Reply to "Making the Pantera faster!"

George,

I can add a little here, I think.....

My current motor was built to have 450 HP, we used the best that we could get without going into roller anything. It was built to be strong and :-) rapid while still keeping drivability and dependability. I have put about 25,000 miles on this motor since building it and nothing has gone wrong with it other than replacing the intake manifold gasket about 3000 miles ago. As time goes on, it seems to be actually running smoother and better. I burned maybe 1/2 quart of oil on this latest trip of 1500 miles. Which stands to reason since going from Vegas to LA I was racing with a Mercedes 500s most of the way hitting speeds of 140+. (Which by the way could never pass me) Much of which had a lot to do with setting, breaking in the rings correctly. I change the oil every 3000 miles, new plugs, cap and rotor every 10,000 weather it's needed or not. Several have ridden in my car and all have said that it runs very smooth and is very quick. When I got to Valencia, it just so happen I pulled up next to a Diablo at a traffic light. What a beauty it was. We exchanged pleasantries and how nice each others cars were. The light changed and we were off. We ran pretty much side by side through 2 gears and then both decided no tickets today and backed off. When we stopped at the next light, he looked over and said, Damm, your car runs F-en great. That was a pretty cool compliment considering what he was sitting in.

The aluminum flywheel did take some getting used to. But now that I have it in, I wouldn't want my cast iron one back in at all. It smoothed out the performance even more. At first I didn't think I liked it because I didn't feel the grunt torque anymore. But after getting used to it, I've realized that I am going just s fast and getting there much quicker. So in a way, I guess it's actually going faster if it was to be measured time wise. And,,,,if I want to, I can still light the rear tires up like they were on ice. Not to mention, the aluminum flywheel has got to be easier on the crank and internal motor parts not having to spin that iron freebie.

George and I discussed building another motor for my car, the pro's and con's of doing so and the money it would take. After some discussion about it, what George said made a lot of since. I have a strong and rapid :-) motor already that is very tight and runs like a bat out of hell. What would be accomplished by building another motor for it. Instead, the money would be better spend by having Don Gould build me my Demon Carburetor, have the distributor re-curved and getting the complete timing better than I have it now, which isn't all that bad. This would give me even better throttle response than I already have. So this is going to be my next step motor wise and I believe money well spent in my case. Then there's a couple of other simple modifications he suggested that I will also do. All of which will make the motor perform even better than it does now. At some point, it's the fine tuning that becomes most important.

As George said in this post, after having a tight motor, what becomes very important is the weight. I put a fiberglass front hood on mine. That alone shaved at least 60 pounds off the front end. I plan on putting a rear fiberglass deck lid on in the near future, that alone will probably shave another 80 to 100 pounds off the rear end. It's a simple fact when you have enough power already, going faster can be achieved without sacrificing dependability and drivability by cutting the weight off the car.

I once built a Porsche 914 and converted it to a Chevy 350. It was build right at 325 HP. The car weighed about 1700 pounds and was faster than my Pantera at 450 HP and 3200 pounds.

George, please feel to correct me if I'm wrong or misquoted you....