The Quest For The Magic 300

90lxwhite

I'm kind of a She-Man
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Aug 25, 2011
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So we all know that 300 rwhp is a popular target goal in our community. I myself am hoping for that "magic" number, on the 10th I'll find out if I've succeeded. So my question goes out to the old timers, has 300 hp always been a popular target goal or has it increased over the years?

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MikE
 
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It must really stink to have to wait that long for a tune. Jeez! Just so you know, you are already at or above 300rwhp with the Vortech installed. A bone stock 302 will make 300rwhp with a blower. I have a friend with a '93 and is just getting started. His car is completely BONE stock under the hood and has my old V1 sc-trim from my previous SSC installed. His made 306 to the tires on stock pulleys making 6 pounds. He's happy with that. "For now"
Once you get yours tuned, it'll be there.

As for your question: I guess I can be considered one of the old timers since I've been playing with these since the early '80s. Back in the day there were no dyno's and tuners to be found around here. There was practically no aftermarket parts for these cars either. These cars were cutting edge at the time.
Guys added parts and guessed at the power their cars made. One of my friends was the first guy in my area (that I know of) to install a Vortech, it was an A-trim. Until then, I had never seen a centrifical supercharger before. LOL, His car idled high, surged, blew head gaskets, ect, ect. Noone knew how much power it made but it as fast(when it was running.)
300 horsepower was a goal for sure, but that was just overall horsepower. Noone thought about rwhp. There was no internet so we all read HOTROD magazine articles, followed the articles and added parts accordingly.
We bought K&N filters, removed the air silencer, bumped the timing, added underdrive pulleys, added a powerchip (module), welded Flowmaster mufflers into the stock exhaust and later bought gears if you could afford them. LOL
If you did all that your car made 300hp. LOL WRONG!
But hey our cars felt fast, sounded good, won alot of races and we had alot of fun! Lost alot too! Thankfully somehow I survived all that and I'm still here.

These days 400-500rwhp is a healthy goal IMO.
A 500rwhp foxbody with good tires will just about outrun anything basically stock on the street. "Including the new 5.0 Mustangs"
Not gonna say how I know that;)

Sorry for my long winded post but I tend to ramble.
 
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Back in 78 I had a friend with a Paxton on his 396 Chevelle. He actually had it wired to a switch on his dash .... that car would scare you it was so fast for the day... a couple trips well over 150 and it was ok thanks for the ride think Ill ride with someone else next time, lol There were allot of fast, built cars at my school that probably werent really safe at those speeds... The debates were big block vs small block... Im a small block fan :)

Thats a long wait for a tuner Id be going crazy, around here its pretty much make an appointment give em your specs and go..like a few weeks or so... be sure to post your results..
 
:(It must really stink to have to wait that long for a tune. Jeez! Just so you know, you are already at or above 300rwhp with the Vortech installed. A bone stock 302 will make 300rwhp with a blower. I have a friend with a '93 and is just getting started. His car is completely BONE stock under the hood and has my old V1 sc-trim from my previous SSC installed. His made 306 to the tires on stock pulleys making 6 pounds. He's happy with that. "For now"
Once you get yours tuned, it'll be there.

As for your question: I guess I can be considered one of the old timers since I've been playing with these since the early '80s. Back in the day there were no dyno's and tuners to be found around here. There was practically no aftermarket parts for these cars either. These cars were cutting edge at the time.
Guys added parts and guessed at the power their cars made. One of my friends was the first guy in my area (that I know of) to install a Vortech, it was an A-trim. Until then, I had never seen a centrifical supercharger before. LOL, His car idled high, surged, blew head gaskets, ect, ect. Noone knew how much power it made but it as fast(when it was running.)
300 horsepower was a goal for sure, but that was just overall horsepower. Noone thought about rwhp. There was no internet so we all read HOTROD magazine articles, followed the articles and added parts accordingly.
We bought K&N filters, removed the air silencer, bumped the timing, added underdrive pulleys, added a powerchip (module), welded Flowmaster mufflers into the stock exhaust and later bought gears if you could afford them. LOL
If you did all that your car made 300hp. LOL WRONG!
But hey our cars felt fast, sounded good, won alot of races and we had alot of fun! Lost alot too! Thankfully somehow I survived all that and I'm still here.

These days 400-500rwhp is a healthy goal IMO.
A 500rwhp foxbody with good tires will just about outrun anything basically stock on the street. "Including the new 5.0 Mustangs"
Not gonna say how I know that;)

Sorry for my long winded post but I tend to ramble.
Thanks, I enjoyed your ramble. I'm old enough to remember when summit would send you a catalog but I wasn't old enough to drive(I'm 32). The 95 I have now was my dads and it lived the majority of its life w a k&n filter and a set of flowmaster mufflers for its "mods." I remember the tv comercials on Saturday mornings during episodes of hotrod tv for k&n claiming 25 hp gain from their drop in filter. Several years later Hotrod tv (might have changed its name to (Horsepower by then) got a chassis dyno and they were all proud. They started off by testing the "hot new" bolt-on stuff at the time like cai, pulleys, cat-back, and msd ignition, with an occasional aluminum drive shaft thrown in there. I was always disappointed in the results. The host would be like, "We added all of the above mentioned items and WOW! we got a gain of 10-15 hp!" I would just roll my eyes and think man that sucks, all that money spent for 15 hp. Stupid manufactures claims....:eek: I was young.. Oh and yeah it stinks trying to schedule a tune w those guys. I have to juggle some stuff around to make this appointment do to the resched. So 500 hp is the target now!? Sheesh! I'll never make it....:confused:
 
Back in 78 I had a friend with a Paxton on his 396 Chevelle. He actually had it wired to a switch on his dash .... that car would scare you it was so fast for the day... a couple trips well over 150 and it was ok thanks for the ride think Ill ride with someone else next time, lol There were allot of fast, built cars at my school that probably werent really safe at those speeds... The debates were big block vs small block... Im a small block fan :)

Thats a long wait for a tuner Id be going crazy, around here its pretty much make an appointment give em your specs and go..like a few weeks or so... be sure to post your results..
I'll post em if they're good ;) But yeah it sucks waiting but it's cheaper to go through them since I've used em before
 
Yeah look around at the power ratings from all these new factory hotrods these days. It takes power to keep up and 300 just ain't gonna cut it anymore. Don't say you'll never make it to 400-500 either. LOL
It just takes time and money. It can be achieved somewhat cheaply if your resourceful (and patient). I'm a CHEAP person and not rich so it took me time to save money, buy and accumulate parts as I found deals and could afford it. I bought most of my junk used and saved a poop load of money.

One thing's for sure. Its more fun and (cheaper)to build an old Mustang like ours than to go out and spend a ton of $ on something new with car payments.
And you come out cheaper in the long run.
 
Back in 78 I had a friend with a Paxton on his 396 Chevelle. He actually had it wired to a switch on his dash .... that car would scare you it was so fast for the day... a couple trips well over 150 and it was ok thanks for the ride think Ill ride with someone else next time, lol There were allot of fast, built cars at my school that probably werent really safe at those speeds... The debates were big block vs small block... Im a small block fan :)

Thats a long wait for a tuner Id be going crazy, around here its pretty much make an appointment give em your specs and go..like a few weeks or so... be sure to post your results..

A little off topic, but I'm intrigued.

Why did your friend have a switch on the dash of the belt driven, supercharged 396 Chevelle?
 
Iirc. He wired a blow off so he could "turn the boost on and off". I tell Ya the hot rodders where I grew up did some weird sh*t. In the name of being cool...

It worked and that car ran strong He switch it up allot though....