Had the stock alternator for my car listed in the local classifieds. Got a call from some kid that wanted it. No sweat, he’s on his way. Gets to my place and see’s my car and asks me what’s done. I rhyme off my list of parts at which point he then proceeds to tell me about the Capri he’s got that he needed this alternator for. By his estimates it’s making 400-500hp….I’m thinking wow, that thing must be a handful. I then enquire as to what he’s got under the hood that’s giving him that kinda jam, to which he replied “It’s a Police Interceptor engine”.
I’m like….huh? What about heads, cam, intake, etc? He said it was with whatever came with it when the pulled it out of the police car. I then tried to explain to him that he’d be lucky if he was making half that much power. He basically looked at me like I’d just ran over his cat and was crazy for suggesting he car made any less than his estimate. I then tried to explain to him that for comparison sake, I was lucky if I was seeing power levels in the 350-375hp range with my H/C/I stroker, to which he then replied…..”yeah, but mine has a Police Interceptor engine in it…..it’s a factory race engine”.
I’ve noticed this as a growing trend as of late amongst young Fox body owners. Going by their stats, there’s not one Fox body on the street running around making less than 300hp and some making as much as 500hp. Funny thing, is that not one of these young lads has even cracked a bolt on the stock short block. Who knew a CAI, a set of coloured plug wires and a muffler delete was worth 200hp+ I sure didn’t?!?
Please tell me not all of you guys in your late-teens, early-20’s are all this stupid?
I’m like….huh? What about heads, cam, intake, etc? He said it was with whatever came with it when the pulled it out of the police car. I then tried to explain to him that he’d be lucky if he was making half that much power. He basically looked at me like I’d just ran over his cat and was crazy for suggesting he car made any less than his estimate. I then tried to explain to him that for comparison sake, I was lucky if I was seeing power levels in the 350-375hp range with my H/C/I stroker, to which he then replied…..”yeah, but mine has a Police Interceptor engine in it…..it’s a factory race engine”.
I’ve noticed this as a growing trend as of late amongst young Fox body owners. Going by their stats, there’s not one Fox body on the street running around making less than 300hp and some making as much as 500hp. Funny thing, is that not one of these young lads has even cracked a bolt on the stock short block. Who knew a CAI, a set of coloured plug wires and a muffler delete was worth 200hp+ I sure didn’t?!?
Please tell me not all of you guys in your late-teens, early-20’s are all this stupid?
Yeah, I got out with a couple of kids a few months back, one of them had a Dove Grey coupe, very pretty car. Stock bottom end, "ported" E7's, some huge cam, stock intake, stock headers and a C4 trans. Paid $8K for it. I can't remember his HP claims, but they were very high. Sad thing is, he wrapped it around a tree a few weeks later. I figure he was probably making 230RWHP, where he thought he had a 400 horse motor.
Even just last night, I'm talking to an associate from work who has an LS6 based car. This guy has a hook up at a local dyno, and I was trying to sneak my car in. I tell him what I have done to it, and how I'm hoping it will crack the 300RWHP mark. He looks surprised at me and says, "That thing should be making 400HP, GT40 heads are good heads." Now, this guy is no youngster, he is older than me. But who knows, I think I can still take is 4200lb, 355HP LS6 Caprice
Joe
Even just last night, I'm talking to an associate from work who has an LS6 based car. This guy has a hook up at a local dyno, and I was trying to sneak my car in. I tell him what I have done to it, and how I'm hoping it will crack the 300RWHP mark. He looks surprised at me and says, "That thing should be making 400HP, GT40 heads are good heads." Now, this guy is no youngster, he is older than me. But who knows, I think I can still take is 4200lb, 355HP LS6 Caprice
Joe
Seriously, that is the exact reason why MM&FF and the other rags are 80% shiny ads and 20 % content. Just add up all the HP on all the bolt on parts they claim and voila, that's what your engine makes. Doesn't everyone gain 25HP from a CAI. 25 fr0m a TB, 50HP from headers on a stock motor? Shouldnt we all put the biggest, baddest cam we can find in the engine?
Even worse are the internet racers who all throw the BS about how fast their cars are, but when you ask them what their 6oft time is or what their MPH at the traps are they run away.
Finally, if I hear one more kid ask me if my car has NOSS on it "cuz I saw it in Fast and Furious and those cars are fast as
Hey! Gearbanger 101 I take offense to the young foxbody owners crack you just did there hahah I mean im 22 but jeez im not dumb haha
Yeah....it was certainly a conversation that required a double dose of Advil Extra Strength afterwards. Ironically, every one of his friends drove 10-second quarter mile cars. Didn't matter if they were 300hp, or 800hp, they all ran 10's.
