I've got about $20K in this ride - All go fast stuff. Big block, aluminum heads, roller cam, B&M transmission, Ford nine-inch differerential with posi, Wilwood disc brakes on all four wheels, and on and on and on. But the sound system is a stock replacement and amp; Nice and new but nothin' special. Any ideas?

This doesn't answer your question but I'll throw it in any way. If I was going to build a car system I would buy a butler tube hybrid amp for around a grand.

If you wanted to go all out, buy a Milbert all tube amp for many thousands. http://www.milbert.com

I thought you might like to know about this being a tube guy.

BTW, Very nice ride!

Take care,

Pete

• http://www.butleraudio.com

• Butler Audio

• Milbert Amplifiers

What a guy really needs is a classic car with all the right modern go-fast stuff and a nastalgic sound system with all the right modern good-sound stuff.

Pretty slick!

Big-Blocks and Headers Rumble

It has a dual-plane intake with a Holley 830CFM annular discharge carburettor breathing through aluminum heads. Roller lifters ride on a 276 degree, 0.505" lift Comp cam. The exhaust is plumbed with ceramic coated Hooker Headers. The engine is connected to the ground with a B&M Turbo 400 and a Ford nine inch rear end with Moser Engineering axles and limited slip differential. Sway bars, front and rear, with large stiff springs and Bilstein shocks. Wilwood disc brakes on all four 16" Centerline wheels, currently with Bridgestone Potenza RE750 tires. It's kind of a sleeper.

I'm still in the "imagining phase" of my carb'd small block chevy into volvo 740 station wagon swap...not sure if it will ever get much further than that, but the idea keeps me entertained.

I run 3.25 gears, and that helps a lot. It also gives me a safe 135 MPH top end, which is about all you'd want to do with that chassis anyway. You gotta be nice with the go pedal, 'cause you'll break loose up to about 60 MPH. If you stomp it at 50 or 55MPH, you'll still break loose. So you have to be nice up to highway speeds, but at least the low gears help some in that respect. It also keeps it streetable, and lets you cruise the highway without being constantly in the redline. Probably helps some on gas too, but I'm afraid that's a losing proposition anyway. You never really consider mileage when you build something like this. It's definitely no economy car, with mileage in the single digits.

Setting up as a quarter-miler, I'd probably choose 4.11 or higher gears and a single plane intake and a cam with longer duration. I'd also choose a lightweight rod and piston so the rod bolts would survive higher RPM. Even the best ARP rod bolts enter the plastic region at about 5200 on a big block Olds with iron rods, so after that, it's just a number of cycles before failure.

I had a larger cam in another big-block Olds I built, and it was still pretty streetable. But I really like a street car setup with a little less gear, especially if it's a big block that can't possibly keep tires under it on the street anyway. The taller gears just make more smoke on the street. So that makes the best cam for me something between 260-280 degrees or so. The combination of the cam and the dual plane intake makes the torque peak broad and full, in the 1500-5000 RPM range. That gives me about 500 HP and 500 ft/lbs of torque, which makes my Cutlass a lot of fun.

I'm sure you have more than enough time and money in that car so that gas is a negligable cost by this point. Besides, you are getting a lot of entertainment value/gallon. There are 6000lb SUV's out there that don't do much better, milage wise, and I'm quite sure they don't put a big stupid grin on your face when you plant the loud pedal.

>Setting up as a quarter-miler, I'd probably choose 4.11 or higher
>gears and a single plane intake and a cam with longer duration.

Yeah, I figured you had it set up as a street car. Kind of more fun that way, I imagine.

>I'd also choose a lightweight rod and piston so the rod bolts would
>survive higher RPM. Even the best ARP rod bolts enter the plastic
>region at about 5200 on a big block Olds with iron rods, so after that,
>it's just a number of cycles before failure.

Wow. I had no idea it was that tight-kind of frightening really. I always figured the mass of the valvetrain would be the limiting factor. With 500 ft*lb on tap, who needs to spin it that high anyway?

Awesome car, thanks for sharing.