Originally Posted by Lee Stewart (Post 1517687)

Those were the factory specs. The real HP on a 340 was close to 300. NHRA factored them at 295 for F,G Stock (68 and 69). The 71 was even higher due to the big Thermoquad carb: 320 HP D,E,F,G Stock

Originally Posted by RALLY (Post 1517707)

In 1968,
the NHRA re-factored the 340's 275 Horsepower rating to 310HP, even
before it hit the pavement at Pomona, for the 1968 Winternationals.

Larry Gilley very competitive in his 68 GTS 340 Dart in stock eliminator.

Originally Posted by Bill Pritchard (Post 1517681)

I gave the only decent picture I had of my Dart to a friend who was the local Motorsports reporter for our local paper. He used it when he started doing a column about the local Cruising scene 'back in the day'.....I never got the picture back, but I have a scan of what appeared in the paper. He may have taken a bit of artistic license when describing my car :tongue: My friends' 69 Super Bee is in the background.

Originally Posted by Arrowsmith (Post 1517745)

NHRA HP ratings aren't what they used to be. They now take in account racer requests to lower the HP rating. When that happens, the racer gets to drop into a more favourable class. On the other hand, if a specific combination is regularly quick against the Index, the HP factor can be increased. So as you can imagine, there just might be a bit of a hustle going on. Stock and Super Stock use different "stock" HP ratings too. With that in mind....

All of these are ratings with OEM heads; not "legal" replacement heads -- replacement heads can result in more or less HP:

The 1970 Camaro LT1 is currently rated at 320 in Stock with a stick; 325 in Stock with an automatic

The 1970 Corvette LT1 is currently rated at 330 in Stock (stick only, obviously)

The 1971 Camaro LT1 is currently rated at 315 in Stock (stick only -- no automatics accepted)

The 1971 Corvette LT1 is currently rated at 315 in Stock (stick only)

The 1968 & 1969 & 1970 Dart 340 is currently rated at 299 HP in Stock

The 1971 Dart 340 is currently rated at 314 HP in Stock

1970 3X2BBL Challenger is currently rated at 308 HP in Stock with a stick; 319 with an automatic

As you can see, it's little bit of a gong show today and because of that I wouldn't be too quick to use NHRA factors as a rating source today (although years ....maybe decades...ago it certainly was).

Hope that helps.

Wayne

Originally Posted by Arrowsmith (Post 1517777)

"Thanks Wayne -- was it the same in 1970? That is when I was running my Z-28. Thanks again ... Craig"


Craig...It was well before my time with the NHRA so I can't give you an absolute answer...however I'm pretty sure it was far different ballgame back then. Farmer Dismuke was the National Tech Director in 1970 (1960 to 1988) and he actually came up with the Classification Guide. Bottom line was Farmer was in charge and there was no monkey business. I don't think in his wildest dreams that the system would be so different (botched?? mis-used?) today. NHRA is a far different place now.

WS

Originally Posted by EZ Nova (Post 1517813)

It was before my time as I'm only 54 at this time. Was into Mopars as my first cars and locally Mopars were king. My 1st car was the '68 GTX convert clone. BUT second was a legit '68 GTS 340 4 sp car. Had both when I was 18.

So I talked to a lot of the older guys that ran these cars new on the street and track. The 340 was usually considered the fastest SB around. There were 5 '66L79 Chevy II's and there was usually 1 that had work that would beat a 340 mopar. The rest were usually a couple cars behind. Dusters seem to work better then the Darts from what I heard.

LD340 intake and headers n gears would wake these up some nicely too.