Thread: time to guess what my car will do in the 1/4

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Somewhere between 14 and 15 sec. No 12's with a 3000# car and skinny tires. Not baggin your car, Al . . . just been there a few times.

Didnt some car magazine (a few years back) take a Caddy and start stripping it down to see what it would do in the quarter mile? It seems as if they got the thing under 3000 lbs by cutting the body away (literally), leaving only the floor pan and firewall. The thing ran something like 13s..... but then, I may have dreamed this also.

mike in tucson

Originally Posted by robot

Didnt some car magazine (a few years back) take a Caddy and start stripping it down to see what it would do in the quarter mile? It seems as if they got the thing under 3000 lbs by cutting the body away (literally), leaving only the floor pan and firewall. The thing ran something like 13s..... but then, I may have dreamed this also.

mike in tucson

yep I remember reading it, I think it was Hotrod Magazine, not shure.

hmmmm. skinny tires and highway gears??? 15.4 @ 82 mph.

Mike: Nope you weren't dreaming. The article was called "Caddy Hack" and they started with a bone stock 1970 Caddy Sedan DeVille, and after getting some baseline runs, they started to remove stuff. First seats, then doors, etc. Finally, they got out the sawsall and utimately got it down to a bare frame and a lightweight drag seat.

I don't remember the exact times, but I think 12's or very low 13's, and these runs were traction plagued even with dragster slicks. I think the final car weighed under 2000 lbs. All of this goes back 20-30 years ago, so the exact details are a little foggy, but this is the essence of it.

It was a very clean Caddy, too. We had the exact clone of this car (not the stripped down version), that we bought when we lived in California. My Sons were about 12, and I used to entertain them by lighting up the tires, even with my utility trailer attached. They were easily amused, and probably is the reason they are motorheads today.


Don

What about that Caddy that "Jesse James" did?Wasn't it a blown Caddy?Did they put it on the track?

"They were easily amused, and probably is the reason they are motorheads today."

beautiful.

Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver

What about that Caddy that "Jesse James" did?Wasn't it a blown Caddy?Did they put it on the track?

Yeah, it was. But the funniest part of that show was when they took it to the dragstrip they got beaten BADLY by some guy in a very stock looking Caddy. But that car was a real screamer. The guy never said what was in it, but it was far from stock.

Jesse was a little embarrassed, and said something to the effect of "what are the odds of showing up at the dragstrip and having TWO similar Cadillacs show up?" The other Cad had to have some serious power adders because he didn't just beat Jesse, he beat him BADLY.

Nice to see Jesse humbled a little.

Don

Actually I think the Caddy Jesse did had a big block Chevy in it, which was a major disappointment for me. The other one probably had a Caddy motor and that's why it walked all over him!

Pat

You are probably right, Pat. Summit and the other guys give them free motors (zilch, na-da, freeby, and all that stuff) so it probably was Chevy.

Bet those shops were real pleased to see their crate engine beaten by the Cad.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

You are probably right, Pat. Summit and the other guys give them free motors (zilch, na-da, freeby, and all that stuff) so it probably was Chevy.

Bet those shops were real pleased to see their crate engine beaten by the Cad.

Don

Yeah, I get freebies, too. Summit sent me a hat and Atlantic Speed sent me a T-Shirt!!!!!! :

OK, I say 14.35 @110 mph

Go get 'em.

My guess, 13.5 seconds.

I ran a 500 caddy with 472 heads, an Ultradyne racing cam, Ford 351 valve springs, custom made billet rocker pedestals and bbc headers. The intake was an Edelbrock and it had a predator carb. It was in a 71 Sedan DeVille that had no mods but a roll bar installed. We raced it on dirt in an endurance race and started on the pole next to a less than legal early 70's Camaro. On the first straightaway I pulled the field by 3 car lengths. On lap 70, the track had dried out some and I had lapped the field once when the right rear tire rolled off of the rim. I went into the pits, got a new tire and went back out a lap down. Just as I lapped the field to get back on the lead lap, I rolled the tire off again. Went back into the pits, got another tire and finished 7th in a 40 car field. That car would really fly and handled incredibly well for a land yacht.

The 76 and up 500 has flat top pistons and big chamber heads, while the earlier engines had dished pistons and small chamber heads. If you put the small chamber heads on the flat top motor, it gives you over 12 to 1 compression. You can put a 1/4" shim under the oil pump bypass spring to boost the pressure to around 65 pounds. The bottom end of those engines is nearly bulletproof, but very very heavy in terms of rotating/reciprocating mass. Because of that, they are slow revving. The torque is incredible, I estimate that mine had over 600#. I ballooned several good stall converters before I finally spent $$$$ and got one with an anti-balloon plate.

5500 rpm is absolutely the max, even with heavy valve springs and mods to beef up the rocker assemblies, which are the weakest link in the engine. 4800 is realistic with a stocker. Because of that, you will probably have to go with a taller gear than the ones you have.

Hooking that monster up in your light bucket is going to be tough. My brother put a stock 500 in an 86 regal, and it would absolutely shred the tires no matter what he did. He finally gave up and pulled the motor out. That car ran mid 13's on street tires.

Anyway, good luck with the Caddy.. It is a fun motor if you are satisfied with a low revving beast that has gobs of torque.

Gonna spin like crazy off the line, prolly a 2.3 60' or so. Then, when it gets gathered up, gonna fly like crazy. I'd say a 14.8-15.2 at some ridiculous mph. Like 105-110.

well guys the day is done i am sun burnt, tired and put in 8 recorded passes at the 1st swift current drag races in over 30 years.
WHAT A BLAST
never raced on a track before went a couple of times to lay down rubber as the airstrip had never had horsepower on it. 1st actual race i got sideways and was looking at the other guy for a second, then decided to bail and got staight again. i had 150 to 200 ft of marks out from the line. still got 15.8 at 91 mph!!!
aired down the tires ( by the way i swapped out my big tires and went to a 215 75 r 15 all season on steel rim in the back real hard crappy and little ) i thought as though can only go max 13.5 before i am caged i might as well have fun.
the tires are now completly shot , the last run of the day was a 14.176 no mph as the left lane mph was playing jeckle and hyde all day . best time was i think a 9 second pass from vega , lots of every kind of car out there close to 60, had fun racing a stock caddy engine with ugly little tires against lots of hotter sounding modified cars and truck and either beat them or was right in there.
the car ran best in drive with the the lazy 4000 rpm shift pont and let it grunt it out.
i have a really good half track pull and was keeping up to other faster cars that had line trouble and if i could match them out of the hole i was with the to the end .
had a huge crowd for a small city the track tightended up as we just poured on the vht watched a guy on a bike do a 1/4 on 1 wheel from the 60 ft line out, and my neighbor was running a mid 70s stroked kick start harley in the mid 12s . we are good guys here,he would pump on that thing for 20 minutes and finally it would fire up.
we would let him pull in front and let him go
going to do it again you bet, go faster not yet, i told some guys there is nothing more fun than a torquey motor in a light car with little tires. it makes the whole experience just that much more fun