I've had a minor setback on the start of my project....I have some issues with my pickup that need to be resolved. A week or so will see that taken care of, and I'll get things rolling. However, it's given me some time to think, and well, I just can't do things the "conventional" way. I guess I'm just hard wired to be different. I have a circle track background, and one thing we always looked for in the rules was the so called "unfair advantage". The trick was not to be concerned with the things they said you could do, but rather to determin all the things they DIDN'T say you COULDN'T do. Well, so goes the HA/GR rules. As I've pointed out before on this forum, there are some giant loopholes in these rules, and I have yet to encounter anyone who seems too concerned about it. The old "Don't worry, just build it to the "Spirit of the Bug" seems to be the standard answer. Okay, then..... Moparsled, Old 6 Rodder, and 64 Dodge 440 seem to be the ones presently daring to be different. That's why I'm so partial to these three cars. They aren't quite like the others, and while I realize there are really no two Hamb cars alike, these three stand out. Well, I feel the need to up the ante a little bit. The afore mentioned cars, while different, still tend to think fore and aft (so to speak). I'm leaning toward thinking left and right, and up and down, concerning my design. Spirit of the Bug? You bet it is! My car will be built in the very same spirit as all the dragster pioneers. There won't be a major piece on the car that is less than 47 years old, aside from the steel used for the ch***is, of course. It will be constructed of stuff I've found lying around for cheap, and it will be unlike anything seen so far on this forum. It will be a little heavier than other cars, but the extra weight will be in an advantagious location. Some of you folks will see the result and say "F--king COOL!" I imagine others will say "That boy just ain't quite right in the head". Either way, I will be complimented. One thing I am certain about.....This will without a doubt be the most fun I've ever had building a race car, and this one will be number 13, and my first Drag Racer. I am wound up tight right now!!!!
BRING IT!!!! experimentation WAS the times. And, while I strongly feel that we AREN'T trying to do anything new or innovative here, sometimes it's difficult to "unlearn" our collective drag racing past just enough to produce a machine the likes of which no one remembers ever seeing. I'll run ya!
As I understand the Bug was a stipped down frame that was used as a vehicle to run around an orchard in Cal. A full race flathead was put in it and a dragster was born. I believe I read that it went about 109 mph. You had some ratty looking cars and some fine looking cars all running at the same time period. There was lots of different ideas about drive trains to multiple engines. I even saw a dragster with a compressed air bottle instead of a supercharger run at Lions. That was stopped by Mickey Thompson because he said a dragster running down the strip with a bottle of air at 2000 lbs was to dangerious. Most of the junk was stopped from running as was the Bug in short order because it was just to unsafe. By 1956 there was a short rule list about rollbars etc. Every person ran in a cl***, dragster cl*** was 4 banger or X cl*** then C cl***, B cl*** and A cl***. Believe you me you tried to go as fast as those restrictions would allow. As Smokey Yunick said the rules didn't say you couldn't do that. So the rules began to grow. We have restrictions to level the playing field and the tires are the biggest restriction because if you begin to make horsepower the tires just blow away. I am and always have been a racer, I will always try to go as fast as I can and try to get just a little more from my engine. I love to tinker with carbs, valve train, etc to see if there is another bit of power lurking somewhere. It doesn't matter if I race someone or myself I enjoy the challenge. I do like to see a lot of cars to race and it certainly isn't the end of the world if I don't win, there is always another race. Build your car to enjoy, not what everyone else is running. Roy
Old 6, Moparsled, 348 Chevy.........THANK YOU!!!!!!! I feel better already. My goal is not to build the first 6 second Hambster, but rather to build a fun and different mousetrap. Call me eccentric, silly, or just plain brain damaged (probably the closest explanation), but if this can't be fun, why bother? My idea will improve traction and get me off the line a little better than most, but that will be offset by having to push the extra weight at the big end. Mostly, I just have the need to be odd....LOL!
My firm belief is that if ya ain't having fun, what the hell are ya doing it for? The whole purpose of this cl*** as I see it, is to keep old style hotrodders ingenuity alive, building and racing cars with the backyard engineering spirit that the sport was born from. It seems like some folks just don't understand the idea of having few rules and building the way you want rather than having everything planned out and locked in stone. The whole idea of dragsters in the beginning was there basically were no rules.......build your ideas and prove or disprove them on the track. Our main limiting factors are the engines being of proper vintage design, manual transmissions to keep the driver in the equation and the big equalizer of the 6" bias ply treaded rear tires. As far as for being "out of the box", most of us are, or we wouldn't even be considering this cl*** and it's off the wall concept Have fun with your build, I'm looking forward to seeing it progress.
Thinking outside the box is great! Building what you want with an innovative design is creativity in action. The highest form of fabrication fun. Ya have to keep in mind you need a place to race your creation. Build on!
nOrMal? iSsUeS? I am normal, it's every one else who's got the issues..... reality is only a perception (although history is fact) Cheers, Drewfus
The Jalopy Journal
