1973 Chevrolet Corvette 454 vs 1969 Pontiac GTO Ram Air | STOCK DRAG RACE
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- 1973 Chevy Corvette vs 1969 Pontiac GTO. Pure stock muscle car drag race. factory stock drag race.
First car is a 1973 Chevrolet Corvette, the other a 1969 Pontiac GTO. The 1969 GTO has a Ram Air III 400 V8, while the Corvette has a LS4 454 V8. The LS4 454 was rated 275 (net) horsepower, the Ram Air III was rated 366 (gross) horsepower. The 1973 Corvette has a TH400 3-speed automatic transmission. The 1969 Pontiac GTO has a 4-speed manual transmission. Rear gearing in the GTO is 3.90, while the Corvette has 3.08. The weight of the Corvette with driver is 3945 pounds. The GTO is 4034 pounds, including the driver. There were 6143 total 1969 Pontiac GTO Ram Air III cars produced with the 4-speed. There were 4412 total LS4 Corvettes in 1973.
Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race (PSMCDR). FAST Factory Appearing Stock Tire factory stock. Super Car Drag Race.
Remember, both cars participate in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race series, so please check out their website: www.psmcdr.com
Also make sure you find them out on Facebook.
The rules for PSMCDR are listed below:
For 1955 to 1979 musclecars built in United States and Canadian assembly plants with a minimum warranty of 12 months and 12,000 miles.
Any car running faster than 11.50 will be disqualified and will not have a qualifying time recorded.
Any convertible running faster than 13.50 will be disqualified and will not have a qualifying time recorded.
Casting numbers must be correct for the year and horsepower claimed including intake manifold, heads, and exhaust manifolds. Blocks do not have to be "numbers matching," but they must be the correct displacement. Overbores up to .070" are allowed. Stock cranks only.
All Engines -CR 1.5 extra points allowed over advertised.
The camshaft must be correct for the year, model, and horsepower claimed for the type of lifter (hydraulic or solid). Roller cams NOT allowed.
The valve train must be factory stock for the year, make, and horsepower claimed.
The ignition system must be stock, including the distributor, cap, coil, and wires. Points may be replaced with any electronic conversion that fits under the stock distributor cap.
The carburetor must be correct for the year, make, and horsepower claimed. Jetting and metering changes are permitted. THE CHOKE ASSEMBLY MUST BE IN PLACE AND FUNCTIONAL!
Cast-iron exhaust manifolds are mandatory and must be correct for the year, model, and horsepower claimed. Internal modifications to the exhaust manifolds are NOT allowed. Under no circumstances will headers be allowed, including those cars that came with headers delivered in the trunk. Pipes must be routed as they were originally for the year, make, model, and engine combination. Mufflers must be stock looking in design, that is, oval in shape. No glasspacks or straight pipes allowed unless installed as original equipment. Maximum muffler inlet and outlet size is 2.5 inches. X & H pipes allowed.
The radiator must be correct for the year, make, model, and horsepower claimed. No lightweight, aluminum radiators allowed.
The camshaft must be correct for the year, model, and horsepower claimed for the type of lifter (hydraulic or solid). Roller cams NOT allowed. Duration at .050" lobe lift must be within 1% of factory specs. Lift at the valve must be within 2% of factory specs. Maximum stall limited to 2200 rpm.
The transmission must be correct for year, make, model and engine of the car. 3-speed manuals may be upgraded to the correct 4-speed if originally available.
The rear axle must be of the same manufacturer as the car. Any gear ratio is allowed.
Reproduction tires or radial tires only.You are allowed to run tires one size over stock.
Factory wheels only.
Disclaimer: The Cars And Zebras CZcams channel is a news channel bringing results/news of drag racing with added history of automobiles. All footage/pictures used were either captured by the Cars And Zebras channel, or used for critique purposes under Fair Use.
The '69 GTO was always one of my favorites. Loved the beautiful form development of the body. I had a White '74 Corvette with the small block. I enjoyed that car a lot but it wasn't a performer. Fun to see these cars race!
I had a 74 corvette, wasn’t a hi performing car was still fast . Now have a 71 454 4sp with low Gears ,I think must be 4.10 or even lower. This thing takes off like rocket!,I think most corvettes ,are not for drag racing only,road driving etc. they sure make me this born in the 4 forth of July America so proud!
@@markmartin5765 I later got a ‘69 convertible that was eventually given a frame off rebuild. It was a beauty! Sold it after having it over 35 years! I have my name on a wait list for a C8, so maybe I’ll be back in a Corvette this year! Enjoy!
