71vettman

I was wondering if anyone has some good links or just info of their own on performance and top speeds of the fastest C2's and C3's from the factory. Any info on the fastest dodge cars from the same time period such as the daytona charger and other hemi powered cars would be great too. I know the hemi cars were verry fast but a friend of mine who happens to be a dodge fan seems to think that they had a much higher top speed than the corvette from the factory. Im assuming they are pretty close though because or gearing limitations. Any way what I need is some good info to defend the corvette :D
Kevin

SuperFast80

If you are talking about faster rather than quicker then it is just a matter of gearing, rear end ratios and tire sizes. In my experience, I have seen more Hemis than solid lifter 427s with crazy rears like 3.90+. Both sets of engines would be good enough to power to redline on 1:1 top gears and both sets of cars would have run on 15" 60-70 tires, sooooooo.........

If I had to guess I would say there were more 150mph L71s/L89s/L88s than there were HEMIs, proportionately speaking.

SuperFast80

That being said, Car Life June 1970 (no HEMIs though):

Les

I'm thinking strictly of 1/4 mile E.T.s here...I could probably dig up some old times for Hemis & 427 Vettes from my stack of Muscle Car Review, but this much I remember- in street trim the Vettes compared very well in real life(as opposed to factory-provided cars for testing) due to the fact that the Hemis were very hard to keep in top tune. I can remember reading articles referring to the fact that they fell out of tune very quickly too. When in proper tune they were beasts & produced more power than the typical 427. The L88 & ZR1 were so rare that I can't recall seeing a heads up comparison between them & a Hemi. The other thing the Vette had going for it was a weight advantage. On the whole, heads up racing between Hemi cars & 427 Vettes made for a very close matchup in street tune.

OK, I just found some info in a muscle car book I have-
68 Hemi Charger w/ Auto trans & 3.23 gears tested by Car & Driver- 13.5 @ 105 MPH.

68 Hemi GTX ragtop w/ same set-up, tested by Car Life- 14.0 @ 96.5 MPH.

69 Hemi Roadrunner w/ auto trans & 4.10 gears tested by Motor Trend- 13.5 @ 105.3 MPH.



[Modified by Les, 6:08 PM 3/1/2003]

sammyb

Depends on which Hemi powered car, which Vette, and which owner.

A '70 Hemi 'Cuda convertible (of which there were 14) was capable of 0-60MPH in just a little under 7 seconds. Not that impressive. In an earlier Road Runner (stripped down,) the car is much faster.

Road and Track did a test of a 427/435hp '69 coupe and found the 0-60 at about the same range (around 7 seconds.) Basically, completely traction limited.

Now from a practical standpoint, my father-in-law used to drag his '65 Impala SuperSport Convertible (big block car) in the late 60s and early 70s. He said that he'd run against anything except for Corvettes and Cobra, although nobody ever showed up in a Cobra. As for Hemis, he said that if the owner looked to be under 30, he'd accept a race, because the owners seldom could afford to keep the cars tuned, but he said a properly tuned Hemi car could beat him, and his car would run mid-13s.

Since then, he's lowered the compression ratio, changed the rear-end and he's made the car easier to cruise in, which is nice.

clem zahrobsky

my new 65 396 with 4:11 gears and road race tires ran 13.08 all stock :chevy

gearheadz

Check this out ... they list the quickest 1/4 times compiled from different sources over the years:
http://www.musclecarclub.com/musclec...s-50fast.shtml
:cool:

java0881

in 68 you could order a lightweight dodge dart coupe with a hemi in it.nothing was faster ,ever
http://www.myclassiccar.com/MCCTV/026103/68dodge.html :cool:

garagedweller2

Cool, what's the Plymouth version?

SBR

I agree but those cars were not built on an assembly line, they were built at Hurst Performance.

71vettman

Thanks for all the great info guys. Mabey a Hemi would be a nice addition to the garage one day when I get rich. Just as long as I keep my vette one step ahead of it. :cool:

Schmucker

That car was built in the shop owned by a friend of my dad's (John Balow). John has a 2002 Z06 :D


[Modified by Schmucker, 10:14 PM 3/1/2003]

mrvette

OK, I"'m telling as I remember it, not by any books, necessarily either...some of this information if from an old friend into Mopars for longer than either of us want to remember total about 100 years allmost....

as a stock machine, straight from the factory the Hemi was not all that potent/powerful a performer, either in torque the 440 had more....or in top end HP....thing is...as a dead STOCK off the floor the way mommy mopar made it.....

BUT.....add a good CAM and Headers.....hold mother of GOD.....hang on....still not all THAT great in torque department, but when rolling....
turns on a roughly 4 grand, and sh it rip untill over 7 grand....

allmost no other changes...maybe jets in the allready dual AFB quads....

now the GM cars needed more work than just those two items to go as fast...
not to mention the trannies would not last as long....either stick or automatic....yeh the muncie shifted faster, but was not as strong as that dump truck tranny the Hemi used.... and the most reliable automatics for decades were by Mopar....Torqueflight 727, and 904 then 994? for lockup...
hardly ever break....little mods necessary....
GM's 400 and 350 auto, need total rebuilds and tons of mods all well known today, but not sso well settled an issue 35 years ago.....

put on slicks mostly limited to 7" as I recall...maybe later on 8" usually recapped snow tires....they both good into the 12's no sweat......
either one would do less than 8 mpg at drop of a hat...downhill with tailwind...

GENE

java0881

here's plymouth's version

Smokehouse69

In 1969 I had a Dart 340 Swinger, it came with a single 4V carb and 6300 redline. I had a buddy who's dad bought him a 69 Hemi-Charger (he still has the car) I used to race him occassionally just for grins. If he spent the afternoon tuning his Charger, he'd pull me a couple of car lengths in a 1/4.
But if it had been longer than a couple of weeks since a tune, I could eat him alive in the quarter.
Later, I put a factory 3x2 setup(six-pack) on my Dart and a set of headers and could pull low 13's on polyglass wide ovals, and do this day in and out, he on the other hand was constantly struggling to keep the car running a top performance.

Alwyn678

:cheers: :smash:

LT1driver

In my experience with a 67 435 vette in the "day" no hemi ever was near me on street. That list of fast cars has a couple errors, no 66 L72 in stock form EVER ran a 12.8 with 3.36 gears, don't car what car and driver (LIER) says and theere was NEVER a 68 L72 vette, that is a 66 number for 425/450 HP car.

Corz

the 69 ZQ3 vette ran a 16.12 in the quarter.... thats what i have.. how can i lose 2 seconds with just minor bolt ons? :confused:

SuperFast80

63Banshee

Now that is one righteous car!

MOPAR rules and Pontiac comes in a close second!