(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.
No posers. Form should be created as a by-product of function. A 305 will run quicker with a 215/70 than with a 14×32 and the money spent on a back half kit should have been spent on the air pump. While a fast car built in stages should be built from the back forward, a finished whip that is overtired and underpowered is pointless and only slowing itself down.
Yeah!!! What he said Brian.
BTW, I sometimes shudder after reading my own response in fear it will come off like Speedy wrote it!
I agree 100%.
If you’re going to make it look fast, it better be fast.
Otherwise, go rice out a Honda since you’re already losing.
This one belongs to Chad.
No discussion necessary.
THIS! Posers = ricers.
Sorry Brian, but the beard nailed this one.
I shouldnt talk cause my car sounds much badder than it is. But, I will give to Chad. When is that paperweight fat tire Nova that is currently being used as shelving for boxes going to be on the road again?
Chad is exactly right. With the kind of numbers we’ve seen from True 10.5, X275, FAST series and now Outlaw 8.5 cars, monolithic meats under a car that can’t run the times to justify them are just lame.
I think Brian has it right, mild motors are perfectly ok if you are going to really drive it places because it is about the “look”. If not all the idiots putting straight axles under all kinds of junk and calling them “gassers” better get their act together cause most can’t get out of their own way much less run a real number. MILD IS OK
I’ve heard of Chad’s tire rule before and I like it! My stuff is mild, and my cars look stock for it. I would like to build my Firebird like Doc McIntire’s car, but I need to make sure I can actually build a power plant that can pull the numbers off otherwise I would feel like a tool with a big tire car and lo-po engine. Especially with an inline six!
A mild motor is OK by me, but when you start running 14’s in your tubbed car, be prepared to get ” the look” when you come back down the return road.
A mild motor in a car that see’s plenty of street miles is OK, kudo’s for actually driving the car!! (better than “sit & parks”)….my car was tubbed because I wanted to be able to hook it ANYWHERE, and while I am amazed at how well they hook (and how quick some of the 10.5 tires cars are), they have also turned alotta nice iron into salvage over the last few seasons when the track won’t hold them, not to mention the fatalities:(
In the end, if the car actually gets driven, and runs a respectable number, who’s going to look down on anyone for that.??
Sorry Brian, I’m with Chad on this one, if it looks the part then it needs to run the numbers!
I have 14.5×32’s…I run 12.75…….WEAK…I know…..but DAMN…I sure do look fast….LOL
Slow cars are fun too.
Kind of like the ’56 wagon… right Chad?
the beard wins , no posers . theres no exuse for not making reliable big power nowadays. if you can afford to tub your car you should be able to afford power. use car viagra in that nice blu bottle
mmmm the blue bottle. Yummmy…
Mild motors belong in mild cars. If your going to build a pro street, then do it right
I think both of you are right in a way. Though I wouldn’t call it a tie. Alow me to explain. I love the look of a Pro Street car. But if you’re going to sport that look, you should at least be able to run in the tens (anything less is a poser car.) These days thats easy to do, and still have a car you can drive and rack up some real miles in. What bothers me are the cars I see with huge big blocks, bottles, huffers, but with not any roll bar of any kind. That screans trailer queen poser car! I say if you’re going to have a car with the Pro Street look, sell that look all the way, with all the safety gear that a car of that type sould warrant. I don’t think Brian was defending that type of poser car (at least I hope not.)
The way I see it… why build a car that looks the part of a drag car if you’re not planning to drag race it? Even if it isn’t built to win, the engine ought to be something that’s at least going to make a test and tune night entertaining. Remember, if you’ve got FUNction, you’ve got the FUN!
to put it in a nutshell, i live by the old saying, ‘All Go and No Show’… it’s like some d-bag in an ‘import scene’ car with a giant sticker across the windshield that says, “RACING” (yeah right, as if) … or some polished to the max show car with every race part imaginable that not only has never made it down the track, but couldn’t even if it tried… What’s the point of looking fast if you’re slow? it’s like fake boobs… freakin’ gross, you just end up looking stupid
Even fake boobs are covered in real skin