a buddy of mine has a 78 vette and i outran him while we were moving (20mph to 80) then from a light he outran me barely because i spun ALOT and he didnt spin at all....i was wondering what kind of HP number these cars have...obviously not very much

 

No,not much at all I beleive it was 170-190 hp,Icant remember the exact #,it maybe less.

 

i know vettes have some good traction control but come on you stick it in first gear and stomp it and it doesnt even try to spin those 15 inch tires...mine spins the one bad...i told him when i got posi id race him again he said "**** you already got smoked once"

 

in 1978 the L48 engine had 185hp, and the optional L82 had 220hp. keep in mind that these Corvettes were heavy as hell, and were laden with the smog era equipment. even the optional engine couldnt get out of the 15s

 

If they took off the smog equipment and took of the catalytic converter (that was so restrictive back in the 70's) how much hp would it be possibly to free up?

 

**** i should definetly be able to smoke him then....his carb is even out of tune...running rich. for some reason i spun so much it wasnt even funny. i like the way everytime we race while on a roll i win and he says...is that all you got? i can smoke you. hes also one of the people who think the corvette is a "light" car because its fiberglass...to bad it has a massive frame underneath it

 

removing the smog equipment wont help all that much. unfortunately, the entire engine was built with low peformance in mind. the biggest restriction on the mid-late 70s cars were the cylinder head designs. youd have to do a complete top-end rebuild (heads, cam, intake, carb) to make these things respectably fast (13s or better). full exhaust and gears will get you into the 14s, but beyond that youd have to rethink the whole engine.