Guesses as to what GruFFnuTT has bought

Thanks for the info. This does just about make sense to me and will explain why the car does bog down when pushing through (manually held/not auto) 1st, but a massive pickup when 2nd is selected. I managed to lose traction quite accidentally when leaving a pub meet a couple of weeks ago, just from a bit of extra right foot and simply changing up.
The car has no rev counter so I'm doing everything on sound and feel.
I've been watching some YouTube clips on launching and wondering how they achieved ripping the tyres from the road. I had my suspicions about standing on the brakes and bringing the revs up, but I didn't want to try it and damage the car through ignorance.

http://youtu.be/P7OMreTL3nI

All I know about the Cam, is that it's a 'Competition Cam' (???) with forged internals. It doesn't sound as lumpy as the car above and ticks over very smoothly. The spec list is on page 3 of this thread. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to get some finer details from the builder of the car in the US. I'll keep trying...
I have found an American Classic Car Specialist about 50miles away, so I'm thinking about running it over to them for a 'looksee' and see if they can throw any light on the cars setup. I reckon it could do with a tune up and I'd love for the fuel gauge to work to give me a clue?

Thanks again mate.

Yeah, I did get a nice wad of paperwork for the car, but when I looked through it at the time of purchase, there was not much detailing the build for the performance parts. Hence it was a bit of a gamble at the time. I went on the fact that I could clearly see that the car had had a very recent rebuild with many new parts and hoped that the spec sheet was true.
I will have another read through it all and report back if I find anything...

Cheers Ringram.

Unfortunately, I don't understand most of what you wrote. Haha. Soz...
I just wanted a classic American Muscle Car, so I bought the coolest one I could find!!!
I'm enjoying finding out about its setup though.
There's no doubt this thing has power (I'm sure the Custom Shop in Florida where it came from, knew what they were doing when they built it) but at the moment, I've been happy just cruising around on a sunny day, although I'll be trying that two foot launch technique soon for The Pod!

Their cars are lovely though...???

Marginally better!!!

Cheers Andy,

I've been doing some research into what both you and Ringram have been saying. I unfortunately don't have an engineering background, so I'm a bit slow on the uptake to grasp some of the basic principles.

I will be attempting torque braking at some point having read up about the technique for drag launching autos (I feel more confident now that I won't damage the transmission) and I've been reading up on torque/stall converters and I'm beginning to get a grasp of what Ringram was trying to explain to me. I wish I had his knowledge on this stuff, it would make life so much easier...

Does this clip explain the launch principle you mentioned without it turning into a full on burnout?

http://youtu.be/GcrynXnCVvY

And, I think this is what Ringram was trying to explain about getting the right 'package' for the stall/torque converter.

http://youtu.be/hkOTpWVTLc8

I really hope this car turns out to be more than just a 'cool looking' car...

Edited to add this http://youtu.be/z5G2zQ_3xTc if anybody else was wondering about how stall converters work. This makes autos 'sexy' and I'm beginning to understand those hi-rev drag launches I've seen at Santa-Pod http://youtu.be/YdhvPB3piUA

The Camaro had a 3500 stall. Yeah low speed wasnt too bad as it would still move, but rather than a level foot you ended up stabbling the throttle so flash stall it to get moving then drop throttle down to maintain speed

Sounds like yours is designed for abuse, so dont go light on the throttle..

Having played around with the stock ~1800 and aftermarket 3500 stall the summary seems to be stall should match cam and gearing.. no surprise there.

So low stall for PD FI stuff, higher stall for larger cams and taller gears etc.
For a daily lower stalls are more efficient. Higher stalls by definition are less efficient so you can probably gain a lot of economy with a better stall and gears.. (Aside from the cam and engine considerations..)

Blah, blah, your car is setup for high rpm power and high performance/acceleration. At low rpm its very inefficient.
If you want it efficient around town there are quite a few things that you should look at..

- Carb manifold and carb (dual plane, vacuum secondaries are best for street/econ)
- Heads (Small port high velocity best, which means 2v heads)
- Cam (22x duration at 0.050 for street)
- Rear gears (high 2.x or low 3.x range for daily use IMO)
- stall (low 2k range best)

You may find the spec of some parts already match the above, but I suspect not
The good news is parts are probably cheap.

Depends on your requirements. High performance tire shredder, or old skool tourer etc..

This is all slowly beginning to make a bit more sense now.
It explains a lot as to why the car felt so underpowered. My first test drive of it nearly ended the dream, as it just seemed to not want to go anywhere from low revs (not setup for inner city London traffic then?). The chap I bought it from didn't seem to know anything either and perhaps that's why he sold it on as it wasn't what he expected either. It was like the blind leading the blind...

As you say Ringram, if this car is setup to take some abuse with high-rev standing start acceleration, then I need to learn how to 'drive' this thing and get the best out of it. I'd be reluctant to want to change it to suit me and ruin a potentially quick car.

I've only been to Santa Pod once and had three runs in my manual car (Ro VXR) and of course Thunder Road. I'm no drag racer (yet ), but I want to learn how to drive this car. As ARAF said previously, "there's a lot about this car that many of us (including me) don't know much about".
If it wasn't for this forum, I'd be totally clueless...

Anyone fancy giving me a drag lesson? (Please no Conchita jokes!!!)

I'll see if i can find the go pro i just moved house. Its not unusual for people to drive a car with a higher stall speed and think it has no go. The do feel bit sluggish till you get on it.

Gruff, give it chit then is the summary.
Heavy throttle and high RPM, thats what it sounds like it wants. It will tear chit up, burn gas, but be fun. Probably the whole point of it.

Its not for groceries or cruises. Its for burnouts, drifting, power oversteer and drags.