I think he quoted one guy in the 8's with a Skyline....which is ironic since I've actually seen the one in question run and it ran high-9's......in the 1/8th mile!
He was a nice enough kid, he just had no grasp on reality. When I asked him if he'd ever had his car dyno'd, he paused for a second and reluctantly said no, not yet but I'm saving up for one?
I could see where he got if from though. He showed up with his dad, who seemed just about as out to lunch as he was. Again, nice enough fella, but he was one of the "old schoolers" that bragged about some old muscle car he used to have back in the day. I can't remember off hand what it was, but rest assured, it was the fastest thing on wheels at the time. Told me how it used to clean up at the strip and his big secret was running the car on......snow tires!?! Apparently the do a better job that Drag Radials according to him. Damn....another thing I didn't know?
I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?
I reserve judgment until I hear your list of mods and your estimated horsepower claims.
I think he quoted one guy in the 8's with a Skyline....which is ironic since I've actually seen the one in question run and it ran high-9's......in the 1/8th mile!
He was a nice enough kid, he just had no grasp on reality. When I asked him if he'd ever had his car dyno'd, he paused for a second and reluctantly said no, not yet but I'm saving up for one?
I could see where he got if from though. He showed up with his dad, who seemed just about as out to lunch as he was. Again, nice enough fella, but he was one of the "old schoolers" that bragged about some old muscle car he used to have back in the day. I can't remember off hand what it was, but rest assured, it was the fastest thing on wheels at the time. Told me how it used to clean up at the strip and his big secret was running the car on......snow tires!?! Apparently the do a better job that Drag Radials according to him. Damn....another thing I didn't know?
I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?
I reserve judgment until I hear your list of mods and your estimated horsepower claims.
Ahhh Snow Tires!!!! Of course!!! Somebody let John Force know that he had the wrong tires his whole career! With snow tires surely he could break any record!
lol
-Nick C.
And someone should let him know he should have had a police interceptor block in his funny car and not an all-aluminum 500ci hemi.
Only if they are the studded snow tires for that extra traction off the line. I remember back in the day Goodyear made a special snow tire slick with chains until they outlawed them. Dyno Don used them to win the GatorNational in 68.
Kids today are clueless... unlike back when I was a teenager. Me and my buddies knew everything.
My son-in-law is in his early 20s. He has an 04 Mach that he bought--it is a ragged out car, beat to death by the PO. And he doesn't know much about it, but he is trying to learn. He follows me around the garage, and is constantly under my elbow, trying to see what I'm doing, when I'm not telling him what to do and handing him the Chilton's manual. He's also on the forums, reading everything he can. Which is why I occasionally bust the balls of some guy who doesn't have any first-hand experience, but spouts off what he thinks he remembers from somebody else's post--I hate seeing these guys get mis-led. Most of them are just trying to learn to play the game. I'm still learning, and I've been playing it for 30+ years.
Yeah, they're knotheads, but most of them mean well. We can either help them learn, or sit around calling them dumb@$$es and laughing at them, so they're stuck learning about cars from F&F.
My son-in-law is in his early 20s. He has an 04 Mach that he bought--it is a ragged out car, beat to death by the PO. And he doesn't know much about it, but he is trying to learn. He follows me around the garage, and is constantly under my elbow, trying to see what I'm doing, when I'm not telling him what to do and handing him the Chilton's manual. He's also on the forums, reading everything he can. Which is why I occasionally bust the balls of some guy who doesn't have any first-hand experience, but spouts off what he thinks he remembers from somebody else's post--I hate seeing these guys get mis-led. Most of them are just trying to learn to play the game. I'm still learning, and I've been playing it for 30+ years.
Yeah, they're knotheads, but most of them mean well. We can either help them learn, or sit around calling them dumb@$$es and laughing at them, so they're stuck learning about cars from F&F.
Honestly I don't think it's as bad as about 10 years ago, back in the fast and furious hey day. Heck 1.6 civics were running 10s with a cai and fart can exhaust. Throw some NAWZ at it and forget it, 8s. I looked at some old posts of mine from 04 and I was sure my beat up daily was pushing 260 whp with bolt ons. Now I know I would be lucky to be making 210.
MY favorite is going to the junk yard and listening to guys talk. One dude had an alphabet-cammed "ported" stock 5.0, and of course he was full of all sorts of grassroots "advice", and when I told him that he could use parts out of an Explorer and have a GT40 setup, he told me that his car was already too fast as it was. Really? Low 14s in the quarter are "too fast"? Better stay away from modern hatch backs and luxury sedans, you might feel like your face will melt off.
