Topic: Gearhead stories.

[Don R]

 I'll start off with my best gearhead story.
   
  Hellzapoppin was a top fuel front engine dragster They ran a 392 hemi and towed the open trailer with a Chrysler Imperial because it had the spare motor under the hood. One year at the World Series of Drag Racing they were trying to compete but were a little slow. They had taken along a new bigger blower and decided they had to try it.
  During the install they were having trouble and couldn't figure out the rotor timing and end plates. My buddy heard someone ask what's the matter? He turned around and it was Don Garlits. He showed Don the problem and Don said, I can put that together for you and they let him.
  He did get it all together, but in the excitement the team forgot to turn the motor backwards to get the left-over nitro out of the cylinders. When they push started it the engine fired and blew the side out of the block, it was running but they could see the piston still going up and down through the hole. The driver thought it was OK and thought it could make the pass but they finally got him to shut it off.
  I don't think they had enough weekend left to take the 392 out of the tow vehicle. 

  I knew all of those guys. Alcohol may have been involved.

[Bailgang]

I was at the US Nationals once and saw a guy running a dragster, maybe a super comp, definitely not a top fuel or alcohol but anyhow this guy had issues immediately with his engine spewing oil at around the 60 ft mark. I don't know whether he couldn't shut the engine off or wouldn't shut it off but it just sat there puking oil so one of the Safety Safari crew nabbed a halon fire extinguisher and gave it a blast in it's intake and that shut that engine down immediately. The driver of the car was not happy at all.

[BenelliSEI]

From 1979-1984 I raced in the Honda/Michelin Championship. The series was for sealed, stock Honda Civics. Base model, 1200 cc, 4 speed box. Honda provided a roll cage, 6 point harness, and a straight through tail pipe, for some excitement. We often started over 50 cars on a grid and racing was VERY CLOSE. Initially, we had an external kill switch on the RF fender.

One afternoon at Mosport, we were qualifying for a Can Am support race. We had two identical Team cars and were in a long train of cars drafting up the 4,000’ back straight. At one point I pulled out to the left and Terry (my team mate) came along, pushing me past the car in front. We ran very close along side, trying for even a sniff of a side draft. As we drew along side my good friend Richard P., his arm reached out under his window net and clicked OFF my kill switch!!!!

Bastard! Next time I’ll tell you what Terry and I did to him the next day…

[BomberMann650]

I'll never forget the day I heard a triumph trident seize up at Bonneville.
Felt really bad for the rider.  He put everything into that old motor and was on a return run.
Engine stuck hard about 3/4 mile into the run up.  It had to be loud when things screeched to a halt between his knees.

[Don R]

  My daughter was racing one the other two females in our class, our car launched well but shut off going only about 50' she pulled over so I ran out to push it off track. Another racer came out to helped and said nice win Dad, I laughed and she said no you won, the other car broke out. That is considered a worse foul than not completing the run. Really.
  We changed a fuse and fixed a skinned wire and went a couple more rounds. That fall when I took the car apart, I noticed the fuel pump feed wire was also pinched under the bracket.

[BenelliSEI]

From 1979-1984 I raced in the Honda/Michelin Championship. The series was for sealed, stock Honda Civics. Base model, 1200 cc, 4 speed box. Honda provided a roll cage, 6 point harness, and a straight through tail pipe, for some excitement. We often started over 50 cars on a grid and racing was VERY CLOSE. Initially, we had an external kill switch on the RF fender.

One afternoon at Mosport, we were qualifying for a Can Am support race. We had two identical Team cars and were in a long train of cars drafting up the 4,000’ back straight. At one point I pulled out to the left and Terry (my team mate) came along, pushing me past the car in front. We ran very close along side, trying for even a sniff of a side draft. As we drew along side my good friend Richard P., his arm reached out under his window net and clicked OFF my kill switch!!!!

Bastard! Next time I’ll tell you what Terry and I did to him the next day…

Next morning, we loaded the rear windshield washer bags on both our cars with a mixture of chocolate milk/washer fluid, and rotated the nozzles so they pointed straight backwards. Sure enough, Dick ended up behind me, drafting up the back straight. Once he got right under me, bumper to bumper, I pulled up the lever and covered his windshield!

[Don R]

 HA! That's classic.
 We got to the final in a Jr. Dragster race, our opponent was from a racing family and we weren't expected to win the final. From the starting like it looked close, the cars ran close to the same ET so there was only a tiny handicap at the start anyway, we got the win light. The margin of victory on the time slip was .000. The other Dad went to the tower to check and when he came back he said there were two more zeroes and a 3. so our MOV was .000003 of a second. The computer timer was out of digits but they said it would still pick a winner if it was all zeroes.
  I always wondered if the lane closer to the computer in the tower had an advantage at those numbers.

