Hi, I'm new to the boards so bear with me. Anyhow, I'm looking to build a third gen drag car and would like to get your opinions on some things. First, I can get a 91 V6 RS here in Chicago for about $1500. I was planning on buying it and turning it into a drag car. Car's got no rust, just ugly and needs paint. I want to lighten the car up, put a cage in it, a drop a power plant in it and eventually paint it.

Where should I begin first? How can I begin to lighten this thing up? What kind of cage should I get? I'm looking to build a 10 second street/strip car for the least amount of money as possible. Let's say, less than 8 grand, car included. What should I swap the V6 with?

I'd appreciate your help. Thanks fellas.

 

this topic has been covered alot. do a search, there is a ton of good info on this site......

 

thanks for the input. I've done that but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, that's why I posted...

 

for weight reduction get rid of the coolant tank washer fluid tank, all heater and a/c components, rear seats. you will deff need sub frame connectors, panhard bar, lower control arm relocation brackets, and boxed lower control arms. for an engine i would use a fully built small block ( all fordged 383 stroker) with nos. a 12 bolt or 9" rear end. that will get u started.

 

For weight reduction, remove everything not required for speed or safety. This becomes an issue because first you said you want to build a drag car and later say you want a street/strip car. That's 2 entirely different types of cars.

If you only want to run into the 10's, you don't need a full cage but a 6 point roll bar will be needed. A typical 6/8 point roll bar will add about 70 pounds back into the car.

The cheapest way to go fast is with NOS. Although you can probably get into the 10's with an $8000 budget, you won't stay there for very long. You'll spend a few thousand dollars just getting a good engine.

 

thanks a lot tyler, that really does help me. you think the price of the car sounds good?

 

Put your $8k together and buy something thats already done. It will save you time, money and more aggrivation than youll ever know. Check the classifieds and youll find that what you want could be bought for that kind of money.

 

sorry for the confusion, I'm looking more for a street/strip car. What would you recommend engine wise? Considering i'm looking for street/strip, I would be ok with an 11 sec street car and 10s at the strip on NOS. What do you think stephen?

 

buy an already built up car for 8k and it will probably have 15k or more sunk into it plus hundreds of hours of building it as well.

 

I agree its not a bad idea. but i can't find anything running 10s for 8k. I also want to start tinkering with it this winter, really don't want to wait around to find one ya know.

 

I stumble upon 10/11 seconed cars every other day on the internet. Racingjunk.com has hundreads of them. I had the thought that I wanted to be fully responcible for everything that went into my car and wanted to do all the work myself. Well i'm $13k deep, and still don't have a cage, rear or trans that I want. I can run 11's all day and spray anywhere into the 10's that I want to be but i'm still about $4-5k away from a complete finished car. thats not including all the time, cursing, hang ups, fusteration and BS that I have been through with the car.

I hate the feeling of running into a caged, 9 inched, sprayed 10 seconed car with nice body for under 10G's.

 

Im about 15K + into it my car right now and the only thing I really lack is the cage which I bought just havent installed yet. I didnt try to build a budjet car so maybe 8k is possibly but maybe not. About the cursing, screaming, frustration I have went through all of that so far and some!!! but to look back on it I still am glad I built my car myself so when someone asks me something I dont have to look like an idiot and i can be proud of what I have done. Yes, maybe not the best for the money situation but if all of us where concerned about money we would be at the honda forums lol Its an expensive hobby and thats that.

 

Maybe i'm off track. maybe i'm in the wrong thread but i stick by my statement that if you want an inexpensive race car, buy someone out.

