What to do, drag my '72 Sprint or '87 Saleen

I am in a dilemma. I want to build a track car... or 90% track 10% street... I had a 393W '71 Grabber before that ran 11.59 on motor in the quarter, but I sold it because of my luv for the Fox Mustangs. I've gone 12.10 in the quarter with my Saleen when I had my turbo kit on it. I am selling the turbo kit to buy some heads and run N/A for a while. I'm tired of blowing headgaskets and struggling with the tune. The deal is now, I want to build a nice N/A but possibly N2O as well but I can't decide which car to run. My thoughts are to keep the '87 Saleen stock and drive it daily and use the '72 Maverick as a track car. I don't want to cut it up just yet but it doesn't matter since I'll never sell it anyway. The only thing I'm afraid of is that it has a small engine bay, and that it is leaf spring. That's pretty much it though. I've heard good things about the CalTracs but I'm wondering if the 8" rear will hold up very long. I guess I'm just looking for someone to teeter me over one way or the other. Thanks for any advice.

My desired combo would be 10:1 compression 306 (alum heads, single plane intake and 750DP), C-4 and whatever gears I can find and a spool for the 8"

 

i would say you use the maverick,... it is lighter.

you can build a 331 stroker for it.. or get a 5.0 roller engine and build that up and get it crazy fast... and get it into the low 12's with very little work.. put a cage in it.. subframes... slicks... 4 link.. ladders.. whatever... and get it faster... then play with nitrous... etc..

plus there is less to go wrong... not very much electical in an older car...
i want to get a fox body as well, have it as a daily driver but have it beefy enough to have fun with...

 

There is some people here that run 10s or better with leaf springs and shock towers. Your imagination and wallet are your only restrictions. Since we are a bunch of Maverick guys, you know what we will say. If you have a factory Sprint, please check out this thread. I would love to add your car to the registry.

http://www.mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=17962&highlight=sprint+registry

 

Cool.. yep, it's an original 302-2v C-4 car. I bought it as my first car in 1994 for $500, it just needed a new master cylinder for the brakes. It didn't have the original upholstery. It was redone in like a dark blue tweed or something. It has like 7X,XXX miles I think. I will get some info, pics up later. I put a 289 headed 302 in it as my first project and a Weiand Stealth intake and Holley 600cfm 4bl on it as well. My brother needed a project so I gave the car to him because I had 3 Mustangs at the time. He put flowtech headers on it. He wanted a Mustang so I gave him an '87 GT to get the Maverick back. I would like to put alum heads on it and some 4.11 gears with a spool and Caltracs and see what it would run. It is a fun car. I just wish I knew where to get the replacement USA badges on the rear sides. Any clue?

 

Yup. Osborn Reproductions has them.

http://www.osborn-reproduction.com/catalog/ProductDetail.asp?rsProduct_Position=FIL%3ACAT+%3D+%27FG8A%27ORD%3AABS%3A1KEY%3APAR%3A

 

Unbelieveable... thanks! Now, were the stripes on the hood originally painted on or vinyl? Mine are vinyl and they are faded and cracked... I'll probably get a fiberglass hood anyway, but I'd like to know for sure.

 

I know this aint a maverick but it is a leaf sprung traction bar ride. .http://www.1320video.com/vids/ydluz.wmv

 

Nice.. I love the stance on that Camaro...

I guess I shouldn't be too worried about the leaf spring deal. My '72 Grabber race car was leaf sprung with a Granada 9" and cheap lakewood slapper bars and with 28x10.5" Slicks it cut a 1.66 60ft... of course it had some power along with it, but it would hardly ever spin...

 

The leaf spring are definetly the least of youre worries. My car has been in the 1.40 range with stock front and rear suspension. like you said it just takes power.

 

how about posting pictures of the sprint. i have one also that i plan on a restomod. i also have a 71 grabber that was a drag car when i got it, however there's lots of times when i wish it was still a stock grabber and i had used a plain maverick for the drag car.

 

Dude I would say drag the saleen.........drag it behind a truck to wherever. Just keep that sprint alive and kicking. Maybe you could even race it

 

actually im leaning towards you keeping the sprint mostly stock with a spirited engine and use the foxbody for your all out drag car. JMO...

 

I have to go along with Sierra on this. That's the intentions I have for my Sprint.

 

Yeah, I miss my '71 Grabber. I hope to build a respectable track car out of the Sprint without damaging it too much. It needs a repaint very badly as you can see. I included some pics of the old '71 Drag Grabber... RIP 2003, and my '87 Saleen coming off the line at Wichita International Raceway, Wichita, KS

 

IMHO, the fox body cars are excellent candidates for drag racers. The rear suspension design isn't too shabby for straigh-line traction....and the parts are more common than they are for a Maverick/Comet. You can easily build up a FOX chassis car (Mustangs, Crap-i...er...I mean Capri, Fairmont, Zephyr, etc) with aftermarket support, and, best of all, a big block fits better than a small block believe it or not. Bolts right in for the most part. That makes the quest for low ETs and high MPH blasts a little bit easier.

Or you could sell the Saleen, use the $$$ to buy an older FOX coupe (lighter than the hatchbacks) and build it to your heart's content.

I don't know what the Saleens sell for, but I know that SVO's aren't worth much...and they're pretty rare. Some people would kill me for saying it, but if a guy has an SVO that needs some body work and engine work, it's worth more to a scrap metal recycler than you'd get by selling it to an SVO restorer.