I didn't read all the comments but in case no one already mentioned it the 2026 Corvette ZR1X might be a consideration. It is said to be the quickest American production car ever made. Zero to 60 in 1.68 seconds, 8.675 quarter mile at 159 mph. It is not a 500 cubic inch behemoth but it would sure plaster you back in the seat.
Sports car dreams
- Thread starter Diogenes
- Start date
Texas Proud
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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You can always go for comfort also... not quite the HP you want but is a 600 CI...
www.thedrive.com
9.9L Lingenfelter Suburban POV: Behind the Wheel of the Ultimate Sleeper SUV
You can hear the roar and almost feel the rumble of the Suburban 2500 with a massive V8 in this POV video.
www.thedrive.com
Kings over Queens
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I am not a car guy, not going to fix it, or maintain it my self. I'll wash it, that's about it.
I do pine for a mint Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am. Those were popular when I was 17 and my first car.
If I were to go modern, a new mid engine vette does it.
Not likely I'll get either of them. I don't have a garage, and my wife pointed and laughed at me when we looked at the vette. "You look ridiculous in that." /walks away kicking rocks/
I do pine for a mint Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am. Those were popular when I was 17 and my first car.
If I were to go modern, a new mid engine vette does it.
Not likely I'll get either of them. I don't have a garage, and my wife pointed and laughed at me when we looked at the vette. "You look ridiculous in that." /walks away kicking rocks/
Asabino
Recycles dryer sheets
I've always dreamt of one and bought when I retired in '06 at the ripe old age of 46. Truthfully, the aesthetics was beautiful, good ride, nice handling. However, barely any room for golf clubs. You couldn't bring anyone to go play. Long drives were painfully rough since it's a sports car. Parking the car was annoying. AND maintenance was sure expensive-- I had the money but sure thought it was just a waste. I also got paranoid being targeted for having a "high profile". After 2 or 3 yrs, I got rid of it.
From time to time I'll see a Porsche 911 and faintly remember my 911.
Al18
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Maple Motors has a 1968 Pontiac Firebird ProStreet Maple Motors Inc. - Hendersonville, TN
Diogenes
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Pretty car. Looks like a T5 or a Muncie transmission, behind a mild 350... even has (apparently) factory cast iron heads. Once again, I mean no negativity towards anyone's tastes or choices, but personally I'd want something with a lot more "oomph" and a lot more effort at weight reduction.
Not my choice of engine (I really want that 4.6" bore, 4.5" stroke low-deck big block Chevy, topped by a single 1200 cfm 4-barrel!), but apart from that, something more like this: Coyote-Powered And Gunnin For 9's: Bondo Bird Is A Purist's Nightmare . He runs in the mid-10s, and has put zero emphasis on cosmetics.
ls99
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Geez, I thought my 99 suburban with factory 7.4 engine was pretty hot stuff. Same color 2500 SLT.You can always go for comfort also... not quite the HP you want but is a 600 CI...
9.9L Lingenfelter Suburban POV: Behind the Wheel of the Ultimate Sleeper SUV
You can hear the roar and almost feel the rumble of the Suburban 2500 with a massive V8 in this POV video.
BTW with no load, they have near perfect 50/50 weight distribution.
4.1 locking differential, it does move out if mashed on the pedal.
Love mine.
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freedomatlast
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How about an LS swap in a Miata? Kits with just everything you need are available for the swap. That would be a little easier than a tube chassis 70's Japanese compact swap.
ArmchairMillionaire
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According to some...
Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer.
If an LS will fit, somebody could figure out how to stuff the ZZ572 in one.
jsncpa
Recycles dryer sheets
I recommend that folks with no house or garage buy a house with a garage before considering a $200k+ car.
Diogenes
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A stock-ish 1991 Miata is my daily driver. Ripped top, no HVAC, approaching (knock on wood) a quarter million miles. Driven in Los Angeles stop-and-go, even in the rain. I've had the battery die multiple times, and the engine die because the idle control valve-thingy is failing. Apparently the ECU doesn't "sense" the idle rpm until after some fraction of a second delay, so that if the auxiliary idle control circuit is malfunctioning, the engine dies, even if the "normal" closed loop operation of the ECU is fine (via oxygen sensor and MAF). If moving, I restart the engine by popping the clutch. If parked, I have to get out and push, then jump inside and pop the clutch. Yes, I have literally done that in traffic. Did I mention my crummy mechanic-skills, especially with "modern" electronics?According to some...
Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer.
If an LS will fit, somebody could figure out how to stuff the ZZ572 in one.
I've been seriously looking at LS-swapped Miatas or RX-7s (prefer the FC version of the latter). The LS is light enough, even with a T-56, that the added weight is modest, and weight distribution isn't ruinous. A big block wouldn't work without firewall setback... doable, but that's an elaborate chassis jig project, requiring cutting off the front clip and welding-in what amounts to a roll cage... cutting the floorpan and then stitching everything back together. Also would need diagonals tying-in from the dash bar through the firewall to the front strut towers.
LS-swapped Miatas do OK with subframe over-riders basically bolted through the floor boards. A bit janky, but proven. The rubric (there are kits for things like a K-member etc.) is to cut connectors between the front "frame rails" and firewall, welding-in patches.... look like a stress concentration to me, but again, they seem to work, and one can't argue with practical success, can one? So, it remains an option. Then I'd need to figure out how to pass California smog check with a post-1973 car!
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Car-Guy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Very cool car. AWD with well over 1000hp from a 5.5 V8 flat plane crank plus another almost 200 hp from an electric assist motor. Not bad if you can get one since less than 2500 are planned to be built over the next few years. Price tag, >$200k.
Cortina
Recycles dryer sheets
I suspect the desirable HP / Torque AND the Weight , are actually mutually exclusive in real life.
I'm planning to do something similar , BUT it's a vehicle which I believe was never sold in the USA. Porsche SUV with a V8 4.2 litre diesel engine ... giving 860Nm of torque , AND an achievable 40 mpg driven sensibly. (yes , those would be UK gallons). Only made between 2013 and 2017 .... are you green ?
I'm planning to do something similar , BUT it's a vehicle which I believe was never sold in the USA. Porsche SUV with a V8 4.2 litre diesel engine ... giving 860Nm of torque , AND an achievable 40 mpg driven sensibly. (yes , those would be UK gallons). Only made between 2013 and 2017 .... are you green ?
Diogenes
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Powerful SUVs are attractive from the viewpoint of being a competent daily-driver and a thrilling thing to drive. Certainly have their purpose. My own interest is more "raw", and that's what makes possible the combination of weight and power. A pro mod dragster makes 1500 hp and weighs only around 2000 pounds. That's obviously inappropriate for the street, but there are street-legal cars, registered and insured, driven some 1000 miles during Hot Rod Magazine's "drag week". That's my focus. There was a fellow some years ago, who had a vehicle based on a 1965 Chevy Nova... except that it was tube chassis. He ran below 7.0 in the quarter mile, driving the car without a chase vehicle or any support (he had a hitch and a small trailer!). It probably weighed around 2200 lbs. Here's a reference: Larson Race Cars Debuts a New Chevy II Nova – Larry’s New No-Prep Kings Ride, or An Unlimited Drag-and-Drive Ride? — Sick The Magazine .
A tube chassis is an incredible thing! Example: Chassis Kits . Weld-in the firewall from a pre-1975 car, or at least the portion of the firewall with the VIN stamp. Rivet-in the VIN plate from the doorjamb and the dashboard. The donor car gets scrapped, of course. Result: street-legal, smog-exempt street car!
Diogenes
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Life needs to be sorted out. Grappling with this challenge is hard.
On this forum and elsewhere, we incessantly discuss SWR, IRMAA, asset allocation and the like. How to balance money and life. There is assumption of a certain normalcy of life, a certain balance between paper assets and the physical. Then one mentions, even loosely and glancingly, an alternative scenario, where a person might be in the highest income tax bracket by a very substantial margin, and yet, live like a Rohingya refugee in a tent on the Bangladeshi border. The reaction is somewhere between incredulous and insulting. But it's actually lived reality. Dealing with that lived reality is... well, it is what it is.
