must be nice to have one of those light cars. my 75 4 door weighs 3250 with 1/2 a tank & no driver. means i'm pushing close to 3500 down the track.
Does it weigh more because of the different frame of the 4-door, or do you have big bumpers, or what? If you go 10.90, maybe you have some "extra" engine weight?
4 door cars are slightly larger & heavier, have more heavy doors, & it does have the big bumpers. there's a site that gives the shipping weight of each model year of mav. each year they got heavier due to side impact bars, bumpers, chassis bracing, etc. the 10.90 comes from my tube chassis t-bird. i race s/st in it. runs 10 teens at 2850 lbs. i have to slow it to 10.90 for the class. its run 9.90 with the ballast out of it. the mav has gone a 13.90something. i have the slip in the database. sometimes it fools me when i look in the database & someone with my basic mav setup is going a little quicker than my son. when i look again, its usually an early mav which is usually about 500+ lbs lighter. rule of thumb is about .1 et per 100 lbs. thats about .5 sec quicker if i had an early mav.
so getting back to the mini spool... if the engine is under 350 HP... then the mini spool is ok to run? my car might become a daily driver, since we just mvoed to iowa and i dont have a third car as of yet.... all the cars out here are so rusted, i cant believe people still drive them... once i get a third car.. the mav will go back to being backup.... weeekend.... or drags car only
ST If you are currently forced to use the mav as a daily driver, I would wait until you get a 3rd car to do the spool. This does not mean that I couldn't/wouldn't use my spooled mav as a daily driver for backup purposes only, if my truck is in the shop, etc. But for a long-term daily driver, it will get really expensive on tires, since it eats them up quickly. Both my truck and my wife's car needed some warranty work, so I drove the maverick for 2 or 3 weeks straight, and that is where I lost most of my tread (that and the burnouts!). My drive is 40 miles each way, but add all those turns up and you are talking 1-year tire life, approximately. You cannot see it in this picture, but there are areas on the tire where rocks and road have taken small chunks out of the rubber on the outside edges of the tread from the pressure put on them during turns. I bought these tires November 2004, used, with about 1/3 to 1/2 of tread remaining, and have since put on only 1000-1500 miles. They are BFG T/A 245/60r15 so a pretty good bit of rubber is contacting the ground causing heavy chirping on tight turns.
i just bought brand new radial t/a's.... for the rear... these tires will be replaced when i get the 5 lugs pu on and 15inch rims... since the tires right now are 14's.. so tire wear is not important
My 66 F-100 ran 11.30s in the 1000' and it had a semi built 390 FE and 3.70 gears with 60s on the rearend. Never broke an axle myself... Sold it to my brother and he broke it, the yoke on the rearend and ujoint.... But he neutral dropped it at 3500rpm in a parking lot. My Comet has 4.62 gears and a mini spool. Dont know how it acts w/ motor in it but it steered fine lock to lock while pushing it around driveway/yard. Just a bit rough at full lock. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone that drives it daily... even tho my 66 F:100 was a daily driver, drove 60+ miles to the track, hammered it and drove it home everyweek.
Not sure anymore, but the mini spools were not NHRA legal. I only saw one failure with one and it happened on a 289/C4 '66 Fairlane. Broke the axle at half track. Wiggled a bunch and the guy lifted to let it straighten out. I welded spiders up on a car and when the axle broke (pulling a way from a stop sign) all it did was spin the tire on the good axle side. With a locked rear end (mini spool, full spool or welded) the car will want to go straight in turns. You have to be under power. In the rain or with wet tires it is worse and difficult to handle. Get a limited slip diff. it is better in the long run.
Honestly, I have never felt this "car wanting to go straight in turns". I have even made tight turns to try to feel this, but have not. The only thing I feel is the chirping of the rear tires if the turn is too sharp. Others in the car have described the sensation as "are your back tires rubbing the fenders when you turn?" I have noticed no changes in the ability to turn, at all. Just that the back end WILL break loose easier if you gun it through a turn, as the inside tire wants to move faster than the outside tire, in relation to the distance each has to go in the arc, so it will push itself out if you aren't cautious. (It does not actually move faster, but the outside tire is pulling back against the turn, so in relation, the inside tire is pushing, so it can push the rear end around...does that make sense in written words?)
i'm sorry, (and older), so i guess i look at things a lot differently than when i was younger. but if something happens and the insurance company checks as to why the accident occurred, if there is one, you may be paying for a long time. that is not cheap, but it is a gamble.
Just thought i would post a pic of my broken 9" axle because of a mini spool,i also threw in a pic of my 429 connecting rod after a head gasket blew and hydraliced a cylinder.Derek.
