Lol... an old buddy of mine also has a red (dark red) early '80s 2nd gen with a 383, which is also a turd

 

*mental note-avoid buying red 2nd gens*

 

Here is a BBC. It's only a 396ci baby big block though

 

"Only" a 396

 

It's just a cruiser. If I want to go fast I have other options.

 

Either option I wouldn't kick out of the garage

 

Seriously. A lllooottttttt of classic car guys just go 383 as a stockish rebuild to refresh old tired motors. Not for performance, just because SBCs are dirt cheap and a 383 rebuild won't be more than a piston only 355 build...and then they can tell all their friends at Hooter meets that it has a stroker in it .

They throw back on the stock crappy 190cfm heads with just a "valve job", a random summit racing cam with a cheesy cliche name like "Thumper", "Rattler", or "Crusher", and a tiny dual plane intake with a small diameter low profile filter to not block the fresh red block paint on that badass stroker. Boom, now you've got a 350hp 383. "It's a stump puller though, I don't really care about horsepower anyway."

(edit: not saying that is the case here, just agreeing!)

 

This is so disgustingly true. Now that Ive been learning more about this BBC I have, I hear/see this all the time. The old school mindset has many odd places:

1. Chassis dynos are stupid and engine dynos are where its at. Who cares what it makes at the tire, it made 650hp on the engine dyno! (it also ran 13s).
2. HP dont matter, its all about torque. Dyno numbers (engine dyno obvi) of 350/550 are bad ***! Stump pullinnnn!
3. Running "11s" at 108 is fast.

Its quite the learning curve.

 

All of those tens of thousands of budget builds allow many people that wouldn't be in the hobby otherwise to participate. There's always a hater in the bunch that calls other people's builds (insert preferred insult) , but fortunately there's room for just about everone.

 

Yes sir, as long as it sounds "nasty" at idle and that it can do a 1st gear burnout is what most mainly care about. That and being able to say/brag that they have a "stroker". Parking lot warriors.