7500 RPM 302 Stroker Suggestions

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by bapapp15

.....I'm looking to build a 302 Stroker capable of 7500+ RPM at 450ish horsepower. The car will be used occasionally on the track, for autocross, and spirited driving on street come weekends.....

To the OP, I quite understand where you're coming from here. The original 260 and 289 Cobras race cars, and to a lesser extent, the small block street roadsters, had high revving engines with an emphasis on top end power. What's wrong with wanting to emulate that in a replica small block Cobra build? Sure, it won't have a lot of torque in the low and middle rev ranges, but if the power is there at the top end - and that's what the owner wants - what's the problem with that? If it's a bit flat in the lower rev range, it had compensations at the top end. What's a nice shifting gearbox for anyway?

In my own original engine planning, and before the reality of what was able to be road registerable where I live became clear to me, Brent Lykins and I exchanged many emails regarding engine specs. I wanted an engine that would develop max power at around 7500rpm and the bottom end torque didn't particulary matter. Very light car....small, high revving Windsor ....I didn't see a problem. If I was able to do that legally, that is still what I would want to be doing. Anyone can have an engine with plenty of low down muscle, but that's not what everyone wants, and it's not what the original small block cars were like.

Cheers!
Glen

[Buzz]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Very light car....small, high revving Windsor

This is spot-on within the context of this thread. If we're talking about small block Cobras, don't forget that they weigh a bit over half of what the average '60's / '70's American muscle car does and the addiction to big-inch, big-torque, low end luggers originated with the need to make these behemoths get up and move in a similar fashion to "true" (read that "smaller/lighter") sports cars; generally of the European persuasion, that satisfied generations of drivers using much smaller, higher-revving engines.

"Move" in the preceding sentence means only in linear terms, because no amount of torque and low-end grunt could overcome the laws governing changes in direction of a massive object rolling on skinny, bias-ply tires. The little sports cars were still plenty of fun and generally faster on any road that wasn't dead straight and 1320 feet long.

Having said all of that, the OP never said that this engine was going into a Cobra. "Trans Am inspired build" implies to me he may be thinking about a Mustang but even if that's the case, a Trans Am inspired 1st gen Mustang gutted for racing performance would still be a relatively light car.