600 hp 62 corvette

[Craig F.]

Re: 600 hp 62 corvette

I've read this post and the comments several times and just have to respond. I have a 65 that I have owned for 30+ years and when I bought the car it was very well used with the 365hp parts in boxes. Being much younger at the time I put the stock parts aside and built a SB400 4bolt block and cut no corners on the short block using the best parts. Heads are Darts with careful attention to matching all ports and with a victor Jr and a 750 Holley it's at 475/480 lb ft and with a 4 speed and 4:11's the car is a blast to drive but it is a handful. I don't drive it real hard anymore because the body on the car is it's high point so now that I'm older and I hope wiser I really appreciate the car and it's history.
Now as for frame flexing I can say for a fact that on concrete from a 2nd gear punch the interior door lights would flash, so the car is clearly not able to handle that amount of torque at all it's just more than you should expect it to take and I'm about 100 HP less than the C1.
Everyone has their own idea of what makes a car fun to drive and I'm hooked on the torque from this big inch SB but at the same time pushing close to 500hp on the street with all other components stock, I have no interest in more or taking the risk of twisting up a great classic.

[Gene M.]

Re: 600 hp 62 corvette

...and NCRS guys never start with a vintage tag and build a car around it!

I’m sure that occurs. Pretty often one hears of two cars being combined to produce one that now has the desireable options and color combination with tags that are real GM but not necessarily from said car. Case in point a red/red high optioned car with high horse big block. The acceptance of removed tag and reinstalled and restamped pads has opened up all kinds of fabricated cars.

[Gene M.]

Re: 600 hp 62 corvette

I would believe 600hp with a 383 and big heads. All hinges on the cam but definitely possible. Not too tough to make approx 1.5hp/CI. Anyway, you should be considering a roll cage for safety if the car is going to see decent race duty and that will go a long way toward stiffening the chassis. I would bet that is largely all you would need in terms of frame strengthening. It mostly depends on whether you plan to race with slicks. The problem with twisting chassis almost always result from cars run with big tires that hook at the line. I have a boss 572 making 840 hp 720 ft/lbs tq in a 69 Mustang without a roll cage with only frame connectors (remember that's a unibody car!) and I have never had a problem with twisting but I have only run it with drag radials and they don't hook quite as well as true slicks.

Isn’t a roll cage required for anything under 11 seconds?

[Michael L.]

Re: 600 hp 62 corvette

That's the old rules. As factory cars have gotten faster and faster the rules have been pushed down. Not exactly sure where the cutoff is now but I wouldn't be surprised if its been pushed down to 10:50 or even 9.99 or even lower. Nowadays a little tweaking on factory supercharged cars and they're in the 10's. Jeez even a Tesla does low 11's and my mother can probably do those numbers in that car!

Mike

[Michael L.]

Re: 600 hp 62 corvette

That's the old rules. As factory cars have gotten faster and faster the rules have been pushed down. Not exactly sure where the cutoff is now but I wouldn't be surprised if its been pushed down to 10:50 or even 9.99 or even lower. Nowadays a little tweaking on factory supercharged cars and they're in the 10's. Jeez even a Tesla does low 11's and my mother can probably do those numbers in that car!

Mike

Was curious after that last post about the need for roll cages so I looked it up. Here is an article from 2013 that discusses the rule change on roll cages:

http://www.dragzine.com/news/nhra-amends-roll-barcage-rules-for-08-later-street-vehicles/