hey guys just wanted to let you all know how great it is to see this thread come back to life it's beginning to stir up some great memories of days gone by.
Heading to Bowling Green on thursday night.Cant wait to see all the old racing iron in action.Hope to have the Nova Jr stocker done for next years race.Going to meet up with Tim and the "Huslin Hoosier" 57 sedan del.Weather looks great.Cooler than normal.
Does anybody remember the first names of the Bracket Classes at your Track. In 1975 we had * 0.00 to 9.89........'Pro-Race' * 9.90...................'Pro-Gas' * 10.90.................'Super-Comp' * 11.00 to 12.99.....'Heavy * 13.00 to 14.99.....'Super Street' * 15.00 and up.......'Street' OH, it was 'BAD'.............
Back in the early bracket days up here in the mountains we weren't sophisticated enough to have classes. You ran in your "bracket" 8s ran 8s, 9s ran 9s, 10s ran 10s and ect.. Then the winners of each bracket would run eliminations to see who won top money. You could win a little money or prizes for winning your bracket and then have a chance at more in eliminations. It was much more fun running someone in you time range in the beginning and I think more fun for those watching. The most seperation at the start was 0.99 instead of the several seconds you see today. I would have prefered to heads up race but I was/am like most folks, I just didn't/don't have the money to look for that extra .001.
Back in the 70's, the brackets at our local 1/8 mile track were 0-7.49 Super Pro) 7.50-8.49 (Pro) 8.50-9.99 (Heavy) and 10.00 & up (Street). --- Steve ---
The most 'popular' bracket for our track was 'Heavy' {11.00 to 12.99}. The 'entrance money' for that bracket was $15.00 back in 1975. It was always filled with a full bracket of '64 Cars'. The 'Heavy' Bracket Winner would get $300 and a 3 Foot Trophy, with a Winner Decal, The Runner-Up $150 and 2 Foot Trophy, with a Runner-Up Decal. The 'Semi-Finals Losers' {Final Four} got $50 plus a 'Free Entrance Fee Pass' for the following Sunday Race Event along with a 'Bracket Semi-Final Decal'. That part of the $$ was decent.
========================================== That 65 GTO looks a bit famililar. I grew up in the Passaic park area..My father had a Chevron Station('65-77) across from Friendly Ice Cream on Main Ave. We used too have a bunch of different cars we raced and and worked on. I often was impressed by the rods that were in front of Kassa's gas station on Brook ave. , back in the day.
I had a 64 GTO 4-speed that I broke out everytime on the trophy run. It had small back tires & the et's would vary alot.so I always put a faster time then what I got during trials & still would breakout. Then I took my mom's 68 Ford wagon w/a 390 2-bbl auto & won a couple of x with it.Real consistant would even break the tires loose. this was back in 1970
Always felt that once you went in the 11's, it was pretty difficult to be consistent with a 4-Speed. I had a {+ or -}.25 difference, on a regular-basis with my 68' Barracuda 340 in SS/I in 1975. 11.65 to 11.90
I wonder if now with better tires, you could keep the sweep closer. Not to mention the trans are better now etc... If you could really launch, then row through the gears you may be able to hold a tighter range? Hell, on street tires (wide whites) I cant do better with an auto trans...
Improvements in clutch technology as well as the adoption of aftermarket transmissions in Stock Eliminator have improved the consistency of those cars dramatically. Stick class drivers have won many World Championships and a very impressive percentage of national events over the years. Just a few examples: Jim Waldo (two-time World Champ) Jim Hughes (two-time World Champ) Kevin Helms (three-time World Champ) Don Keen (Champ) John Calvert (Champ) Alan Peters (I think, two-time Champ. For sure, once)
Don't forget Truman Fields', NATIONALS win, and many more national and divisional wins, also 2 was a two in a row IHRA national champ 82-83.
I recall quite a few stick shift Junior Stockers having a bog down in first gear a few feet off the line which seemed to affect thier consistency no matter how good they were on the clutch and shifter. I assumed the oem carbs in their classes didn't have a big enough accelerator pump, because my 4 speed bracket car with an aftermarket Holley didn't have that problem. ---- Steve ---
The restrictive stock carburetors were a factor as were camshafts that met factory duration/overlap and stock valve spring pressure requirements . The limitations imposed by those rules on a Junior Stock Eliminator engine of any make were severe, particularly in a heavy car.
I don't recall any low class automatic cars having the bog down dip in first gear. I suppose the converter may have kept the rev's up enough to avoid that? Maybe some of you carb expert types would know. --- Steve ---
For Pontiac people. Someone should save this one. http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/3919366960.html I have nothing to do with the seller. I'd just hate to see it go to a flipper for the parts. Verne
Too much base pressure in the pressure plate. I know of current stocker stick cars that have 12-15 lbs total in the entire assembly including the flywheel, and base pressures as little as 250-300lbs with rest being made up in counterweight & RPM. Back in the day, I believe 2500-3500 lb. Pressure plates were pretty common. This is why you had to run heavy flywheels, too try and overcome all that clamping pressure especially the little engines with small strokes (50-60lb flywheels + the PP plate & disc). If you watch early Pro Stock video,(70-73ish), looks like everyone was trying for controlled wheel spin on the starting line, and you can hear plenty of disc slip in the shifts. Today with a proper setup you won't see a big rpm drop when you let go of the clutch pedal.
It's true that the old Schieffer Rev-Loc diaphragm was either in or out!. The Borg and Beck style was easier on parts, but harder on the linkage and mount points. Later, the Long style with counterweights started to become popular , but without the valve springs to go with it, I found it hard to work with. My friend (and team mate) the late, great Joe DeLorenzo tried one of the early slipper type clutches in his SBC S/S car. He told us the car ran the same numbers, but that he couldn't cut a light with it anymore...Out it came, and in went the old Rev-Loc! I often wonder how that wouldn't be a factor with the modern high tech, light weight clutches and flywheels.
The Jalopy Journal
