Woodie
The real insanity here is not the desire to put a more powerful motor into
one of these cars, it's putting a dodge motor in one of these cars (grins).
Yes, you could be called a torch carrier for...dodge.
There is a lot of material, experience, and expertise out there concerning
chevy and ford swaps for british cars, so 'splain to me why you'd go with a
dodge? Personally, I favor the mazda rotary, or just about any V6 over a
V8. If you gotta have a V8, then I would go ford first, chevy second - this
is all solely due to all up weight. If you consider that most V6s will
easily provide over 200HP without too much fuss, and will lighten the nose a
bit, you could more than double the HP in your car easily, and experience
some eye opening performance without seriously degrading (and possibly
improving) your handling. As to a V8, factor in the probability that
everything from one end of the car to the other will have to be reinforced
to handle the torque of a warmed up 360, (let alone any other V8), throw in
the additional space taken up by the larger motor and transmission,
increased cooling requirements, replacing the parts of the driveline you
will break because you didn't upgrade the rear, and the fact that with all
that power, it will be almost undriveable on a wet road...Insane, no, ill
advised, possibly, at least with that much power.
Quick background on me - 38 year old military pilot, I like to drive, and I
like to drive fast - I spent a few years in Germany on the autobahn, and
never fully recovered from the experience. I have done more than my share
of stupid things behind the wheel, but have NEVER caused or been part an
accident (more luck than anything). I have driven a lot of different cars,
some had a more power than the handling capabilities (and my experience)
would support, others were just the opposite (gee this would be a great car
if it had more power. I used to drive a 93 Ford Mustang Cobra for 5 years,
I used a few power adders (nothing like nitrous or blower), and by most
people's opinion, it was a quick car, but not seriousy over powered - the
point here is that the car weighed about 3500 pounds, had about 280 ft/lbs
of torque, and was all over the place when it rained and you stepped on the
gas, and you want to put similar power in a car that weighs almost 2000
pounds less? I just hope you never try driving it on a wet/icy road, at
best you'll be all over the place, at worst, you'll end up in the morgue.
Dave Korzun
'69 GT-6
> No, Woodie....You are insane; and you need not concern yourself with torch
> carriers; only pallbearers. Best of luck.
> > ----------
> > From: Sptfire318@aol.com[SMTP:Sptfire318@aol.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 4:38 PM
> > To: Terrence.Banbury@dnr.state.oh.us
> > Subject: Re: Teenage drivers
> >
> > I'm 17, and am putting a 360 Dodge in a Spit ... am I a torch carrier?
> >
> > James "Woodie" Arens
> >
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