This is a 5 second search. Maybe there not what you want, or not exactly what you had in mind but I'll bet anyone of these cars has double invested and tons of potential with a fresh owner.

http://www.racingjunk.com/post/13622...0-Bracket.html


http://www.racingjunk.com/post/13247...r-REDUCED.html

http://www.racingjunk.com/post/13144...t1-trades.html

http://www.racingjunk.com/post/12916...00-9-inch.html

 

I don't disagree with you, its a good idea. Right now I'm thinking I'd rather do the work myself, I'll just have to think about it a little more I guess

 

It costs money to go fast. Although I haven't tallied up receipts in a long time, my engine should be close to $20,000 by now. If I sold the entire car I doubt I could get $20,000.

Buying someone else's race car is a cheaper way to go. If it's a local car, it will always be considered someone else's old race car until you can change it enough to call it your own. If you buy a street car and make it into a race car like I did, it will always be my car. It's taken me almost 10 years to get my car to where it's currently at. I'd done a lot of changes over the years. I've also spent a lot of money and broken a lot of parts doing it.

$1500 for a rust free 91 is a good deal as long as it really is rust free. If you have to start doing major rust repairs to the floor etc, that good deal starts to become expensive. I bought my 87 back in 99 and it was rust free. I also spent $5000 to buy it because of that. I was looking at cars that were less than $2000 but they all needed a lot of rust repairs.

 

for a street/strip car i would probably pick up an LT1 camaro/transam. budget th400, 9", some suspension, cam, 255 pump, and nitrous kit should go 10's on a 125 shot and last dang near forever if its tuned correctly.
i have a '94 z28 with 6 speed for $3500 with freshened up engine and most all the boltons but im in sc.

for a drag car, i would go 3rd gen all the way. fantastic underhood access and they are a bit lighter.

 

well, if you decide to build rather than buy, i got a nice th350 w/ tbrake and 4000 stall converter that's for sale. you can pm me with any questions, and i'm willing to palatize and ship!

 

wow, those guys are selling nice cars for CHEAP! i cant believe it. that be the place to start

anyway my car is a good example of what your looking for. All forged 383 that will run probly 11.30's in good air on motor. I went 11.47 in july/august heat with a so so 1.55 60 foot.
Spray 150 shot and its 10.63 at 127-128.

This type of build you probly can get away with doing non forged crank, but forged rods/pistons for the nitrous and save a few hundred right there on the motor itself but when your talking a few grand for a motor, might as well make it bulletproof and and get all forged.

hard to make it for 8g's tho. I probly have over 8 g's in the motor alone, car was 5 and the other supporting stuff realllly adds up Got to be near 20 grand so far and i dont have a 12 bolt/9 inch rear yet

 

i have a small fraction of time on the track as these other members. But just the learning curve and getting the experience is expensive.. Slicks,fuel, plugs, broken parts.....If i had to do it all over again, id buy someone elses car , run it for a year, and then build it my way after ive planned it out to the last nut and bolt my

 

Also remember you will have to do some work to what ever you buy weather it be moving seats to painting it you will still have pleanty of things to keep you going.

 

The phrase "It's finally finished" never refers to a race car. Mine is close, but I still find things to change. If finances allow, there's a nice set of Dart Pro 1 355 CNC heads I want to buy. Just another $3000+ for a fully assembled set.

 

This thread makes me feel good. I've got probably 5k in mine, but I'm not nearly as fast as some of you.

Used parts are your friend.

 

Hopefully the Dart Pro 1's for big blocks arent *** overratted as the small block Dart Pro 1's. When you can get a pair of AFR 357 magnums for 3,139. Spending thta much money might as well spend 139 more dollars. I havent compared #'s on big block heads but I know afr small block heads are leaps ahead of the Pro 1's. My 2 cents.

 

Here's a comprehensive list of heads with all sorts of flow numbers.

http://users.erols.com/srweiss/tablehdc.htm

I'd love some AFR 357's but is that for bare casting or fully assembled for roller cams up to .800 lift with triple springs? Most heads are inexpensive until you see what you get. Many BBC heads listed are only 310 or 320cc and most are not set up for more than .650 lift with a hydraulic cam, including listings for big heads like AFR 357's.

 

sc?

