Thread: Whats a good inexpinsive car for the strip?

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I am looking for a cheap car I can find at the junk yard to clean up and take to the strip.I will not cut corners on safety ,and performance .I just want a good cheap base to start with.Something that is light,can easily get performance parts,and aerodynamic.Thanks for any ideas.

Every junkyard usually has a section where they keep the old top fuel dragsters, just head for that section and pick out one you like.


Now, seriously, since you will probably be running the bracket classes, consistency is going to be the goal. So, I would look for any semi-light midsize car with a V8, and as few emission controls as possible. This usually means 1970's or early '80's. You will want an automatic, preferably something like a TH350 so you can get shift kits and stuff for it.

Buddy of mine did just this years ago. Found a '56 Pontiac in the boneyard, did a couple of things to it, tuned it up, and started winning trophies in the bracket classes. Thing was consistently the same every pass, and never had hook up problems, etc.

Any brand you personally prefer will have models that fit the description I mentioned. Bring it home, strip off everything you don't need, and go racing.
I love these low buck projects because they require imagination to pull off,

By the way, I read something years ago about lightening a car that has always stuck with me. They said, if you want to remove 1,000 lbs from a car, don't look for one place to remove the 1,000 lbs............look,instead, for 1,000 places to remove 1 lb each. Makes really good sense.

Have fun on your project. Why don't you do a thread on the buildup? It would be fun for us and for you to do it.

Don

Fox body mustang,plentiful ,lots of cheap parts ,light weight,Theres probably more parts for this car floating around than any other make ever made.

Originally Posted by shawnlee28

Fox body mustang,plentiful ,lots of cheap parts ,light weight,Theres probably more parts for this car floating around than any other make ever made.

Good call. '79-'85 cheap, cheap, cheap. 460 will fit.
Friend of mine in Phoenix put one together with a warmed-over 460. Ran high 9's.

You're right. Never thought of that one, and it is the most obvious. Pick up a four cylinder car because they aren't run to death like the v8 cars, and the torque boxes won't be ripped out from hard launches with sticky tires.

We bought our '84 Capri for $ 125.00 and the body was mint, (some girl had owned it) but the engine was blown. Nice thing about these cars is that every 302 part bolts right in, as the platform is the same on 4's and v8's.

Glad you called my attention to this most obvious choice.


Don

You can go as quick as 11.50 with just a driveshaft loop and a good helmet. Roll bars start at 11.49.

Ditto on the 79- 92 mustangs. We run at Cordova and Earlville and there seem to be a ton of those things running, especially when they have a high school night or a street car shoot out. Nice to see kids getting into them instead of Hondas. (No direct intention to offend our Ricer brethren on this board).

Now to the safety issue. Just two Sundays ago a young guy totaled his late 80's mustang at Cordova. The car runs deep in the 9's and it obviously passed tech, but that didn't help him much as he is now paralyzed from the waist down. He was torn up quite badly and the car was pretty much destroyed.
These mustangs can be wicked fast but they can get wicked squirley if the chassis is not built to perfection.
After 40 years of racing I've found out you either
DO IT RIGHT OR DON'T DO IT AT ALL!!
John

......yep, as Shawn stated above, a Fox Body Mustang would be a great choice. Or a '82 on up 3rd generation Camaro/Firebird. They are also cheap & errodinamic. Even though the Mustang might be a better choice, myself I prefer the looks of the '82 up Firebirds. In fact I had a '84 Camaro that I put on a 'diet' and the last time I weighted it at the truck stop it was 2800 lbs. AND I took more weight off after that. I went TOTALLY nuts on the weight loss thing. Not only did I take/cut everything off that wasn't necessary for performance/safety I even went so far as to cut the ends off of long bolts! Actually building a car is hard for me, BUT cutting stuff off is MY speciality! Bill

Yup on the Mustang, except I'd run a stroker kit at 501 cubes, solid lifter cam with either some D0VE, D1VE, or if you got some extra bucks a set of Aluminum heads. Because they are light, a mildly built C-6 will work fine. Forget the trans brake and resultant parts breakage. Just get a converter to flash at about 2400 and drive off it. Shift at 6200, they're done making power by then

did I hear " PINKS "?????

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Yup on the Mustang, except I'd run a stroker kit at 501 cubes, solid lifter cam with either some D0VE, D1VE, or if you got some extra bucks a set of Aluminum heads. Because they are light, a mildly built C-6 will work fine. Forget the trans brake and resultant parts breakage. Just get a converter to flash at about 2400 and drive off it. Shift at 6200, they're done making power by then

C8VE, C9VE etc....

vegas and monzas make pretty good bracket cars and could reasonably run 12's without too much chasis work... all depends how fast you want to go early 80's mustangs probably much easier to find

now knowbody laugh but i have always had dreams of an old ford pinto on the strip! its streamline, there is alot of room to work on the rear end being that it is a hatchback. it's all a basic good car for that purpose. when i was growing up my mom had a green pinto. she called it merdle the turttle and i miss that car. i would love to see someone turn that kinda car into a drag beast! GO FOR A PINTO!

so you make the pinto into a machine for drag raceing. get a good 60's flake paint job on it and call her the BEAN... The Ford Pinto Bean.....I think you would make that john force guy jealous! go for it my man!

A few years ago my Son and I went to the Mustang Nationals in Bradenton, Fl, and there is this full sized Ford station wagon running there that turned me on. The guy has a sense of humor about it, and has "within budget" shoepolished into the back windows. The announcer says things like " when his wife finds out he is not just out for a loaf of bread, he's gonna be in trouble". The guy was having a blast, and the car is there every week and rarely breaks anything.

So, at the time I was working at a body shop, and an abandoned Ford Granada wagon got towed in and the wheels started turning. It is built on the same Fox platform as the Mustangs, so all the usual parts will fit. I have an unused 466 ci Ford that is built and waiting for some project, so I figured this would be a fun way to go racing. I bought the car for $ 200.00 and began to strip it to the bare bones. Then Hurricane Charlie hit, and our shop got the roof taken off, so we had to move. To simplify the move I scrapped a lot of stuff, including the wagon, so the project never happened.

But the point is, a wagon would make a great bracket car. Good weight distribution, lots of room to carry your tools and slicks to the track, and it would be cool to blow some doors off with an ugly old wagon. I'd even put a baby seat in the back for effect, and leave the roof rack on it.


Don