[Don R]

 #2.  Me and my street rod buddy were out tearing up the road in my 40 chevy one saturday. He had sold me a set of double hump 350hp heads and it needed a test drive. We went back to my house and I could see my neighbor across the street in his kitchen through the open front door.
  I stopped right where he could see us, revved it to 5K or so and sidestepped the clutch. It didn't move an inch, I exploded the 56 chevy rear end right there. We pushed it into the garage and started shopping for a 9" ford rear end. I got one out of a 57 Edsel. Haven't broken it yet, even with stock axles.
  I was pretty proud of that driveshaft, I had made it from Ford Grenada and a 65 chevy impala shafts one inside the other, rosette welded 18" back and welded at the end of the outer one.

[scottly]

I used to work with a cocky little guy named Glenn Moody. (Imagine the Lucky Charms leprechaun in a 3-piece suit and you will get a mental image of Glenn. ) He once told me a story about a race car he and his older brother had pieced together with an Anglia Gasser chassis and a blown 392 hemi. (This was after Garlits discovered how to make the 426 outperform the 392 by advancing the ignition timing past what would have destroyed a 392, trying to blow the 426 up. After that, 392s were relatively cheap in SoCal.)
Glenn and his brother tow the car to a street in San Bernadino that was a street racing hot spot back in the day. (BTW Don, Ron R, my next door neighbor and mentor came from San Berdoo before moving to Santa Maria) They unload the car from the trailer, push it to the street and fire it up, with Glenn driving. Right after the start of his first stop-light race, the cops show up, red lights blazing and siren blaring. Glenn said "I say to myself, you ain't gonna catch me, I got a blown 392!! Then it threw the blower belt... " He didn't even have a driver's license at the time, but gave the cops his brother's, and when the case went to court it was thrown out because the cops had the wrong brother charged.     

[Don R]

  I just watched that video of Garlits explaining trying to blow up that 426 and it just kept going faster.
  Ivo and Schumacher spoke at the NHRA museum a few years ago on thursday or friday at Pomona. Ivo said having the acting money he had bought a big house in the hills and all of the racers would hang out and party for a week or so after the Winternationals. One year the doorbell rang and it was Big Daddy Don himself. He had taken some vacation time and Pat was home. Ivo warned him there were some drugs being consumed and big said it was OK he wondered what all the fuss was. Might be time to find out.
 Anyway, Garlits has an idetic (sp) memory, he can remember every race, what day it was on what ET he ran and who was in the other lane and every day for his entire life. Except for that week and the one after. Things are a little foggy.

[HondaMan]

During a summer ride between Macomb, IL and [somewhere in] Missouri one fine summer day in 1972, our group got strung out over about 1/2 mile of road on the way home. I was near the rear on my SuperHawk, concerned about the 2 guys behind me [some distance back] on their dirt bikes, as they were maxed out at the 70 MPH we were running and had already heat-stopped once earlier in the day (2 Yammie 250s).

Riding on the white line, I jerk-wiggled around a metal object I saw laying right on it: it was a chain's master link(!). I thought that was weird. About half a minute later, entering a wide turn to the left, I wiggled off the white line again because a chain was laying stretched out on it, dead straight(!). Now I thought this was REALLy wierd. About 100 yards further into the turn I saw a leather-jacketed guy walking along the hiway with helmet in hand: it was the Trophy 500 rider who was ahead of me. I stopped to ask why he was walking, and he explained he was just tooling along and enjoying the day when his tach went redline and the bike slowed down: he parked and discovered his chain was gone!

So, while he walked to the place I pointed back to to pick up his chain, I rode back to find the master link, as the dirt bikers waved and buzzed by. The sideplate was about 100 feet further back from there. We never did find the clip.

Just one of those fine summer day rides...

[Don R]

 I found a clip on the trailer after transporting a project bike. It threw a clip and wasn't even running. Obviously, I had not completed the installation of the 630 to 530 conversion.
 It spit the chain off while I was rolling it into the garage. Only damage was to my confidence.

