Hot Rods Dare to be different - 63 Scout

Hey Dave...it was great hanging with you, Paul, Ralph Megan et al for the weekend...and it was a pleasure to help out and be part of "the story" to get you back on the track and able to run. While "the Champ"/Gary doesn't usually hang around the hamb...I know he too had a great time hanging, helping and poking around in the name of fun. Good luck and great passes for the rest of the year. Tim (aka anothercarguy)

 

It was great to meet you and share a pit space with the Misko clan. Thanks for the assistance and calm guidance.
I really think the combination has come together. That last run was the textbook pass I was looking for 2 years. It felt that all I would have needed to do for another run was add fuel. It also showed me it could idle for an extended period of time which means no "real" need for a support vehicle. The fun part is the axle repair - done at the event - was probably a cheaper option then if it had been done once I got home. It actually handles better now than ever before.

 

that's all in a day's work for a Drag Week car. Just sayin'

 

Here is my annual post Meltdown summary. Since I've already posted on the wheel stand and axle thrash I'll kind of just skip past all that.

Once again the MDA put on a well planned and well executed hugely successful event. Their commitment to this event is the foundation to my commitment to attend it every year and promote others to experience it at least once.

This year we went down with 4 cars from Winnipeg and a rather large entourage of supporting characters. "The Champ"- Gary Misko came with his 39 Willys rod as well as his family, Kim, Heather and Kaitie. He was joined by his brother Tim and wife Hollie. Larry Arnold brought his just finished blown injected alcohol burning vintage style 23 T altered. His support group was his cousin Kieth and Gary Misko's co-worker, Don. My brother Paul had the Prefect and assigned driving duties to his daughter Megan. Megan's boyfriend Ryan tagged along and lent us his truck to tow the Prefect. Of course I had the Scout and my co-driver, room mate, pit support was Ralph Thomas.

This year we left earlier than previous years and did an over night in Eau Claire Wisconsin. Rolling into the event after a decent sleep, a shower and a tooth brush was a wonderful thing. I'm pretty sure this will be the plan going forward. We got to the track about 1:30 Thursday and the first thing we realized was about 200 racers were already there. In the registration line they handed us the goodie bag. Ralph pulled out the event beer and immediately showed it to me. The event beer had the Scout prominently featured on the label - Scout - Canadian Stout. I'm pretty sure I held up the line for another 10 minutes. What and honor and privilege. I could have left right then and the trip would have been worth it. When I finally got moving the parking folks asked me if it was ok if they parked us on the grass - next to Mike Belina. Are you kidding ?? One of the best guys ever as our neighbor... you bet !! We parked and got settled then headed into town to check in, shower and have our traditional Texas Road House steak dinner to kick off the weekend. My friend Catherine Koopman and her niece, Ireland, checked in as we got back to the hotel and it was lights out by 9:30.

Friday started out cool and comfortable. 400+ racers were now in attendance, the car show was in full swing as was the swap meet. There was also an inordinate number of oil downs, which backed up the staging lanes and made them a nightmare. The MDA folks jumped in to manage it but it was a cluster.

The Prefect ran a 10.54, Gary's rod went 13.99 (ish) and Larry had some tuning issues with the Altered and had a sub par 10 - something pass. This is where the Scout crushed the front axle. One of the positives from the Scout damage is I got to actually watch the show for a bit. Friday night saw the Prefect make some more passes and I got to socialized with Mike.

Saturday - Hot and very heavy air (Slow) I was consumed with the Scout repairs. Larry got the tune up right and made 2 passes that saw him do epic burnouts and run an early shut off 9.08 and a decent full pass 8.88. Larry Arnold had arrived at Meltdown... The Prefect's new nick name is the slot car... it just keeps going around making laps. Paul went 10.45 and Megan ran a 10.27 as it started to cool down.

