well i usually dog on the old 5.7s cuz i thought they were slow. but i didnt know that the 97-98 engine was vortec. i had only raced previous years and smoked them. well tonite my freind gets his aunts 97' extcab 5.7 bone stock, posi, and 3.73s stock. we get flagged and he stayed much closer than i thought, i only had a few cars on him. then we went from like a 50 roll, and i put like 2 cars on him. then, race of the nite was the 65 roll. we stayed even till he hit his govenor. the races really didnt make sense to me, couldnt figure out why he had a strong top end in that heavy extcab. i still said bs on his aunts truck being stock. but he says she was the first owner and didnt do anything. ohwell it was fun, i got all these races on video also.

 

About a year ago I was in town about 4 a.m. and this 4wd excab 96-98 model started getting beside of me and acting like he wanted to raced. I followed him around our bypass a few times just laying low so we circle around a shellmart and I pull out in front him so he gets even with me and I let him take off first. He pulls me about one of his truck lenghts and then I take off and went around him like he had his brakes on. Needless to say he has not tried to race me since. If he had been a regular cab it would have been different though.

 

the weight of the ext. cab should be less evident from a roll than from a dead stop. the weight really hurts when yur trying to get the truck up and going, its less of a handicap once its goin

 

My friend and I had 98 5.7's extended cabs both with 3:73 gears, mine was a totally stock two wheel drive and his was a four wheel drive with a K+N (big deal!) and a cat back exhaust. I would pull two trucks on him to about 55-60mph from a dead stop, but he would pull about a truck on me from a 50 mph roll on up to 85-90 mph. The filter and exhaust must make more of a difference once you are rollin. His truck had to way a couple hundred more pounds as well since he had 4wd.

 

A 96-98 5.7 makes about the same horsepower as a 4.8 LS1 based motor,they were a lot stronger that the older throttlebody injected motors they replaced.He might even beat you if you run from a stop.

 

we did run from a stop, that was the first race. that race i put the most lengths on him. as we went from a higher roll, the race became closer. thats what i didnt get

 

I love the new 4.8s and 5.3s but I also really like the vortec 350s also.