Did anyone watch the History Channel IROC shootout tonight? I thought it was pretty cool. Two 88 IROC 350 TPI cars both got blowers, and exhaust. Best E.T was 13.2 on otherwise stock cars. I am sure they would have went into the twelve's with a few more tricks and better driving.

 

This is posted on almost every board. lol

Not surprised at the ET's. I ran a 13.85@103.8 on my 305 first time out with essentially the same mods. They could easily put those cars in the 12's, I'm going to be there soon myself. New in the box though, its not a cheap route... 3k+

 

I watched it, it was a pretty good show but kind of funny watching those people that never worked on our type of cars fondle everything like "whats this?" lol i think the show converted some import kids into domestic drivers. only reason the white car ran better was the 65lb kid driving it LOL

 

only reason the white car ran better was the 65lb kid driving it LOL

Too true, I thought it was because the white one was a hardtop !
I was impressed with the amount of power they made when they baselined them. I would be interested to find out where they got them, how much they paid and how many miles are on those two cars.

 

something tells me vortec will sell a few more superchargers this month I was really impressed that they got over 200 hp at the rear wheels. I think the red car lost because thay were trying to manually shift the 700r4 without a shift kit. I have always found the 700r4 was slower between shifts when you did that in stock form. plus the t-tops weren't helping them plant off the line either. kind of ticked me off when the kids were like "we might keep 'em" granted I am only 22 but still, those cars are just so sweet looking with the IROC wheels. I really liked the red one for looks out of the two, but you can prob. guess I like red

 

The Dyno told the whole story, the red car was probably beaten more or had more miles on it. thats why it dyno'ed i think 11hp less(207-196?) but yeah the old men didnt know how to shift it, i would have left it in D as well but i never driven a 700r4 before but see how they had that oil leak, they "inspected" the oil filter ring when obviously when they changed the oil the didnt bother looking at the rubber stuck to the block still and they screwed the new oil filter on and then it sprayed oil out! duh grooves in the oil filter, what a dumb cover up!

 

I missed it

 

I loved the cars on that show but that was about it. The people and especially the host brothers are complete tools. OMG if anyone listens to these guys to learn about how cars work their brains will explode. I almost had to put it on mute so I could just watch the cars and not have to listen to the CR@P coming out of those two's mouths.

 

Ok let me make this TPI related a little. Did anyone see the comparison they did between the stock ignition and the MSD ignition systems? I thought the stock HEI was supposed to be pretty good and we didnt' really need MSD boxes? You could clearly see the difference in the two setups in their demonstration. Do you think it was staged that way?

 

Hype.

 

I did notice the red box around the "test" area. It screams product promo from MSD. I think it’s true, but exaggerated.

 

I'm sure thinking about a MSD box........

 

Have any misfire? No? Dont waste your cash.

 

yeah the MSD is awesome....

 

It would've been a better challenge to race with only N/A tuning. A good set of heads, cam and exhaust should be able to get mid 13's. Kinda expected more with superchargers.

 

MSD seems a fairly common mod, but how about Paxton superchargers for the TPI? Check out the blown 92 Z28 Cam in the convertible section here, though not stock anymore, that's the king out of any seen on TV lately!!
Bill

 

I thought it was a great show! If the contenders knew free little tricks ie: Throttle Body Coolant Bypass, Mass Airflow descreened, removing front sway bars, or Torque Converter Lockup Switch, would have helped their timeslip/ET. It's very rare to have an IROC-Z28 showout especially on the History Channel. The show took me back to 1988; high school days, no responsibilities, no rents/mortgages, etc. I'm glad I recorded it on my old VCR. Now I need to have a 5.7TPI IROC-Z28.

 

i had to work so i missed it. i was woundering if anyone got it on video for the computer so it could be posted maybe?

 

Those two twins wouldn't know performance if it ran them the **** over, backed up onto their heads and did a stand through the first three on what was left.

That show sucked. From either a History standpoint or a performance standpoint. Equal cars? What was the gearing? And convenient that MSD provided them with a sales prop. I was shaking my head through almost the whole thing. Sure did help me decide that I won't be watching that show anymore. Maybe Alton Brown is on brewing some beer....

 

Red Devil, lighten up a little. I agree that the show was a little weak for us true enthusiasts, but I think that it defanitly opened up the eyes of everybody who watched it. I mean, did you see how tight those cars looked. There has been no better designed car in the last 20 years!!! The IROC's are the last hot rod. And now people are aware. Maybe their power was weak compared to today, but their looks were and are right in line with 1st gen models. I think the show was a great example of what you can do with a IROC. Maybe a little weak, but still how many other show's have done something with the ROC??

 

I liked the show. It could have been better, but it's not made for hard core gearheads. It definitely will get some people looking at Third Gens again.

I'm thinking the red car lost because of trying to shift it manually and probably had a weak transmission that was slipping.

If you think your stock HEI can compare to an aftermarket ignition, dream on. And if you think you don't need a better ignition if you don't have any mis-fires,

Good show, enjoyed it. I think that the white IROC pulled down the best E.T. of ANY cars they've built on Full Throttle.

 

Umm... no. If I relaxed anymore I'd be asleep.

"...no better designed car in the last 20 years..."

Umm... no.

