AngryCorvair wrote:curtis73 wrote: Kinda like getting into boxing as a hobby. I don't need to train hard or earn titles, sometimes its just fun to legally punch someone in the face under the guise of fitness.Say What?!
You heard me 
AngryCorvair wrote:curtis73 wrote: Kinda like getting into boxing as a hobby. I don't need to train hard or earn titles, sometimes its just fun to legally punch someone in the face under the guise of fitness.Say What?!
You heard me
BoxheadTim wrote:z31maniac wrote: That video frightened me. I can't imagine doing a hill climb in anything less than a fully caged vehicle.I've actually been up that road at slightly more legal speeds. There are something "interesting" tire marks on that road. Believe it or not, this is the easier road up to Virginia City. I'd love to take part in it but I'm not sure if they'll let me in with a reasonably mundane vehicle as it's organised by the Ferrari club.
Yah, they mostly do big bucks stuff. Kind of blows after the Audi Club quit.
And yah, Geiger Grade is an epic road. Reno to VC is nuts.
curtis73 wrote:StevenFV19 wrote:Not sure what your intention is in this post ? I may be just reading it the wrong way. Never said I owned a 1500 hp car, but in my type of hobby (hotrodding) building 700 hp isn't that expensive. When you start with a $50 500ci engine from a 76 caddy its not hardcurtis73 wrote: I've drag raced 1500 hp and had a few 500-600 hp street cars before, just never had the experience of going fender-to-fender before.Before you're sliding backwards into a wall... If you have the money to built/buy that much horsepower get an IT car or FV then work your way up. Drag racing and having a street car is pretty incomparable to road racing. Good Luck, StevenYour type of experience is exactly what I need. I know very little about racing. I do have a great deal of experience with building and driving very high performance cars. I'm not rich... I don't own these cars. I worked at a hotrod shop where I built and designed these type of cars. I would just like to translate my desire to USE a high performance car as it was designed to be used in a controlled, legal, safer environment instead of on the street where I'll kill people and go to jail. Y'all should be proud of me
There are a couple problems with this approach. A 700 hp car for drag racing or the street just needs to not blow up during short bursts of accelleration.
A 700 hp road racer needs 700 hp worth of cooling (large money, very difficult) that will stand up to half an hour of intense beating, 700 hp worth of brakes (very, very large money), 700 hp worth of not blowing up while getting hammered for 30 minutes straight, 700 hp worth of tires (big money and you'll be using a lot of them) and 700 hp worth of drivetrain that won't get too hot (large money).
There's a reason these cars only make 400 hp.
Oh, and you'll learn a lot more about car control/lines/braking technique in something with less power.
If you want a fast racecar that won't suffer from the problems mentioned above, I'd think light weight and 250 hp. A 250 hp CRX will definitely keep you excited, for example. If you want something hot roddy, I would go with something like a Factory Five with a mild 302. Those cars weigh very little and a 300 hp 302 would give you all day reliability.
MrBenjamonkey wrote: There are a couple problems with this approach. A 700 hp car for drag racing or the street just needs to not blow up during short bursts of accelleration. A 700 hp road racer needs 700 hp worth of cooling (large money, very difficult) that will stand up to half an hour of intense beating, 700 hp worth of brakes (very, very large money), 700 hp worth of not blowing up while getting hammered for 30 minutes straight, 700 hp worth of tires (big money and you'll be using a lot of them) and 700 hp worth of drivetrain that won't get too hot (large money). If you want a fast racecar that won't suffer from the problems mentioned above, I'd think light weight and 250 hp. A 250 hp CRX will definitely keep you excited, for example. If you want something hot roddy, I would go with something like a Factory Five with a mild 302. Those cars weigh very little and a 300 hp 302 would give you all day reliability.
If you shop right the biggest problem will be tires. Second hand race parts are all over. Since the chassis is being built from scratch set it up for Nascar style brakes, pick up used ones and pop in some new o-rings. Used pumps and coolers for the trans and rear are easy enough to find as well. I've been collecting parts for my Monte for a while and nothing I have so far has been too expensive.
It's your money, build what you want. My car is probably going to be way beyond my driving skill and either I'll figure it out or I won't, but it should be fun to try.
Well, it's really going to depend on the type of hill-climbs you want to do... but on the PAHC courses (lined with trees, rocks and maybe a laughable excuse for a guard rail), a novice in a 700HP car would be... entertaining... hopefully, your life insurance is paid up.