Once again Saturday had a number of long delays. Not the least was Brian Kholmann's awesome 31 Chrysler blown injected 392 hemi powered Drag Week machine that switches from gas for the street to nitro for the track. He had a barrel valve failure that stuffed him into the center guardrail tearing off the left front suspension. I suspect he'll be up a running again shortly. I wandered over to say hello and inspect the damage. I simply handed him a 6 pack of warm beer - Brian immediately opened one and half killed it... guess he needed it

Some of the weekend highlights included the AA/ Supercharged gassers who put on a great show. The Nostalgia Super Stock group who committed to show up - and - replaced their modern wheels with event correct rolling stock. (expensive commitment) Only one of the 2 promised fuel Altereds showed up. The Iron Mistress was ridiculously loud and violent. Unfortunately it broke on the first run and never came back. Rocky Phillips and Joe Higginbothem came all the way from California. Joe ran laps with his freshly built Thunderbird gasser - very cool and Rocky made a bunch of passes with his Evil Twin dragster. Ed Iskendarian and Bones Balogh were once again the guests of honor and I had some talk time with the Cam Father when Ron leak swung him by to meet the Canadian guy with the Scout. Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick was also on site. The static display cars were ridiculously cool. There were also a 1/2 dozen 4 speed based gassers (Current and ex- SE Gasser alumni) running banzai low 9 / high 8 second passes. There may have been more 8 and 9 second door-slammer passes this year than all the years previous - combined. The folks are very serious about putting on a show

Paul spent about 1/2 an hour talking to a freelance guy from Roadkill Magazine and a guy from Bangshift got the pictures and story from the axle thrash

At 5 pm we were called to the Great Lakes Gasser / Nostalgia Gasser meeting and we were paired up. Once again I got Brandon Beach and that nasty Beach Family 58 Chevy that kicked my ass 2 years ago. His brother kicked my ass last year... Leaving Dad as the only racing family member who hasn't scored a victory over my hapless Scout...

The Pin-up girl event went off at 6:30. The Misko girls, Katie and Heather got totally hosed in the voting (My opinion of course). They looked absolutely fantastic and interviewed very well. The opening ceremonies commenced immediately after. This year the Canadian Flag was nowhere to be found so, the Canadians graciously bowed out of the honor guard - no offense was taken - because - well - we're Canadian.

Around 8pm the night racing got started. I got some revenge on the Beach Family 58. I had a terrible burnout but still managed to hook really well. I cut a better light, ran closer to 10.00 index (10.13 to a 10.48) and I got my first round win and first points for the GLG point tally. The Misko girls acted as my back-up girls. They did a fantastic job and looked great. Next time I won't screw up the burnout and hopefully I'll have learned to make a long rolling smoke show to let them show off their BUG skills a bit better.

Megan red lit during her match up but ran a good low 10 second pass. Larry's altered fell way off pace with a 9.65. The GLG were rounding up volunteers for a second pass during the evening show. Paul put the Prefect back in line for a late night pass but I decided to rest on my laurels and sit in the stands to watch the show.

It should be noted here that Paul put working lights into the Prefect just so he could run during the night event. I think that was very cool...

The Scout's pass was what I had been looking for for 2 years. It proved it could idle for an extended period of time, I could launch it under control. It handled great during the pass. When I stepped off the gas the rpms dropped as they should. It didn't load up idling back to the pits. We broke nothing and nothing was leaking. I really felt like all I would need to do to make another pass would be to add fuel. For the first time since the alcohol / injection conversion I feel I could run laps and make passes. For the first time since I added the blower (4 years), I feel like I could turn some fast numbers and raise a few eyebrows. Not really the goal, just nice to know it could be done.

The best parts of the weekend was the MDA effort to put on a fantastic event, The team effort to put the Scout back on the track, Mike Belina's hospitality, John Denki's generosity and the quality visit we had over a few Canadian beverages. The MDA really showed their appreciation and respect not only with the beer bottle tribute but also the Meltdown Award for the axle effort... I was emotional over it. I made sure the usual folks got Canadian beer. Mike and John got a lot, but I also made sure the Panneton Brothers had some, Phil and Dee from Gasser Wars Magazine as well as a few of the MDA folks. I also walked a 6 pack over to the KamiCrosley crew - sort of an unofficial "coolest car" award.