Great match up, evenly matched cars/drivers.
True!
Both cars are very clean, and props to the owners for running 3 VERY close races. Thanks as always, love these vids and your commentary. 🌮 🌮
Thanks 👍
Gotta go with the GTO
I've always loved the 69 GTO body style and those Ram air were no joke.
A good friend of mine had a ram air gto judge and that car was absolute beast. Nothing factory could even stay close close to it all the through the 1/4 and all the way up to over 140 mph. It was only a 400 but it ran like a 455. Massive amounts of torque at almost any rpm. I loved going out and finding Corvettes and seeing their faces when they got gapped and even more when the gto was far ahead after going maybe a mile of top end speed.
That Corvette is a real survivor. AIR injection included. Voted GTO for the win. We shall see!
Very respectable for a 73 model
Very nice, original Corvette. I’ll bet with gearing change and dyno tune it could easily be 13.8-13.9
@@CarsAndZebras yah, there's those 2 vette's racing in the FAST series drags running in the 9's!! Incredible...
That was some good old fashion drag racing right there!!!
Loved watching this. The vette was a lot heavier than I thought. I was thinking 3600 pounds. Still it ran good for what it was. I bet with some time on the dyno with a good tuner and maybe some 355 gears it could be a solid 13 second car. Thanks for posting this
Glad you enjoyed it
Back in the day we all thought ‘vettes were light due to the fiberglass bodies. Turns out they were as heavy as steel cars due to Chevy having to add lots of bracing to prevent cracking of the fiberglass.
@@danmyers9372 I've had several c4 vettes and they are about 3200 pounds fully optioned. I knew the later c3 vettes got heavy but 4000 pounds is really heavy.
Zero aluminum in the Big block, not even the intake. Bet it had AC as well. Little more gear would help.
@@thegreenerthemeaner The big block chev is a heavy engine.
Back in 1980 I had a GTO bracket car and a 1971 Corvette daily driver that came with the base 350. It had an automatic with 308 gears and the best ET was 13.99 after I did a few mods.
Do you remember the weight ???
@@albundy8052
I think it was 3450 without driver. GTO was about 3500 pounds.
1969 Lemans 350HO (basically a 350 with ram air III components. Mine was a 4spd with 4.11 gears. My best 14.32 quarter and I was still learning how to launch it.
Pretty solid for that low compression 454
At the half mile vette way ahead with that gearing
@@ronaldfilkins6448 to bad they only racing a qtr 😋
When you consider the L71's 427's only ran about 1 second quicker with better gearing and often with 4 speeds.
With ac and automatic, original gearing in this Vette should be a 3.08. So, assuming that, it did quite well here. Also, these "bargain priced" engine option costs should be adjusted for inflation. $100 was actually a lot of money once upon a time. Adjusted prices would be something like $1500 for the LS4 option and approximately $1276 for the RA 3 option.
Cool match up! My dad in "76" bought a used "73" 454, 4 speed Corvette from a AMC dealer. He got a good deal on it telling the manager it ran like a dog. Drove it straight home. Removed the smog pump, pulled the intake manifold, and realized the EGR valve had made alot of carbon on the intake valves. Pulled the heads. Hot tanked them. Did some minor port work. Reinstalled the cast iron intake, because it was a low profile that was designed for maximum torque. Recurved the distributor, and installed a 800 cfm double pumper. It came alive! It was a fast car. I loved cruising with him in it. It was red. Also quite a chick magnet. Nick's garage, on U-Tube did a rebuild on one of these engines. It made some good numbers.
showroom stock times here. That Vette with a 3:08 rear better suited to the flying mile
Nice race both muscle cars.
What a drag race. That was awesome
Close race!
I dont understand why every old school car guy dont love this stuff. To me this is the absolute best drag racing channel out. Its just the best. Rare cars, different makes and models, all the way down to gear ratios and production numbers. Good work and good information. I miss the fart sound by the way.
You need to get with Steve Mags
@@busterturner8702 me too! I miss the fart sounds so much, I do my own during the video. I also love the old school cars & info.! Great job C& Z !
Great race! Dam they were close! Thanks for sharing!
I'm definitely a GTO fan. I thought it would run a little faster. But Really like that GTO the ram air hood love it and a 4 speed come on what's not to like. But would like to hang out with the guy on the bicycle he sees all the good racing.
