getting started in drag racing

[beakerztoyz]

I thought I would post this here to get some input. My car is a 80 sunbird with a 350 (l79 cam, offenhouser intake, and 600 edelbrock) it has a turbo 350 with a shift kit and the stock rearend. At this point my car is NOT street legal ( it would require passing an out of province inspection to be street legal)

I live just over 2 hours from the nearest dragstrip but a friend of mine has just bought a car trailer that i could use to take it to the track with. At this point I'm not sure making the car street legal is worth the hassles and I am thinking about maybe using it as a (very slow) drag car. It has new brakes, new shocks, new tie rod's balljoint's and centre link. I have to recheck and make sure it isn't leaking from anywhere but other than that what should i check? is it even a realistic idea to think that i could take this car to the strip and run it down the track?

[chevyart]

hey breaker. you will probably need a minimum of a driveshaft loop. seat belt, and helmet to race, even in the slowest classes. art

[cosvega76]

You only need a driveshaft loop if you're running slicks/drag radials. On a 13-14-15-second street car the main things are no leaks, dual springs on the carburetor linkage, no more than 12" of rubber hose on the fuel system, a positive-reverse-lockout automatic trans shifter (OE shifter fits this criteria), and if you don't have a coolant overflow bottle, run the radiator overflow hose into a can or bottle zip-tied to the car somewhere near the radiator.

Chuck

[beakerztoyz]

Thank's for the replies, I know this might sound stupid, but does the spring insinde the spring setup count as 2 springs or do i need 2 of those, and you mean no more than 12 inches total rubber line in the fuel and return lines between the tank and the carb am i correct?

The car has an overflow container in it already and has a B&M quicksilver shifter

Thank's again for the input

[spencerforhire]

2 carb return springs in total; the spring within a spring counts. Not sure if the tech people will bother measuring your total allowable rubber fuel line; this rule is designed to keep you from running it all the way from tank to engine. As long as you don't have 2 or 3 feet of it snaking around under the hood you should be OK. They will however want to check the neutral safety on your shifter; it should only start in park & neutral.

[beakerztoyz]

Thank's Spencer, sounds like I should be ok then, I really appreciate the advice