When you are a twelve-year-old gearhead in the making, all that matters is speed. It doesn’t matter how it’s made, it doesn’t matter how it gets to the ground. Vmax speed is the pinnacle point…when horsepower can no longer overcome the wind, that’s where heaven seemed to lie. By common logic, anything that can crest 170 miles per hour or better while wearing a license plate on it should feel fast no matter what, right? In 1995, my definition of “fast” was comparing the 440-powered Ramcharger we had, which had power but also had a ton of weight to haul around, against the 1975 Omega that made use of every last ounce of power the 250 inline-six could crank out while feeling somewhat lithe on its feet.
Compared to either one of those machines, the eight cars featured in this test were powered by witchcraft. The premise of the test is simple: test a stock example against a highly-tuned version of a domestic muscle car and see just how radical the difference could be. The stockers were the hot stuff of the day: the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and Corvette, the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the Ford Mustang GT and the Dodge Viper RT/10. In 1995, for domestic applications, this was it. The tuned machines are names that still carry weight: Hennessey, Lingenfelter, Saleen, Vortech and Doug Rippie. Got any favorites? If I’m making the call, I’m going straight to the Lingenfelter Firebird. Not only do I appreciate the Formula nose job, but the 383ci LT-1 proves to be a screamer without the need for a turbocharger or boost. Watch as legendary driver Phil Hill (who was one of R&T’s “old man” contributors) flat-foots each one of these 1990s dream machines all the way to the top end of the speedometer…and beyond!