[Shopdog]

A buddy's dad used to work for the state. All the other crews had been replacing their old trucks with brand new Fords. They were still stuck with an old Dodge with the slant 6. It was underpowered and didn't have a/c. The truck was rough, but still ran fine. After begging the supervisor for a new truck, the answer was something along the lines of "You guys are keeping this truck as long as it's still running". So the guys got together, drained the oil, and drove that truck around the yard. They ran the guts out of that thing till it overheated and stopped running. As soon as it cooled down, they'd fire it right back up and do it again. I guess this went on for quite a while. The ol leaning tower of power just refused to die. One of the guys finally got tired of it, so he hopped in the truck, stomped it, got some speed built up and then threw it up into "park". My buddy's dad said they never did find the driveshaft. 

[Don R]

 I went to a car show where a towing company did a fund raiser called the big 3 blow up. He always brought two cars made by the big three, he cut the belts and drained the water and oil, then set the rpm at 3,000 and timed the inevitable blow up. The money was made by selling time slots for whichever car you thought would last longest. The one that guessed the right car and closest to the time won the money prize.
  I asked the tow co. guy about it he said bet on the mopar and go over a half hour. Even after they die I can always cool them off and drive it back onto the trailer. That year a Toyota died first and a mopar ran 47 minutes. He thought a neglected engine ran longer when the sludge melted and lubricated the motor for a while.

[HondaMan]

In high school, one of my friends had a Dodge Dart with the slant 6 in it. He wasn't a real savvy sort of car owner, so I think that engine was just right for him: one day he was driving out of the city into the countryside with his girlfriend when the Dodge stopped running suddenly from 55 MPH, so they coasted to a stop on the side of the road. After 'parking' awhile they decided to go for a walk and then returned, and the car started: he drove it back home again (about 30 miles). The next day I happened by his house as he was changing his oil: when he pulled the plug only a small dribble happened for a few seconds, about 1/2 quart was it. (It did burn, and leak, oil quite a bit). He drove it another 3 years after that.

About a year later I was working at the bike shop in Pekin, IL when a guy brought in his CL77, complaining that it would only run about 30 minutes at a time and quit, plus he wanted an oil change. After it cooled off I pulled up a drain pan and pulled the plug and...drip, drip. That was it: there was maybe 1 ounce of oil inside. I put in the normal 2 quarts and cleaned the spinner filter, set the points and checked the valves (they were fine), and he rode off happy. I told him to check the oil once in a while. About 4 months later he came in for another oil change: that time it had full oil still inside, but he said he had added "some oil" since the last time he was in. Tough engine!

[Shopdog]

I'm a Ford guy, but this kinda makes me want an old Dodge.

[Don R]

  I was told by an experienced (old) machinist the old Mopars have a high tin and nickel content in the iron, the cylinders often show less wear and when you bore one, the tooling makes a different sound.

[MJL]

I went to a car show where a towing company did a fund raiser called the big 3 blow up. He always brought two cars made by the big three, he cut the belts and drained the water and oil, then set the rpm at 3,000 and timed the inevitable blow up. The money was made by selling time slots for whichever car you thought would last longest.

i went to a show with a similar event, but they only had one car and took bets on how long it would last. This time they had a 4 cylinder Ford Ranger. After about 30 minutes of it running full throttle with no oil someone brought out a nitrous bottle. They gassed the engine but it still refused to die. They shut it down after about 45 minutes.

[Don R]

 You expect a big bang but they usually just slow down gradually and stop.

[Don R]

 In the mid 70's we took a group with Honda's and Kawasaki's to Louisville to see the flat track races. Three guys from our town were racing. One guy showed some real talent but no patience. After a few laps in his feature race he was securely in the middle of the pack. Then it appeared he said F#$% this and dropped a gear. Within two laps he led the field by a half lap but with a couple more to go, his engine expired on the back straight.
 A couple years ago he bored out an 836 project for me, I told him about the trip and his fans, he asked how did I do? I related the story and he said yeah, that sounds like me.
  Like a lot of guys, he had the talent but weed and women got in his way.

[HondaMan]

  Like a lot of guys, he had the talent but weed and women got in his way.

I knew too many like that, too!

[Don R]

  I went to West Jersey Il today to get some tires dismounted. Charlies Cycle Supply. Charlie dismounted the tires off of my Lester mags and 3.5x18 did. Just a cool pic of the counter. I believe they are NOS with used chrome on them. 
 Charlie shared he's been sitting on a 750 RC stroker crank and Goldenrods. He wondered about a big bore cylinder. I referred him to CycleX.
 He rides a Valkyre with 315,000 miles on it, it could be passed off as 15,000. He had a cb185 and a 305 super hawk in for service. Late honda crotch rocket on one lift. Mostly works on quads these days.
  Tanks, you're welcome. Blue has the offset cap. Not a 750.

[Don R]

 I walked past a cb750 engine with the head and cylinder off and a stud ripped the leg of my favorite blue jeans. So I figure WTF, they're still my favorite jeans sew them up. I get out grandma's sewing kit and look in the Sucrets box for a needle. It's full of keys, the keys to my last house's garage doors that I never gave the new owner. A few master lock and undetermined keys but a very well worn Honda T key with no number on it.
  I'm sure it was from the K3 CB750 I sold after we moved here in 1984. I took it outside and tried it in my oldest bikes, no go but it looked just like the key in the K0 nugget bike. Sure enough, it fired it right up.
  The spirit of the K3 lives on. Except the Windjammer, rack, backrest, hooker header, hog rim and crash bars.

[BenelliSEI]

This shot was taken at WaterfordHills, MI. Probably 20 years ago. Great Vintage event that a lot of Canadians attend. Bill Hirst (RIP) brought along his FORD powered Lola Mk.1 and we headed the field all weekend. This corner is called “Big Torque”, coming off the end of the back straight. It was a solid brake tap, but then 4th gear, flat, all the way around. Made for great photos, because my Lotus would lock the RF brake and hoist that wheel, turning in. Then carry it all the way around this long, fast corner, just slowly rotating in mid air. After the Sunday feature (which we won), there was a strange clatter in the LR on the cool off lap.....

Later that week, back in the workshop, I discovered  seven broken spokes in the LR wire wheel, slapping away at the bodywork. Good thing the race ended when it did. Look at the way that loaded wheel is rolling under the car. It was slowly checking out.......

[markmyodb]

One of my friends in High School was lucky to have a 1965 Impala SS, 327/350 with a fourspeed Transmission.  It was a hot car for 18 YO boys to play with. All the "Greasers" hung out at the Avon Parking lot on Weekend evenings setting up races and showing off their wheels.

One Saturday some one loaned him a set of Mickey Thompson cheater slicks that we put on. We started doing laps around the block. first at 15psi, then 10, then 5psi...first time right in front of the group he took it up to about 2500, dumped the clutch.

We did not move much because the Drive shaft broke off at both universal joints, rolled to the curb in front of the people watching.

His dad left it sit in the driveway till he could pay for the repair himself.

What a beautiful car!

[Don R]

 If I remember this story right, the rear of the 65 Impala rear fender had a cast metal cap above the bumper. Fisher Body couldn't get the tooling correct to make the stamped fender work and ran out of time, so they went to plan B. By 1966 they had it figured out and the cast cap is gone.

[Don R]

 In 68 I had a drivers license but was not old enough to be allowed into the pits at 34 raceways. I believe the rule was 18. I was the crew on my brothers 49 ford cadet stock car, we realized too late that the hot flathead V8 even with an Offenhauser intake and 2 Strombergs, Edelbrock heads, a Harmon Collins mag and tube headers had nothing for the 302 GMC straight 6's in the tri five Chevrolets. Rules didn't allow us to run a 300 ford 6 so we were toast. My brother wanted me to drive it on track but I was afraid they would notice me and make me sit with the wives across the track. A fate seeming worse than death.
 I didn't drive it and we ended the season and never went back. I should have driven it. We always beat the fabulous Hudson Hornet, so I may not have finished last.  The only dent he ever put on it was by a clown in a dune buggy before the heat race. 

[Don R]

 Shirley Muldowney was posing for pics on FB with Wild Bill from the Crab fishing TV show Deadliest Catch. There were dozens of crazy posts before she clarified that they just hung out at the races for a while.
  We left Indy one Sunday and stopped at a popular BBQ place in Brownsburg on the way home, Shirley was eating there by herself and there was a table near her with kids running around and under the table and screaming. I washed my hands and when I came back it was quiet and my buddy was splitting a gut trying not to laugh. I asked what happened, Shirley had stood up and told the parents and kids they were just a bunch of brats! Too bad I missed that.

[Don R]

 The disc brake tech talk got me thinking of the front engine dragster I drove in 89. I asked around if anyone remembered it running and a local guy (now a pro stock chassis builder) remembered racing him a few times. He said the guy used the parachute every pass so be wary of the brakes.
 I checked and the pedal was very hard to push, I needed a gorilla leg to stop it. The pedal ratio from the pedal to pivot to M/C was 2 to1. We went to the junkyard and got a pedal arm from a rambler stick shift car. I was able to make the ratio 6 or 7 to 1 with a forklift master cylinder and it stopped great after that. I only went about 130 in it but it was better getting stopped.

