I'm new to raceing and I'm buying a 1973 Dodge Charger with a 318 and an automatic. I want to know what I can do to get it to run 11's and 12's, I'm trying to show up those rice burning honda civics that think they can beat American Muscle.

Well the 73 Charger is a nice car, but heavy. If you don't want to swap in a 383 or 440, then you have to get pretty radical on that 318. First off is a good 4 barrel carb and intake. Next is a set of headers and free flowing dual exhaust. After that I would go with a set of 3.91 gears and a posi to get that thing moving off the line. You can always get a 100, or 150 shot of Nitrous but you’ll want to be careful because the 904 trans is a weak point in the drive train. Actually, you'll probably want to get rid of the 904 trans that came stock and replace it with a 727. (The 904 blows up real good under high horsepower.) After that you need to go inside the motor to make the car faster. Cam, new or ported heads, higher compression pistons and so on. But you get the idea. Easy stuff first, then start tearing it apart to make it go even faster.

quik67firebird, you definitely seem to know your stuff. That post of yours was ridiculously informative. *thumbs up* With your vast knowledge, maybe you could help me brain storm. My original thought was getting a 93-95 RX-7 and swapping in a pushrod V8; but, do you know of any relatively affordable muscle cars that I could purchase with the intent of it being a project car? I liked the RX-7 idea because one can get an RX-7 with a blown motor for fairly cheap nowadays, and with all the parts needed for the swap, including the price for the car, engine, tranny, etc. I'd end up spending maybe $12k at most, and it would be just as fast, if not faster, than a stock C5 Corvette Z06. But, mainly, I just love the sound of a muscley V8, and I love the looks of muscle cars.

Sorry for getting the thread a little off topic there, lol.

sounds nice.... im kinda trying to sell my 73 charger with a 440 magnum and limited bubbel hood and drag syspension. need the money helpin my bro out some and workin on rebuilding my old engine in the stang.

Thanks evopanop, I noticed that you live in Indio. When I was looking for my project car, I went to Coachella and Thermal. I found some good early 70's Nova's and a few early to mid 70's Camaro's, I also saw a nice early 70's Charger, 73 or 74 I believe. I saw some Mustangs too, but I'm a Chevy guy. These were just at various lots, in the back, parked by peoples houses collecting dust etc. I also saw a 76 Camaro in the Panarama area of Cat city just last week for $1500. These would all be viable candidates for a stroker 383, or 400. Definitely a good foundation to start from.

I'm not familiar with Mazda V8 swaps, but if you do a Google search you can find several sites dedicated to install a SBC into a RX7 body.

where did you see the nova's and the charger?

I suppose if you took Hwy 111, or Avenue 48 to Indio Blvd. and made a Right, and then took that through Coachella Valley, on the way to Thermal, there's a LOT of dirt-road type area going on over there... probably pretty easy to find a house with an old car just sittin' back there, lol.

im looking for a specific address

SweetNeon, the first Nova that I saw was in front of the Ajax wrecking as I was heading to Desert Pull-A-Part. The second one was sitting on the side of highway 111 with a for sale sign by the VW dune buggy shop. The Charger was at one of the lots on the right as I was heading to Thermal on the highway that turns right at the end of 111 in Indio. I think its still 111, but I'm not sure. This was a while ago when I was searching for my project car, but they are still out there, just gotta look.