The Horrible is on hold.....

The Drags were very interesting. And enlightening.
I am in total awe of the cars I saw. So much so that I doubt I will continue with my current build.
My reasons:
1. There is no one else within 300 miles with an HA/GR car to run against.
2. There is no “outlaw” track locally to run in brackets or any in other cl***.
3. The initiative to get NHRA approval to run at sanctioned tracks seems to be dead.
4. I cannot afford to spend 10K on an engine/****** combo to be compe***ive.
5. After seeing the cars up close and taking 2 days to re-look at mine I find that I will be at 200-300 pounds weight disadvantage PLUS the horsepower disadvantage I’m under now. (Design by committee problem.) This means to win I’ll need a red-light or a compe***or to fail. That’s not the mentality I want to race under.
6. The horsepower guys have all ready started the lobbying for better tires and automatics. Next will be 4 barrels. I’m sure they will continue until these rules get folded in.
7. To be truly compe***ive there needs to be a $$$$ limit (impractical), a Horsepower limit (unenforceable), and the existing rules need to be enforced.
8. When I first heard about the cl*** I was JUICED. Old school racing where the DRIVER mattered. I was stoked because I missed racing. That’s not where this cl*** seems headed.
9. I have a choice….build a race car I can afford to run 2-3 weekends a year or change the direction and turn the build into a street car I can drive every day.
10. I still am not seeing Ryan ACTIVELY SUPPORT the cl***. I tried to get some time with him during the Drags to scope his views on this and a couple of other issues, but he’s a VERY busy man and it’s too short of a weekend. This I understand and so I didn’t push.
11. There is no “Czar” in charge of interpreting, clarifying and enforcing the rules. In a way that’s cool, but the big $$$$ are in the game all ready even tho everyone thought they would not be.
12. I had hoped when I read the rules the first time that a car could be compe***ive for under $5-$6 grand. I do not believe that to be the case, even now.
13. The rules bickering has taken most of the FUN out of this.
14. If you look at the other vintage racing cl***es. They started the same way and now are priced EXPONENTIALLY out of the range we are talking here. Not to study history is to condemn yourself to repeat it.

So the Horrible is on hold ….for now.
I’m gonna work on a couple of other projects for the fall and winter and put this one into mothballs for a while to see how things shake out. The build could go either way at this point. It’s a fine strong ch***is. It WILL be used. Hopefully there will be a few new builds and the rules will solidify. I could still REALLY get into racing the way the cl*** was intended.

Rant over.

Glenn

 

"9. I have a choice….build a race car I can afford to run 2-3 weekends a year or change the direction and turn the build into a street car I can drive every day."




I have my '64 to get a street fix, but the idea of a home built, dedicated rail stirs my soul like a street car never will. The build is more fun than a person should be allowed, the concept of seeing what I can get out of the old iron through garage innovation and back yard engineering is truly back to the roots of hotrodding, and if others out there can go quicker so be it, I'm still going to have one of the biggest smiles in the pits.

If I can only run 2-3 weekends a year, no problem. I'll still be tinkering with it the rest of the year, and the more of us that get cars built the more potential that we have to race for the pure joy of it.

What the cl*** needs is more people building for the joy of it, not more rules and restrictions. The cl*** rules as Ryan conceived them are fine and those who want to build with automatic transmissions and four barrel carbs can do so, they just aren't building for the cl***.

Hell, sooner or later somebody is going to start pushing to be able to run small block chevies, after all, they started building them in the '50s along with the olds, caddy studebaker, y-block fords and others. That isn't what this is about, and it shouldn't be part of the cl***, so why should any of the other stuff either.

Sorry for the long winded rant, but I have a p***ion for the HA/GR as originally envisioned and the trend for everyone to want to change the concept because they break parts or it's too hard to tune old carbs and such just pisses me off.

If it was easy everybody would be doing it and people would ***** about that too.

OK.......I'll go take my meds and shut up now.

 

The fastest guy is going to get beat once in a while, red light or something. If you can run every round like we do in Tulsa, when you are beat you still get to run, and that's what it's about. I told the fast guys that they can win every time, and I don't care. My goal is to run my car and try to improve my times. I knew when I started this that I could get a large Hudson or a jimmy, but I chose a slant 6 for the simplicity of it, I can find a few parts and motors. I can still have fun! I have a carter AFB off of a 58 plymouth and a standard ******. If you are using a slant 6, the starter off of a magnum 318 or 360 will work. Joe

 

Joe, out here we're really looking forward to having enough cars to be in the position to ask for exactly that style of eliminations. 'Til then we're stuck with running an existing bracket cl***. Still, we get in (at least) two qualifying and one elimination p***es per meet, and we're up to five meets a year. Hell, the first year we made four meets and were run at none, just did "show & tell"s.

It's getting better ........ (albeit slowly). Just wish we could get more folks to put their work where their mouths are.

