Can you have too much power?

[Hot Rod Todd]

Ted,

the bucket I had prior to this one (Im up to bucket #7 now) was a pig to drive.

My current one handles great on the street with its LSD, and on the track with its mini spool. I dont have a transbrake so I feather it off the line and while my 60ft times suck, the top end charge makes buckets, big blocks and blowers big time fun.

I am one of the slowest cars in our "modified" class, but its still way cool to be overtaken by an old FED when its doing 160mph on the finish line.

As Gudgyz said, we have a racing T bucket history in this country, and long may it continue.

I had a look at the details of the Swift bucket chassis. To get street legal down here, we need a minimum of 3*2 RHS in the chassis as 3*1.5 isnt legal unless its infested with crossmembers or has a supporting ladder under it. Which is probably why our cars are so heavy

Cheers
Todd

 

[Nas T]

Im not too keen on dying. But I guess I will lose that race eventually.

With the old blown 468 engine, I ran 31 inch tall tyres on my bucket and on the street they dont turn to smoke, even with the 4.56 gears. But I drive pretty conservatively.

on the track, the car hooks up great, again with minimal smoke so the chassis is doing its work.

I would rather have 700hp in a good chassis, than 300hp in a junk one that has bumpsteer

you got that right, 700hp with good chassis in better then 300hp with a junk chassis, that is when it will hurt you. That is why mine is a show car and not set up for drag racing, but if you have your chassis set up for drag i would love to see what 1300+hp would do in your little bucket, i do know one thing YOU WILL GO UP IN SMOKE, i promise you that, there is no way your gonna hook that hp in a small car like that without looking at the sky for the first 60ft.my car weights 1885lbs and almost 1000+ of it is motor and 350 is rear end. I have no idea what i could do to make it hook and i really don't want to find out, like i said i can go 50+ down the road and hit it and go straight as an arrow but it is up in smoke. I got several videos of your bucket and love them all. keep up the nice work but please BE SAFE.

 

[Hot Rod Todd]

Wow, how do you get your car down to 1885lbs? Mines about 2500lbs and I have only one blower.

Im only expecting around 850 to 900 hp - the previous owner had 885 and I have got a bigger cam, and similar heads and injection capacity.

With the old motor I could plant boot at any speed in my bucket on street tyres and it never went up in smoke, or uyp in the air. It just grips and goes.

Ladderbar rear end, Adjustable QA1s 31.5*18.5*15 hoosiers on 15*14 Centerlines

Cheers
Todd

 

[Hot Rod Todd]

Its Andys bucket from the UK that goes like a street version of the Winged Express.

I figure hes leaving the line with a bunch of revs.

 

[Nas T]

Wow, how do you get your car down to 1885lbs? Mines about 2500lbs and I have only one blower.

Im only expecting around 850 to 900 hp - the previous owner had 885 and I have got a bigger cam, and similar heads and injection capacity.

With the old motor I could plant boot at any speed in my bucket on street tyres and it never went up in smoke, or uyp in the air. It just grips and goes.

Ladderbar rear end, Adjustable QA1s 31.5*18.5*15 hoosiers on 15*14 Centerlines

Cheers
Todd

Its a trailer queen everyone says, I forgot to put all the parts on it.:lol::lol:

 

[Nas T]

Its Andys bucket from the UK that goes like a street version of the Winged Express.

I figure hes leaving the line with a bunch of revs.

Thats right Andy, i talked to him a little bit and boy that car gets with it. That video of your car next to the other and just walks away my car would just set there at that speed just spinning but if you saw the rear end you would see why. Now the last bucket i did would get with it for sure it had about 700hp blown BBC. (Single Blower)

 

[Nas T]

Its a trailer queen everyone says, I forgot to put all the parts on it.:lol::lol:

there is a guy that does a lot of shows in the UK that is very interested in my car but the $$$$ exchange is junk right now so he is holding off. The purple T Bucket just sold for the 3rd time to the VP of HardRock Cafe, so the car most likely is in sunny Florida right now and then maybe to Vegas soon, just a shame to have that fine bucket just sitting in a Cafe.:sad:

 

[Ted Brown]

Sittin in a Cafe is what it looks like it was built for, to look at... it is a pretty thing, and uses way too much fuel to drive anywhere. They can just fire it up now and then, as people love to watch the sound of power...

