Where to start?

I plan on taking my '70 GTX to the track one last time as soon as the hot weather passes. The car's last outing was in 1996 where it ran a 12.0 at 114 with a 1.862 short time with a slipping clutch on the launch.

Setup at the time:

440 with McCandless ported heads, +1 intake/exhaust, 528 mec cam, 6-pack forged slugs, TM7 intake with 750 AFB, 2" Hooker headers, 4-speed, 28" x 10.5" M/T slicks, 4:10 gears 8.75 rear at 3800lbs with driver.

I converted the car over to an automatic shortly after to improve short time and reduce wear and tear on the body after 2 decades of street and track racing has taken its toll.

Problem being I never went to the track with it again! I started tinkering around with the FWD drive stuff and the car just got sidelined and then went into storage where it sat for over a 15 years waiting for me to get back around to it..

In 2010 the car was pulled out of storage and I started picking at it. Changed out an intake gasket, new (cheap) headers from Summit as the Hookers were shot, new 3" mandrel bent system, fixed the fiberglass front bumper, went over the brake system, replaced the front drums with discs finally and generally made the car driveable again.

A friend mention he like the car as it had "patina" and it had a new paint job 2 months later. I don't like patina.

So why are we here? Well I have started to pickup racing again with the Duster and decided to take the GTX to the track as well this fall for good measure to see what the old girl will do.

I indicate its the last time since I want to convert the car back to a 4-speed for the fun factor and reinstall the power steering I removed all the years ago. Since I have no desire to beat up the body further this will indeed be the last time once the manual goes back in.

Spent the last week going over everything with a fine tooth comb and here is the current setup.

440 with McCandless ported heads, +1 intake/exhaust, 528 mec cam, 6-pack forged slugs, tunnel ram with 500 AFB's, 1.75" headers, automatic, 28" x 10.5" M/T slicks, 4:10 gears 8.75 rear.

Curb weight up slightly from 3800 lbs I imagine since the fiberglass front bumper has been replaced with a steel unit though I'm sorely tempted to reinstall the 'glass one for a last go around! Also not going to run the WeldWheels as I don't have long studs on the car any longer and have no desire to install them.

The 727 is just a run of the mill unit with a 340 converter and a Turbo Action manual valve body. Its been flawless in the car since installed, recent service showed nothing amiss in the pan.

I built the motor in 1993 and its still holding together pretty good. Matter of fact I just got around to replacing the damn high pressure spring MP sold for oil pressure and put a stocker in so I don't have to worry about balloning the filter when cold! Car has a maximum of 60 psi now.

What say you? I think the car will ET better but might lose little mph. I say might due to the fact it has the tunnel ram installed now and it pulls like hell compared to the TM7. I'm better at tuning than I was 30 years ago too so there might be a few mph still hiding in the old girl.

What the car looks like today.

Very nice looking car. Good-luck and have FUN.

Thanks! Thats the whole point of going back to a stick and re-installing the power steering. The fun factor and driving with manual steering is getting old for someone with hands as beat up as mine are.

Love it man...........enjoy..........

Gorgeous car!

What the heck...... 11.90 @ 115.

Car looks real nice!!

Last time my heap was at the valley with the 383 in it(probably like 2007 or 2008), it weighed 3670 with me, went 11.40 that day.

Hope you are not planning on using the same 20 year old slicks........LOL!!!

No, I have slicks I'm going to be running on the Duster

Looks real nice. Good luck with it. I haven't raced mine in around the same amount of time. In the middle of rebuilding bigger, better.

I have one more ace up my sleeve... never ran the car on the bottle with the tunnel ram.. after some initial passes to make sure timing and fuel are where I want them too be..

Don't use that ancient chart.........All those tunes are DEAD RICH

I have the newer one downloaded from Holley, comparing them now.

Gary when and where are you going ?

I didn't go through and really optimize EVERY jetting chart we had, but most of them are better. Just nowhere as clean as they COULD be. Still VERY generic and also still on the pretty darn rich side.

As an example, Bang Shift did a dyno test at Westech a couple years ago on a very mild small block. Chad called me and got tunes. They stuck with the same nitrous jet throughout entire test, but on the fuel side, they used "old school" jetting, our newer jetting, my crisp jetting and my "race" jetting. Even with only a moderate size tune, the HP swing from top to bottom of test was over 100hp.

REALLY nice GTX!!!!!!! Why did ya take the black top off???

Not sure, when the weather is less hot and humid. Will be several weeks. Up at the Valley.

I'm just making sure everything is 100% now rather than wait to the last minute.

As soon as the GTX is prepped, moving over to the Duster which needs the trans yanked and some magic done to spiff up 2-3 shift and change the rear axle ratio from 3.55 to 3.90

Duster should be easy in the 12's then and highway only impacted in a modest manner.

The original top was shot. I wanted to sand down the roof and repair any rust spots.. I told my body guy to do a nice job as I told him the top wasn't going back on.

I might have been fibbing ;-)

New replacement black top is in bin in the garage, just have not gotten around to installing it yet.

Been a lot on my plate the last 3 years...

Monte what do you suggest for jetting for a dual quad with 6-7 psi fuel pressure? 150/175/200 hp levels?

The engine can take it and then some, its run high levels in the past when called upon while.. racing off the track. At one time I was running stacked systems with fairly stout settings.

Spent the last 2 days replacing lines, Fram GC-1 fuel filter, checking and clearing all the nitrous related lines (had to replace one, cracked) and doing some wiring.

In the one pic you can see a bracket I made up 2 decades ago with a fresh micro switch. When the rear carb sees WOT it goes to ground which fires a relay providing juice to the solenoids.

Pulled a valve cover to look about and make some adjustments, valves are lashed at .020/.020 and unchanged from the last time I had the cover off 2 years ago.

Everything is pretty much ready to go aside from mounting the slicks, ordering new seatbelts and getting a locking trans dipstick for good measure.

Gary

P.S. Jets are currently 52/59 till I can order new sets. 2 bottles are full and one has about 6 pounds in it. Will do a road test with that one in a few days. Want to pump out all the gas in the tank and make sure there is nothing but fresh stuff when I head out along with a little 110 octane.