RE: Thunderbird SC
First, let me start by saying that I have as a frequent visitor of Orlando Speedworld, I have witnessed some impressive runs by GN's although I am sure there are faster GN's than the ones that earned 11 second timeslips I've seen.
I personally do not have a GN, I have "That other" 3.8 car with boost, the thunderbird SC.
After going to one of the national meets, I will say that the Thunderbird SC can do a little more than spin it's tires in the sand. Truth be told they have incredible low end torque but our roots type supercharger and ohv engine was not the ideal combination to rip off 12 second timeslips on a lightly modified car. The Thunderbird SC is pretty much a burnout machine considering it weighs a lot and has relatively high (numerically low) rearend gears. I run consistant 2.0 60fts on street tires which is not bad for a 4,200 lb car. It is fun to show people that you can do a massive burnout liquifying the rubber onto my rear bumper cover without breaking 3,000 rpms but that's not a lot I can prove.
I don't really know what I came to say but the squeeling it's tires in the sand kind of got to me. I respect your cars and didn't come to trash them. Truth be told the SC you saw probably belonged to Scott Long, one of my club's members and he has said some good things about your cars so don't knock his. All of our cars that I've ever seen dyno have pulled over 300 lb/ft of rwtq just fyi, we just barely top over 200 rwhp stock however (The last dyno run I saw was Dean Shirley's bone stock '90 5-speed that he wanted to get a baseline on before any mods, you should note that his clutch failed shortly after so he may have had slightly higher driveline loss than normal, his dyno results were 206 rwhp and 308 rwtq bone stock). Feel free to chat with me through aim as atmax just don't IM to trash my car. I like all cars and like to talk about cars.
Adam Mullen
The SC Kid