You know that we’re definitely on Team Small Block Monza around here. Between the cars that Chad and McTag find and ones like this baby that our main Craigslist savant Rocco did, there’s usually something that hooks us on each and every one. This car’s tunnel ram intake manifold certainly means business and it does play into a little bit of a late 1970s pro stock vibe, right? The big question for us surrounds the horsepower claimed by the seller.
We’re seeing reasonably small tube headers and iron heads on top of this 383ci small block and neither of those things really make us immediately thing, “Ohhh, 600hp is in the bag!”. It’s certainly not impossible to make that kind of power with those two factors being considered but it raised our eyebrows.
The fact is that even if the car is not making 600hp, it is still probably pretty fast just because it’s so light and the torque that stretched out small block creates is surely enough to ignite the small rear tires, right? The interior seems to be a little on the rustic side with some seat covers that appear to be fresh to of the JC Whitney catalog.
Then there is the asking price. $14,500. That ‘s a tough pill to swallow and would be for us if this thing had chassis work done to it as well. This is a cool little car but we’ve got too many curiosities to think that its worth $14,500.
Craigslist: This 1975 Monza has a tunnel ram equipped small block…but 600hp?
id almost wager double or nothing that unless hes got a
hidden n20 or twin squire remote turbos it makes less
than 400hp at the tires on a chassis dyno.
almost.
because i could be wrong….
I speculate that it makes about 2/3 of that claimed 600, or about 400 at best. It can’t flow more air than the heads are capable of, no matter what intake or Cam it has.
It’s also not worth half of what he’s asking, so there’s that.
I honestly stopped believing the seller in the first sentence. He types MINT in all caps. He then immediately lists a few items that need repairing. And of course the photos show cheap seat covers on the seats. . Mint condition means the car is like NEW. The photos show a car in average driver condition at best. I am no engine builder but I doubt an iron headed, street driven 383 makes 700 HP. To get close to this HP with these heads I would think it would major head work, pretty high compression and a big solid roller cam. All of which would make the car pretty much unstreet-able. And $14K? Ridiculous. Not seeing any evidence of upgraded chassis or suspension the car itself is worth maybe $5K as a roller. With the engine and trans maybe $8-10K.
Meant to type 600 HP, not 700
My 383 with alum heads, 770 Holley, roller cam makes 440 on the dyno. No way this guys getting 600 hp with a normally aspirated 383!
With two vacuum secondary carbs…..not happening. End of report