Always noticed that the original test data for a lot of old-school muscle cars had so-so 0-60 times, but very respectable 1/4 mile times. That's an indication that the tires were crap by today's standard and they couldn't launch hard, but hauled ass once they got their footing downtrack. For instance, my '85 Mustang GT ran 6.4/14.9 as tested by C/D...totally opposite from the GTO here. The GT would get the jump at launch, then curb-stomped by the GTO during the run. All good.stuff.
Back in the day everyone assumed that Corvettes were light cars due to the fiberglass body which we all realized later that they were not. Reason was that Chevy had to add a lot bracing to prevent cracking of the fiberglass.
Light weight never was the driving force behind the Corvette design.
@@timsharpe3498 - Nor was a decent ride. Riding in one traveling over a rough road is like riding in an old stage coach.
@@danmyers9372
I never cared about the choppy ride because I was 21 years old. Besides, you can’t expect a smooth ride from a car that was designed to look like the apex predator of the ocean.
Thanks for all the great vids, I'm keeping my racing skills in shape by hitting the SKIP ADS button soon as it shows, got myself down to a .05 reaction time,
A slightly shorter tire would have lowered the gearing in the rear for the win in the corvette
Great job once again. Always look forward to these videos.
Thanks again!
Love a good close race, nice even match
I was always amazed at how incredibly heavy the Corvettes were from that era. Fiberglass is heavier than many folks realize. Take fiberglass boats vs an all aluminum ( all welded ) boat of the same size, it takes less motor to power the aluminum boat vs the fiberglass.
The full frame looks like it was borrowed from a pick up truck and shortened. Plus the weight of a big block and 400 trans.
@@markg7030 Yeah, that big block and that Turbo 400 trans certainly adds to the overall weight. But fiberglass body panels made strong enough for the automotive & boat industries is some pretty heavy shit. I had bought a boat, a brand new G3 model HP-170 ( HP literally stood for: High performance ) all welded aluminum bass boat ( even the decks were aluminum, NO wood in the boat ) back in '04. It was 17' 4" long bass boat with the widest beam in the industry at the time: 90". I bought it with the biggest motor you could put on it, a Yamaha 115 two stroke. I could run right with any 18 ft ft fiberglass boat with a 150hp outboard. They couldn't out run me, and I couldn't outrun them.....side by side for 2 miles across the lake. Everyone was amazed at how fast my boat was with only a 115. It's because the aluminum was so much lighter than that heavy ass fiberglass.
@@howabouthetruth2157 Using fiberglass is not so much to lower the weight but to create shapes that would be hard to do with sheet metal.
Corvettes got Lots of Heavy Frame.
@@badass6.0powerstroke10 Hell, they have to, with all that fiberglass. And fiberglass AIN'T light either, lol.
Never cared for that generation of vette 50- 60s was the best looking imo
Awesome , Vette Sleeping On Green , Thanks C&Z
That Ram Air III is Bad Ass! You can clearly see the Vette was catching the GTO, but not in time. If this were a half mile race the Vette would have taken the win. Thumb up.
Yes it would have in a 1/2 mile as the Vette is geared high
Appreciate your coverage of these old beauties keep it up and I'll keep watching. God bless brother
This is the racing i love it doesn't get better than this !
My 1971 convertible Goat eye bought for $1500 !! in 1973 beautiful Gold with black stripes…..had it for a year so sorry eye sold it for a pipe dream to Alaska.
Another great match up ...these times are more realistic than a lot of other races. Mid 14s is probably typical of your average muscle car from back in the day. I was surprised how well that Vette ran, considering the gearing, weight, and smog equipment. I owned a '69 Goat, it was a non-ram air, but I still had some traction issues, even with the Turbo 400. Tires wouldn't hook.... primitive tire technology! Thanks C&Z!
Thanks 👍
Pure Stock racers are using those same crappy tires but they learned how to make them hook. Do a super long burnout (like more than 2 minutes) getting the tires hot as hell and burn off the tread down yo the wear bars. This breaks down the rubber in the sidewalls making them way softer and also increased the contact patch.
WOW !
I got a 66 Chevelle Super Sport with a little small block 327 ,
It did
5.5sec @96mph in the 1/8
I swapped out the auto race trans and 1050cfm Holley dominator
To a M-21 Muncie 4 speed and 750cfm elderbrock and got
11.5sec@127mph in the 1/4 mile
I would drag race my little 327 up against either of these big block cars any day of the week
Excellent. Thanks
Optional rear end: 3.36 would have helped that Corvette without sacrificing highway driveability.
I owned this car except mine was a ram air 4 and nothing ever beat me and I even spotted some guys a few car link or two ..
