(Editor’s note: Welcome to Slap Fight! We’re going to try and make this a weekly part of the BangShift blog lineup. Long story short, this is a space where Chad and Brian take the gearhead debates they have with each other public. Like good racers, they were friends before Slap Fight and they will be friends after it, but while they’re in their helmets, and Lohnes always wears a helmet, they are going to battle. Your job? Pick a winner from this mess…if you can)
Brian’s answer — Of course mild powered Pro Street cars are OK!
Before you start throwing rocks at me and attempt to shank me with a screwdriver, hear what I have to say. I don’t think cars with fake nitrous bottles, those horrifying carb covers that are supposed to look like mechanical fuel injection, or fake roll bars made of exhaust tubing are cool. Those things are lame on all levels. I do think that a car with a reasonably mild power plant and a Pro Street “look” with big-n-littles, some rake, and a generally pissed off attitude is neat. Look, guys like Lutz, Larson, Barry, and others have set the freaking bar so high about what a “fast” Pro Street car is, there’s not much point for us mere mortals to go ragged edge with our junk because in the end, it still doesn’t hold a candle to what the heavy guns can do. Why not nail the look, have an engine that can actually get you from place to place without requiring a rebuild every 15 hours and an attached tanker truck for fuel? Yes, putting a stock 305 into a tubbed car with big rear tires will make you look like a tool, but a small block with a snotty Thumpr cam, slightly obnoxious exhaust, and the ability to turn the tire a little is about perfect in our eyes. Fact is, you’re not going to fool anyone if you stick some big, overkill engine into a car that simply has a set of big tires on the back of it. Maybe in the 1980s, when I was still in diapers and Chad was just starting to grow a beard, that would work, but today people are better informed and not so easily impressed. Bottom line? While Chad’s broken down, high powered junk sits on the site of the road, I’ll be cruising for chicks! (Just kidding wife-o-mine!)
Chad’s answer — Yeah, mild is okay…If your idea of drag racing is running down the street in your bra and panties on “guys night”!
In the late ’80s, names like Dobbertin and Hays took bitchin to the limit, but only turned heads not tires. As a kid who grew up racing, and was street racing every chance I got, I loved the looks but hated the poser presence of 99% of the Pro Street cars. That’s why I came up with the Tire/ET ratio rule. It’s simple really. If we use a 10.5 tread tire as our baseline, and a 10.5 as our base ET, and require at least 1/1oth of a second improvement in ET for every additional inch of tire tread, a Pro Street appropriate MT 33/21.50 would only be allowed on a car that runs 9.40 or better. Don’t get me wrong, Cline, Larson, and Barry are killing that number along with a ton of small tire street car guys, but let’s still not forget that running in the 9′s is fast no matter who you think you are. And why build a big tire Pro Street car if it’s not going to run fast? I mean if you want to be a poser, do it cheaper. Go get a fox body mustang and put a wing out back, drag radials, and a fake nitrous kit. Everyone will assume it really does run 9′s on the spray because anyone with a pulse can build one that does.
Why do I care if big tire cars are quick? I love big tire cars. Always have. And with today’s technology, the truth is anyone that can afford to back half a car can throw a turbo motor together that makes 1000hp. Brian said turbos were the best right? Well, I agree that for Pro Street that is the way to go on the cheap to make good dependable and drivable power. Although an 8-71, or bigger, blower really nails it.
So what do you think? Should Pro Street have to perform? Or is Pro Poser okay?
Let us know below.