Here's the thing... most folks here have families, yes? That means family responsibilities, like having indoor plumbing, so that the Mrs. or the kids, you know, live a dignified life. But if eschewing all of that, one could literally live in a van by the river. Do that for a few decades, and then... one is hit with a realization, that while van-living has certain panache as counter-cultural protest, it is also a bit debilitating and constraining. Then what?
I don't need granite countertops or stainless steel appliances. But I do want a large, tall sheet metal building ("PEMB") with 3-phase power. Maybe a small office and mini-apartment with a toilet, sink and fridge (not all three in the same room). So, the dream is a package deal:
* Solving the "how to I grant myself the liberty to start spending" problem.
* Solving the problem of where and how to "settle down"... mindful of my Barista FIRE job (college professor).
* Solving the real estate problem.
* Solving the knowledge-gap and skill-gap problem.
* Finally, building/buying the dream-car, maintaining it and racing it.
Flyfish1
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I'm with you ! You have a great dream and are obviously excited about learning the Car guy thing.
Do it. I'm excited for you! You've been here long enough to know we are happy to help and provide feedback. Hit us with more details on the finances if you are comfortable with that , otherwise the car talk has been fun to follow.
Do it. I'm excited for you! You've been here long enough to know we are happy to help and provide feedback. Hit us with more details on the finances if you are comfortable with that , otherwise the car talk has been fun to follow.
Flyfish1
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I don't remember exactly- but I think Jay Leno once said the most fun you can have driving is from 20 to 50 mph. Beyond that you enter the risk zone. Great story about the bike!
Yep - did both. No more bikes for me....maybe
richardsok
Recycles dryer sheets
When I first came to Florida I had in mind to buy a muscle beast, or something similar and looked at Chargers or a Porsche but eventually came to understand that here in the Sunshine State, you're either slowed in trafic or you have only a straight line highway ahead of you ---- which I felt severely limited the thrill of pure speed after the first couple of drives. The alternative is to lurk around red lights and blast away any innocents who happen to sit at the light next to you, waiting for green and -- honestly -- what could be more childish than whooshing exhaust at little old ladies doing their grocery runs??
No, I thought. For anyone with a jones for blazing speed to push your head back in crazy-guy accels, you need at least one of two things -- (A) a hilly countryside with winding roads, dips and hairpins to scare the be-jeezus out of yourself and anyone dumb enough to ride shotgun or (B) a big bike (Harley or other) that will blast air in your face, pushing cheeks and lips back as you hunch down low forward and hang on for dear life.
I had that experience exactly once in my life. I was 20 and home from college and discovered a big cherry-red Kawasaki 900 in my folk's garage.
"Mom!' I cried-- "Where did dad get that BIKE"
"Oh" she said. "Your father's holding it as collateral from some man who lost money in a poker game."
"Well, could I take it out? Y'know -- just for a couple of minutes? Please? Please?"
She considered and replied, "well -- don't tell your father."
I'm still alive to tell the story fifty years later, but I never forgot it, and I KNEW I would maim myself (at best) to ever have bought one. And I never did. I am OK with my car if I get from zip-to-60 under 6.5 or so. Good enough..... but must admit Flyfish's Jag DOES bring back the old yearning. (I admire his style.)
The lust for speed, like recreational sex, is a pleasure wise men keep under control.
No, I thought. For anyone with a jones for blazing speed to push your head back in crazy-guy accels, you need at least one of two things -- (A) a hilly countryside with winding roads, dips and hairpins to scare the be-jeezus out of yourself and anyone dumb enough to ride shotgun or (B) a big bike (Harley or other) that will blast air in your face, pushing cheeks and lips back as you hunch down low forward and hang on for dear life.
I had that experience exactly once in my life. I was 20 and home from college and discovered a big cherry-red Kawasaki 900 in my folk's garage.
"Mom!' I cried-- "Where did dad get that BIKE
""Oh" she said. "Your father's holding it as collateral from some man who lost money in a poker game."
"Well, could I take it out? Y'know -- just for a couple of minutes? Please? Please?"
She considered and replied, "well -- don't tell your father."
