'96Z 396 LTx Stroker beats back Cammed/Header 5th Gen SS
 

So Im out cruising a few weeks back and as I'm returning to the house, having not found anything of interests, I spot a gray 5th-Gen that seems to be coming on about a 1/4 mile back.

Hoping to help things along, I slow down to let the light ahead change.

The problem, of course, is that the old Performabuilt Lvl 2 was quickly succumbing to the two years of sitting between builds and a subsequent terrible tune, which I never got straightened out. She shifted S L O W and feathery at WOT and around town, the up-shifts were way to early and I wasn't sure if there was enough left in the slush-box to get it done, given the abundance of potential in the brand new 5th gens.

Anywho... The light at the intersection cooperates and turns to 'whoa', which gives the 5th Gen time to catch up. But instead of staging up in the open lane next to me, it pulls in behind me and a car back, to the outside.

My guess is that the driver got up close enough to feel the thump and decided that the six cylinder (which I didn't know was the case…) was not a contender, so when the green hits I idle out in first to see what might come and with nothing comin', I check the coast and seeing that its clear, I roll out for a nice, punchy hole-shot, because, well… it was an open road and why wouldn't ya?

But just as I am idling back down, OUT OF NOWHERE comes a very sharp black on black 5th-Gen. He'd pulled up on my inside and I didn't even see him until he's on my rear bumper and dude was flat getting on it and his ride was definitely cammed up and header qualified.

So I drop her down into 3rd, throw the hammer and rolled dude up in short order. Putting a car on him in virtually no time and get on out, as we were approaching a NOTORIOUS intersection, wherein a long right hand sweeper delineates the City Limit and which leads to a stretch of road posted at just over a school-zone and I'm hoping dude is local, cause if he ain't, he's likely to roll past the little 1/8 mile stretch locals use as a slow-down zone before we hit the trap; speed trap that is, and friends, this stretch is a ticket production zone, let me tell ya!

Well that light is a longy and I'm wanting to let dude know, but I can't break the code and look over, so now I'm trying to decide, 'if he goes, do I just let him go or take the near certain risk of a ticket-hit?'.

Long story short, he goes and he's all in... going BIG!

The first thing ya notice is that he's definitely cammed up and his ride is not only ridiculously sharp, she's is a screamer. But I gotta give him first gear, because it's pointless to do otherwise and, decide to do the only thing I can, given the circumstances and put him away within the the safe zone, breaking hard, using the tranny to get down to within the bounds of good taste through the 'zone of death' and make my right to invite dude over to the waterin' hole, for a frosty cold soda pop.

Well, to my delight, dude follows me around the corner and jumps ALL UP ON IT, rolling to my inside, which was a truly great move, cause in doing so, he shut me out giving me only two options: get out or get behind .

Well, once dude rolls by, I throw what's left and toss her down into the money hole (2nd gear), lighting the afterburner, where upon we begin to reel back in what he had picked up with that sweet move to the inside.

I push her thru 2nd, which still feels pretty strong, but slips up against the limiter way early and despite having punched the stick up into 3rd, she bumped off the top and s l o w l y feathered into gear, w h i n i n g through the slip something awful.

Thankfully, we immediately catch the next light and upon the green, I roll out in 2nd, walking him handily… but before she shifts into 3rd, dude inexplicably slams the breaks and pulls a u-ee, I give a quick thumbs up, go down to the next slot, drift a u-ee and take it on back to the Chiki, where to my surprise, I find dude and buy him a soda pop.

Now since then, I've installed the new Performabuilt Level 3 tranny and let me just say: "VIVA le DIFFERENCE!". She's back to shifting like a Ninja.

So we wait to find dude again… and brothers and sisters, when we do, its gonna be UGLY!

Here's a pass we made at the track last night. Still runnin pig rich on the mail-order tune, but not bad for the first time against the clock, since the build.

lol You're story is wild man, sweet LT1!

Cool story Brah!


Thanks for the laughs :jest:

TLDR

Did you beat him back with one or two hands?

haha great read...however is 5.13 gears a typo?? haha

looking at his times, he's probably set up for 1/8 mile racing

Oh I used 'em both.... One gripped hard to turn, the other soft and loose on the stick.

