Don't believe that much HP is needed...
Just saw this thread and read the first page and the last!
My poor POS currently has a "Target" GM crate replacement motor in it, with no mods other than headers (and great exhaust overall), Edelbrock 750 and Performer Intake and Mallory HyFire Igntion. I'd be surprised if the 'plant's putting out 275 peak.
When I had first got the vicious little money pit, the first thing I did was get the maypops off it and some half-way decent V rated meats on it - Michelin Pilot 225R6015's (with some unrememorable series of letters attached...) a few poly bushings here and there, a first brake job and not much else, drive train or suspension wise.
The first time I really convinced myself I had not done another typical "Stupid-Burnham-Good-On-Paper" stunt was when I found a good section of empty highway and saw what this IRS equipped platform really handled like at (for me) absurd speeds.
I was watching the tach - the speedo's not as easy to see and was really more intersted in seeing how the new ignition was working with it's rev limiter set at 6.5K.
I had the top down, left hand on wheel only and let it rip for the first time. I was watching the tach (and for hidden cops
) and paid real attention as it passed 5500. When it hit 6K - which had not taken very long at all - I really glanced over at the speedometer at was astonished to see I was past 145!!!
I had never driven a car that speed before - plenty of good old street-drag mopars and first generation firebirds and such to 120+, at which point you're usually hanging on too tight with both hands fighting suspension problems and HOPING a wheel doesn't just fall off (did I
have to say that?).
(That was a very good concern one writer raised - my rear driver wheel broke off at the axle (inner bearing seized) at 80 not 3 months later - with
NO warning...)
This 3500 pound chunk of 27 year-old red ink was handling at 145 on the gauge (probably anywhere from 137-150) like a new Caddy sedan at 80!!! When I decided I wasn't dead and didn't have long before I wore some lucky piece of valvetrain out, I tried a right and a left turn of the wheel and it handled - fine!
I didn't stay up there long - 15, 20 seconds - my exit was approaching, luck for a multi-thousand dollar ticket and time to engine destruction was approaching, but I was
hooked!
I knew I had chosen the right platform for the monster engine I wanted to build - even if it will cost $10-15K more than a new Z06 when I get there.
Bucket loads of credit and cash later, still no engine work and a switch to a superstrength rear end with 3.73's instead of 3.08's, and
still without an OD to allow more ventures up there, I did learn some things from the experience, besides I can't wait to get back there and beyond!
I was not that far from the 160+ mentioned and had accelerated decently all the way there with a
much weaker engine - so I am not sure drag is that huge yet. Don't be too sold on the newmobiles' "aerostyling" - that is in large part exactly that -
styling - not substance. Those designs are not driven by computer as they'd have us believe, rather a glorified mechanical fashion guru decides on the general look of the half-decade and
then the computer work begins to minimize the drag.
The C3's and many other cars of that era and before had relatively low drags compared to even some of the hotter numbers of today - and not so inferior that a riceburner or blackforest special can get to a given speed with 1/3 the HP.
One concern I've heard raised is that the ass end gets light at 165 or so - in part due to lack of directed downforce, lack of effective airdamming up front (mine has this already) and the natural tendency of the IRS to come off of flat-planted-tire-stance when raised even modest amounts should the rear end lift.
A man I met who does impressive things with his 600 cube '80 at silly speeds went so far as to swap to a Ford 9" with 41 spline axles on a 4-link rear and away from the IRS mainly over that last phenomenon. I had thought he did that for the torque handling that the regular IRS's are not really capable of (the same reason I went with a $4K 12 Bolt IRS) but it turned out that was of secondary concern to him since he doesn't drag it much anymore.
I think that higher speed handling would be helped a lot by a recreation of a
decent wing like the Greenwood wing - not some ridiculous, non-functional, 4' off the deck rivetted aluminum monstrosity to make a Hondavette. Decent airdams are already available as bolt-ons from the regular supply houses.
Only some tunnel work could tell for sure (it's available for rent I understand - and at a
popular price!!!) but I don't think it takes 400 HP to push a slightly modified C3 to 170+ - but handling may need to be adjusted to handle those 160-200 speeds.
I loved the early suggestions on this thread to do a saltflat trip some time for vettes - especially C3's...especially in 29 years when I come up with enough money to
finish mine!!! ;stupid