There was a nasty storm overnight. After a great breakfast at the Sunrise diner in Byron we arrived at the track to find them prepping to make runs but our pit area was a bit damp and soggy. As usual the number of racers had dropped from 500+ to less than 100. We could have run laps with little wait time but we decided not to make a pass.

One of the few low points of this weekend was I didn't get to say hello to a lot of folks I wanted to see,. Folks like Jim Forbes, Rocky Phillips, Norb and others, so I spent some time making my rounds and trying to catch up to the folks that might still be there. I had a great talk with Rocky Phillips and we threw T-Shirts at each other. Next time I see him I must get to sit in that ridiculously cool twin engine monstrosity... My brother and his crew showed up at 11am and we all started packing up to leave. Larry got a head start with his rig and some loose instructions voiced to meet him in Tomah Wisconsin for dinner at the Ground Round. By the time Paul addressed a wiring issue and I finished my rounds it was 1 (ish) Fuel at the Road Ranger and by 2pm we were on the road with a vengeance to get home. - or at least to Fargo - then home... or something

The trip home was easy. We did meet with Larry's group in Tomah but that was with the guys walking out of the restaurant and our rigs pulling in for fuel. Larry once again got a head start and there were more loose arrangements to stop in Fargo... We settled for Culver's and Subway for a travelling dinner and headed out. Somewhere along the way we passed Larry. We pulled into Fargo at about 11:30 for the night with Larry fast following about 30 minutes later. The crew had plans to stay and shop in Fargo and since I turn off before Winnipeg and Ralph's truck is at Paul's shop, I needed to put Ralph into Paul's group. So in the morning I was up early, showered and out the door. There were no issues at the border and I was home safely by 11:30 am.

That was it for me - Meltdown 8 was officially in the books.

The weekend for me was pretty wild roller coaster of emotions ... I was happy to be there, I was blown away by the beer bottle and then I crushed the race car - but still happy I made the magazines... then the big thrash effort to rebuild. More tributes from the MDA and a huge outreach from the other racers looking to help. But I was also disappointed I only made 1 pass, and once again me screwing with the Scout meant I missed the people and the show. But in the end - that last pass was a real fairy tale ending to a weird but incredibly satisfying weekend.

30 hour round trip, 1 full pass... best weekend ever

 

Katie and Heather Misko

 

Wow!!!! 3 wheels off the ground!! That's amazing. Never saw that before.

 

I don't recommend it.

This is the 1st pass at the same event - last year - Meltdown 7
Had a better result with the landing on this one



And this Year: - Meltdown 8
Maybe it's time to try something different ...

 

I know how you could keep the front end on the ground. Put a 392 in it. The International version.

 

A blown IH 392 would be epic. This 345 looks like it makes some good snort on the dyno. You already have the blower, I have a good 345 and am just a quick 2 hrs south of Winnipeg.......Hell, I could probably even be talked into delivering it.......

 

And they come with a factory gear drive.

 

That blown 345 IH made 432 hp and some good torque with more to come I would guess. The cool factor would be very high but it's also a seriously heavy motor ... which... now that I think about it, might keep the front end down.

 

uh...yeah...that's the idea!

 

The canadian beer was fantastic. Thanks

 

Even better when it's cold... can't fault the concept that "you needed one !!"

 

Glad it worked out..... all the stars were aligned

Huge thanks to the guys that brought the welders and grinders and that plasma cutter to the track

With out them all the parts and tools are just dust collectors






Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Those are great pics of the work in progress. The fix would never have happened without the Bessing Welding / Welder's Supply folks, Bill from WAC Customs and the racers and friends who helped and offered to help. My obsession with being prepared also passed the trial by fire. I had everything I needed in the trailer ... well ... except the axle, welder, wood for the jack stands, grease gun... talent ... The grease gun and wood for the jack stands have been corrected

Thanks for the pics.

 

Saxxon,...great effort on your part and all involved,...ps, time to change your signature.

