1/4 Mile Time?

[DANZIGS]

I have an 89 Caprice with a 305 tbi th200 4r and 2.73 rear gears. The tranny has a B&M shift kit, and the motor has a 1" throttle body spacer, open air element, timing slightly advanced, and electric fans. The catalatic converter has been drilled out and a 2 chamber flowmaster installed. I have never runned the car at the local strip and I'm just curious what kind of 1/4 mile times should be expected. Is high 15's out of range?

[silicon212]

Originally Posted by DANZIGS

I have an 89 Caprice with a 305 tbi th200 4r and 2.73 rear gears. The tranny has a B&M shift kit, and the motor has a 1" throttle body spacer, open air element, timing slightly advanced, and electric fans. The catalatic converter has been drilled out and a 2 chamber flowmaster installed. I have never runned the car at the local strip and I'm just curious what kind of 1/4 mile times should be expected. Is high 15's out of range?

You'd be lucky if you're in the 17-18 second range. 15s are totally out. My '88 has a 350 lb/ft tq 350, 4L60 (TH700R4, much lower 1st gear than your TH2004R), 3.08 gears and 225/70R15 tires and it's a 16-17 second car. There's just too much weight, not enough torque, and not enough gears to get it to 15 in your case.

Of course, the torque rating of my engine is estimated - it's not dyno'ed, and the engine does have over 1/4 million miles on it since its rebuild in 1993 - it may not be producing quite that much anymore.

[HLandin]

I would agree with silicon212. Stock, the Caprice never ran faster than the low 16's at the Michigan State Police trials, and that was with the 350-cid with 3.42 or 3.08 rear end ratio (depending on year), and the 700R4/4L60 or 4L60E. Even with modifications, you still using a 305-cid and 2.73 ratio rear end. You could get better times, but only with some serious modification to your engine and drivetrain.

[PeteA216]

My '84 Caprice w/ a 4bbl carb, and 700 R4 Tranny WAY back when It was stock ran an average of an embarrasing 18.7 seconds on the 1/4 mile (average calculated with 3 runs). Now since eliminating ALL emissions & ALL computer contolled components, running high octane through a performer Edelbrock carburetor with the vacuum advanced HEI distributor set so advanced that its JUST on the verge of pinging (don't worry I make sure there is NO ping) I was able to get a new average of 16.9 seconds. Its still nothing spectacular, but its a huge jump from where it used to be.

I wanna see what headers, dual exhaust, and a new rear end will do for it, but I can't afford all that right now. The rear end is currently my main focus, for traction and accelleration reasons. My dream car would be for it to look COMPLETELY stock from the outside, but to be faster than a bat out of hell.... all while still keeping the gentle, smooth ride of a Caprice. Just wishful thinking though.