Right after I got the car, I
ripped out the limited-slip differential twice
in three weeks. When I came back the third
time with another one not working, the
mechanics asked what I was doing, no one else
had this problem. I said, "I just drive
normally". But I cannot keep taking time off
from work to get it fixed. The head mechanic
said he knew how to fix the problem if I was
willing. I asked what will you do? What he
said was, “We will put a couple of extra disk
clutches in the differential.” He then told me
I would have a locked rear axle and when I
went around a corner, one side or the other
WILL squeal and wear the tires. I said "SO".
Fine with me. That is what made it possible
for me to always leave two solid black marks
whenever I put my foot in it. The
R/T had rear axle gears of 3.23 for
high mileage. I tried 4.11’s, but lost
the top end, so I put the 3.23’s back
in. I did not want to give up my
high-end road speed.
Then I
bought a pair of 10-inch x 15"
wide street legal drag tires. I
had 4"x 15" single ply front tires
for light weight.
The R/T had torsion bar front
suspension instead of springs for
the front wheels. Thet had a bolt
you could turn to adjust to make
them stiffer or loser. I adjusted as
much as I could. This way when I hit
the gas the front end with that
heavy 440 engine would jump up in
the air transferring its weight to
the rear tires for more traction. I
always referred to that as
unscrewing them.
I never put
traction bars on the R/T because I
thought at speed, they would make
the ride stiffer. Also, because on
fast corners they would not let the
rear springs flex and make the R/T
spin out quicker. I could throw her
around a square corner up to 28 mph.
My 78 Tbird could only do 25.
I then had the
automatic transmission converted to a manual
shift, with a 3500 high stall torque
converter. At slow speeds it revved a
little but still pulled. Whenever I had my
foot in it, I had to have my head back against
the headrest because it locked the flywheel to
the axle shaft. It failed a week after I got
it back. The front thrust busing was just a
pile of dust om the filter. A week later after
I got it back it failed again. Took it back.
Two weeks later the same shing happened again.
The builder then asked me how I was driving
the car. I told them it is a lot of fun to
shift into second at slow speeds because it
felt like all four wheels were jumping off the
ground. His REPLY was No, No, NO. At any
throttle less than full open you MUST take
your foot off the gas and THEN shift. Never
had that problem again. At the strip I shifted
into second at 91 mph. When racing other guys
on the street I shifted into second at 117
mph. I drove the car to work daily.
The R/T came with much larger brake pads
because of the PowerPak. I figured this
was to make the automatic equal in
performance to the sticks. The fronts were
2" instead of 1.5" and the rears were 3".
I had to replace them once. That was
probably because at the strip when I was
sitting on the starting line, I would put
my foot on the brake and shift into low
and step on the gas and bring her up to
3,000rpm just below the 3500 of the high
stall torque converter and create a lot of
smoke that made them sticky. This was the
only way I could get any traction. I would
hold the brake and run the engine to 3000
rpm to make the tires sticky. The truck
complained to me that I was covering up
the Christmas tree and I did not need to
do this. So, the next time I came up I
just dusted them off. I left 1100 feet of
a pair solid black marks.
I then had the
carburetor modified, no vacuum advance.
The shop asked what I wanted, a street or
strip setup, I said strip! When I picked
it up, He said, and I quote " The jets in
this thing are big enough to drive a
semitruck through”. Mileage went from 12
mpg to 5 mpg. I Then ran the fuel line up
in front of the radiator and made a coli
within a bucket. At the strip I would fill
the bucket full of ice and water to
condense the gas more before the
carburetor.
I then bought a
Roto-Faze distributor for $586. No more
timing light. It had on each side a
one-eighth-inch bolt that I could loosen
and turn it to the timing I wanted
according to the scale on it. At the strip
I ran 37-degree advance. On the steer I
ran a 16-degree dance. Factory was 12. I
then ran the gas up around the radiator
and coiled it in a bucket in front of the
radiator and then back to the carburetor.
At strip I would fill it with ice and
water to condense the gas to get more to
the carburetor.