Sound The Alarm!

Every year it's the same thing - as soon as the calendar rolls past March 20th, officially starting the Spring season, it seems tons of hot rods, street rods, and muscle cars hit the Internet all with big "For Sale" signs. Some folks are attempting to cash in on the best time of the year to sell their rides. Some are just trying to bail out of that "winter project" that either never got off the ground or just snowballed into a bigger pile of shit than what was originally thought. Certain sellers have their rides very competitively priced and some aren't even breathing oxygen. If you're currently in the market for a summer ride, now is a good time to buy. The tricks are not to let your emotions get in the way, stick within your budget, come to grips with your limits of what you can and cannot do, (especially if your purchase requires some restoration), and if you do come across a solid screaming deal - don't wait. If there's ever a time to witness "... snooze, you lose" that's usually when.

The same concepts apply if your building your ride - whatever it may be. At the garage at where I work, we had a guy drop off a 1965 F-100 that still needed work, both inside and out, but needed some electrical issues resolved first. The problem was, the V-8 motor, matching transmission, wiring, and all the other electronic bullshit came out of a late-model Ford Explorer. Talk about a nightmare - "some" electrical issues didn't even begin to describe what a mess this Frankenstein truck was. The owner didn't think the situation was "too bad" (there's our first bad clue), and he also did numerous repairs prior to bringing this poor classic to us. His comment of "I did a lot of work on this myself, so I know there are certain things that aren't the problem." There's our second bad clue. After three days worth of work, and too many phone calls to remember, we dealt with computer issues (remember it has all modern drive-train), shade-tree half-ass repairs, and ultimately a blown transmission. He was all piss and vinegar until we physically showed him the incorrect repairs he did and the damaged used parts he purchased. Whether your buying or building - be sure to listen to your internal alarm if something doesn't seem right. There's no room for ego in this mental garage.

Listening to your gut and/or hearing warning alarms going off in your head can be a double-edge sword when it comes to motorsports. Without the occasional ignoring of these alarms, there would honestly be no innovation or pushing the envelope in the sport. The balance lies with while pushing the limits, and not to get killed. We've highlighted several examples of this type ridge-pole walking in the past - like the Turbonique "Sizzler" 1965 Chevelle SS as well as the rocket powered "Vulcan Shuttle" VW Bug. Google them if you're unfamiliar with either of them.

However, there are other examples that should've been shelved - for the mere fact that so many red flags came up, they were hard to ignore. One glaring example was in the infamous four wheel drive Chevy Vega funny car driven by Gary Gabelich who was best known for his land speed heroics at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Gary’s car couldn’t have been more unique back in the early 70's. There were no single-engine, four-wheel-drive cars on the drag strips. There were only a handful of rear-engine Funny Cars, and none that can be considered successful. Despite those facts, plans and financing went full steam ahead. But then problems began to arise. Building something this unique required many specialized components. Near the end of construction, the cost was rapidly approaching $50,000, thanks in part to such special items as the hand-spun, two-piece, 12-inch-wide Cragar aluminum wheels and the Spicer-Dana constant-velocity axles. And remember, 50 large was a lot of money back in 1972. That's almost $300,000 today. All these reg flags came to an abrupt end when Gabelich debuted the Vega in front of the media in Southern California. Only intending to do a burnout and a short squirt of throttle, his adrenalin got the better of him and he decided to make a full pass…which resulted in a bad crash and nearly a severed hand in the process.

But just think - if we didn't have brave men and women who weren't afraid to let it all hang out and test the unknown (or how a certain combination would work together or react) we wouldn't have the innovations we have today, in both speed and safety. However, I still hold true to my own fact that I do not have the balls to drive something like Junior Thompson's Opel GT Gasser. Massive short wheelbase, blown Chrysler Hemi engine, squirrelly as hell, going deep into the 8's. Yikes!