[Don R]

 1989 my buddy and I bought a front engine dragster and took it to Memphis to the NDRA Muddy Water Nationals. Just by luck we made it into the final on Sunday, met a few famous drag race legends (Dyno Don, Arnie Beswick who we already knew, KS Pittman and a family with a mustang funny car. The Meadors family. Claudie liked our car and while we were admiring theirs, we struck up a friendship. Claudie was coaching me on my driving until we got beat in the final.
 Fast forward twenty years or so Claudie had moved to a FED top fueler and recently passed away. His family was doing a memorial tour with the car and did a cacklefest start-up that they held a charity fundraiser raffle for.
   I introduced us and of course they didn't remember the race. I described their funny car and remembered it had a cracked head and Claudie would pull the plug and spin the water out of the cylinder every pass. They did remember that and were amazed with my description of the car. The Mom even went to the trailer and brought us each a bottle of real Texas Dr. Pepper made with cane sugar.
   My race car partner and I bought a bunch of tickets and "somehow" I won the chance to sit in the car during the startup. They loaded it with a little more nitro than usual and halfway through I took off the mask and sat there with tears in my eyes. From the Nitro fumes of course.

[Don R]

 During the 1989 nostalgia race mentioned above we were visiting KS Pittman the famous 40 Willys gasser driver and telling Cordova Dragway stories. The crew had driven KS's car to the starting line and warmed it up for his race with Arnie Beswick.
 A kid came running out of breath and said KS!, KS! they need you at the car!!  KS turned and said hey kid, can't you see I'm talking to these guys? And continued his story. Beswick was doing burnouts, KS looked at the starting line after a bit and asked if we would be around a while so he could visit some more. Of course we said yes and he said I'll be right back, there's something I gotta do.
 I was offered the chance to race KS or Beswick but the early/early Olds rear end in our car was throwing out oil onto inside of the tires and howling like a banshee. Since my boy parts were against the safety plate shielding the ring gear when I was in it, I declined to drive again. I shoulda went for it.  No guts no glory.

[BenelliSEI]

In 1970 I went to th CASC Racing School at Harewoord Acres, Ontario Canada. It was a converted WW11 pilot training centre. Basically a large triangle of air strips, with some chicanes made of hay bales. My best friend Jeff and I bought a 1959 Sadler  (front engine) Formula Junior for $500, hooked the trailer to my Dad’s ‘63 Buick wagon (no brakes) and off we went.....

The car (a single seater that probably weighed less than 800lbs.) was a hoot to drive, but it just wouldn’t go around the two left hand corners on the track. Took us half a day to realize the RR, ancient Dunlop Racing tire had no air in it...... The side walls were as hard as a rock, and with so little weight, they stood up straight! 20 minutes with a bicycle pump and what an improvement. I look at 16 year olds today and wonder at the shear ignorance we must have displayed. No video games, we just dove in. Somehow we survived, and this year is Season 53!

Found a picture of one, just like ours. We ran on stock, steel wheels. Mags were a real luxury in 1970.

[Don R]

  A friend opened a diesel shop and has done well business wise. He has a side business of street Rods/machines and recently bought a 33 willys coupe. I saw the picture of it in face book and someone mentioned it was formerly white.
  I realized I had the Hot Rod mag centerfold of that car on my garage wall. It was built by lil' John Buttera for Joe Hrudka that owned Mr. Gasket. Since then Pinkys hot rods, Chip Foose and a few other big names have worked on it. Jesse James was supposed to have bought it but never showed up with the money.
  It's amazing, the suspension is all handmade billet, the wheels bolt on from the back sides. The brakes are inboard, quick change rear end, everything under it is billet, custom oil pan, rocker covers, water pump, front cover, mounts, 4 speed trans, pedals etc the hood is power as is the trunk.
  Joe doesn't think he can afford to keep it long term but I thought that about my sandcast too.

[Don R]

 My car show, a friends wife made the video.

  That first car belonged to a local hot rod hero, he built a few cars for other guys over the years but didn't live long enough to get this one done. This builder did it all himself. He built everything except the interior. 392 hemi on efi.

 The black cherry 40 chevy with flames is mine. I got it in 1973 and built it in the early 90's. The yellow 32 plymouth sedan is the one I welded the steel roof into.
  There is a 2020 Shelby GT in there that has the 6.2 engine, blown etc. It has coolers on the rear axle and manual trans, it was designed to go 200 mph as long as possible. Bought by a dealer, blown up by same dealer. Too costly to repair to warranty specs so he sold it to my buddy. They welded up the block, got a crank and carillos to solve the weak link and put it all back to better than new specs. Will spin tires at 70mph in 5th gear.

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