Fuck school....blow it all on your car.
Remember, you can sleep in a car but you can't race a house.
is the car an auto or a stick?
My CHEAP-O ten second recipe would be.....
GUTTED and I mean GUTTED cept for two front seats and carpet to look presentable. No a/c, no power steering, no swaybar, no emissions...nothing...well maybe a radio with only door speakers just to keep your sanity...wait...thats my car.
Yank the motor. Buy a set of .030" pistons. Drop the short block (STILL ASSEMBLED) off at a machine shop. Tell them to rebuild it and slap in the forged pistons. Now you got a 306 bottom end with forged pistons. If you shop around, you COULD build that for about...a lil over a grand.
shop around some more for a set of GT40 ALUMINUM heads and a GT40 or Cobra intake....slap'em on with a set cometic gaskets Throw in an E-cam for good measure.
If you shop smart and wait for deals...you COULD do that for about...eh...1200 or probably even less.
24lb injectors a maf cal'd for them...probably 300 bucks used. I paid 400 for 30lbers and an 80 mm pro-m b/c I need'ed them stat.
Bolt ons: Underdrive pullies, Fuel Pressure Regulator (A MUST), long tube headers, off road pipe, what ever cat back you want, 70mm throttle body, 255lph FUEL PUMP (this is key b/c of whats next) etc. etc. probably a lil over a grand or so...again...shop around!
GET A DYNO TUNE...
THE MONEY MAKER!
GET A NITROUS PLATE KIT...start small and work your way up to 200shot.
Suspension: (Upper and lower control arms out back, 50/50 shocks, 90/10 struts, stock springs up front, 4 cylinder fox springs in the back) and Big and skinny welds with some GOOD drag radials. 4.10 gears...at least. rebuild the trac-loc unit out back with some extra shims to "tighten" it up. Subframe connectors to make sure you don't tweak the body.
obvsiously, you can't just slap all that on and expect to rip off a 10 second pass your first time out. BUT with time, practice, chassis tuning, it can be done. That is pretty much mod for mod, what my buddy used in his LX (yeah its a fox...but...it was also a...) convertible used for 2 years to click off 10.70s with a 5 speed...the key was the nos big shot plate kit. He also ran 28x10.50 full slicks but the same results can be duplicated. He ran a 60,000 mile bottom end in his car but always kept a spare short block layng around....just in case. He has other shit too like MSD ignition for timing control on the spray. In a nut shell thats a ten second combo...and should be more than mild enough to ride around on the street with. There are a MILLION ways to do it. thats how I'd do it if I was starting from scratch though.