My V8 Pickup Truck is Faster Than Any 4 Cylinder Car Could Ever Be

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

The thought had occurred to me, but I looked it up and that was 2014 :) I think the new Penskes might be a scootch slower than the (illegally) revalved Bilsteins on a single lap, but they're a lot more consistent.

Still, the point stands. A little four cylinder import that's 20-25 years old with a (ahem) stock engine and some good tires and shocks would run away and hide from those V8s in the test.

That Camaro had 165 horsepower.  Ooh.  My 82 had the low performance 145 horse v8.  I put up with it for six months before I slid a 260H cam, and an edelbrock intake.  Still slow, but it would pull 6000rpm, instead of falling on its face at 3200. 

Lap time, I wonder what percentage lap time improvement is weight, vs horsepower, vs tires.  Goodyear Eagle GTs were not.  Not. Not a high performance tire.

Ooh.  And brakes.  A set of Hawk Blues would have been berkeleying magic in 1984.

Let's be honest, all modern vehicles are much faster than the 30-40-50 year old equivalents.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

None of us here are surprised the Miata is faster, although it is a LOT faster. But the general public might not expect a little hairdresser car to run away and hide from a V8 Porsche or a V8 Camero. Which is kinda what this thread is about. 

ShawnG said:

Like people who believe that 60s / 70s pony / muscle cars are still fast cars.

 

Yeah, and it was a HUGE deal for the manufacturers of those cars when a motor made the magical 1hp/cubic inch...and that was back when horsepower was measured with a much more favorable "gross" hp.

And now, grocery-getters have been doing that for generations on lower octane and much more stringent measuring regulations.  
Time and technology march on.

My '93 Lightning pickup was fast when it came out, because it could skirt some of the emissions laws back then. Today, it's a big fat nothing aside from an interesting piece of history. 

I do find it pretty hilarious that it was faster than Chevy's SS454 back then.

My Yukon and my Civic use the same turbo. Civic is faster. Yukon tows better. 

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

None of us here are surprised the Miata is faster, although it is a LOT faster. But the general public might not expect a little hairdresser car to run away and hide from a V8 Porsche or a V8 Camero. Which is kinda what this thread is about. 

What would your ancestors say if they knew you made a living suppling parts to people who drive a hairdressers car?

Oh the shame.

Tom1200 said:

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

None of us here are surprised the Miata is faster, although it is a LOT faster. But the general public might not expect a little hairdresser car to run away and hide from a V8 Porsche or a V8 Camero. Which is kinda what this thread is about. 

What would your ancestors say if they knew you made a living suppling parts to people who drive a hairdressers car?

Oh the shame.

I don't have that kind of ancestors :) Although they did think my mom was nuts when she bought a brand new MGB in 1963 as her first car. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her, her future husband was ripping around in a Bugeye that belonged to his father. They then toured around Europe on a Vespa.

So yeah, ancestors are okay with it.

Coniglio Rampante said:

ShawnG said:

Like people who believe that 60s / 70s pony / muscle cars are still fast cars.

 

Yeah, and it was a HUGE deal for the manufacturers of those cars when a motor made the magical 1hp/cubic inch...and that was back when horsepower was measured with a much more favorable "gross" hp.

And now, grocery-getters have been doing that for generations on lower octane and much more stringent measuring regulations.  
Time and technology march on.

 

When a friend bought a new base model Focus with the direct injected 2l four, I pointed out that it made 25 more horsepower than the 302 in his first car and probably got 2-3x better fuel economy.  

In hindsight, the Focus also had more interior room.  The front seats practically touched the rears in a late 70s Thunderbird.

ddavidv said:

My '93 Lightning pickup was fast when it came out, because it could skirt some of the emissions laws back then. Today, it's a big fat nothing aside from an interesting piece of history. 

I do find it pretty hilarious that it was faster than Chevy's SS454 back then.

The Lightning, by fuzzy recollection, had a Lightning specific 351W (er, 5.8).

The 454SS, however, was just a one ton truck engine in a half-ton truck with pinstripes and wheels.

A lot of "old" cars can be made a bit quicker with updated igntion (not points) modern tires and modern gas shocks.

In the end, fun is more important to me than fast.

And whats the measurement of fast? Top speed? 1/4 mile? 0-60? A road course lap?

Was it a 1974 Corvette that came with the hysterical 454?  Both chassis balance and horsepower in that car perfectly underscored all of the automotive realities of the time:  absolute perfection.  Nothing these days comes close.  

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The hairdresser comments about Miatas always make me laugh.

I think I've put the fear of the afterlife in more passengers with Miatas than any other car I've driven on track.

In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :

Points are fine up to about 5500rpm.

Most stock machines that used them ran out of breath at 4500.

Points are just fine and are a hell of a lot more reliable than Pertronix and their garbage.

ShawnG said:

In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :

Points are fine up to about 5500rpm.

Most stock machines that used them ran out of breath at 4500.

Points are just fine and are a hell of a lot more reliable than Pertronix and their garbage.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

The only argument I would have, is the quality of points and condensers available these days.  Poo, in many cases.