And what was their best, 13.2? On boost? There are guys on this board that can go quicker with bolt ons on the stock shortblock n/a. No, that show sucked, the twins graduated from McDonalds Parking Lot Monkey-Spank University. Hell, even the watered down Rides goes more in depth. :shrug:

 

I missed it too

 

Id say 13.2 isnt bad at all for a bolted on supercharger and exhaust say they ran 14.8's stock thats over a second and a half with 2 mods and could easily be tuned into the 12's, one thing that would help greatly would be.......a TORQUE CONVETER! things sounded like a dog off the line, i think a 2500+ stall would get them into the 12's pretty good. but thats my

 

Show me dyno proof while you smack yourself on the head and in the wallet.

 

i tried using a tv tuner card and recording it on my computer but i forgot to hook up audio so no audio just video

anyone else record it on vhs or onto computer if on vhs mail me a copy and ill put it into digital form for other third genners to see

and yes i hated the guys who did that none of them had plans on keeping the iroc's ...wish they had done more work like some intake work super ram...cams somethin else to the motor

 

hmm, Red Devil, I thought I said lighten up not relax?

 

Nah Im with RD, That show made me want to puke with how completely inept the hosts are.

 

I captured the show to my computer that aired Wednesday night, Full Throttle-1988 IROC Z's. It is commercial free and 45 mins long. File size 198MB with a small resolution for quick downloading. Do not attempt full screen view, it will be disappointing. I don't have the bandwidth to make a high res version since it would be 600+MB and out of reach for non-broadband people anyway. PM me for a larger, better copy.

Right click, save target as.
Full Throttle-1988 IROC Z's (198MB)

 

Nice video.

Too much BS about Camaros and IROC and all that stuff, should have showed some more car stuff.

Heck, they should have let some people that knew what they were doing mess with the cars.

"Leave it in 2nd a little longer"

It's a TPI, are you nuts?!

Maybe a FI vs Carb or something...

Either way, way better than seeing a show with 2 Hondas

 

I don't even see the point of the show. They give two teams the same exact car, and tell them to do the same exact mods. Now race them... Why not just race them in stock for then? I don't get it.

And you could completely tell the two kids had no idea what they were doing. Tuning sport compacts? I doubt they've done anything besides a muffler and tail lights. And they'll think about keeping them... idiots.

 

I totally agree with 5speedGTA. The show has no point. I think it would have been better if they gave both teams $3,000 and told them to buy whatever mods they wanted and then raced the cars against each other. That would be a lot better then just building to identically modded cars.

 

Hmmm....what could I do to a 350TPI for $3 grand? Heads/cam/headers/intake? Or BBS Designs turbo setup.

The possibilities!

 

Exactly. You said it....the possibilities. That would be so much fun to watch 2 teams thumb through catologs and stuff and figure out what they canbuy to get there car to run faster then the others teams' car on the same budget.

 

Well, I think I mentioned in the History section, more video from us enthusiests to sell or trade, on many espects of ownership, is a worthy additional idea for the site, and why not have those cable producers look into sites like these for ideas, if not the printed media?
The mention I allude to starting this off with is History Channel's namesake celebration of the Automobile, at the time, 100 years in motoring I believe. It competed with Driving Passion on TBS but it had particular segments and the most interesting being Firebirds' inception under John Delorean, the man I feel brought us that car. There was the later segment on the 20th Anniversary 1989 Firebird that won kudos across the board. I agree, not the more advanced car of it's time (the 88 mentioned above), but F cars (Camaros and Birds) got the prime handmedown developments of the king of GM, the Eldorado...er, hmmm hehe, the Corvette, lest we forget.
Robert Dorn is one man at GM during the 80s who worked on Cadillac and Pontiac engineering and a man I have no doubt helped make the Tuned Port a wonder of the push-rod 80s V8
Bill

 

I didn't see this episode but I've seen other ones before it. Everyone on there seems to have no idea what they're doing and usually the guys can't drive.

But on the flipside at least there were some thirdgens on the air that weren't in primer, getting crashed, etc. They also ran a descent time, maybe not the best but alright.

I wateched one earlier where they worked on a 240Z (might have been a 280Z) and ran a 22! I think the winning ET was in the 17s. And yes this was in the quarter mile.

 

Twenty-two seconds? Were they proud of their 17-second run? Goodness, my old 2.8 beater could probably do better then that - and it was terribly out of tune! I didn't see it (no TV at home) but I'll go and download the saved portion (Thank you! If all I do is laugh, thank you anyway!) and watch to see what these kids did. I like the same budget-same car idea. Two (heck, even three or four) teams competing with the same car and the same budget. Maybe one does an LT1 swap, another does a stroked L98 or something, the third guys carb theirs and the fourth decided to use juice and suspension stuff, and they all have a shot-out. But no one wins a car, it's jsut to demonstrate different ways of tackling the same problem. Dunno, unless someone decides to do that on their own and try to sell the idea to Speed Channel or whoever, it'll never see air time. I can dream, though.

 

Hot Rod featured one that was stripped and reworked a few times, but in this case, it was a white and black Firebird Formua akin to mine that had T-tops and was SLP enhensed, This Bird ran 11 seconds, or close to. I recall, while I can't find the magazine, I saved pics of the cover and it was brought up here before so the idea these cars can't run much better then stock with 1K or more invested, I think it's absurd.
Largely these cars become just fodder for shows like Fear Factor to launch repeatedly until the salvage yard awaits.
-B

 

Anyone know what kind of dyno they ran the car on? seemed portale and probably fairly cheap.