The Good, Bad, and The Ugly. Drag Racing My Big Block Powered 1968 Ford Thunderbird

The good, the bad, and the ugly. That is the topic for today. I took my Holley Equipped 521 cubic inch big block powered 1968 Ford Thunderbird to US 41 Motorplex for a test and tune event to test out my new combo. In the offseason, John Cope and I from Cope Racing Transmissions built one awesome C6 automatic transmission that includes a lower planetary gearset, transbrake, Hurst shifter, and high quality clutches/steels. Another go fast addition was the center section, the new one has a spool and 4.88s. Now, I kept the suspension the same but added QA1 double adjustable shocks up front, I already had them outback. To make this combo really come alive, I added an MSD two step to my MSD 6AL and also added an MSD Pro Billet distributor. To help out with that 114 octane race fuel, I rejetted the QuickFuel 650 CFM carbs and did some more tuning on them, really crisp throttle response. All sounds pretty awesome right? Oh, you can say that, but...... how did it react?
Let's dive into the details shall we. The last time I raced this car I had zero issues with traction off the line, but it would break loose after the 60 foot mark. Also, I never had tire shake or wheel hop. But I did have problems with my distributor cutting out and it was apparent I needed a different transmission combination and better front shakes. Hence, all the changes I mentioned above. Let's talk about the good, no more ignition problems, the new transmission is awesome, and I ran my best ET ever. All sounds wonderful right? Not so fast... that personal best ET was a second gear launch off the converter around 3000 RPM. What happened? Time to talk about bad. MASSIVE traction issues using the transbrake, spun the tires 300 foot and had tire shake. This has never been a problem before, and I am not sure 100% why it started now. This big block makes a ton of horsepower and torque, taming it seems like it will be a challenge. I even tried without the transbrake and up on the converter around 3000 RPM, traction was better (still not great) but I had a lot of wheel hop. So, I even tried walking it out, no wheel hop but still spun under wide open throttle. All this happens now? Yeah, frustrating to say the least seeing my engine is running great and the track was prepped really good!
Let's talk about the ugly, something I know is causing some of this. Brand new QA1 shock outback is most likely toast. While unloading under the car, we noticed it the driver's side rear shock was leaking, not good at all. As the day went on, it definitely was not getting any better. Ugly right? I am not sure how much that played into my problems today, but I know it didn't help at all. So, I have some sorting out to do on my suspension geometry and most likely will be replacing a shock, maybe both!
Overall, we had a really fun day, and I made my best pass to date. Smokey burnouts, a few clean passes down the dragstrip, and great company. I have to give a huge shoutout to my friend Brian for hauling the car and for all his help. It was also fun having my dad come along, it has been since 1972 since he was at US 41, talk about old school. Also, I got to see my friend John, awesome guy! It looks like I have some work to do before my next race, if that doesn't work, looks like I'll being launching in second gear!
#ford #speed #automotive
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