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

Nothing But Time

Last week was a little unusual as, for the first time in over six years, I was laid up for several days with a nasty head cold. While I could handle the stuffy nose and the fact that my head felt like a brick, I was taken aback by the watering eyes, and especially the exhaustion. Some of my friends and coworkers mentioned they went through the same thing over the past few weeks. But one thing hit me harder more than anything else; I once again realized that I am not 25 years old anymore and that more than likely my 4am to 9:30pm days are tolling on me more than I realize. I finally had enough energy to sit in front of my laptop and write today.

Over the past few days in between periods of resting and medications, I had a chance to go through part of the car show schedule for New England for 2017, at least what's been submitted, a bunch of hot rod and car magazines, thanks to my wife, as well as some personal memorabilia. I get on this personal nostalgia kick especially when I'm feeling my age. Looking at positive memories from the past seems, at least psychologically, seems to make us more bullet proof. For example, I know full well that where I grew up in Ocean County New Jersey in the Point Pleasant / Seaside Heights area is absolutely nothing like it was when I was kid almost 50 years ago. Today, there's almost 600,000 people that county, triple the number of people when I moved out of the area in the early 70's, and it's nothing but condos and cookie-cutter houses, especially at the beaches.

But as glance through the somewhat glazed over window into the past, that doesn't matter. Looking at old photos, postcards, and what not from fifty years ago, takes me back to the mid to late 60's. At that point, that was my now. When I look at photos of drag racing action at Madison Township Raceway Park, (which is now Old Bridge Township Raceway), I can remember a track in its infancy. Ironically, everyone called it Englishtown (or E-town), because of the zip code assigned to it. Most people I know still call the track by that nickname. Opened in July 1965 by the Napoliello brothers, it shares some distinctive history; the track is still in existence, on it's original site, in a major metropolitan area, and is listed as one of the most fabled and best tracks both then and now. In today's world, that's saying something.

One of the magazine's my wife gave over the past few days, had most of it's ink and photos highlighting muscle cars that were still owned by their original owners. Again, if you examine the timeline, that is not only saying something, but is also downright amazing. Think about it - eventually this type of ownership will cease to exist. Even if you purchased a brand new something back in 1967, and you were only 20 years old, the math puts you at 70 years young today. In about another decade or two, the subject will solidly shift from "original owner" to "still in the family". We're starting to see some of the latter stories already. While it's cool to see all kinds of street rods and cool rides that were finally completed "in memory of...", it's a harsh fact that time doesn't slow down for anyone. And those numbers can sometimes be downright cruel.

So what am I saying? Enjoy and even rock the nostalgia anyway you can. Relive it if at all possible, especially in a bygone era hot rod. It's easy to say, "we have nothing but time", but we only have so much of it. Use it to your highest advantage.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

2+2 = An Absolute Blast!

When it comes to math, my life has been two parallel, but opposite universes, if you compared my experience in a "then verses now" scenario. When I was in high school, I sucked at math; didn't want anything to do with it, except when it came to automotive. My teachers would be astounded that I could use and memorize the automotive formula to calculate the cubic inches on a V-8, but yet I failed Algebra 1, (I took it again during the summer and passed), then barely squeaked by in Algebra 2. By my junior year, I had had enough; not just with math but pretty with the whole school scene. Looking back, I can credit one teacher who passed along one of the biggest life points in my entire 50+ years on this planet - you've got to do something you really enjoy to keep yourself out of your head. As a result, a great deal of my free time was filled with radio (and working at a professional radio station), theater, as well as tinkering with hot rods and old cars. I know the combination of those three kept me out of a great deal of trouble.

Until the new millennium hit, math kept me in a prejudiced state of mind in regards to classic Detroit iron - mainly when it came to the 4-door sedan and wagon varieties. It's possible, like many of you, that we just didn't consider any hot rod with more than two doors. At one point, two doors meant cool. Today, cool is open to a much wider interpretation. Yes, there may still be some unspoken "more cool" factor with these rides. But the other side of the coin is, almost any 2-door hardtop or even sedan with a small block V-8 from the early '70's on down, is getting priced out of reach for the average enthusiast who has bills to pay and a family to look after. Now more than ever, cool is what's left and what you do with it.

