair can blow). I always watched the Mustangs have their fun....for now
Being a tinkerer and machinist/welder/fabricator, I could not leave well enough alone. By the time the car was 5 years old, I had swapped in a 350 (Gen 1 Old-Skool !), Custom tunnel-ram based injection manifold, T56 6-speed, and Corvette IRS rear end. It came together well
There was no local 1/4 mile dragstrip where I lived; So i didnt know what my car could do on the strip. This being the days before chassis dynos became popular, I got my hand on a computer program ( "RPM analyzer" ) and first-gen laptop (286 !)that read engine RPM
live over time while accelerating and graphed it. The foreruner to a real-time in chassis dyno. I used this program to tune my engine and it showed 425 HP. Equivalent to todays RWHP figures ? maybe. On top of that, I had worked in a nitrous system that came on by electronic control at full throttle and rpm in 2nd gear and up. 150 shot. Plus I had a loud DroneMaster exhaust that made the car sound real mean and crisp.
Soooo one day I am cruising around town and I see a green 5.0 mustang (1990 ?) ******* me. I am a little afraid of street racing as
the cops can bust you big time around here for anything they see as "loud/unneccesary/fun". I much prefer a lone,open road with no one around where I can pin it till I chicken out. This mustang guy is following me around and looking to show me what he has. There is a local highway (freeway) right nearby so i head that way. There is a long sweeping on ramp to this highway. Roll-on racing is much more fun.....
This is the early 90's. My car feels fast, but, This mustang looks just like the ones I see in magazines (sorta stock appearing) that runs 10's. It >could< still kick my *** Big Time. I am wary. I dont do much street racing. I decide to set my car on Kill. The nitrous bottle is located on the trans hump in the back seat, so i can reach around and crank it open. I do that on the sweeper entrance to the highway. I arm the nitrous electrics.
The mustang is right on my *** as the sweeper goes straight onto the highway....I am doing like 35 mph...in first gear....the Mustang is on it and pulls out to go past me and I floor it, I have to quick shift into 2nd, which engages the nitrous... and I am leaving him like a shuttle launch. The thrill is upon me...adrenaline....I leave him way behind but take my car up to 4th at 6500...nuts looking back on it. 150+mph on a local hwy.
I find out later through a friend in the local car biz( who would eventually buy my car) that that mustang had every bolt on available..aluminum heads...gt-40 intake...all of it. After that race the well-heeled owner came in to buy a twin turbo setup. Had some story about a blue Trans Am..... Never saw him again though.