 

[Nas T]

Sittin in a Cafe is what it looks like it was built for, to look at... it is a pretty thing, and uses way too much fuel to drive anywhere. They can just fire it up now and then, as people love to watch the sound of power...

well actually the car had 7100 miles on it when i sold it, i drove that car almost everyday in the summertime, got 9 miles to the gallon but gas was a buck a gallon back then also, people always thought it was just a trailer queen but when i drove it for a weekend i would bring it home and put it on the lift and clean,clean,clean and then polish during the week and get ready for the next weekend. But thank you for the nice comments about the pretty thing. You can have them real nice and also drive them you just have to work a little harder to get them clean again. I remember one day i came home from a show and it started raining and i thought i could make it home before it started coming down harder well guess what? I turned on a main street and got caught in traffic do to a water line break that pulled up part of the street with MUD and i mean MUD all over the wet road oh boy i was pissed but nothing i could do except go through it and get home and get the hose real quick and spray the under and top side of the car real quick in the rain and pull it in the garage and start cleaning boy it took like 3 days to get it all cleaned up to go and do it again the following weekend.
love them buckets with no top and the front tires just soaking you and the inside of your car. Im not tooting my own horn but i do build fairly nice buckets and i do drive them you have to be a fool to spend that kind of money and not drive them but there is just one difference I also take extra care on putting them back the same as when i take them out after a drive.

 

[tfeverfred]

Awesome words, Nas T. The guy accross the street from where I work, has some very high dollar cars. I dig his cars, but what makes them extra cool is that he drives 'em. Everywhere.

Hell, if you want something pretty to sit around the house, get into stamps or paintings.

 

[Hot Rod Todd]

Ted you have done over 200,000 miles in buckets so I figure you know stuff and a wise man wouldnt try to argue with ya.

But its lots of fun when you have too much horsepower - that great sense of T Bucket overkill.

I have more problem keeping the engine cool, than I have keeping it straight on the street.

And Ted, I looked at the profile pikkys of your bucket/s. Is that the one in TRJ with the Early Times article?

 

[Martin]

Fun if you can control it. A controlled slide, like drifting, is fun to watch, but I dont think i'll be trying it

 

[Ted Brown]

Ted you have done over 200,000 miles in buckets so I figure you know stuff :lol: and a wise man wouldnt try to argue with ya.

But its lots of fun when you have too much horsepower - that great sense of T Bucket overkill.

I have more problem keeping the engine cool, than I have keeping it straight on the street.

And Ted, I looked at the profile pikkys of your bucket/s. Is that the one in TRJ with the Early Times article?
[/quote]
What article was that?? E Me (tedabrown@juno.com)and have you got plenty of lead in your timing? and another thing you may want to try is, get yourself the smallest water pump pully from an early pump... this and a good fan (as large as you can fit in there) on the pump, about 3/4 inch from the Rad core... should help keep things cool all the time, I don't run any thermostat in mine, if you want one, use a low number, like 140?...

 

[Nas T]

I ran a 160 in mine and it was getting to hot, i put a 190 in it and now runs 190/200 all the time and i am running a electric pump.

 

[Hot Rod Todd]

Decision time again:

Now a while back I bought a B&M 420 Megablower off EBay and got it back here to NZ. Its brand new & never seen fuel thru it.

My new engine is 548 cubes and has a streetable roller cam. Im thinking maybe I should upsize from the GM671 to a GM871. Or I could just use the B&M. I dont think the B&M looks as good on an open engine tho.

The articles I have read about the B&M has it everybit as good as a Weiand 871.

And can I get away with using copper head gaskets? The block is o ringed. There are some flashy ICS gaskets and I could always get some of them, but they arent cheap, and they arent on the shelf here in NZ

Your comments and advice would be appreciated.

 

[Nas T]

I am running these
Specialty Component Engineering (SCE) S14528 - SCE ICS Titan Copper Self Sealing Head Gaskets - summitracing.com

299.00 pair, I have not had any problems at all
As far as the B&M well I personally don't like the looks but that could just be me, i have heard good and bad but if you got it i would run it, I am running
2 Don Hampton Blowers.

 

[Screaming Metal]

Can 't never have enough horses.........its just applying it thats the problem.............big slicks........as long as it don't stand straight up on ya!!!!!!!