85_Ranger4x4
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- Joined
- Aug 7, 2007
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- 32,388
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- Location
- SW Iowa
- Vehicle Year
- 1985
- Make / Model
- Ford
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- V8
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- 5.0
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- Manual
If you ran into someone that was really serious you would be in trouble.stmitch don't be so sure of that. There are many full size trucks that will smoke most cars at the drag strip. One being these heavy 3/4 and 1 ton diesel trucks They pull better 60ft times than most cars and these same truck can be driven to the drag strip, tuned to race, detuned to drive back home and get 20 miles per gallon. The 4 wd makes the trucks not need slicks.
How do I know this? I have a 2007.5 dodge 2500 4x4 regular cab putting out 650 to the tires. I can race all these bad cobras putting out 6oo+hp and spank them at the drag strip? These cars are so light they just spin.
So don't write of all full size trucks.
Stock the Shelby's had too much motor for the car even before Ford had the brainy idea to drop the 5.8 in them. They can't fit tires to hold it without tubing the car and Ford neglects to do this at the factory. Nobody is going to tub their Shelby so that is what they get... $50-60k+ smoke machines with a wickedly cool banshee scream depending on model year. People mess around with pulleys so they can brag about how much power they have but they can't use it... nor would most know what to do with it if they could.
Of course there are other kinds of racing which your truck will not come out looking so rosy... like pretty much anything with a turn or faint curve involved.
At the end of the day racing (or pretty much any motorsport) is more a measure of money than anything else no matter what you start out with. Cars are cheaper to start out with, trucks especially diesels hold their value incredibly well. It does help they start out high priced too. Most new diesels in stock in my town rival a Shelby for price. They are also ridiculously expensive to work on.
Personally with two tettering 4x4 piles of iron in my fleet I long for a car that could take a turn with any kind of gumption... more than 20mpg for a long drive would be nice too because my F-150 can almost touch that.
But again measure of money means my 30 year old 200hp (@ flywheel) Ranger will be my "hot rod" for the foreseeable future.
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