Something to keep in mind:
Later 60's muscle cars, and in particular the z-28's were very under-rated as far as horsepower because the insurance companies were getting tired of everyone running around in 400+ HP cars, a lot with drum brakes.

Also, very few of the old Muscle cars ever dipped into the 12s. This is because they were tested with the stock bias belted "plastic" skinny f-70x14 "redline" tires. They are a joke, and offer no traction compared to modern tires. I'm assuming that Pops does not have "redlines" on his car?

With real tires and a few minor mods, they are much more potent than what was reported in the day.

Sure, an elephant or most big blocks are quicker than the 302, but for it's size and HP rating, the DZ was a giant killer. It still is.

Troy
So Cal

WHAT?? 12 grand!!! Prolly shifted some of the con rods to the outside of the motor doing that I can't believe that....

I Don't think It can beat all thirdgens air adam. Are we forgetting about the 89 TTA turbo trans am? I bet that thing will give it alotta trouble.

yeah, if I remember right, this one is still in near perfect condition but this one was a oneday listing sitting at 50 bucks, bidding war till $100 when it ended. sorry to get off topic

Small journal small blocks can be spun in excess of 10K rpm.

Plain and simple, the 302 is a dog on the street the way it came from the factory. Even with slicks, it is not that quick on the street. It shined on the road course for which it was designed. Its a high revving small block that didn't make any power down low. They were high 14 second cars, mid 14's with good tires. All you need to do is look at trap speeds to get an indication of how much power they truely had.

Most cars back then were 15 second. Only a small minority of cars ever went faster. And of that group, only a handful went 13.x second times. You'll find that most cars didn't break 100mph so even with good tires, would have only been in the 14's.

Too many stories have been made "truth" over the years. Nostalgia has warped reality when it comes to 60's cars. They can easily be made fast but most weren't fast from the get go.

That I knew, but in 38years I've never heard of anyone shifting any motor at 12 grand. I don't even know if Indy cars shift that high.

it can beat my thirdgen.
indy cars can spin all the way up to 22 grand. they dont have vavle springs the have valve airbags.

Na, they don't... they shift around 16 grand.

keep in mind though that all the 60's cars also had bias ply tires instead of todays radials

That still won't make some kind of incredible difference. Especially for a car with no TQ at launch. (or any real power before 3,500-4,000 RPM)

i bet if he got sticky tires he could pull of some 4 grand dumps well at least a few times anyway