983 Cubic Inches and Two 1968 Heavy Hitters, Byron Dragway Test and Tune #dragracing

983 Cubic Inches and Two 1968 Heavy Hitters, 1/4 mile drag racing test and tune at Byron Dragway. Kyle's car is fast, and I still have problems. That's the subject of today's video. Before I dive into that, all I can say is this, what a blast we had! Drag racing with friends and family is the best. Kyle and Mad Dog Kenny are like brothers to me, and it was awesome having my son with me. It was also very cool seeing Kyle's dad there. Growing up he always had cool cars, Camaros and Trans Ams. When he was young, he had a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge with a Ram Air IV 400 and a 4 speed. I also have to give a shoutout to my friend Brian, heck of a guy, great friend, and is an ace mechanic! Now let's talk about the cars....

Kyle's big green machine 1968 Pontiac GTO is powered by a 462 cubic inch engine that utilizes forged internals, roller cam, Kaufmann aluminum heads, a Northwind single plane high rise intake, Holley Hyperspark ignition, and fuel is supplied by Holley Sniper EFI. Turbo 400 transmission, 3200 stall, and a Moser 12 bolt rearend with 3.55 gears and a limited slip. His car weighs around 3800 pounds. My car, well it is a 1968 Ford Thunderbird. It has a 521 cubic inch big block, high compression forged pistons, Eagle crank and rods, Howard's Rattler camshaft, Weiand tunnel ram, MSD ignition, and fuel is supplied by a pair of Holley QuickFuel 650 CFM double pumpers. Heavily modified C6 transmission, 4500 stall converter, Ford 9 inch rearend with 3.89 gears and a full spool. Car weighs around 4140 pounds.

Racing was an absolute blast, so were the burnouts! This is the first time Kyle had his GTO on the track and it performed very well. He was running in the 11's all day and his best was an elapsed time of 11.49 seconds and 116 mph. That goat is fast! it will not take much to see low 11's in that car, instant torque that pulls hard all the way through the 1/4 mile. Flawless all day long! How did my Thunderbird do? Well, I made a few clean passes, but the violent wheel hop is back, not good. Parts of my new setup worked awesome and others, not so much. That being said, I had fun! My best ET was off a second gear launch, and it was a 12.04 second elapsed time at 113 miles per hour.

To recap the day, what an amazing day! Drag racing is always fun, especially with friends and family. Kyle and I ran great times and we both know our cars have a lot more in them. Kyle's GTO is faster, that is a fact. That being said, it is going to be much faster with the plans we have in store for it this winter. 2 Hacks Garage will be very busy this winter with quite a few projects, stay tuned....

#fast #ford #pontiac

@HolleyPerformance

[donaldhalls]

Looked like a great weekend, couple good passes, great rigs, glad it all went well, excellent drags great to see, thanks for sharing, all the best to you and your loved ones

[timwindsor]

Thanks Jeff. Much appreciated. Keep the content coming. Hope you have an incredible day. Much love and RESPECT

[WilliamHenk-ne]

Looks like yall had a blast!
Good weather too!

[SweatyFatGuy]

The rear end is oscillating, can't remember if you have leaf springs under that or not. If its leafs then you need something to keep them from wrapping, like caltracs or even a slapper with the snubber against the spring eye when its under power. If the slapper isn't preloaded it will cause an oscillation like that after it gets moving. If you already have that, its not working because the rear end is separating too much or something has some movement/play in it. Air shocks will make it worse, they change the angle of where the weight loads the rear end housing.

If its coil like a GTO/LeMans and it does that, the rear suspension was at full droop when the bolts were tightened in the arms. The solution is to loosen everything then tighten it at static ride height. Ran into that a lot with 4th gen F bodys, the guys would get a 12 bolt or 9" and then it would jump around like that under power. A body cars will wheel hop like mad if the LCA isn't parallel to the ground. Stock arms will flex a lot too, so I run tubular UMI bars on all my A bodys.

Get that fixed and if its wandering around going down the track, get a 4 wheel alignment and have them set it 2" above static, as much caster as you can get leaning the spindles back (3 degrees or more works great if you can get it), zero camber, and half a degree of toe in. My 68 has issues with the suspension twisting, but it went straight even when the tires were spinning.

The 68 was running super rich at NNN, even more than I thought it was. The jets were essentially 110s square, right now it has 94/96 in it and its still a point rich, which is ok with the blower. Got another pulley so now its 29% overdriven, and it finally saw 6psi at 5000. A 6-71 is too small for that engine, so I think an 8-71 will be fun next year. It would be faster with the Victor and 1050 on it instead of the blower. Imagine an engine where a 6-71 is a restriction.... thats where I am. heh.

Thanks for the PVs too, I'll get you back sometime. Did your dad send you the link of the Opel GT on the 4x4 chassis? That one is in better shape than both of mine. lol

[The_Other_Hack]

Super fun day! Didn’t think much about it at the time but watching the videos you can definitely see we had a bit of a head wind by the way 🇺🇸 was blowing at the starting line.

[BigfootsnMopars]

Man I miss that behind the windshield view from a GTO. 11:40 street car/ Mad RESPECT 🦶🏾 Seems Like Rowdy likes the second gear launch… that ford must make CRRRAZZY Torque 🔥🏁🦶🏾

[terrygrover]

Hi Jeff thanks for your coverage at the track I enjoyed getting to see you guys run, Jeff i couldn't tell was your car still bouncing when you let out of the gas ?

[dakotastimeout]

Great video, glad to see Mathew McConaughey is still out there racing! Reckon his driveshaft wasn’t held in with wood screws?

[brracing]

It was a Good Sunday at Byron Raceway.
Too bad the 3rd MSD 6AL CD Ignition box died took a crap again.
Nothing Better more Reliable and Way Hotter Long Duration 2 x times more than any MSD. Vertex OAC or OAX Magneto as you KNOW Kicks Ass from the one I built for your JJF Dragster.

[A-BONEpickup]

a little frost in the muzzle is what i say about the beards

[MrPONCHO]

What size are those slicks on Kyle's car

[jcnewbee]

Running out of fuel and topping out the rear shocks all the way down track.