Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 170+ MPH Police chase in Georgia

Might slum a chevy, know where I can pick up a 73 el camino with a 454 in decent shape.

First off, let me clarify that my Trans Am was a 1974 Model. NOT A 1975 Model.

And that T/A driver y’all raced was probably laughing so hard at a Gremlin trying to race him that he forgot to shift gears. 😜
Had a cousin that put a 454 Chevy big block in his Chevy Vega and took a lot of folks money street racing way back then.
So looks can be deceiving. 😬


Anyhow.......
My 455 engine was not stock. Blew the original engine at 30,000 miles racing a Corvette out on the Interstate.

I had a local guy that drag raced Top Fuel Dragsters Professionally rebuild it for me. Cost me $3K back in 79.
He over bored it, shaved the heads, added a 3/4 Racing Cam, balanced and blueprinted the engine. Also added EDELBROCK Racing manifold, Holley 650 Double pumper Carb, Hooker headers, and a pair of Thrush Straight-through glass pack mufflers. And, I added a set of traction bars and wider tires for the back, as it was tough to get traction out of the hole with the 4-Speed Manuel transmission and an engine making 450 horses.

I had two buddy’s at the time with T/A’s and Firebirds.
On had a 78 Trans Am with the 455 and the other had a 75 Firebird with the 400 engine. And another buddy with a 69 Barracuda with the 440 engine. Another buddy had a 1978 Corvette Pace Car, and another had a 69 Chevelle SS with the 396 engine, and another friend with a 1971 Mach 1 Mustang with the 429 engine.
We all hung out together and spent every Saturday night we could at the local drag strip. My car with the rebuilt engine would run in the high 12’s / low 13’s on the strip.
None of the friends I mentioned above ever beat me on the Legal Drag Strip or on the street.
And I never got beat street racing either in my hometown.
I took the 455 decal off the hood scoop and won quite a bit of $$$ racing on the street, from folks that would cruise Main Street looking for a race on Friday nights

And, also, I should have proof read my original post before posting. I’ll blame it on the small onscreen keyboard on my iPhone. 😬
Again, My Trans Am was a 1974 Model. NOT A 1975 Model. Sorry for the confusion, but the Specs EdM posted are for another model. Not the one I owned.
Pissed me off because I knew they weren’t the correct specs for my T/A. Sounded like was being condescending before I went back and reread his post.
My fault, not his. So I guess I owe him an apology for acting like a asswhole . 😬

Here are the the correct Specs for the 1974 Model.

Engine type Pontiac Big Block V-8 455 SD
Displacement 7.5 l (455 ci / 7456 cc)
Power 314 ps (310 bhp / 231 kw) @ 4000 rpm
Torque 529 Nm (390 lb-ft) @ 3600 rpm
Power / liter 42 ps (42 hp)
Power / weight 189 ps (187 bhp) / t
Torque / weight 318 Nm (235 lb-ft) / t
Transmission 4 Speed Manual (3.08 ratio)

Wished I had kept that car. Only 212 were produced with the 455 SD engine and Manuel transmission.
One with only 9,500 miles sold for $111,000 back in 2015 at a Barrett-Jackson’s Vegas Auction. 😢

https://www.sportscarmarket.com/profile/1974-pontiac-trans-am-sd-455

Not dissing your T/A at all but check out the 1972 Gremlin 401-XR specs:13 sec qtr mile right off the show room floor
https://www.streetmusclemag.com/features/muscle-cars-you-should-know-amc-gremlin-401-xr/

It may have been a term that was used here regionally.
I just remember it as s term the local hot rod crowd and mechanics I hung out with used.
I can’t remember the brand and version of the camshaft that my mechanic used in the engine build. Wished my memory was that good. 😬
That’s what we referred to back then as a Cam you could still use on the street, and for normal every day driving, but was much more high performance than a stock camshaft.
A racing cam back then made your engine’s idle way too rough when you were sitting at the red light before it changes.
An engine with a full racing cam always sounded like they were about to sputter and die at idle RPM’s. They made your engine sound like it was about to run out of gas, until you got above idle RPM.
And if I recall correctly, the rearend gear ratio was a 3:43

I can’t recall the tire size. I know I put on set of air shocks so they wouldn’t rub on the fender wells.
Seems like the tires were Goodrich. I also put a set of Custom Crome Rocket brand Spoke wheels on it. The type that had like 5 big spokes. Not those bicycle type spoke wheels you see on cars in “da hood”.
Heck, that was 42 years ago. Lucky to remember my name on some days. 🤠

Yeah, I remember when talking to other car guys in the 80's when I was really into that stuff, that there would always be some yahoo who would hear us mention something about fast cars who would butt in and talk about their buddy/relative/ friend of a friend, who had a "3/4 race cam" and his car was the fastest, baddest, etc. It was always obvious that the person butting in had no idea what he was talking about and that it was a real whopper he was telling us. Now, there may have been an actual thing that existed somewhere, but when I would scour all the sources I knew, no one could tell me what one was.