This reminds me of an incident about 22 years ago but not with a V8 truck, it involved a 1996-2002 Pontiac Firebird WS6. You remember the ones with the quadruple opening, ram-air hood? Longer story warning...at the time I owned a 1995 Ford Ford Es cort (Ford E s c o r t...keeps changing to econobox) GT that I had modified using the turbo and manifold from a Mazda 323 GTX. It really wasn't anything special with a crush bent 2.5" exhaust. Ignition was slightly advanced (14 degrees) and under boost, it was retarded using a Jacob's Boost Timing Master if my memory serves me. It also had larger injectors (RX7?) and I learned an Apex'i S-AFC could be used in conjunction with an MAP sensor wired in place of the throttle position input wires to reduce fuel enough to make the OBD2 ECU happy during idle and cruise conditions yet provide enough fuel for 14 psi on the small, VJ-20/21 turbo. It was a low 14s, ~100 mph quarter mile car. I only raced it one night on an Akron Ohio drag strip against a friend's, unmodified Ford Econobox GT. I wasn't launching hard because I had to drive 13-14 hours home the next day. I think it ran 14.3 seconds at 97 mph which was more than 2.5 seconds faster than my friend's E-GT.

Anyway, I was living in NE Ohio and dating a women in Erie, PA that I met on Yahoo Personals, LOL! One day I was on my way to meet her when I remembered there was an upcoming interchange, a fun 270 clover leaf. I was planning on pushing harder through the turn and accelerating WOT down the long ramp onto the next highway. I'd guess 14 psi gave me ~225 HP (engine rating, maybe 200 WHP). Unfortunately, as I approached the clover leaf I saw a minivan signaling to take that exit. It was pokey slow, ~25 mph through the turn. I stayed back knowing I could easily pass at the end of the on ramp.

Sometime between entering the exit lane and the long on ramp, I noticed a red flash coming up hard in my rear view mirror. I waited patiently for the white double line to end and I signaled and moved over behind the van checking traffic and signaling again. I wasn't WOT, not near full boost but not poking along finally clear of the van. As I was signaling my second lane change the red car caught up and made an extremely early lane change thinking he could blast down the longer on ramp and jump around both of us. I saw that I was in his way, downshifted and hit 14 psi pushing as hard as my little 1.8 4-cylinder could go. Mr V8 braked slightly and by the time he got back on the gas, realized I was pulling away and he wasn't able to catch up and push me along. I must have hit 85-90 mph as I signaled to move back over. Mr V8 blasted past probably hitting 100+.

I wasn't racing, just bad timing on his part put me in a bad position and traffic was light. I drove calmly to my exit and what do you know, the WS6 took the same exit and I ended up one car length ahead of him in the left of two left turn lanes. He revved to the limiter and seemed frustrated. My car was a darker green, not quite seafoam green but it had one of those cheasy, 90's vinyl graphics down teach side of the car (purchased used, came on the car as a dealer option). You might remember the blue/green "JAZZ" design that was common on paper cups? That was on the side of my car so there was no mistaking me. As the light turned green, Mr. V8 again revved near or to redline and tried to shift into 1st gear before engine speed dropped resulting in loud grinding noises. As I pulled away with the windows down I burst into loud laughter.

Mr. V8 was upset my little Ford Ford Econobox was a close match in power/weight. For not having an O2 clamp and piggyback fuel/spark controllers, plus a poor quality exhaust (no shops wanted touch it, "need back pressure or you'll burn valves"), that car was quite the sleeper. Another time driving through Chicago in the middle of the night, an SRT4 and Saturn Ion Redline were racing, holding up traffic. I was tired after 7+ hours and wanted to get around and away from them. Once they noticed my Ford Econobox was able to keep up they wouldn't leave me alone. I sold that car around 2007 and missed having a turbo until 2019. Now my highly modified, soon to be ~275 WHP Mazdaspeed MX-5 fills that void!

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I started buying Mallory condensers if I had a failed OEM unit.

Otherwise NOS units from the swap meet.

New condensers from the usual brands are so bad that I have a good condenser with alligator clips that I use for diagnostic. 

Car runs poorly, clip it to the distributor terminal and ground, go for a drive. Having multiples in the system won't affect anything and will tell you right away if the one that's in there is bad.

My '66 Falcon project engine came with a Petronix already installed. In the process of setting the timing, it went up in smoke.

The car now has points. 

A good trick I use is having the points trigger a Ford TFI module.

The diagram is online.

Points last nearly forever and if the module fails, you swap two wires and drive home on points.

In reply to ShawnG :

Once more, I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Tom1200 said:

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

None of us here are surprised the Miata is faster, although it is a LOT faster. But the general public might not expect a little hairdresser car to run away and hide from a V8 Porsche or a V8 Camero. Which is kinda what this thread is about. 

What would your ancestors say if they knew you made a living suppling parts to people who drive a hairdressers car?

Oh the shame.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

No have 220hp V8 truck...........drives 350hp turbo 4 banger, bring great shame upon the tribe. LOL

ShawnG said:

A good trick I use is having the points trigger a Ford TFI module.

The diagram is online.

Points last nearly forever and if the module fails, you swap two wires and drive home on points.

Thats interesting! Never seen that done. Here I was just swapng in a HEI distributor.

In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :

I've heard about people triggering ignition modules with points for close to 30 years   Apparently the Chrysler module was the real popular guy in part because it didn't need to be mounted to a heat sink to function the way HEI modules did.

The people who have done it reported that the points are basically immortal once they are no longer required to pass high current, although I would imagine the rubbing block can still wear out.

This method was used to bring electronic ignition not only to car engines that never had an electronic ignition option, but also to motorcycles that originally had points.  Neat idea, there.