 

I was trying to figure out how to say something about this. But the. Camera is still needed.....

 

Now that the Meltdown event is over (until the next one ....) I was asked - "what's next" - and to my great surprise - I didn't have an answer.

All focus has been on the Meltdown. I know the Fall Fall Out is in the plan but that's not until the end of Sept and likely will be the last event for the season... I had planned to attend the August Long Weekend Test n Tune day but the Gimli track is now loading that day up with a Tuner event, a make-up day for the brackets bombers and they repaved the 1st 250 ft of the track. (2nd shot at it since they messed up the 1st attempt - hence the need to run Saturday) The last thing I want is a questionable surface and to be a second thought for running between the points event and the tuners. Hmmm... Altona Airport Drags are coming up Aug 19/20 (Holy crap it's August already !!) but we booked a night to watch WoO Sprint Car racing in Grand Forks Aug 18 ... maybe just Sunday in Altona then. Sept Long Weekend in Gimli is still a distinct possibility - until I forget about it and book something on top of that date as well.

So here is the dilemma... For the first time in years the Scout is running well, it's not broken and for all intensive purposes - it's ready to go. There is a huge need / desire to start tweaking the suspension to get those expensive photo friendly wheel stands under control and maybe - just maybe - use some of the power all bottled up inside of that Brazier Race and Machine engine. The problem is I'm already running out of time for events and track time ...

 

So my need to start adjusting the suspensions on the Scout is being complicated by 3 things

1. Track time to make the adjustments and test
2. My total lack of knowledge in this area
3. The total Cluster F* that is the internet - and the conflicting opinions, information an misinformation contained there-in

My question was simple... to reduce the hit off the line - and therefore limit the violence of the wheel stands - do I lower or raise the front attachment point of the ladder bars... There are secondary questions such as - pinion angle, shock settings etc but the starting point will be the ;ladder bars - and make 1 adjustment at a time with video logs of the pass for assessment. As per my previous comment - trying to find that answer on the internet was a total waste of time. The suspension guys want money for those answers, the smart guys won't answer the question in simple layman terms and the other "smart" guys have conflicting opinions ... some I'm convinced are posting conflicting answers just to be funny.

I reached out to a trusted source in Ric Panneton... who gave me a simple and direct answer that made sense. We'll start from there and see what happens... God help us all if I can start putting the power to the ground and push the vehicle forward in an efficient and orderly (quick) manner - rather than lift the front of it up, dropping it from a height that tends to break parts and make magazine coverage...

 

What did Ric have to say?

 

Its going to be tricky with a short wheelbase and ladder bars. Bars in the lowest hole. Front shocks tighter. Mabe even some weight up front. With ladder bars you have limited options. I would consider a four link this winter.

 

Great write-up. Sorry I didn't get to see you this year. Some issues came up and I couldn't make the trip to Byron. My experience with the Chevy II tells me that raising the front ladder bar attachment point lessens the front end lift. Also, I use a 40 pound ballast bar right behind the front bumper. Hope to see you next year at the Meltdown!


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Hey John:
Really disappointed you couldn't attend Meltdown. Saying hello and watching you run is one of the highlights of the weekend. I'll be Pre-Registered for Meltdown 9 less than a second after they open the registration window.

 

In the name of Canada - we hereby annex this lake from the United States of America... from this day forward, let it be known as "Lake Kokanee" (They tell me the name comes from an aboriginal dialect which means - Better Beer)

One racer actually coughed up a dollar to cross over - which gave us a laugh

 

I absolutely love some of the pictures that are starting to emerge from the big name groups. The first 2 are from Bangshift and the last is from the North American Gasser album.. They show me peacefully parked after the violent launch and overly "harsh" landing. They really show the damage inflected to the wheel alignment up front. Thank you to the Byron track crew for providing the alternative power to get my junk off of their track.

That side shot really show just how short the Scout is...and it's showing just how grey I'm getting and just how -not slimming- those racing suits can be

 

It looked pretty bad from the stands, too.... (the car, not you!)