[Tom Vaught]

GREAT VIDEO! JOHNNY! You, "The Man" for sure on a course like that.

Like I said, you will not find many Pontiac Cars or Drivers with those skills. HO428 and our Down Under boat racer being in the same Skill Set club as Johnny.

Thanks Again.

Tom Vaught

[Bigger is Better]

Hi Tom,

I think you have War Eagle confused with me That said I have not posted in a long time so its understandable.

Jason just my two bits from my experience which is based on competitive autocross, track day, solo I (Time Trials) and hillclimbs. I list my experience as it is different then road race and it a term often miss-used. The big difference is in a Road Race your engine has to survive 40+ minutes of continuous hard loading/RPM cycles and all the other examples I listed really only have to survive say 20 mins of continuous hard loading.

I am on my third 455 engine (same block actually) and I have had really good reliability with them but have needed to focus on oil control (Canton Pan) and somewhat water/oil temps (bigger rad). In my current engine I shift at 6200 -6400 RPM but I can run it up to my rev limiter at 6800 RPM if I don't want to shift before a corner coming up. This motor has a forged crank and lighter forged rods and pistons which helped me get the rev limit up.

If the intent is to really road race then I think a smaller stroke motor would be more reliable and that would be what you see more with the other brands but I think the 455 can be made to survive with the oiling and cooling issues managed.

The reason I went with a 455, and I could have gone with a 301, 301T (did for many years), 350, 400, 455, was to maximise the power I could make and was not that worried about the longevity of the motor as I don't have those really long track sessions you see in road racing.

For the new car I am building (same motor) I will be looking at adding an oil cooler as I could get the water temp where I wanted it but the oil temp was still on the high side. I might consider an accusump as well but not really sure if I need one and I dont want to package it in the car as its pretty big.

Johnny

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

GREAT VIDEO! JOHNNY! You, "The Man" for sure on a course like that.

Like I said, you will not find many Pontiac Cars or Drivers with those skills. HO428 and our Down Under boat racer being in the same Skill Set club as Johnny.

Thanks Again.

Tom Vaught