Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Love
The Towne Pontiac ( John Dubois) Firebird was a 455/335 hp ram air car.
|
When running in the H/S class ?
So, what class would a 400 engine have run ?
That would mean that those T-37's would have had to have been a lot lighter than the Formy. BUT, according to the Class Racer Info site, a '71 Formy, with a 455HO engine is actually a few lbs lighter than a T-37. My calculator just won't come up with numbers that will make a lighter car run a lower class, using the same engine.
http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...px?ENGINE=2060
So, does that mean that back in the early '70's that engine was rated with less hp than the same engine in an A-body ???
That's the only thing I can think of that would make the same weight cars run several classes apart, running the same engine.
I remember that back when we 1st started, the 330hp Bird engine, was basically the same as the 350hp GTO engine. Maybe it was the same for the Birds & A-bodies, in '71. Anybody know what the 455HO engine was rated, in a '71 Bird & a '71 A-body, back in 1971 ?
If anybody has some classification info from back then, that might clarify this, please post that info.
Also thought about this. There is not much difference in the hp rating of the '71 400 & the '71 D-port 455. So, I suppose both engines could have possibly run the same class ??? I remember that Gary Wood said they did just as good with a '72 D-port 455, as they had with the '72 455HO. But, we've discussed that the '71 #66 heads don't make as much power as the '72 & '73 D-port 455 heads.
By the way, I was just about to add a couple of pics to the '71 post. Lyndel Warren bought a Bird from Gary Moore. They built it as a '71 455HO Formula. He worked for Coke, so he named the car "Coke Machine". It ran E/SA, & was the quickest E/SA car at the Winter Nats. He said it had run 11.79, during that time period. This was sometime in the mid '70's I think. Maybe NHRA gave the engine a big hp increase, in a Bird, during the '70's ???
I don't have access to that info. I assume there may be a few long time racers here who do still have access to a lot of the NHRA info from back in the '70's.