[Skip Fix]

Yes back in the 70s and even early 80s no porting to speak of in SS.

[Gary H]

Originally Posted by J.C.you

Any pro stock ponchos ever make the 32 car field?

I can't seem to find it on the Web, but I think it was Bert Straus that was the number one qualifier at the New England Nationals In 73' or 74'. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[BILL BOWMAN1]

Originally Posted by Gary H

I can't seem to find it on the Web, but I think it was Bert Straus that was the number one qualifier at the New England Nationals In 73' or 74'. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Englishtown

[Gary H]

Originally Posted by BILL BOWMAN1

Englishtown

Anybody know how eliminations went? Did they make it past the first round?

[Dragncar]

Pro Stock was the BEST when they had real cars. Rowed gears, had stock dashes in them. Beyond cool.
Average guys could do it out of their garages in the early 70s.
Multi million dollar deal today, sad.

[sdbob]

I remember Grumpy coming to Keystone Raceway. He had the 68 and 69. I think he was in the high 9s. Match race Bobby Tedesco in his 68. He was in low tens.after tune ups .They were set to race,Bobby broke a camshaft at the line.

[johnta1]

A link to Bert Strauss in Canada Drag Racing Hall Of Fame


Not a lot of info in link above but may help.

[J.C.you]

One of the old 389 sd blocks punched out to about 4.3 and the V heads would have been competitive

[JSuchma]

Why not use a RAV 400 block, which is much stronger than an early SD block and was available?

[J.C.you]

Originally Posted by JSuchma

Why not use a RAV 400 block, which is much stronger than an early SD block and was available?

Never fooled with a Vblock, but the old sd blocks were really thick castings capable of large bores.

[sdbob]

A friend Jim Miller (sent me pics of the night), built a large ci early 389 with V heads fir a roundy roundy dirt car. The car was dominate.the others put up protest money figuring he had a 455. Nope small journal 389 but the moldex stroker crank. They did not ck ci! why because the chebies would been discovered being 454s.

[JSuchma]

Originally Posted by J.C.you

Never fooled with a Vblock, but the old sd blocks were really thick castings capable of large bores.

We just bored my RAV 400 block .090 over after sonic checking it a few years back. I have the sonic sheet some where, and remember still having room for more.
The block has a lot more nickel in it than a standard Pontiac block. In fact, while being stored in our hot, humid southern climate, it would not rust. All my other blocks had to be sprayed down with a rust inhibitor.

[Stan Weiss]

Back when Bert was running Pro Stock. It was a pounds per ci class. Based on the size of the SBC and SBF (Cleveland) in similar weight cars. A WAG is Bert's engine was around 355 ci max and the best I can remember Bert was using RAIV heads..

Stan

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by JSuchma

We just bored my RAV 400 block .090 over after sonic checking it a few years back. I have the sonic sheet some where, and remember still having room for more.
The block has a lot more nickel in it than a standard Pontiac block. In fact, while being stored in our hot, humid southern climate, it would not rust. All my other blocks had to be sprayed down with a rust inhibitor.

I can't vouch for the actual nickel content of RAV blocks. But I have worked on a few for Arnie Beswick over the years and his blocks had sat around unprotected for long periods and had very little rust compared to typical iron blocks. Also the iron had a different "sheen" to the metal itself. A slight gold hue to the base metal vs the darker gray we are used to.

[brut4s]

Didn't Nunzi have a Pro Stocker?

[BILL BOWMAN1]

Originally Posted by brut4s

Didn't Nunzi have a Pro Stocker?

Super comp
8.90’s

[brut4s]

Thanks, i couldn't remember

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by Gary H

I saw a Nostalgia Pro Stock early 70's Firebird on the Nostalgia Pro Stock web site that has Boss Bird on it. Did Arnie Beswick ever actually build and campaign a Pro Stock car?

Arnie raced a 67/8 bird called the boss bird in pro stock w dual quads . Bill e late on ran the same set up but Rana full second faster. He was very proud of this because he had a ton of respect for Arnie as we all do.

I hav pictures of his dual quad motor and his 67/8 bird some where.
I have the Stephens RAV pro stock engine.

It was the one in the article .

The car ran 10.34 w the RAV dual quad pro stock engine and it was 100 + lbs over weight for its class. Just couldn’t get he weight out of it. The entire front subframe and all attachments were severely acid dipped to try and get weight out . I have the original headers and they are VERY heavy. Thick material probably could have got 15 lbs out there. 😂

Eckstrom would tree most guys and hang w the big hemis til top of second and they’d just walk on by. They were running 9.90 ETs. A lot of the pro stock $$ was coming from places like Brooklyn heavy Billy the Kidd step (gangsters) . Was hard to compete w the likes of those guys
There’s a video of the Stephens pro car racing the number 1 qualifier Don Carlton out there from Bee on video history of pro stock . I currently have the pro stock engine and trans in my RAIv firebird. And have the IV engine and trans out.

[turbo69bird]

Two other things Stephens heads were ported by Butch Elkins .diamond automotive.
The engine was built by Bernie cincetti of competition automotive
It ran 660 center squirters on 2 inch spacers supplied by Pontiac engineering.
Arnie ran a bigger carb that needed a spacer that offset the carbs due to size. Also on a 2 inch spacer.

An interesting note is that I could have gotten the engine earlier. . Ken previous owner told me about it and I went to see it. When I got there there was 5 fords in the driveway. I knew the V head was based off tunnel ford port heads. I left and thought well this is a ford engine someone has it confused. My friend Howard bought it from Ken and I eventually bought it from Howard who was gracious enough to allow me to have the Stephens stuff be all together in one place.

Frank who posted it online here was very excited to see thw V in the Stephens car. The Weeknd I got it running he passed away and never got to see it run I was very sad about that he would have enjoyed it. Litterally missed it by a day There was one owner before Ken after bill Eckstrom had
the V , I forgot his name right now I’ll try and add it later. He bought a RAIV and RAV from Stephens racing program. I have both those engines now.

My RaIv car had the RAII engine from the 68 RAII GTO installed in it and was raced with that short block because it was already balanced and blueprinted by Jack Merkel , NHRA allowed it since both engines were 9792506 and I (belive) have that short block. Another boats or item was that in the succession of pictures of my RAIv car the tach suddenly become grey or black from yellow. I asked bill Eckstrom why and he said it had a light in it .( I thought to myself they all had lights in them) For 20 years I didn’t know what he meant but we talked about it again and he said it was. Shift light. It was sent w the rest of the RAV parts and because the RaV 70-73 car had a full glass nose , the tach went in my car. Sadly I don’t have the tach it was taken off in 1978.
Although I know the person who owned it then, all efforts to get any info on where it may have gone , have gone no where.

Another interesting thing. When talking about the 70 -73 pro stock car bill said “ I got the seats from herb adams. They were trans am
Seats. “ Again this was early 90s - I thought trans am / formula what’s the difference. ( bill is a man of few words). I found out MUCH later ( 2010 ish ) he meant the seats they used in the trans am racing circuit cars A low back all riveted
Aluminum race seat. Kind of like a kirkey but low back

[turbo69bird]

Oh about the fords the front yard the back yard (had I gone in ) , 69 TA RAIII 70 TA RAIV 77 cam am or what ever year they made those and a couple other ponchos.
Basement filled w hemis and mopar stuff.