What is the fascination with deep gears and compression? Another rant.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Damn you had a Merckx!! I wanted one bad. Had to make do with a Bianchi Campion Del Mondo.

And I certainly know what happens when a pedal hits the ground, still have two broken front teeth from the bike launch. I was fortunate enough to use my face to break the fall, nothing too important there.

they always stress with the noobs to keep pedaling after they're done racing.... got to see why last night, it was a 2 1/2 somersault with a twist.... told him he should have stuck with 2 somersaults and he'd have been fine - fortunately for the tumbler nothing was broken except a bit of his ego.

[yellomalibu]

Still have it. It's the same bike I raced in high school, an '86 model. Not a 10 speed, a fancy new 12 speed with aero brake levers and that new fangled indexed shifting on the down tube.

[Thumpin455]

Damn you had a Merckx!! I wanted one bad. Had to make do with a Bianchi Campion Del Mondo.

And I certainly know what happens when a pedal hits the ground, still have two broken front teeth from the bike launch. I was fortunate enough to use my face to break the fall, nothing too important there.

I had a Bianchi road bike when I was stationed in Germany, holy crap was that bike light and fast. Got speeding tickets on base with it. Funny thing, I also touched a pedal on the ground in a turn and got flying lessons with a poor landing. Lucky for me I didnt break anything, but man did that hurt. It hurt almost as bad as when I got hit by a Geo Storm riding my MTB on base.

thumpin is into street cruisers and sensible shoes

The Pro stock engines are only 15 to 1 static, but the dynamic compression ratio is about 17.5 to 18 to 1

Thats why I have a 9 second Formula street car with 4.10s and a big solid roller Pontiac that will pull past 7500rpm. Its very different from the guys Trans Am with his 403 and a Edelbrock top end and mild cam. I like big engines, or small engines that make lots of power with stock parts, like a Cleveland.

You gotta gear it for the powerband, and for drivability when its a street car. Buzzing a 403 at 3000rpm on the highway is going to seriously suck, they dont like to stay that high that long, but a 350 chevy needs it since they are incredible slugs with highway gears.

[SpiderGearsMan]

350 chevy a slug ? will a 70 trans am out run a 70 Z28 ? no

[Beagle]

350 chevy a slug ? will a 70 trans am out run a 70 Z28 ? no

They are a slug if you get the wrong gear in it - that's the whole point of this discussion. The LT1 Z28 came with 3.73's mandatory and 4.10's optional. The TA came with 3.55 and a 3.73 optional. Did GM agree with this discussion or were they just favoring the Chevy?

I can say from first hand experience that for '78 and '79 that the '79 Z/28 with 3.73's would walk a '78 TA with 2.56's till 60, where the TA would catch up and by 110 be showing the Z/28 it's tail lights. The Z was done at 110, the TA kept pulling and flattened out about 135-140. Stock to stock...

[SpiderGearsMan]

78 z was too heavy and the 400 pontiac had 6:1 compression , not a good example
all the crucial engineering on pontiac V8 was over by 1963

[A/Fuel]

When my '78 z28 was stock (auto w/3.42 gears) It would top out faster than 110. It didn't take much work to get it to go past the factory 130 speedo either. I had a firebird with a 455 and 3.08's that I wasn't stupid enough to see where that top out at.

[Thumpin455]

350 chevy a slug ? will a 70 trans am out run a 70 Z28 ? no

Will a 73 Camaro run with a 73 455 SD or a 71/72 HO? nope. Not even the Vettes could hang with those cars those years. It all depends on what engine the 70 TA had in it for who would win with a 70 Z28. If the Camaro had the 302, forget it, it would be seeing Pontiac tail lights getting small in the distance fast. If it was a RAIV TA vs a LT-1 350 Camaro, same thing.

Also the 400 never had 6:1 compression, but putting the big 124cc 455 heads on one will get it that low. With 6X heads static CR comes in in the mid 8s to 9:1 depending on the chamber volume. In 77-79 the W72 400 had 220hp what did the 350 sbc have? Even the 403 cars stomped on the disco era camaros easily. Lots happened with Pontiac after 63, SD, HO, RAII/RAIV/RAV, 428, 455, 14 degree heads with 2.11/1.77 valves. What iron heads are the best? RA, SD, and HO, all made since 1968 and much better equipment than the 62-63 SD stuff.

Methinks you need to find out more about the Pontiac than what you have read in books. You can start with Jim Mino's 68 RAII Firebird 400. Then preuse Jim Hand's 4200lb 72 wagon.

[Thumpin455]

When my '78 z28 was stock (auto w/3.42 gears) It would top out faster than 110. It didn't take much work to get it to go past the factory 130 speedo either. I had a firebird with a 455 and 3.08's that I wasn't stupid enough to see where that top out at.

I was.. Execpt it was 2.73s, 28" tires and turning 5000rpm. I was really stupid back then.

[TC]

I was.. Execpt it was 2.73s, 28" tires and turning 5000rpm. I was really stupid back then.

152mph is what it equates to, funny thing is I come out of 3rd gear in my '99 Z28 at about 140mph and I got a whole nother gear to go.......Oh and I have 3.73's gears..........

[SpiderGearsMan]

a pontiac can't go past 5000 , cast rods have limits

[ls7gto]

1973 Corvette 454ci 6.4 14.6 (C&D Dec '72),
1973 Corvette 350ci L82 6.7 15.1 (C&D Dec '72),
1973 Pontiac Firebird 455ci 7.3 15.0
not including the 252 sd455 made .

1970 Chevrolet Corvette 427 6.1 14.3 just for reference.

[SpiderGearsMan]

those old tires were crap and the sports car guys could not power shift
1 1966 427 Cobra 12.20@118 427 8V 425 4-Speed 3.54 CC 11/65
2 1966 Corvette 427 12.8@112 L72 427 425 4-Speed 3.36 CD 11/65
3 1969 Road Runner [email protected] 440 Six BBL 390 4-Speed 4.10 SS 6/69
4 1970 Hemi Cuda [email protected] 426 Hemi 425 4-Speed 3.54 CC 11/69
5 1970 Chevelle SS454 [email protected] 454 LS6 450 4-Speed 3.55 CC 11/69
6 1969 Camaro [email protected] 427 ZL1 430 4-Speed 4.10 HC 6/69

evan smith gets the best times out of new cars , he races a fox body in the slower stock eliminator classes

[SpiderGearsMan]

look how fast the ss/di guys got that six pack

[Mater]

wow brings that in to sperspective that 6 pack was just as fast as my 2001 Grand Prix GT that i superchaged with stock blower and heads from a GTP and off the shelf cam and 3" down pipe stock manifolds

the march of time. the car ran a 12.99 @110mph


when i was younger i wrapped the needle back to 10mph in my '82 GP with 2.73 diesel gears and the '68 350 W31 engine (no tach and it was a 85mph speedo so i think i only hit 120mph). i let off when the front end felt like it was lifting off the ground and steering got scarry