Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General 9 second Charger: myth or legend?

Okay, I just finally watched The Fast And The Furious, and I gotta ask: were there really 1970 Dodge Chargers that could do 9 seconds??

I mean, right now there is no production car at any price that even gets down to 11 seconds, right?

No stock Charger could do 9's but no stock charger had a gigantic supercharger sticking out of the hood either.

I saw a 10 second Shelby Charger..86 with Turbo...scaryyyyy

What concerned me was the apparently stock dual exhaust. How could the Charger exhale with those puny pipes?

I suspect the Charger on the show wasn't that fast or furious.

FWIW, I drove a '69 Charger R/T with a 440 Magnum (in 1972). What a freakin beast. Hit the gas, hold on for dear life. The "Wide Oval" tires couldn't deliver the power to the ground. The darn thing fishtailed and smoked them tires oh so easily. And, you could get some real speed up, but hope you didn't have to stop (or turn). It was essentially a roller skate with a huge engine.

Are you asking if there are ANY Chargers that can do 9 seconds, 'cause the one on F&F was not a stock production car (big thing sticking out the hood=not stock).

If it was, I doubt they would have gotten permission to smash it.

Did you notice that it had a big triangular open paper air filter, and exposed butterfly valves? If the air's going through the butterfly valves, what is the filter for??

Yes, I did mean "any Charger", not a stock one. Do people really get them down to 9 seconds with the crappy traction they had back in those days?

If I wanted to make the ultimate street rod now, I suppose I'd start with the question of "What all-wheel drive platform is most able to handle 500+ horses?" Traction first, engine after.

has anyone seen that charger with the Viper V10 engine conversion? what a super nice friggin car that is!

Nothing was running nines in the late sixtys or early 70's that wasn't injected or supercharged. There was no point in running a midsize bodied car when there were small compacts that could have a big block shoehorned in. The SuperStock and early Pro cars were running 11's during this time period. Whether or not anyone had a Charger that would run in the nines or not I don't know. If there are any, they wouldn't be very streetable.

Karl

You can get any car to run 9 seconds or quicker with enough money. A 9 second Charger isn't that hard to believe at all these days. There's bound to be some quicker than that too. You can completely gut a Charger and get it under 3500 lbs or less probably.

My favorite part was the four way drag race near the beginning of the movie. Quarter-miling must be a lot easier than I thought if it takes a minute and a half to cover the distance... allowing you time to work a laptop, bunch 27 buttons, have a panel fall out of your floor, burn up your piston rings, etc before the other guy even hits his nitrous button.

(BTW, why wait so late in the race to poke the nitrous? I'd think you'd want to use it as early as you have traction for it, like as soon as you shift out of 1st.)