Haven' t posted in awhile, we have had a good summer running our Nostalgia Altered, ran a 9.41 yesterday at Cecil County, car is working good
Or maybe it was a match race deal (without too many rules) as Densham quite often ran with the gassers in So Cal before building his first funny car (a Pinto) Roo
Every year, after 1967, "street class" rules got more and more away from what a street car actually is. When I was running, a street roadster had to be a street legal, registered vehicle, have an electrical system with working lights, have front wheel brakes, full exhaust system, with mufflers, stock frame rails, 10% max. engine set back, and have the same wheelbase as what ever make it was when it was stock. In other words, a car you could drive to and from the track. My RPU met every one of those requirements all the time it was raced. At the end of the '67 season NHRA drastically changed the rules. The class B weight was dropped from 8lbs. per cu.in. to 7, and tube frames became legal. So, my street roadster was rendered uncompetitive over night. I refused to destroy the car, so it retired on top. If you want to talk to someone who didn't worry much about the rule book, look up Hugh Tucker. He was very lucky a stock '29 Chevy roadster never parked beside his roadster.
Interesting shot. I saw that car at Pomona where this shot was taken, but did not go up close. I had a long lens on my camera..! I didn't notice the "Sissy Bars" as part of the roll cage. An Altered Roadster that I started to build many years back (had to sell it at about 90% complete), and while they were not as tall, I had asked that the chassis builder that was modifying my frame for "me" vs. the last owner...called them "sissy bars". I told him "hey, I like my knees and thighs right where they are..!" Mike
The chassis builder that did my avatar car puts knee bars on all his altered builds. If you get up twirling on a guard rail you'll have a better chance of retaining your knee caps. Mike, funny, those bars were the first thing I noticed when I saw that photo and I thought, "Oh, that's a contemporary picture of a nostalgic altered." While some will whine that the car no longer looks "old" I feel empathy for the driver who may need such safety features some day and I'm OK with that.
What...you didn't read "The Frenchtown Flyers" post ? He spelled it out perfectly in his first paragraph..! Mike
I am not really sure what that car is trying to be. I saw it at the Nitro Revival at Laguna Seca last year where the team had a lot of problems getting it to start and run right. It definitely would not pass tech as a race car with the wing mount structure and the roll cage configuration appears to be far from being SFI legal as the front hoop is mounted to that upper "sissy bar"structure rather than the top frame rail . Roo
Mike VV, Sorry to be so stupid. In your post you commented on the 'sissy bars' being a part of the roll cage. I understood that to mean the cage you can see through the window. FF talked directly about a 'knee bar' which I thought was a cross tube above your legs to keep them down in a rollover. I will probably see him at Milan this weekend and ask him to show me what he meant.
Gearhead QCE, Yep, I'll be at Milan Nostalgia Drags this weekend running The Last Logghe altered and hope you stop by. My avatar car has a bar on each side of the top rail that protrudes above the plane of my knee caps so in a tumble the bars will contact something solid before my knees. (it has certified to 7.50). Alas, The Last Logghe does not have those bars.
Last sentence...that is sounding pretty scary..! Especially for a FA. I would not have paid for or taken that chassis home in that condition. Glad I didn't look too close at the car at Pomona. I would have had to stick my foot in my mouth and ask a few pointed questions to someone..! Mike
To quote Hamlet, "Aye, therein lies the rub." Anyone involved in the rebirth or historic preservation of an old race car - or a replica - must face the question of whether to make as accurate a representation as possible or update it to more current safety standards if it is to be driven. Some prefer to make them historically correct, which has led to the popularity of today's "cackle cars" or just static display pieces. Others endeavor to field a car to race while trying to maintain the look of a period correct car as much as possible. I wrestled with this very question when I rebuilt The Last Logghe altered roadster after I crashed it in 2000. [yep, I'm the original and sole owner of this fully documented historically significant car.] I even started a thread to help me decide what to do: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-last-logghe-altered-restore-it-or-race-it.352899/ In the end I decided to rebuild it and update it so I could continue to occasionally race it. I got some flak from purists. But I took inspiration from this other quote, “A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.” — John A. Shedd. and updated portions of it.
FF, Greg is it? For what it's worth I think you did the right thing, upgraded and racing it. And thanks for the pictures of the bars, I see what you were talking about now.
At Nitro Revival ll the guys with the Fiat were as lost as last year's easter egg regarding getting the car fired up and running. I think that they eventually got some help from some of the other altered guys who were there. The wing struts are mounted to the cage which is a big no-no unless the car has the cage shields. As for the cage structure, it in no way resembles anything in the SFI spec which is pretty specific in regards to what tubes are required where. Like you Mike, I was afraid to get too close to the car in case I was asked to voice an opinion as that would have not been good. Roo
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