My 'bolt-on' 12 Second ET Recipe
Running a 12.9 with a nearly stock 5.0 is not as hard as it might sound. The main ingredients are: a fairly lightweight 5.0, a motor in good tune, the right mix of bolt-ons, slicks, and very aggresive driving.
Below is a list of mods, in no particular order, that I believe are capable of turning an average 5.0 into a 12 Second 1/4 miler. Keep in mind that this implies 12 Seconds on a drag strip, on slicks, not on the street on radials. Also, folks at a higher elevation will have a more difficult time breaking into the 12's:
- 26x8 Slicks
- 3.73 or 4.10 Gear
- Short accessory belt
- Off-road exhaust
- Headers (prefer long-tubes)
- Underdrive pulleys
- Remove the air silencer
- Ram-air/some sort of cold-air inflow, minimum
K&N
- If a Mass-air car, a larger sensor
- 65mm TB with matching EGR plate
- Remove front swaybar
- Remove the clutch fan at the track
- Advance timing to approx 13 deg
- Good tune-up (new plugs, wires, rotor)
- Remove all loose items in car (spare tire, jack, etc)
-Courage. If you're scared of breaking it, you probably won't run the number!
The key to a 12 second ET with a near stock car is getting the car to launch hard and performing very fast shifts. Initially, launch the car around 5000 rpms. Do a hard power shift in all gears around 5200 on the stock tach. Cool the upper plenum with ice before a run, and push the car through the staging lanes as much as possible.
Some additional things that I would recommend include:
-Boxed upper/
lower control arms with urethene bushings.
-Air bag in the passenger side rear spring.
-Move the battery to the trunk/hatch area
-Synthetic lubricants
-Pro 5.0 shifter
-Light-weight rims with skinnie front wheels/tires
-Remove any weight you feel you can do without
Some things I WOULD NOT BUY for a STOCK motor:
-"off-the-shelf" chips (ADS, Hypertech, etc)
-high-dollar spark plugs
-aftermarket ignition systems (2 steps are nice though)
-24# injectors
I can't stress how important it is to get the car to hook and launch hard. The 60 and 330 ft times are by far the most important. Work on the launch and shifting, the ET's will fall. I have personally seen several 5.0's run in the 12's with similar mods to what I have listed. In my opinion, there is nothing extraordinary about any of them, or my own.
If you like, e-mail me:
[email protected]