We run a full service operation in our beat-down dept...

Yessir that's true... The car is built for the short runs... Our track is an 1/8th mile. And around here light to light is about all one is likely to run across on the street.

But... Let me tell ya. The 5.13s were in the Dana when I bought it. I intended to change 'em out for 4:33s before I installed it. But one thing lead to another and the guys at the shop wanted to see how they worked... So we went ahead and tossed it in, as was.

You'd be surprised at how fast you get real comfortable with those things. Put it this way. Had a beautiful, totally debadged Honda come up on us a while back, on a heavily patrolled secondary. And as you'd expect he was set up for the customary fly-by... Slowed down a bit, dropped her in second... Threw the hammer when he was a couple of cars back.

Dude never got to the back bumper... And THAT was including a lovely 40mph burnout.

Naturally he wouldn't admit to the fly-by. But they rarely do.

:funny:

Rock on buddy! Nice kill.

Thanks for the props fellas, glad you enjoyed it.

Stalled auto with spooled 5.13s on a 242/246 cammed 396 has got to be violent from a dig.

Can't wait to see your numbers on the new build, your old 7.76 wasn't too bad for the lil 350 though :).

Man I hope so… but likely not this week, without the stickies. And thanks for the props Puckstuh! The old setup was quite hot. I had many a dizzying explosions out of the hole on that rig.

Funniest part about those times is that the spectators HATED on my car. I was the brokest guy out there… killing myself to build and maintain that machine and those people LOVED to see me get beat.

But in their defense, that was probably because it didn't happen too often… :cool:

Good to see ya again brotherman.

Track results
 

Well fellas, it's done…

After a blistering day on the yob and discovering around 1:00 that it was Friday and not Thursday, quickly deducing from THAT info that we were going to the track on Friday and that meant we had MUCH to do, I looked back down at my phone to confirm.

Yes, it was in fact, Friday and we had much to do. So I paid my tab at Hooters and began in earnest to prepare the mind, Oh… No I'm sorry to 'REPAIR the mind', for that nights work at the track. (I would NOT have had that 3rd brew, if I'd known it was Friday.)

So, having struggled with the tire situation; you'll recall the rear tires were spent… (I know… right? We JUST bought those things…) so I hauled it on over to the Kingdom of Tires and bought a pair of Nitto 555Rs. (Mot&$^%*#r! Are you kidding me? HOW MUCH!??)

Ahh… to hell with the set up, here's what went down:

Elevation is roughly Seal Level… its in the high 80s / low 90s… scattered showers, HUMID AS A MURPH!

First pass: 7:48Pm

RT: -.0824
60': 1.8173
330': 5.2075
ET 1/8th: 7.9856
MPH 1/8th: 89.18

Best pass O'The Night 8:45pm

RT: .2016
60': 1.8240
330': 5.0618
1/8th: 7.7736
MPH: 90.16

Last pass (I ended up nearly running out of fuel, so I pumped a couple of gallons of 112, heard a couple of uglies on the next couple of passes, coming from some where and decided not to run her out any more for until I could get her in the air and check it out. It turned out to be my Battery (:o) being loose, knocking out the level-sensor, which was being flung around by the belt… (Thanks again Lord…) ) 8.45pm

RT: .0600
60': 1.7591
330': 5.0427
ET 1/8th: 7.7993
MPH 1/8th: 88.74

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. Winter runnin' will knock that down CONSIDERABLY… I've got a video which, once I figure out how to get it downloaded, I will up load. (I pulled the SD chip and the video isn't there. But I can play it on the camera… WTF? Right?)

Haha, I called it, that car is a pile :mullet:

So you built a LT1 with almost 400 CI and only run 90 MPH in the 1/8th......

I'd be on my way to drive that thing off a cliff like yesterday

Stalled auto with 5.13s and a spool does a 1.7x 60' and runs 90mph in the 1/8th....oh.

So much random un-needed babbling just get to the fucking point. No offense OP but for the mods your car is slow.
The god has spoken.

LOL! I love the estrogen queens. Always so positive and cheery.

But isn't it funny, ya NEVER find 'em anywhere near the stage. :lurk:

English motherfucker, do you speak it?

Oh look.. it can use foul language too! muy MACHO! :ban: