The Official 356Talk Forum

Here is a picture of my son racing around Lime Rock at the VSCCA fall finale last October. I am not sure where this photo came from, but it seems that the 356 is very happy, and my son likely has the same smiley face as the car. He is being chased here by a Veritas.

This is just a stock T-5 Super, with a 1600cc engine on Solex 40's however tuned to about 120HP. It is running Blockley 165x15 radials on stock rims. It is a surprisingly good car on the track, but what makes it very special is that you can drive it to the track, race it, and drive it home. a true sporting companion and the definition of "sports car"

Great! Love the T-5s.

And back in the day "you can drive it to the track, race it, and drive it home" was the way it was done!

The first time I ever saw a 356 being delivered to the races on a trailer (around 1961), I asked one of the older guys, "Is that legal?"

Erik Thomas wrote:Here is a picture of my son racing around Lime Rock at the VSCCA fall finale last October. I am not sure where this photo came from, but it seems that the 356 is very happy, and my son likely has the same smiley face as the car. He is being chased here by a Veritas.

This is just a stock T-5 Super, with a 1600cc engine on Solex 40's however tuned to about 120HP. It is running Blockley 165x15 radials on stock rims. It is a surprisingly good car on the track, but what makes it very special is that you can drive it to the track, race it, and drive it home. a true sporting companion and the definition of "sports car"

How do you tune a stock 1600 to 120hp?

Dan Epperly wrote:

Erik Thomas wrote:Here is a picture of my son racing around Lime Rock at the VSCCA fall finale last October. I am not sure where this photo came from, but it seems that the 356 is very happy, and my son likely has the same smiley face as the car. He is being chased here by a Veritas.

This is just a stock T-5 Super, with a 1600cc engine on Solex 40's however tuned to about 120HP. It is running Blockley 165x15 radials on stock rims. It is a surprisingly good car on the track, but what makes it very special is that you can drive it to the track, race it, and drive it home. a true sporting companion and the definition of "sports car"

How do you tune a stock 1600 to 120hp?

GOOD question.

I said the CAR was stock, not the engine. It is 1600cc's with a SCAT crank, Carrillos, special pistons 10/1, Megacycle cam, 912 heads with large valves, Solex 40PII with special intake trumpets and air filters. Full flow oil filter, alloy cooler, Etc. Ignition is by modified Bosch distributor.

Whoops, wrong dyno sheet. That was with an earlier camshaft, which ended up spalling badly. Had to replace it after less than a thousand miles. The new cam made a big difference. I will see if I can find the sheet.

Here is what I could find. At the wheels shows 94HP on a hot, humid day, but I can only guess the crank HP at about 15% more which would be about 108. Not exactly 120.. However notice the nice curves with the megacycle cam. The old cam that failed was a more or less standard SC grind. The engine pulls very cleanly and with the improved bottom end, hopefully last a while. The engine was built by Jim Burns at KTR motorsports.