Worked on the line of Chevrolet Dealership and remembering the 73 had way too much emissions crap hung on them, bringing down the zip we were used to in the '60's...
you can hear the GTO gearing up ....nice
Nice to see the Vette make a game of it. At 4,000 pounds you need a lot of power to move that. The 3.08s don't help. The smog motors in 73 and 74 put out a lot of torque but the lean jetting and distributor curves hurt it at higher rpms. My 74 Charger Rally 440 275/375 showed some life with a rejetted thermoquad and recalibrated distributor timing and G60s where I ran a best of 14.70 pulling a 3.55 gear. In 75 Vettes hit rock bottom. The standard 350 put out a lethargic 165 hp with 1/4 miles in the mid 16s.
Love the vice grips under the hood!
i'll take them both
Used to drag a 1971 chevelle, 454 , stock ls5 , bought my uncles 454 ls7 for it , low 12s bracket, flat out mid 11 s high 10s
Nail biter race!
Super Close. You don’t see many white 73 Big Block Vettes 👍
The Vette needs the 3:73 gear to get off the whole lot quicker !
Its not until i started watching this channel I realized corvettes were so heavy.
Almost 100 mph. Either might be able to catch a mopar... slant 6 or maybe even a 318
HA
😆
They could probably pull a Plymouth Valiant with a 318 or slant 6 and still beat a 318 ot slant 6
Move
Over
Pontiacs
Are
Racing
A slant 6 Plymouth Valiant 0-60mph in 11 seconds 0-92mph 29.8 seconds hilarious
I love the fact that the GTO stayed small block even with a lot of cubic inches it's still a small block engine. Love that Pontiac life.
Actually Pontiacs didn't have small block or big block V8's. They only had one size V8, regardless of cubic inches, so there was no small or big Pontiac(with one exception..the 301 Pontiac, while still based on the one Pontiac block, had a shorter deck height than the rest). Unlike Chevy that had the 2 V8 engine families..the small block and the much larger big block, Pontiac only had one size block family that was used from the 326 to the 455. For example, the Pontiac 350, 400, and 455 are all the same size externally. Comparing the Pontiac V8 external size to a Chevy, the Pontiac is larger than a Chevy small block, but smaller than a Chevy big block, so you could say it's a "medium" size block in that comparison.
PONTIAC never made a small block. Its was the same block 301,326,326HO350,350HO,400,400 HO,400 Ram Air III,428,and the 455, 455 SD were all the same block
not a small block , a block big at that if you want to call it that.
The newer Pontiac 82/83-2008 GTO were 305, 350cu.in inch V8 were small block Chevy engines, real great motors GM small block .
but not a PMD powered V-8
Old Combat Vet Nam form 1970👍
Great video! I owned both of these cars but slightly different engines. Gto was a 400 Ram Air IV 1969 Judge, and My C-3 73 vette was a 350 ? Loved them both so much. Thanks for sharing a trip down memory lane. Cheers from Motown/Dearborn.
Close matchup for sure. I figured the Vette would squeak one of them out but well it had a healthy competitor.
Beautiful cars 👍 guys for the 3rd round, nice driving with the GTO it's tough racing a standard fun but challenging.
That Vette looks like it hasn't even been gone through. Look at the motor. If it has, sure hasn't been recently. That's doing pretty well, considering.
Great racing!
Those ram air engines were blue printed from the factory most people didn't know that ... They made a ram air 5 The only difference is the 5 had a little hotter cam shaft and there was one very rare hotter GTO it was called a royal Bobcat but that was sort of a after market car done at a Pontiac dealership in the north east either michagan or new York
Yes i think that was made by Royal Pontiac the Bobcat, I could be wrong, look it up under Royal Pontiac
Very close!
That GTO is beautiful!!!
Goodday C & Z,
Suprised how quick the Corvette was.
Your number 1 Fan in Australia
Louis Kats from Melbourne Australia ☺ 👍 ❤
Bone stock muscle. Absolutely raw and beautiful. My daily driver is a 2018 Buck Regal 2.0 L turbo L4, ran the 1/4 mile in 14.3 @ 96 mph. How things have changed, but I'd trade my daily driver for any of them 2 no frills muscle cars !
Hope all my Goat buddies from the past get to see this. I can hear them now! lol
i'm old PMD guy from the 60's/70's .Very sad day when GM shut down the PMD division. Then Pontiac all together 20010 i think it was . Then the tried the come back GTO's with the 5.7 Chevy engines yes they would kick butt.
