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"Restoration" of 69 Z28 on TV. I must have missed something.

RagTop

RagTop

Old Grumpy
I was watching a show on the restoration of a 69 Camaro Z28 on TV the other night and they spared no expense. The original car was not even a parts car and all they saved was the floor pan, roof, one rear quarter and the VIN. The guy doing the restoration locates a DZ block 302 with correct build date for the car they were restoring and dumps $8K into the engine rebuild. When complete the rebuilder puts it on an engine dyno and it cranks out 404 hp. Everyone's happy (I know I would be except for the $8K part). When complete this Frankencar is taken to the local drag strip to demonstrate it's prowess as a "true muscle car". The guy runs a 16.00 @ 87mph and everyone's still happy! Finally, they drag out a 69 Mustang Mach 1 with a 351W and they decide to race these two against eachother. Sort of an old school vintage drag race. The Mach was a proper looking restoration in Black Jade. In the ensuing drag race, with the Camaro being driven by one of the owner's mechanics who is a regular drag racer, the Mach hammers the Cammy by five to seven car lengths. Everyone's still happy??? Did I miss something here? The original pass at 16.00 I wrote off to the owners ineptitude, but the second run, for which no e.t.s were provided, was done by someone who knows how to drive a drag race. Neither of the two 69s generated a ton of tire smoke, so it sure wasn't that the Cammy failed to hook up, and the Mach was opening the gap all the way down the strip. Now, I like 69 SportsRoofs with 351Ws. My son owns one. But, I would have thought the Camaro would have been a heap faster. :shrug
 
The Z is definitely faster than 16 seconds.

With a built engine it should be into the low 14's, maybe better.
 
Thats hilarious. I'm surprised they didn't edit the tape and make the Mach driver slow down so that the Camaro would win. What was the show called?
 
"RagTop" said:
Now, I like 69 SportsRoofs with 351Ws. My son owns one. But, I would have thought the Camaro would have been a heap faster. :shrug
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Ok, I'm going to pretent I didn't read that. (Owner of a '69 SportsRoof with 351w.)
 
Nice, I'll have to check it out. I guess the extra 49 cubic inches of the mustang helped win. They would have been better poised to race a mustang with a 302, but hey a win is a win ;)
 
always love to hear a cheby getting beat by a ford.. especially after they just told you they spent 8k on the motor! hahaha :shee
 
Something's not right with this. My 289 chassis dyno'd at 313 HP and ran a 13.51 ET while spinning all through first and part of second. I sure as hell didn't spend $8K on my engine [nb]the original build only. Add up the 2 subsequent re-builds and it's around 8K[/nb]
 
What's missing from the equation is whether the rear axle ratios were similar. If the Camaro's was 2.79:1 and the MachI was 3.5:1 or numerically higher, that could explain the drag race results.
 
"silverblueBP" said:
Something's not right with this. My 289 chassis dyno'd at 313 HP and ran a 13.51 ET while spinning all through first and part of second.
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1/8th mile? :nut

On the 1970 Mach registry, they quote the stock 351 4V with 3.50 gear and 4spd going 15.23 @ 94.33mph in the 1/4mile (Car Craft Magazine May 1970 issue). I'm assuming that is the Cleveland, which is a bigger beast than that Z302
 
1/8th mile is for pu**ies, my only run was on a "real" 1/4 mile track :thu
 
In drag racing ET determines the winner, but MPH is the main indicator of power / capability. Even with 2.73 rear gear, that car should be doing better than 16.0. My first car was a 73 Impala.... about 4000# with a 350, 4bbl holley, weind single plane intake, headers, 2 inch dual exhaust and 2.73:1 rear gears... that car would barely spin the tire and it ran 16.4 @ I think 86-87 MPH too. Even with 2.56:1 that camaro should be running way better than that.
 
"buening" said:
1/8th mile? :nut

On the 1970 Mach registry, they quote the stock 351 4V with 3.50 gear and 4spd going 15.23 @ 94.33mph in the 1/4mile (Car Craft Magazine May 1970 issue). I'm assuming that is the Cleveland, which is a bigger beast than that Z302
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That might be true, but the car the Cammy was racing was a 69 Mach1. It had a 351W 4V, which isn't quite the beast the 351C 4V is. Gears wouldn't explain the difference that I saw either. If that Z28 was making 404 fwhp, it would overcome even puny gears. I would expect that the Z28, intended for Transam racing, would have had top end gears in its stock configuration. BTW, everyone thinks they should have run him against a 302. As a 302 owner (69 convertible) I take exception with that. My lil' vert has run a best of 14.308 @ 99.1 mph at Sacramento Raceway. Bring on dem Z28s! :yah Maybe they should have run him against a 69 Boss 302? Transam racer against Transam racer. What could be fairer?
 
I saw the re-run for that last night or this morning (I'm in an engine building haze), but that car was a pig on the dragstrip. They were all so happy and I was laughing. I'd like to know what rear gears it had....1.90's maybe.
 
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