Under the index for under a grand!

[Billy Nees]

The Payoff;
I took it to "The Beav" on Sunday to see if this project was worth my while or a bust.
The excuses, first, I had trouble with the trans leaking on my first run and had to address that before I could go down the track again. Second, even though it was a good day, "The Beav" is not a fast track by any stretch of the imagination (Beardie, a little help). Third, I set the timing at 32* total and have no idea what jets are in the carb so what I'm saying is that I had no time at all to do any tuning. I wound up making 6 runs and all that I did was change the launch RPM and temperatures.
The asterik, "The Beav" is an IHRA track so that means that I get to run the IHRA index right? The last pass the car went a 15.159, 87 MPH on a 15.15 IHRA index. Oh yeah, it was 140 lbs. heavy and there was about a 6-8 MPH head wind.
I will be taking some weight out of it today and tomorrow and I'll be going back to "The Beav" on Sunday and doing some tuning.
So far I'm very happy with it. The converter works better that I thought it would and even though it's too tight and too heavy(it feels and sounds like a stick car with a 55 lb. wheel in it) it seems to let the motor work. It either has to make more power or it needs more gear but that's not happening with the 7.5 rear. The "junkyard" headers are too big and too short but 301 headers don't fall out of trees. I may put a set of my headers on it after a while to see how they work.
Curt, stay tuned, I'm just getting started on this. There will be updates. Any suggestions or comments(within the budget)?