Rob, you DID wake me up! And to think my psychiatrist said not to worry about the "rats" crawling on my arms. Dern LS6's...
In the old Musclecar Review series, Dan Jensen built stone stock engines to test on a dyno. He used virgin heads, stock carbs, etc., to see how close the factory ratings were. They pulled over 400 hp from an A-body RAIV engine, then discovered that the 69 Firebird RAIV exhaust manifolds flowed another 20 hp over the A-body units due to a smoother chassis exit. I think they managed about 420 hp from the 69 Firebird RAIV configuration in stock trim.
I'm kidding with Rob and the LS6 guys.
My point is that for the first 10 years of the stock drags, there were only a couple of cars running in the 12's, and we used to ask, "Where are the Chevys? Where are the LS6's, Yenkos, RAIV's, and W-30's?" It seemed to be all 440's and Hemis, Stage 1 Buicks, and your occasional 68 Firebird RAII or 455HO.
After a certain SS396 Nova ran 11's and all the "secrets" were disclosed in MCR, the gloves came off, and purpose-built, bend-the-rules cars started to be assembled, with a seemingly limitless budget, and they began to dominate the Pure Stocks.
In reality, all the great Musclecars ran 13's and 14's in stock trim, but I simply love watching the current Pure Stocks to see what these cars can do today. I'm glad the LS6 and the COPO's stepped up and are battling it out with the Hemis and 440+6 cars.
There are several Pontiac people that can build a lethal RAIV setup using stock parts, but I tell ya, they don't seem to be very interested in Pure Stock! Jim Hand just wrote THE definitive book on building a Pontiac V-8 using stock parts (can be picked up at Amazon.com, Border's, or Barnes & Noble), and his muffled, 9.5 to 1 compression, 4000 lb. 71 Lemans Wagon has been running 11's for years now with stock parts, RAIV cam, d-port heads, cast iron intake, etc. His engine, in a 3500 lb. Firebird, with 10.5 to 1 compression, would be deadly.
