Group on facebook posted this. Good read for me, hope everyone here can appreciate this... "With an estimated 540 horsepower, the Stage 2 Buicks could run 10.70s at 123 miles per hour with a pair of racing slicks. No, that’s not a misprint. What’s all the fuss about this Hellcat, you say?" Pulled from article. https://www.google.com/amp/www.chea...-2-redefined-muscle-car-performance.html/amp/ I have found a 455 block, so i know what my goal is.
I would expect TA's aluminum aftermarket Stage 2 heads are a significant performance improvement over oem. I don't know the specifics however. Original heads do come up for sale once in a great while.
I went a best of 10.28 at 130mph in Thumper with non ported iron stage2's in 1990 at Norwalk. Weighed 3200lb. had a B4B, headers, 1000TQ, 11 to 1 compression, 4.10's and 3500 converter.All old school. gary
Board member nicksbuickgs aka nick Serwo has a complete iron head stage 2 motor for sale with ta o308 soild cam 10.50 or better in the right car.
There is an old article about Buick's experimental Stage 2 program with interviews pieced together from original Buick personnel and Buick Racers. One of the stories in the article was about the development white "GSX" Stage 2 built for testing by Buick Engineering. The particular story detailed this car's visit to western GM proving grounds and also Southern Calif. GM facilities where it wound up at a local drag strip one night coincidentally at the same time as a Pontiac experimental or prototype Ram Air V '70 GTO. The track was in the process of closing for the night when these two cars squared off, but the person at the end of the 1/4 mile track called the race for the Buick.
Experimental car #4085. More than likely Doug or Dave was behind the wheel. Doug has a story where they blew up the 8.2 rear at Lions drag way and sent Trevor to get a replacement from GM training school. They then replaced it in the staging lanes.
Just curious, how much are a original set? And from my understanding TA stage 2, are a direct copy, just aluminum, no? They have stage 3 & 4 for better performance, I could be wrong. But that's my understanding. And that's bad ass Gary!
No ta Al stage2 are better than the iron especially on the ex side By the way I've had 3 sets of stage 2 iron Sold 1 set in 96 for 2500 Sold another set 3 years ago.for 6500 Been offered 8700 for my last set and turned it down
Just like the TA Stage1 aluminum heads, the Stage2's are vastly improved over their iron counterparts. Right out of the box, with a good valve job, the TA Stage 1 aluminum heads will out flow the best ported iron heads. I would expect that is true of the Stage 2 heads as well. Mike did his homework.
By the way,my 64 Special ,not to take anything away from Gary,with 3250 plus the driver went 1027 in Englishtown and 10.22 at Atco raceway,this with SI . heads ,,but they were ported.With the car with less weight ,about 2950,plus the driver,with a bigger roller cam,more compression,it went 9.70.Its all in the Northeast chapter Newsletter.Bruno.
You need to understand that there were several variations (castings) of the Stage 2 iron heads early in the development program - the early ones were plain radical castings with ports so big they looked like racquetballs would just roll down into 'em. The later (I believe) castings were the D-port .... which were still huge, but more production friendly and I think what the eventual over-the-counter parts offerings in '72 were based on. Google some pics .... and you will have a smile on your face for a while. Remember, though, the Stage 2 heads were part of a group of parts when installed together formed the Stage 2 package (not to be confused with earlier Buick "Stage 2" packages released before the Stage 2 heads were available for a very brief time ...)
Buick never produced D port stg2 heads. But some racers, maybe one, brazed a set or two up to make a D port out of them. I have both an early prototype set and the later production set...neither D port.
Where can I find a copy of the article Hawken refers to concerning the Pontiac RA V/experimental facing off against the Stage 2? Anybody know? Thanks!
Thanks,Guy. Mebbe someone else has a line on this article. The Stage 2/RAV stories are portents of what "could have been"available if the insurance /government/Top Brass/gas shortage perfect storm had not shut down development. The RAV combo actually proved to be too much...engines blew up. Had to be scaled back a tad but the more reliable 400 Super Duty was shown to be a survivor and could have gone into production. The notion that these two penultimate sister GM developments actually faced off is awesome.
It takes quite a bit of work to get even a Stage 2 in the 10's. Since a factory Stage-2 was never released comparing it to a stock Hellcat is not logical. Plus a Hellcat has nice air conditioning among other things.