I must have been a close kept secret in the Pontiac World that the Firebird was the top performance dog, because of the lighter weight. Same engines, but Pontiac restricted the engines on the Firebirds to make sure they wouldn't outperform the GTO.
Yes and (1) little adjustment on the carburetor and you get full the same 370 HP
Pay attention: the winner is who crosses the finish line first regardless of speed.
You're talking about an 8.5 compression to about a 10 ratio. That's a big difference.
54 less cubic inches is also a big difference.
Entertaining video C&Z! 2 big surprises to me here, 1- that RA3 didn't get in the 13's and 2- the weight of that vette. In race 1 the Pontiac was taking the vette to gappelbee's...but that vette was rollin on the big end and almost got the W (almost like getting "turbo f**ked"). Lol
Wish it was RAIV!
Don’t we all
wow another gto win .. carefull im starting to think this channel isnt against gto"s..lol great vid!!!!
🤞
Totaled my 64 GTO in 69 and promptly bought a brand spanking new ,,,,,,LeMans .:( Aaarrrgggh .
Now that is racing!
Gto is my dream car 70-72 preferred
I owned a 65,66,68 GTO back in the day. i really care for the 389's I Love the 1968 400 HO or the 428 stock this one came with a cross hp of 390.
These cars were built when beautiful distinctive lines meant something. Cars now are just bubbles with wheels.
HELL Yea
My acrobatics, my soda cracker my Gto my ...CZcams will delete the rest.
You got it pontiac !
i think the BB corvette with auto and A/C did come with a 3.08 stock...it was a cruiser. i have a '74, which had the same engines as '73, but with a L82 auto and it came stock with a 3.55. that tall rear really hampered the corvette, but a ram air III is never gonna be slow whatever gear the corvette was running
another great video
The guy in the GTO shifts like an old grandma!1
Now,Now be nice there all good old boys
Cool , I thought I'd look up the numbers for my car to compare to these beauty's . My car was a little less than 1/2 a second to these two , I have a 2010 Mazda 3 Hatch non-turbo 2.5 LT although my car is 1000lb's lighter.
Corvette was moving pretty good for 3.08 gears and that kinda of heft haha
Goats ram air were torque monsters
I am pretty sure that if the Corvette had a better set of gear's it would have beat the GTO. I mean the Corvette ran those kind of numbers with a set of 3.08 gear's.
I think that 7.4 second 0-60 was misquoted on the GTO in testing. There’s no way they woulda gotten 14.1 @98 mph with it with that slow of a take off. It was probably more like 6 seconds flat, maybe even faster.
The Pontiac spanked that Corvette three times always liked those GTOs you figured the Corvette had the aerodynamics but it did no good
I'm a Mopar man but I'd rather have the Corvette 454 because love that 68' thru 82' coke bottle bodystyle
A 4000 lb two seater car.
You'd think they would build a lightweight frame. There are many 4 seat cars just over 3000 lbs.
The Vette needs side pipes, blue metallic paint and a set of cragars on it.
There used to be one like that running around here.
As a 73 vette owner, to get 190hp out of a Chevy 350 or 275hp out of a 454 is just sad.
The GTO! Dang I missed the premiere
I like the 72 or the 74 Vette. The 73 is just odd looking with plastic nose and then chrome rear. I would still take the 73 but with the M21 4 speed.
4spd are good if know how to power shift the thing , ie 3800 rpm side step clutch let er launch power shift till either blow up or shoot down the strip
Uhhhh...Finish Line Replay doesn't mean sitting 30-40 yards down-track from the Finish Line.
You're welcome...
I had a 65 GTO and a 71 Vette, fun stuff but my little 213 cu" NA SLK 350 is quicker than both.
Wonder how that Goat would have faired if that Corvette had a decent axle instead of the highway economy axle? But I would take either car if the owners wanted to give them away. The 1965 GTO to me is the best looking Goat ever made. I like the 1963 split window Stingray the best of all the Corvettes.
How about that? Two genuinely stock competitors! Wednesday night grudge racing at its best.
The "GTO , with driver weighs 4,987,558 pounds 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Ha ha ha ha ha
You’re not too far off
@@CarsAndZebras
Lol, I have and love classic Pontiacs 👍
168 bucks back when meant something, ace
Gotta love Pontiac power.
I don't what he saw but in tha 1st round I saw tha exact same eta. And in round 3 tha Vettes time lit up 1st. If dey had tha same gears dat Vette woulda abused dat GT-SLOW.
I want the Apollo white GSX..
1:06…insert your our fart sound here….and here 2:39…😂
How much does “a driver” weigh and why is that included in the total weight?