[bill dedman]

I don't know if this is significant in any way RE Stock Eliminator, but I have been amazed at how quick some of the Oriental cars (many, built in the US) are.

I was 26 years old and a local strip (Des Moines, IA) Stocker tech man when th '64 GTO's hit the strips. I vividly remember that most of the Tri-Power 4-speed versions that were running on (skinny) OEM tires, and with buttoned up exhaust, and were showroom stock, struggled to run much quicker than 15-flat. Add slicks, headers, and a 4.56 gear along with a limited slip, and yes, you had a 13-second car, but most of the ones I saw running, ran 14.80's... through the mufflers, on street tires.

Car and Driver has recently road tested two cars that beat that number by half a second in showroom trim, and they're both FWD cars and both automatics.

The 2007 Toyota Avalon ran 14.40 at 99 mph, while the marginally-lighter '07 Toyota Camry with the same engine, ran 14.30 at the same 99 mph.

These are soccer-mom, grocery getters with NO "performance" pretentions. They share a normally-aspirated 3.5-liter (213.5 cid) 60-degree V6. At 268 HP, they make a little over 1.25 hp per cubic inch in showroom condition. If a Viper made that much power per cube, it would have 626 horsepower...

They're both about a half-second quicker than a showroom '64, 4-speed, Tri-Power GTO, if my so-called "memory" serves me correctly.

Dunno if either or both will ever make it into the classification guide (They're both assembled in the USA), but it seemed to me to be food for thought... Pretty quick for soccer-mom transportation, methinks....