 

Wow, I definitely can't afford the budget that some of you guys can! Looks like I'll have to run 14s or 15s and just be satisfied with that!

 

sc = south carolina

 

Heres where I found the AFR's and it looks like there assembled to me for that price. It also looks like they are good for 750 max lift. Hopefully you'll go AFR when you get the money

http://www.adperformance.com/index.p...roducts_id=210

The reason I tend to shy away from dart pro 1's is because I have the afr 195cc eliminators and they outflow dart pro 1's with 230cc intake runners by about 10 cfm which is crazy for a head that is much smaller then the dart to outflow them at all.

 

GTPRO I have a set of dart heads and thay work fine AFR are great heads but the dart,and brodix are good also and the real Mac Daddy SBC heads if you are staying with 23 deg are the All Pro RR245s I have used heads from canfield, AFR, Dart,CFE,Pro Action for SBC.The only ones that did not flow the #s were Pro Action, and CFE. I also had two sets of 215 comp. AFRs that would that would not flow the #s thay were flowing the same as a set of there 195s. And for reference my current out of the box dart heads have pushed my 3400lbs car on pump gas and street trim 10.05@ 133.75mph and looking over other combos using the darts, brodix, afr 227 thay all seem to be making close to the same power.

 

Unlimited budget, I would go with some Big Chief heads on my engine.

 

I agree that you can make excellent power with all types of heads but a lot of people seem to believe that AFR is so expensive and out of reach when there typically only a small amount more. When my 195cc head flows 285cfm @600 and a dart 230cc head flows 274 @600 you know which is definitly the better brand. Now only compare a set of darts to AFRs that are relatively the same size intake runner and there is a huge jump there. I just love AFR Im not trying to rag on anyones setups just given my opinion on where money should be spent. A lot of people will spend less on heads but dump it elsewhere. No matter what you do to an engine if your heads dont flow it doesnt matter.

 

I agree heads are the key to a good motor and AFR does make some great stuff I just see a lot of people think you can not make power with out AFRs.

 

my ported stock LT1 heads flow 290+....

 

If you wanna build a race car build a race car. If you wanna go racing buy a race car.

 

I agree 100%.I am in year 3 of my race car build.I did have another car I raced occasionally till last year so I have only missed a year but it was a long year.

As others also have stated buying a car is cheaper than building a car.I have about 10Grand in mine.
That's with a slightly used mild 350, used trans,and used 12bolt. And still no cage or interior.

Good Luck with your choice whatever it may be.

P.S. If you are mechanically inclined there is nothing like saying " I did the work myself"

 

What are the factory numbers at? Thats pretty crazy man!! Resized valves or stock ? Did you port them yourself ? either way awesome numbers

 

slightly larger valves, ported by advanced induction. 200cc.
http://www.advancedinduction.com/flo...1Flowsheet.jpg

i still do not have them on the car yet, should be on there sometime next week or so. right now i am still running my self-ported heads that probably suck. lol

 

wow those are some awesome numbers! If you dont mind me asking how much money did it cost for them to do that? Those numbers are very similar to my afr's which is crazy out of a stock lt1 head. What size motor are you runnign them on? what are your hp goals ?

 

they cost a pretty decent amount... lol
they are going on my stock shortblock LT1. (350 cid) im hoping to make around 400rwhp n/a through the th400/9"/28" slicks. the way it sits right now it made 370rwhp with nearly stock heads.

 

buy my ride.perfect street/strip

 

My advice to you: Other than an aftermarket torque arm, don't spend ONE DIME on the suspension. These are some of the hardest hooking cars on the planet. Buy a Jeg's torque arm, a pair of 28 x 10.5 x 15 slicks/wheels, and spend the rest on your motor/transmission.

 

agreed.if you want that power and speed you might to rid yourself of the stock torque.heck if you junk the 700 trans youll need to address it anyways. there are a few arms out there but for drag cars the jegs is a good all around piece.