Quote:
Originally Posted by 5.9magnumjeep
Hope this is the right sub forum to ask this…
I want to get started in drag racing, with the aim to run stock. I got the NHRA rule book on its way and have taken the time to read through the book online already. I have built motors for rebuilds (nothing fancy just warmed up a bit from stock). I have been spending some time here reading through some interesting threads.
I currently have a stock 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 limited and a 1992 ford ranger standard cab 4 cylinder manual trans. The Jeep I rebuilt the transmission recently and did a transgo shift correction kit. Other than that, both cars are completely stock.
The advice I need is, which of my two vehicles would you choose to start racing with and why?
I can see that with the Jeep (nhra puts this in the m/s class) it has an advantage of having a 360, trailing arms that act like four bar suspension, coil springs on the rear and it’s a limited slip rear axle. Disadvantage is it’s all wheel drive. That is a lot of friction to overcome to put the power to the ground.
With the ranger, running a slow class would be cheaper and allow more room to learn to drive the track. I know that first thing would be having to swap the rear end as the current axle won’t hold up to anything more that the severely tired 2.3 Lima that’s in it right now.
Thanks in advance.
I should add that I have grown up with family members that are hot rodders, so have been around and researched building up decent v8’s. I just haven’t built a nice motor for myself yet.
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Taking a look at both of these combos, while both of these I wouldn't consider being ideal to make a low cost build, the ranger may be the better of the two. For starters I would think the 4 cylinder would be more cost effective to build. The 120 hp rating is what may make things tough. I think the stick shift helps with a low horsepower, relatively lightweight combo like that. I'm sure Billy, Mark, or Dwight would be of help with their experience of finding the most bang for buck combos in the guide. Good luck with whichever build you choose. I would even suggest starting a thread under the "class racer builds" sub forum when you start the build.