Take a glance at almost any hot rod, street rod, or rat rod magazine. There are mind-blowing rides of every description that wouldn't even be considered 20 years ago. Some examples I've seen in several of the latest issues that I receive in the mail every month; a '58 T-bird, a '62 Olds Dynamic 88, and a '69 4-door Chevy Kingswood wagon that does 9's in the quarter. It's more than the old mindset of "Dare To Be Different", it's dare to throw the old norms away along with the status quo. But, if you think about it, isn't that what hot-rodding is all about anyways? When you truly consider it, it's what has kept our hobby alive for almost 70 years.

Most of you already know, (and there's been countless articles written about this as well), that there are some serious advantages of buying a 4-door sedan and/or wagon. The big pluses are price, more accessibility, V-8 power availability, and similar platforms (chassis, suspension, and steering) with their 2-door brethren. If you scope Craigslist, Racing Junk, or other classified ad websites, you'll find some cool examples of what's out there. The main thing is, don't get discouraged - like always, there will be sellers out there that aren't breathing oxygen. But, below are a few of the deals I found just this afternoon without even trying:
 - 1968 Buick station wagon with factory 400ci big block V-8 in decent shape for under $9000
 - 1965 Ford Galaxie 4-door with a 428 V-8 swap in nice shape for $8900
 - 1962 Chevy Nova 4-door, 6cyl, auto, needs some work, but a driver for $2700
 - 1980 Chevy Malibu wagon, very nice, runs low 11's in the quarter for $10,000.

I ask you - what other ride can you purchase, turn key that needs nothing, that will run 11-0 in the quarter, and still be driven on the street for $10K? Try doing that in a Camaro, Charger, or Mustang. That's just it - you can't. Not unless the car and over half the parts are given to you for free. I'm not knocking these classic rides, or hot rods that sell for north of 50 grand. It's about thinking outside the box, making the most of what you have, establishing new rules for cool, and not giving a shit of what other people think. Because guess what? They're not thinking about you anyways.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

You Look A Little Funny...

Last week we took a very brief look at the more traditional Gasser-class race car. What started as a very simple, often daily driven hot rod, morphed into an often super-charged, nitro-fed animal that easily broke the 9-second barrier. This week, we're going to take a brief look at another very popular, but even shorter lived step-child; the A/FX class race car, that took a similar road like the Gasser. There's almost some kind of magic in the abbreviation - A/FX; The FX portion stood for "Factory Experimental". The "A" stood for the racing class the vehicle competed in, as there were also "B" and "C" classes depending on the vehicle weight to engine cubic inches. FX cars were also the birth of the Funny Car as we know it today.

In 1962, the NHRA created the class in an effort to deal with the big-three manufacturers releasing (or potentially releasing) high performance parts that were not in regular production or "assembly line produced". For example, a year earlier, Chevy released the infamous 409 cubic inch V-8; Chevy only produced approximately 142 assembly line built Impala's, Bel-Air's, and Biscayne's optioned with the 409 for 1961. However, the engine had been installed in more Chevy's by dealers and racers, than were ever produced at the factory. The NHRA was not going to have that happen in 1962. They were prepared to maintain that Super Stock cars had to be built "in quantity" at the factory on the assembly line. In order to deal with the discrepancy between "stock parts" and "special equipment" the Factory Experimental class was born.

