Man, I'm starting to rethink buying my dad's 5.7L '89 Trans Am.

 

Its not too hard to believe you beat that car. The 82-92 f bodies really wern't that impressive. If it was a '90 GTA it had the L98 350 TPI. Those motors were known for having loads of torque down low but no power above 4000-4500 rpm's. What probably happened is he jumped on you because his car is lighter, but once he got in the upper rpm range he ran out of power and you passed him.

I believe that year of firebird should runmidto high 14'sstock with the 350. The 305 version was good for low 15's.

Tommy, dont let the lack of stock powerchange your mind about buying the car. With some mods you can have them running really well. I had an '87 formula 350. I bought it stock, and when i sold it, i was running mid 13's with only minor mods. The 2 biggest things that hurt the TPI cars are #1 the horrible cam that comes in them. It really kills power above 4500 rpm. I switched it with a stock LT1 cam, which is still fairly small but bigger than the L98 cam,and got a major jump in usable rpm. Second is the intake design. The TPI runners are very long (somewhere around 24 inches) which makes for good low rpm torque but not high rpm power. Changing the intake out with a system like the holley stealth ram will also give you major improvements.

 

ya it was a good race i thought he had me the way he jumped the line but as soon as we got into the high rpm range it totally died off. I am sure if it was modded he would have totaly annihilated me but that wasnt the case.
So it was a fun kill and i very much so enjoyed it.

 

Good kill on this one. Like everyone has said - if you beat it, it was the pre LT1 version... This is a race you should've won - so good job (not sarcasm, actually being genuine)...

One the side note; the Chevy 305 is a lot like the Ford 302, in the fact that it sounds like it's big. Those Ford 302's sound BEASTLY, and the Chevy 305 does sound like the 350... imho. So, you beat the older version, and if it was a LT1, he might've only been running on 6 cylinders himself