My first drag project

[drcox99]

Hi everyone, im new to this forum but have run into a bit of a road block and would love some help.
ive recently purchased a reliant Scimitar SE6 with plans to turn it into a drag car, ive been going and watching drag racing at santapod since i was a kid and have always wanted to learn about it.
anyway the car comes with a 3l essex V6 with 140 bhp stock, its pretty beat up and would take a while and a fair bit of money to get it to be race able.
the question is, if the v6 isnt going to make the power i want on a limited budget, what should i swap in, im looking for around 500-600 Bhp to get me into the low 11s or high 10s, but living in the uk what engine should i be looking at getting, im willing to put in the elbow grease to get there and i dont expect this to happen quickly but im hearing about a 350 small block a lot, or at a higher budget an old 454 big block.

any advice on which V8s i should be looking at and how much i should expect to pay to get an engine to the 500-600 hp range would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[drcox99]

Thanks for the reply, I’m thinking I’ll do as much to the current engine as possible so I might try nitrous on it but I have no clue how much an Essex V6 could take anyone know?

[drcox99]

Yea I mean that’s the plan, going for low weight more than power cuz from what I’ve read it’s the pistons that limit the power from nitrous or other power adders, and idk if I want to blow a thousand pounds on a forged set of pistons. And the timing gears will probably be one of the first things to go, I’d like to add nitrous as I’ll only use it for the drag strip but I have no clue how much it could take.

[drcox99]

Yeah I would prefer to have a big block but they’re not cheap, don’t have the money for a swap at the moment, and that’s going to be the plan I think, there’s a few things I can do for a relatively low price like camshaft and other small bits, and then maybe look at nitrous after a while. I’m in no rush I’d rather do little bits at a time and learn what I’m doing, having said that I’d love to be able to get down to 12 second E/T, any tips on getting there for the cheapest price would be appreciated, as far as I can see nitrous is the cheapest and easiest.

[drcox99]

Thanks for the advice, I hadn’t thought about the strain the suspension would be under.
What are the sort of things I should be looking towards doing to the Essex V6?

[drcox99]

Yeah a role cage has been a topic I’ve been thinking about, luckily my dad has a friend that makes his own role cage so when the time comes I know where I’ll be going, don’t want to do it too early who’ll im still in the 15 second range tho cuz of the weight. The chassis of this one looks surprisingly good but I plan on replacing any rusted parts. My goal of 12 seconds is mainly so that I can acc get into a class, I could get into pro et, and then further down the like super street. But obviously getting to 12 seconds with a 900kg car and fairly low go motor isn’t gonna be easy.

[drcox99]

That is a good idea, I’m going a few times this year so I’ll definantly spend more time in the sportsman area of the pits. Also thanks for the link, I found it like a week ago and lost it lol, your golf being that light is making me wonder how light I can actually get my car, I mean it’s almost 1300 kgs stock.

[drcox99]

Thanks, I think I’ll be going to that event, haven’t sorted it yet, but I was wondering what do you actually need to get into sportsman et because I assume you need more than you do for rwyb

[drcox99]

Yeah I was looking at getting a rover engine but compared to something like a Chevy small block they’re harder to get high hp numbers from, ideally I’d like to put a big block in it cuz it’s like future proofing, as I progress I’m able to put more stuff on it and get going on 1000 hp

[drcox99]

Yeah I mean I’m not looking to swap the engine any time soon it’ll be atleast a year or two probably more, assuming I can make the current engine run which might be a task in itself.