Acceleration, cornering, and top speed? You need to define that a bit and add in budget. You somewhat defined it with HP which I assume means whatever is the best balance of acceleration and top speed that can be provided by 550HP in a say 3,500lb gbody. Oh yea I bet you want it to run on pump gas not overheat in traffic be reliable and get somewhat tolerable mileage. Probably a little short all the way around but here are a couple practical examples.
And naturally their is the Grand Nationals. Transmissions are a big part of your equation. A 5 speed would probably best fit the bill. The overdrives really don't provide the top speed part but at least they allow better mileage less engine maintenence and great higher speed cruising. I have largely been after the same goals.
I have a GN which comes with a higher buy in price but makes up for it after that. At least as far as acquiring power & mileage and by providing the OD, 8.5 rear, better wheels springs & sway bars. Like someone else mentioned tires are an important part of the equation. On the GN I widened the stock rims to 8" and run a 275/50/15 Nitto drag radial. To get the power on pump gas I added methanol injection.
I also have an 87 442. Naturally the 307 would not work so me old vin9 is in safe keeping. Like Bob & Dwight I added a big block and built up the overdrive. I used a Cadillac 500ci for cheap pump gas street power. If you can be satisfied with about 500HP on pump gas the Cad can fill the bill cost effectively beyond that HP it gets more expensive than big rats.
Dwight ran an 11.0 at 112 on slicks and a 12.3 at 110 on radials and says he has gotten 20mpg. Bob I think ran a best of 12.3 at 110 and 15mpg before haveing it stolen. So far I ran a 12.5 at 110 and have gotten 17.0 mpg in the 442. The GN ran a 12.4 at 109 and has gotten 22mpg. No record breaker but thats pump gas, radials, full exhaust as driven trim on both cars.
The 442 used 275/60/15 drag radials on widened 8" factory rims. Also the 8.5 rear and the 200-4r with working lock up and an 800 Q-jet for mileage and high speed cruising. I used the 36mm hollow sway bar from a WS6 early 90s trans am. With the stiffer springs best factory sway bars widened wheels and bigger shoes along with good poly end link and shocks they handle respectably. At least greatly improved. Never been a top ender but have had some in some short 140 mph blasts with both cars. In each case they will hit about 115/118 quick then hit OD and the acceleration slows. Not sure what they would run flat out but its more than 140 mph. They would probably end up being drag limited.
I can't remember the make of kit-car but there was an artical in I think CARCRAFT about two or three years ago. The artical was about a competition to find the fastest car all around, kind of a pro-touring kind of thing. Anyway this guy had a kit car that was so good they didn't even put it in the competition because it blew everything away so badly, nothing came close to matching it. It had a LS6 motor with a transaxle and Corvette brakes in a car that barely weighed 2000lbs. I can't remember all the spec's, but I do remember it was doing 10's in the quarter.
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