Put it this way, experienced drivers can do a pretty good job of scaring the crap out of themselves in 70 hp cars...
But seriously... you've been on these forums for how long? And you're really suggesting this?
2002maniac wrote: Make sure you have a stout rollcage and keep your gopro rolling.
I'd agree with this. It's not for "if" you crash, it's for "when" you crash. Expect a wreck. This is how my car ended the season at a hillclimb. It was about 100 or so feet from the road.
I had just got the car race ready too....didn't even have my camera set up yet. The wrecks are serious. Make sure the cage is built by rally guidelines. Hitting trees and rocks is different than hitting a retaining wall or another car....so special design considerations are warranted.
Ian F wrote: But seriously... you've been on these forums for how long? And you're really suggesting this?
We need a :slaphead: or a :sigh: smilie.
I appreciate your concerns, but many of you have to remember that you come from racing E30s, miatas, and CRXs where 200 hp is really smokin. :)
When it comes to 700 hp, you all seem to cringe and think its a crazy, unreliable, race-only thing. We're dealing with a 67 LeMans on a fully-fabricated road-race chassis. This isn't some CarCraft magazine lets-see-how-redneck-we-can-get-going-fast project. This will be my 6th vehicle over 500 hp, so while 200 hp in an E30 spec car is adequate, I don't need you guys worrying about me in a 700 hp car. I'm a big boy
A 700 hp road racer needs 700 hp worth of cooling (large money, very difficult) that will stand up to half an hour of intense beating, 700 hp worth of brakes (very, very large money), 700 hp worth of not blowing up while getting hammered for 30 minutes straight, 700 hp worth of tires (big money and you'll be using a lot of them) and 700 hp worth of drivetrain that won't get too hot (large money).
Handled, handled, handled, and handled. From you guys' perspective, it seems like a huge insurmountable and unrealistic goal, but in the world of big-cube V8s its as easy as taking a dump... and a very large wallet :) I'm not a noob at driveline engineering. 16" Wilwoods, a shortblock that can easily handle 1200+ hp at 7000 RPM for days on end, and enough cubes that it will actually be pretty mild compared to some of my builds. A TNET1247 T56 with about $3000 worth of upgrades will back it up along with either a D60 or 9" rear. Think of it this way. The 700 hp will be coming from 541 cubic inches. If I wanted to, I could actually give it a fairly smooth idle with careful LSA selection and timing curves. I built a similar Caddy 500 that made 781 hp that had enough vacuum to run power brakes and it sipped 91 octane. Yes, 700 hp is a lot to cool on the street or the track, but when you start out with 31" x 20" of cooling frontal area and more than enough space for a 4-row radiator, cooling 700 hp is dirt simple. For that matter, cooling 1200 hp is dirt simple.
hopefully, your life insurance is paid up
and if I were worried about being competetive and winning trophies I would be pushing the car and myself at its safety limits. But since I'm not, it will be nice to have a car that I can use to learn and that I won't outgrow.
If you shop right the biggest problem will be tires. Second hand race parts are all over. Since the chassis is being built from scratch set it up for Nascar style brakes, pick up used ones and pop in some new o-rings. Used pumps and coolers for the trans and rear are easy enough to find as well. I've been collecting parts for my Monte for a while and nothing I have so far has been too expensive. It's your money, build what you want. My car is probably going to be way beyond my driving skill and either I'll figure it out or I won't, but it should be fun to try.
Thank you, benjamonkey. This is the attitude and help I was hoping for on a GRM forum 
. I understand you are all trying to be constructive, caring, and trying to steer me clear of pitfalls, but I really do have a good bit of experience with building (and driving) massively high hp cars. Its the racing part I don't know.
Oh.. and when your best friend's wife's last name is Toyo and is an exec for the company, R888s only cost $12 each for shipping 
So far its been a really cheap project since most of it is still in the "forum research" stage. So far I have:
-brand new, never filled TNET1247, heavily modified. Total investment about $3600. this was originally for another project that never happened. - 67 LeMans, complete, $250 with free rust - Caddy 500 core, complete intake to pan, traded for a 350 block I bought for $50
The rest is expensive, but I have time. I also have saved searches on CL and eBay for parts I need so I can snag them cheap on my schedule instead of retail.
