[jman050]

Originally Posted by shotgunslade

John:

What is really interesting is that the vaunted muscle cars of the late 60's are middle of the pack these days. The stock '65 GTO Tri-power with 360 hp had a tested quarter mile of only a little less than 15 secs, and a 0-60 just over 6 secs. Your numbers for the 396 Chevelle and the Dodge are only a little bit faster. Young Tom's quarter in his ebony at 14.5 sec's puts him right up there. The 14.9 he did in my car (claimed he didn't want to abuse it) puts it right in there with the GTO. Current day custom muscle cars, (Mustangs with with 500 hp crate engines and/or nitrous) with their 11+ sec quarters, are in a different universe from the '60's cars.

Of equal interest to me is "fastest on a road course." The SVX is pretty good, but not great. The Panoz I drove at racing school, with R-Compounds obviously was better. The GT3 I rode in at Summit Point, also with R-comps was phenomenal. Lateral acceleration to the point that holding your head straight was more than difficult. After a couple of laps, I found myself tilting my head and wedging it against the roll cage just above the passenger door. That way, I had support on left turns, and my head was tilted enough to mitigate the side forces on the right turns.

As for top speed, I do know my SVX is happy and stable at 125. It probably still had some left at that point. I was at about 6500rpm in 4th. The fastest I've ever driven has to be the Panoz at 135 mph.

although i do agree with you that the majority of old school muscle cars werent that fast in reality, I remember reading an article some time back online that cars like 72 chevelle SS 454 and a few other select cars had the capability to run low 13's to high 12s stock on good drag radials or slicks....most of their poor acceleration numbers were due to bad rubber and tons of down low torque.