The NHRA rulebook for 1962 listed the FX class rules right along side the Super Stock rules. Basically, the FX class was a "mix and match" combination of stock parts from one vehicle being used on another vehicle of the same name. For example, an engine from one vehicle (a Pontiac Catalina 421 engine for instance) could be mated with a much smaller and lighter Pontiac (a Tempest Le Mans). The same held true with transmissions, rear end housings and other drive-line components. But the important point to remember is that the engine transported from one model to the other model (the Pontiac 421 in this instance) still had to meet the same specs as if it were in the original Catalina model. It still had to be "Super Stock legal". Fiberglass or aluminum body parts were not legal in 1962, unless produced (or released) by the factory. Same for magnesium wheels. Wheelbases still needed to remain stock for the body used. Same for suspension. FX did permit a slightly larger tire to be used. The restrictions for the Super Stock class was a tire with at least two tread grooves and a width not to exceed 7-inches. Drag slicks were permitted in the Factory Experimental class, provided that they fit inside the original and unmodified rear wheel well tubs, and did not exceed 10-inches. 

The FX classes started gaining momentum and popularity by late 1962 and into 1963. The first big noise was when a Pontiac Tempest was fitted with a 421-inch Pontiac engine. This car was assembled by Hayden Proffitt and Lloyd Cox, working out of Mickey Thompson's shop in Long Beach, CA. But Pontiac was not alone. The same idea occurred to Jim Nelson and Dode Martin, the owners of the legendary Dragmaster Chassis company in San Diego who took the 413-inch S/S engine out of the Dodge sedan and installed it in the compact Dodge Lancer. In the Chevy camp, numerous racers installed small block Chevy V8 engines into Chevy II's but the rig just about everyone remembers is "Dyno" Don Nicholson's white Chevy II station wagon that he drove to victory in the B/FX class.

1964 was where we really started separating the FX cars from regular super stock cars. Ironically, it was Chrysler who blurred the lines of the Super Stock class and created an entirely new monster for A/FX; the altered wheelbase drag car. In order to gain more of an advantage over the Chevy Z-11 Impala's as well as 427 powered Ford Thunderbolt Fairlane's, Chrysler engineers move the wheelbase of their super stock cars forward by two percent. While numerous racers commenting on how "funny" the cars looked, the concept worked. The Mopar camp gained valuable traction by leaps and bounds and thus more wins.

As a result of altering the wheelbase, the resulting domino effect that occurred throughout that year and into 1965, was out of control. The NHRA could hardly keep up with the radical changes that were occurring on almost a monthly, if not weekly, basis. Nothing was sacred - everything from massively altered wheelbases, engine set-back, Hilborn injection, liberal use of lightweight aluminum, and gutted interiors were experimented with. "Factory" was quickly becoming a thing of the past in regards to FX. One of the more significant race cars from 1964 was the Sachs and Sons blown Mercury Comet. Driven by the famous Jack Chrisman, it was a major step in the evolution of a door-slammer into a Funny Car. During the Nationals that summer, officials were quite confused as to which class the car should race in. It was too radical for FX, it certainly wasn't a super stock vehicle, so they had it run in B/Fuel Dragster. While Chrisman was eliminated in the first round due to an obvious mismatch of a lightweight dragster verses a heavier brick-like Comet, Chrisman smoked the rear wheels the entire length of the quarter mile and still managed to post a mid-9 second run at 150+ mph. Needless to say, the crowd at Indy went absolutely wild.

By the end of 1965, drag racers and fans alike, especially along the west coast, regarded the funny car/FX cars as “circus” acts and not real race cars. Two more milestone vehicles that changed peoples opinions about them, while at the same time, officially put an end to the FX car and cemented the modern day Funny Car. The first car was the Mr. Norm’s Grand-Spaulding Dodge. When Norm Krause and Gary Dyer brought the ex-Roger Lindamood factory altered wheelbase car to Lions Dragway in Los Angeles in late 1965, the team was not known outside of the Midwest. Dyer ran 8.63 and it went down as one of the greatest runs in history. 

The second vehicle was "Dyno" Don Nicholson's 1966 Mercury Comet Eliminator I funny car. It was the first all-fiberglass body that was draped over a tube-chassis, similar to a dragster. Any resemblance to a stock vehicle was now completely gone and the metamorphosis to the funny car was complete.

Until next time, peace out.

Dave