So here I am hoping to get some information from the guys that have done and seen it all.
I've been racing for 12 years with alfa's but my dream always was to race a Pantera mainly because I would like to battle for the lead with Mustangs, Camaro's, Porsches and Jaguars (even an odd but very fast charger) instead of having to battle with escorts and bmw's for 15 th place.
Over the last years I've seen a lot of race Panteras for sale but the budget was always way out of my league.
I owned a very nice pushbutton Pantera but last spring I decided to sell it because it was used very very little and it was far to good to transform it into a racing car.
Instead of curring me, the guy that bought my Pantera infected me even more with the virus, so there I was looking for another Pantera just five minutes after he left with my (his) Pantera.
Then, in july, I found a wild customised Pantera for sale with a 500+ rwhp Nascar engine for a reasonable price and decided to buy it and transform it into a racing car.
Once the car arrived however, again I found it to good to race it certainly because all the custom work was done in steel (try to fix that if you hit something).
So, a month ago I came across a project Pantera with a very good shell and a new stock 351 C engine and again I managed to buy it. (sorry darling no holiday next year).
My idea was to transfer the Nascar engine into the project car and to transform that into a full road racing car (finally my dream is coming true at a reasonable price).
After having read some of the thread's, I'm not so sure anymore.
Sure 500+ rwhp goes very fast on the straight, but will it get around the corner and even worse, what if it rain's ?
What I'm looking for is the best relaibility and driveability.
So here are the spec's of the engine :
Ford 351 C build to Nascar specifications
Power output 500+ rwhp
6 row aluminium radiator
Cooling system with all stainless steel and high quality rubber hoses
MSD ignition
Parker funnel hi-rise intake manifold
shaft mount roller rockers for high rpms
CHI 3 V heads that flow at 340 CFM
H-beam rods
Custom ARP pistons
Steel crank
4-bolt main block
Custom ground camshaft
Solid roller
Ferrea valves
Manley custom springs with titanium retainers and locks
Quickfuel 950 carburetor mechanical secondary
Edelbrock electric fuel pump with a Billet fuel pressure regulator
Custom exhaust with center exit
So a lot of goodies here in my opinion, but the questions stay :
Is this a relaible engine and will it fit in the project car or would it be more reasonable to build a 400 hp race engine from the stock 351 C and leave the other car as it is ? Keep in mind that $$$$ is important since there isn't much left anymore.
Any opinion is welcome
Carlo
PS I'll try to post some pic's but they are to many kb's so i'll have to resize them.
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