I think people here are looking out for you a bit. Of all the things I have done with a car, a hillclimb is by far the most dangerous, and this includes circle track, drag racing and road racing, as well as autocrosses etc.
I've also driven a lot of fast cars, including 800 plus hp monsters, and one thing you need to worry about is getting the power to the ground and having that power manageable. It's not even remotely the same as drag racing as you have the front end to worry about too. It's easy to over power both ends of the car with a poor set up and lots of hp, and it's easy to get hurt that way too.
We had one of the best in the sport get killed at our hill climb a couple of years ago. It doesn't take much of an error to get you hurt doing this, and the more hp you have, the faster things happen, and the harder the car is to set up.
The biggest problem I've seen with people starting out with a high hp car is knowing what the car is really doing. They tend to mask the chassis problems with hp driving errors. So my biggest suggestion is to take whatever car you have and start out autocrossing it, then go to a few track events. Get the suspension dialed in and get comfortable with the car LONG before you show it to a hill.
To answer your original question, register for the forums at hillclimb.org. We have several people that run V8 power, in modified as well as "classic" cars. They'll give you the straight answer. Profile says you live in Texas. What hill climbs are you shooting to compete in?
We're not worrying about the car handling all the horsepower, we're worrying about the driver.
Steven
racerdave600 wrote: I think people here are looking out for you a bit. Of all the things I have done with a car, a hillclimb is by far the most dangerous, and this includes circle track, drag racing and road racing, as well as autocrosses etc.
Gotcha... not that I'm an idiot for building this car, just that maybe a hillclimb isn't the best for an amateur. Check
Profile says you live in Texas. What hill climbs are you shooting to compete in?
< sarcasm > one of the thousands of large mountains we have here in "hill country" < /sarcasm >
Really hadn't thought that far ahead, just looked like fun. I do a lot of travelling between TX and PA, TX and ONT, and TX and CA so I figured I could maybe incorporate some of those areas. Every once in a while I get up to the Seattle area - hillclimbs are pretty common up there from what I hear.
That's just what a hillclimb event needs - the foggy, rainy weather of the pacific NW
StevenFV19 wrote: We're not worrying about the car handling all the horsepower, we're worrying about the driver. Steven
Yep. Concern is really the correct word. More like amusement. If there's one thing I've learned during my meager and limited motorsports career, it's that nothing - NOTHING - you can do on the street will prepare you for driving a car in a competitive venue.
I have to think I'm not the only one who's looking at this thread and going, "WTF did this come from?"... I could understand this coming from some noob looking to troll... but from somebody who's been on this forum for a couple of years now?
I'm reminded of that old youtube video of a guy trying to get his heavily modified Mustang around a tight time trail course... eventually planting it into a hedge.
In my few times with my 96 Impala SS at the autocross, I've eaten my share of cones (and a parking curb once because a loose brake reservoir cap let all my fluid slosh out)
I'm glad I'm a member here. You guys have broadened my brain a LOT on things other than muscle cars.
Ok... now imagine a situation where the speeds are much higher and the consequence more dire... and you want more hp? 
To use your boxing analogy, driving a 700 hp car on the street is like sparring with your friend. Driving a 700 hp on a hillclimb when you've never road raced before is like challenging both Klitschko brothers simultaneously to a death match.
I've driven a 650 hp Camaro in autocross and on the street with no problems. I would want nothing to do with it on a hill climb though, and I'd almost certainly be faster in a 250 hp E30 anyway.
In reply to MrJoshua: Who was driving? I ask because a sequence of stall, grass, almost losing it on the brakes, grass again, missing the line by a mile, almost hitting an SUV doesn't seem very Rod Millen-ish to me.
In reply to MrBenjamonkey:
Couldn't tell you. The video title claims it's Millen. The wet roads and the stupid Range Rover being in the braking zone probably didn't help much.
This Video of Millen in the Celica on dry roads at the same location is a bit less dodgy. (Still a shaky start)
Ian F wrote: Ok... now imagine a situation where the speeds are much higher and the consequence more dire... and you want more hp?
Um... I plead the 5th on the grounds that my answer might tend to incriminate me.
MrBenjamonkey wrote: To use your boxing analogy, driving a 700 hp car on the street is like sparring with your friend. Driving a 700 hp on a hillclimb when you've never road raced before is like challenging both Klitschko brothers simultaneously to a death match.
'Nuff said. Hillclimb = not a brand of racing for the amateur. I like the analogy :)
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