8 seconds in the quater
No way an 8 second car can be drivin on the street like that!
shareIt should more likely be @16 sec 1/4 mile,@8sec in 1/8 mile....but it is a movie !!! It is also a cool '57,with a Paxton blown, fuel injected,283,and 3-speed stick,ALL"pieroid-correct"...The '55 Chevy for American Graffitti,(and previously, Two Lane Blacktop),had a 454 Chevy/4 speed/4:88 rear, and did 10:90-127 in the quarter when built(from a '73 issue of Street Rodder Magazine)...thanks for your time...Tmechanic44
share Thanks for the great info on the Chevy's in the movies, but one thing that i thought should have been in the ''goofs'' section on this movie is the very first scene in the movie when they had the 57 Chevy sitting in a shady spot on the side of the road testing the oil pressure with the engine revved wide open with the oil pressure guage reading zero!! .. while i am no expert mechanic i have worked on cars most of my adult life and i know that engine wouldn't have lasted 10 seconds with no oil pressure at that high RPM.
Also, the engine in that Chevy must have been close to being ready for a major overhaul with the way blue smoke was belching out of it throughout the movie, (not being critical of Chevy's as i am very much a Chevy lover) but then again, my 1990 model Chevy pickup smokes some too, but that old 350 still runs strong as it did when i got it new 17 years ago.
Another goof in this movie is finding what should be a one-year old '57 convertible, so beat up and rough it looks like it would have in 1974 - this when they needed to replace one of the side windows. Wish I could find a convert in that shape today, for the 1974 price.
I was at the filming of the restaurant fight scene, my parents were extras.
My fathers 1953 chevy sedan delivery, which was in the scene as they pulled in was used to start the 57 MANY times.
It had to warm up to stop smoking and was an absolute dog.
Pause the engine compartment scene and really look at the engine... There wasnt a supercharger within MILES of that car.
A but of filming was done around High Falls park.
This movie always puts a smile on my face.
Jim
Me too Jim... Do you live here in Georgia???
share"WHO SAYS AN 8 SECOND CAR CAN'T BE DRIVEN ON THE STREET"???
I was kinda rootin' for the 50' Ford that the bad guys were driving, hehehe.
In the race, if he hadn't used the nitro, the Ford would've won, no doubt.
8 second cars can be driven on the street today, but in the 1950s 8 second quarter miles were the average for an injected Hemi-powered NHRA rail car.
A fast street car during that time could likely cut 13s, but certainly not 8s.
I lived in Ga for years, I am in process of moving to Va from Ma.
Jim
yes, an 8 sec. run would have been one heck of a rodeo ride for the hopped up street Chevy back in that time era, yet again, (above)....the operative word is...."it is a movie"....if an engine builder knew what he was doing, and the plumbed (nitrous) slug (the 57' was not lightweight) was put together right...it could have hypothetically run like a bat out of hell with the correct NOS shot...do not underestimate the 283.....or a later block which was bigger, the legendary 409
shareYea, the 8 sec. 1/4 was what I was wondering about.
So these seemingly penny pinching kids have a 1-2 year old car with an 800+ hp engine. A moderately built and blown SB Chevy would have been around 500hp in those days. Not sure that I saw a blower on the car. Nor did I see any type of suspention mods. That engine would have needed a rebuild after driving the 3000 miles to California. Then they treat the car like schit.
<http://www.superchevy.com/technical/engines_drivetrain/induction_poweradders/0510sc_principles/index.html>;
I remember there was a Beach Boys song that had the lyrics, "Nothing can catch her; nothing can touch my 409! I have owned 396 in a '69 Chevelle SS with a Muncie 3 speed, but just a bit better were the 400 engines I had in a '69 Olds 442 (with an extremely high speed rear end ratio, but was still good in the quarter mile; it unfortunately had a Rochester 4 barrel that gave me lots of trouble) and a '71 GTO that could haul ass as well. If they had been 4 speed intead of automatic, they would have been awesome in the quarter mile.
Law? WHERE'S THE LAW NOW!!??!!-Burt Reynolds; Deliverance.
Some of the Rochester Q-Jets were dog carbs, but there were frequent how-to's in mags like Hot Rod and Pop Hot Rodding on rebuilding them to be as efficient as a Holley.
I used to read those magazines and dream about the ride I'd have someday. When I finally did, an exhaust cam lobe went flat, and a guy at the speed shop sold me on a new cam with too much duration, so the timing had to be bumped up to about 16b to get it to idle. That made it run rich and hot, so the rings went away at only about 30,000 miles.