Drag racing times (long)

[Dan Cordon]

> >There a kid up the road with some kind of 70's Mopar (?) monster he's
> >playing with... lime green... LOUD... has left some very fancy patterns
> >of used runner on a few intersections around here.
>
> >It's got a 454 in it.  He's running 13's, too.  In a car practically
> >delivered by its manufacturer ready to drag race.
>
>
> Yeah, and the kid up the road is NOT getting 20-25 mpg either.  I used to
> have friends with 'Cudas and they were very familiar with single digit mpg
> calculations. Actually, that's a calculation you might do once because
> after you know how low it is, what's the point.  Pay to play...
>
> Of course, it really depends on how hard you drive it.  You just have to
> have the will-power to resist the temptation. I'm sure if you took it
> easy...  ;-)

I had a '70 Mach I mustang that I used to drag. At the time it was about
427 hp in a very highly modified small block. I also used it to commute
to work and such, but it wasn't very good at that :o)  Anyway, if you
were VERY nice to it, and with the 2.75:1 rear end I put in for highway
cruising I could get as much as 11.5 mpg. Around town you would expect
no more than 6 mpg. A day at the drags would usually have something
around 2.5 mpg or so. It was a very spendy commuter, and a pretty crappy
highway car to boot. I still have the car, but have since transformed it
back to near stock and am getting ready to sell it.

Just for clarity.....did the 70's Mopar really have a 454 in it? It was
it a 440? Seems odd to put BBC power in to a Mopar, but I've seen
stranger....

--
Dan Cordon
Mechanical Engineer
University of Idaho - Engine Research Facility