I'm still alive to tell the story fifty years later, but I never forgot it, and I KNEW I would maim myself (at best) to ever have bought one. And I never did. I am OK with my car if I get from zip-to-60 under 6.5 or so. Good enough..... but must admit Flyfish's Jag DOES bring back the old yearning. (I admire his style.)
The lust for speed, like recreational sex, is a pleasure wise men keep under control.
38Chevy454
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
GM makes a ZZ632 crate engine as well. No replacement for displacement.
The fast drag week guys are mostly all twin turbos on a still pretty big cu in engine like 400-600 size. They are near 3500 or more hp for the fastest guys. Turbos allow a less radical cam and compression for the street driving. Along with fuel injection/ignition that is adjusted from race to street tune. Many run E85, or have dual fuel systems for gas for pump premium (street) or race gas (racing). The fast guys are literally race cars with license plates and minimal lights. No creature comforts.
Go to a drag week event and you'll learn a lot of how they set up the cars. I'm going to Sick Week in a little over 1 week when it rolls through Orlando Speedworld.
Diogenes
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Respectfully, I disagree. The fun is in accelerating from 10 mph to 35 mph, very quickly, very suddenly, and ideally fairly quietly. Going fast - literally fast - can be done in a 1998 Toyota Corolla. That's enough to exceed 100 mph on the highway, garnering a ticket for reckless driving and getting one's car impounded. No need for a V8 for that, let alone a tube chassis.
Mash the throttle, and literally 500-800 milliseconds later, let up... without having to change gears. That's my yearning! Indeed, the more potent one's car, the less urge one feels to see what she can do. The most substantive power, is the power kept in quiet reserve, rather than the kind that's flaunted.
People who don't know any better, think that my Miata is "fast". They see a low, small 2-seater that reminds them of a Jaguar E-type or maybe a Ferrari GTO... boy are they wrong! My little wind-in-your-hair machine would get absolutely annihilated by a Camry or a Malibu or a Jetta. Or most late-model minivans. And yes, I've been to Willow Springs, I've driven on the Angeles Crest and the various canyons. I've seen the roadside crosses and flowers, the skid marks and so on. Not my thing, My thing is momentary, brief, fiercely intense bursts of acceleration, from a starting slow speed to a concluding still-legal speed.
Diogenes
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My aim would be something that would sort-of fit into their "no power adder big block" class. Cam would be around 0.650" lift, maybe 230/240 duration at 0.050"(mechanical roller) with standard 1.7 ratio of a big block.. around 112 lobe separation for an acceptable idle. Heads around 270 cc intake chambers, oval port (most of these struggle to flow on the exhaust side, thus the longer exhaust duration). Around 10:1 static compression. I'd live to get a 4.5" stroker crank, with 6.385" rods and somehow fit it in a standard deck height block. That apparently is doable these days.
And yes, I've been "bench racing" this for decades... since before the LS series came out, when roller cams were still exotic, people had just started stroking a 350 to reach 383, and we still had arguments as to whether a 454 or a 427 had the better rod to stroke ratio. It's just that other guys moved on, and I'm still stuck re-reading old magazine articles, from back when Gray Baskerville was still writing. While everyone else was going to swap meets and equipping their garages, I put every nickel into the Essen Pea Five Hundred. And now here we are.
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38Chevy454
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
As you know, valve lift is what kills springs. 0.650 is very liveable with quality parts. Also the more cu in engine it tends to tame the cam. So go big! A short deck is easier to fit if in a std car chassis and not tube frame.
P.S. 270cc is intake port volume, not chamber size.
P.S. 270cc is intake port volume, not chamber size.
Diogenes
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Yes of course, I meant intake chambers (fixed now). Combustion chambers tend to be around 115 cc - 120 cc, which means a piston dome for any reasonable compression ratio. I actually have on hand an older version of these: Brodix, Race Rite Aluminum Chev BB Head, 270cc Oval Port/119cc, Assembled, Each - Competition Products . Mine don't flow as well, especially on the exhaust side. But I had changed the valve springs long ago, for slightly more lift (but ironically a more gentle cam profile --> less seat pressure).
Just typing this stuff brings back the memories and whets the appetite!
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