Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

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Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by PackardV8 »

www.psmcdr.com

We've never made the trek, but several Studebaker enthusiasts participate each year and most of them are pure stock. The quickest/fastest Stude is always George Krem's 1964 Studebaker Challenger R3 supercharged two-door sedan, known as "The Plain Brown Wrapper" 12.673@113.26. It's a tear-down-proven pure stock.

Image

For comparison, there was a '69 Z28 which ran 15.06 @ 92.70, actually slower than they were back in the day. However, most of the competition is such an order of magnitude faster/quicker than they were back in the day, pure stock is a maybe. (Cam King would say it's just the cam profiles are so much better today :>)

Driver Year Make Model Engine Trans Rear ET MPH
Tim Clary 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396/375 3a 4.88 11.505 118.73
Bob Karakashian1970 Plymouth 'Cuda 426/425 3a 4.10 11.685 120.17
John Kryta 1969 Pontiac GTO 400/370 3a 4.33 11.791 115.45
Elyse Anslow 1971 Buick GS 455 455/345 3a 3.73 11.882 117.40
Paul Aragona 1974 Pontiac Formula 455 455/390 3a 4.11 11.922 114.40

TOP 5 SMALL-BLOCKS
Driver Year Make Model Engine Trans Rear ET MPH
Paul Petcou 1971 Plymouth Duster 340/275 3a 4.30 12.197 110.44
James Kryta 1970 Oldsmobile F85 350/325 3a 3.91 12.302 112.61
George Krem 1964 Studebaker Challenger 304.5/335 4m 4.27 12.673 113.26
Dave Watt 1971 Plymouth Duster 340/275 3a 4.30 12.792 107.06
Larry Weymouth 1971 AMC Hornet SC/360 360/285 4m 4.10 12.840 110.25

The Stude has the smallest engine, but by virtue of the Paxton supercharger, pulls the highest small block MPH.
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by novadude »

I find this class fascinating. If the Stude meets Pure Stock rules, that is impressive. Never much thought of Studebakers as muscle cars, but that one would embarrass most of the "heavy weights" of the era. Did anyone campaign those in NHRA back in the day?
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by PackardV8 »

The Studebaker R3 came and went so quickly, there was never enough production or enough support to get any attention. There were only nine Avanti and one Lark so equipped. After Studebaker went out of business, Paxton Products sold another hundred or so R3 engines from leftover parts.

One minor factoid is back in '63, HRM took an Avanti R3 to the Riverside 1/2-mile drags. It ran 127 MPH and finished second to a '63 Plymouth 426" Max Wedge.

Even more minor factoid, Andy Granatelli and Paxton Products took another Avanti R3 to Bonneville and ran 173 MPH; at that time, the fastest production car.

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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by Rick! »

So, these guys can't play?
https://www.fastdrags.com/

They got Polyglas GT tires and Firestone Wide Ovals... :)
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by PackardV8 »

There's Pure Stock, which means just that. A well-built Pure Stock engine might be, say $10,000 in round numbers.

Then there's Factory Appearing Stock Tire, which means it has to appear as original outside, but anything goes inside; strokers, roller cams, custom rods, forged pistons, roller rockers, big valves, et al. Where a complete Pure Stock engine might be $10K, the F.A.S.T. engine might have $10K just in ExtrudeHoning the manifolds. We've heard of F.A.S.T. hemi builds costing more than $100K.
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by Ron E »

That Stude has to be the coolest car there. I never knew that combination existed. Love the plain look too.
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by wwmtlineman »

I had a machinist friend, Bob Dwyer of Precision Auto Machine in Oakland Park Fl. that ran a blower 63 Lark in SS/IA back in the mid 70s. Best I saw it run was 11.1's. He made adaptor plates for a Chevy Edelbrock intake. Bob was know to fudge a touch on the boost & any other area he could find. He died years back from diabetes complications but was one hell of a guy and did the machine work on all our S Florida cars. I dont know what happened to the car and all the other Baker stuff he had because I moved to Montana in 1980. He used to run a lower class 55 Studebaker called the Crockagator that was numerous time record holder
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by CamKing »

Here's a Studebaker, that was pretty quick, but I don't think it would pass as "Pure Stock".
Check out the engine builder's name :wink:
John Simonson 200 MPH Club Studebaker (2010).jpg
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by Mr.L-88 »

I would without a doubt build a car for this type of racing if they ran in my area. I do have some issues with the various sanctioning body/host rule formats; but eventually they will work themselves out or break up the series.

What I would really be interested in is a "Day-Two" type class that allowed period modifications only and a 9" slick for "Super Car" style builds and a 10.5" slick for vintage Pro/Super Stock type cars.

Lastly the rules need to be well established and firm for everybody. Currently there are some of the sanctioning bodies that will allow very non-stock looking parts under the premise that they are "factory replacement" for the original "hard to get" part. There is not however an actual list of approved part numbers and there is also denial that the replacement parts offer a performance advantage over the original part. It works like this. Submit what you propose to build and we will determine if we think it will fit the rules. "We" being the fastest guys in the class. Even if that is 100% legit, it leads one to think the worst. Just imagine if back in the day that Jenkins and Sox and Martin controlled what could be ran in P/S back in the day with every other racer submitting their combinations for their review instead of having published rules stating the exceptions.
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by PackardV8 »

I built a Studebaker race engine for a guy wanted to race, but didn't want to spend the money for the rare R3 parts. When we debated about what he could and couldn't use, I said, "No worries; they only protest when you beat the fast guys."
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by 83hurstguy »

I don't post here much, but do compete. PSMCDR is one of the most fun muscle car events on the planet, it's a blast and all the people there are awesome.

My '68 Hurst/Olds went a best 12.47@108.9mph last year (we had killer air on Saturday morning). There should be more in it, but it really seems to lay down after 1000 ft and 4800 rpm in 3rd gear... need more testing time to diagnose it.

I also have a '70 cuda 440-6 bbl that should hopefully be there in September, my new engine for that goes on the dyno tomorrow. A good friend and I work on each other's stuff together, we finished a 426 hemi build for his '70 challenger this year, should be there in September. We aren't trying to set the world on fire (both are four speed cars), but they should run strong.

My friend is in the Stude club and we hang with those guys, great crew of people, the Wrapper and Tomato are some awesome cars. The R2 powered Tomato went 116 mph this spring in Pure Stock trim at a Martin FAST race, which was it's fastest ever :shock:
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by PackardV8 »

83hurstguy wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:34 am The R2 powered Stude Tomato went 116 mph this spring in Pure Stock trim at a Martin FAST race, which was it's fastest ever :shock:
Not bad for a Pure Stock 289"; Ted Harbit, the builder and sometimes driver is about 85 years old and has been racing Studebaker V8s since the 1950s. He won his class at the NHRA Nationals for about ten years in a row.
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by Truckedup »

Wow, FAST class cars with $100K engines..I am way out of touch ......
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by PackardV8 »

Truckedup wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:25 pm Wow, FAST class cars with $100K engines..I am way out of touch ......
Speed costs money. How fast do you want to run? All one has to do is compare the speeds/ETs the winners are turning today (9.70@143) as compared to what they ran when new (14.0@117) to see what the money buys.
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Re: Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags - anyone here compete?

Post by MadBill »

CamKing wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:30 pm Check out the engine builder's name :wink:
I'm guessing that'l be your Dad? :)
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