Dodge makes the fastest production vehicles period.

I get it about the memory fading thing. Same thing for me just walking into another room. I have heard some use the term "3/4 racing cam," but it really doesn't mean anything because a "racing cam" isn't absolute. I guess someone is trying to guess it is somewhere half way between a stock camshaft and low vacuum lumpy stick. We build high performance engines for the street and race cars that are on the literal edge. Camshafts are normally referred to by lift, duration, and lobe separation. Even with these we have to be concerned with valve to piston clearance, ramp rates, spring pressures, hydraulic/solid/roller lifters, base circles, degrees advanced, etc.... That is why it makes it difficult to say what is 3/4's of that in my opinion.

The 1974 455 was a square bore (bore and stroke were more or less equal). This was more of a torquer motor rather than a high revving engine which bodes well to the tall gear you had in the car and taller tires it appears. I am surprised that the engine builder put a 650 cfm carb on that many cubic inches especially after adding another 8 to 10 with the larger bore. It would make it a stoplight to stoplight beast, but wouldn't breath well at the upper RPMs. It would take a lot of RPMs for that beast to push the aerodynamics of a 1974 Firebird anywhere close to 145 or 150 mph in my opinion.

2 were pulled from the burning wreck.

It was pretty much a term guy's who were not gearheads used to describe a cam a little hotter than stock, Didn't know the specs on the cam.

Only if you can not afford a corvette !

Lol, read back.

I get it about the memory fading thing. Same thing for me just walking into another room. I have heard some use the term "3/4 racing cam," but it really doesn't mean anything because a "racing cam" isn't absolute. I guess someone is trying to guess it is somewhere half way between a stock camshaft and low vacuum lumpy stick. We build high performance engines for the street and race cars that are on the literal edge. Camshafts are normally referred to by lift, duration, and lobe separation. Even with these we have to be concerned with valve to piston clearance, ramp rates, spring pressures, hydraulic/solid/roller lifters, base circles, degrees advanced, etc.... That is why it makes it difficult to say what is 3/4's of that in my opinion.

The 1974 455 was a square bore (bore and stroke were more or less equal). This was more of a torquer motor rather than a high revving engine which bodes well to the tall gear you had in the car and taller tires it appears. I am surprised that the engine builder put a 650 cfm carb on that many cubic inches especially after adding another 8 to 10 with the larger bore. It would make it a stoplight to stoplight beast, but wouldn't breath well at the upper RPMs. It would take a lot of RPMs for that beast to push the aerodynamics of a 1974 Firebird anywhere close to 145 or 150 mph in my opinion.

If you have the cash they will build it !

The October 12, 2006 issue of AutoWeek published photos by photographer Chris Doane of a C6 Z06 with special auto-manufacturer-issued license plates with a hood bulge, widely thought to confirm the presence of a supercharger on the Blue Devil. Other names attached to the project included Corvette SS, after the late '50 racing car,[14] and Corvette Z07.[15] In February 2007, a worker at a Michigan shipping company posted pictures online of a powertrain development mule that was being shipped to Germany, believed to be part of the Blue Devil program. The car had manufacturer's license plates, carbon-ceramic disc brakes, enlarged fender vents, a hood bulge, and an engine with a positive-displacement supercharger in the valley between the cylinder banks and a water-to-air intercooler atop it. GM began to release details on the Blue Devil project in April 2007. The company confirmed the existence of the project in an interview with Car and Driver on April 13. Engine power levels were confirmed to be between 600 and 700 horsepower (447 and 522 kW), but contrary to prior rumors of a supercharged 6.2 liter engine, the engine was only confirmed to have greater displacement than the 7.0 liter LS7 in the Z06.[16] Motor Trend confirmed the official name for the production version of the Blue Devil, resurrecting the old ZR1 nameplate. The ZR1 had originally been used on developmental cars in 1971, and again as ZR-1 as the top of the line variant of the C4 Corvette.[17] General Motors officially introduced the Corvette ZR1 on December 19, giving a press release and photographs of the car. GM confirmed a supercharged 6.2 L LS9 V8 having a power output of 638 hp (647 PS; 476 kW) at 6,500 rpm and 604 lb⋅ft (819 N⋅m) of torque at 3,800 rpm. A test of the ZR1 on the German autobahn revealed a top speed of 192 mph (309 km/h), although the manufacturer claims the car is engineered to attain speeds up to 205 mph (330 km/h).[18]