Some people just live under a rock. They operate entirely on old stereotypes and hearsay. Ignorance is bliss I guess, until you get your ass wiped by some punk in a Mazda 3.
Actually, I'd like to have my ass wiped. Where's madmike1157 ?
Some people just live under a rock. They operate entirely on old stereotypes and hearsay. Ignorance is bliss I guess, until you get your ass wiped by some punk in a Mazda 3.
Actually, I'd like to have my ass wiped. Where's madmike1157 ?
How sad is it that there are already ragged out New-Edge Mach 1s running around? Damn that makes me feel old, and I didn't think I was that old. I remember when those cars were brand new. I still lust over those cars.
I'd love to say that would be the end of it, but then the excuses start. I remember schooling a couple of youngsters a few years back with my Cougar. Their Civic/Acura/Celica, etc was about as pimped out as bad taste would allow. All of them made 400hp+ (according to them) and all talked trash about how they were going to beat my battleship because 1) it was too heavy and 2) my big outdated V8 had nothing on their VTEC. Even after I would consistently run low-8's/high-7's in the 1/8th to their 11's and 12's, the excuses started flowing like water....
Car not running right, leak in the "boost-pipe", **** up injectors, couldn't hook the front wheels off the line, didn't have their "race tune" installed, car set up for handling.....you name it, the excuses were endless.
The saddest part about it, was I'd see these same guys later on throughout the summer at local car shows and they'd still talk trash about how they though they could beat on my boat? I'm thinking to myself....does this dummy really think the set of splitfire sparkplugs he installed is really going to make up a 4 to 5-second difference by the end of the track.
The sad truth is.....even when you paint them a picture and lay the proof out plain as day in front of them, these tool box's still believed they were smarter than everyone else.
I swear....until they make a Fast and Furious movie that revolves around domestic drag racing, these guys will still believe verbatim what's regurgitated by their "Yo's" at the local car show.
It's funny.....the rest of the crowd actually banished them to the far end of the lot a few years back. And by banished, I mean approached them with tire irons and threatened them with violence. I guess a few of them thought it would be a smart idea to set up some pylons and start drifting around them next to the show and shine. I'm telling you....you've never seen anyone as mad as a 50-something year-old Muscle car guy when some kid in a Civic spins out of control running traffic cones and slides sideways to a stop mere inches from their $80,000 Hemi Cuda. Heck, they don't even let crotch rockets in the car area because some tool lost it years back trying to do a wheelie and piled into someone's hotrod. The Harley guys....no problem, but anything Japanese get's banished to the far end of the lot with the imports.
Why in the hell are you tagging me telling me you need your ass wiped? Are you finding that a chore? I'm here to tell you that despite my plethora of skills,...I am completely devoid of "some other dudes' ass wiping skills".
On a contributory note:
I've already contributed my .02 on this topic.
I think there has always been the stroke that thinks he has something that he doesn't. I was there myself 38 years ago. I argued w/some dude, and eventually dismissed him as a dimbulb because I was sure that at my C-4 was a 6 speed auto trans. (3 forward speeds,... and a " kickdown" gear for each of the three, made 6 speeds in my head).
Its always about the learning curve. I worked at a speed shop w/I was 20, and the level of ignorance that walked in the store was always good for a laugh at the end of the day. All of this while I was changing carb jets every other night, and driving the car up and down the street trying to see if the Thundercolt was any faster by my seatomometer dyno. It took me all these years to learn what I know today,... and I still am clueless. Remember Nik,....you had to school me on what "murdered out" meant,...and why it wasn't a dumb idea to put a 351w in a new edge.....because I was thinking it was just stupid to put one in a front wheel drive SUV.
I've already contributed my .02 on this topic.
I think there has always been the stroke that thinks he has something that he doesn't. I was there myself 38 years ago. I argued w/some dude, and eventually dismissed him as a dimbulb because I was sure that at my C-4 was a 6 speed auto trans. (3 forward speeds,... and a " kickdown" gear for each of the three, made 6 speeds in my head).
Its always about the learning curve. I worked at a speed shop w/I was 20, and the level of ignorance that walked in the store was always good for a laugh at the end of the day. All of this while I was changing carb jets every other night, and driving the car up and down the street trying to see if the Thundercolt was any faster by my seatomometer dyno. It took me all these years to learn what I know today,... and I still am clueless. Remember Nik,....you had to school me on what "murdered out" meant,...and why it wasn't a dumb idea to put a 351w in a new edge.....because I was thinking it was just stupid to put one in a front wheel drive SUV.