 

As with most things in life there are different HA/GR paths to choose from, and only hindsight and Monday morning quarter-backing will show the path that would have been correct. Unfortunately our hindsight is limited and our quarter-backing skills aren't proven yet.

We all have opinions and suggestions about our small segment of drag racing and most of those opinions and suggestions are reasonable and based on common sense and experience. However, while they may be reasonable, they certainly won't fit the agenda of all those involved in this group. What we need to keep in mind is that nobody has suggested anything that would intentionally damage the sport or endanger another person. I'd like to suggest we keep an open mind to suggestions and let our common sense, experience and group approval prevail.

Roy has experienced transmission and clutch problems that have proven to be expensive and could have been dangerous. He's made a decision to go outlaw .....so he can race. My partners and I are going to stay with the manual transmission and hope we don't have problems like Roy and some of the others have had. If we have problems we'll follow Roy. Common sense and our pocket book will dictate that course for us.

By the way, did they have Lenco's in 1962? Easy now.....just joking!!!!

For now I just want to get the car on the track, see how it performs, and have some fun.

Ron

 

about the rules bickering- I don't think it's bickering at all. You'll see that it's a small group of guys that post regularly here, and engage in the "bickering". That small group is p***ionate about this cl*** almost beyond comprehension. We regularly push questions upon the rules, the intents, and the cars in the cl***. I think it all serves to strengthen the rules as they stand, our convictions to build within them and uphold them, and to make the cars better all the time.

And I (and I'm not the only one) don't want to see the rules changed one bit. Debate 'em, nitpick 'em, dissect 'em, whatever, but they're "right" for what we're doing.

I am fortunate, in that my "local" track is independent, so that as long as I build a safe car I am almost ***ured a chance to run it. The guys who are stuck at NHRA tracks have simply learned how to live within that set of rules in order to get their cars on the track. I'm in the same boat with "compe***ion"- no one else within 500 miles building a HA/GR that I know of. Hopefully that will change when mine hits the track.

 

Out of curiosity, what track is that?

 

Hey Glenn I'am see your points having started drag racing in the late sixty's switching to circle track in 69- 99 I saw alot. After retiring from racing in 99 cost was too much. I to was really excited about this cl***. Having been there in start of IMCA mods, the same concept was at the start,we had claimer motors,built our cars from p*** frames cut down and built our bodies from alum. (open wheel) and had hard spec tires. What a blast building and racing. Now it is out of sight$$. I too am putting on hold my ha/gr project, I can change ch***is to fit under my crosley street project. I don't want sink big $$ in engine to be compe***ive. This heading down the same road. thanks GREG

 

I don't think you could have nailed the spirit of the cl*** any better. I know that's what's driven the Bubba's team to build one. Once some projects are cleared out of the shop and time and resources allowed, there might even be a second one some day down the road...

 

Pueblo Motorsports Park. Not an NHRA sticker in sight.

 

PMI has been a Div. 5 track since the day it opened in 75. Don't know if that will change with there new "managment" or not. FWIW-(and it ain't worth much) I've heard rumblings that the new owners of PPIR want to put in a strip(?)

 

dont give up..its to much fun...


HINEY....

 

In 2005 when I started building Rodan my plan was to build a really safe car and put a stock running gear in it. My budget was 5K...at the outside.

Well my son and I had a ball building the ch***is and the more we sat around looking at it the more I felt like, lets go fast. It started a little at a time...the budget grew and grew and what I ended up with was nothing like what I wanted when I started.

Then I wanted to build a second car, a sidewinder, and I collected all the parts for it. I even bought two engines and contemplated building a dual engine car instead. It would be built now if my son had not decided to go back to school.

The thing is...this cl*** allows this kind of freedom to build what ever you want...to what ever level you want to build. I don't know of a cl*** that lets you have this kind of freedom. You can build a true nostalgia car or a high tech car...and either way you will have a blast.

It ****s that you don't have another car close to where you live...but if you build a car who knows. The first time I unloaded Rodan at my local track I could not get to the car for the crowd that gathered around it. I p***ed out 25 copies of the rules. If I had not been hurt in an accident who knows...there might be 15 cars out there running right now.

Anyway...the moral of the story is...the only way you can not have a blast doing this is if you do not build a car. Just build it...you will have fun and screw everything else. Zilla.

 

Have I mentioned that we had the only running HAMBster here for over a year?

Oh yeah, I guess I have.
It was still fun, and team Twirl'n made it two of'em this year.
Next year?

Build it and they will *** (gross pun fully intended ).

 

Glen, were you at the drags this year? I had my car there for the second time and had a blast. It was the 66 car and yes, I went out the first round, big deal. I try and run against my self most of the time and see what I can do to get another tenth out of it.
Last year I was in the 15's, this year in the 14's and hopefully next year in the 13's.
As for having someone to run against, I have no one with in 1000 miles to run against.
I have had no problems running at my local NHRA track in the bracket program the way mine is set up. I also have an outlaw track that loves to see me show up.
My car weighs in at 1600 pounds and I'm probably running around 150-160 horsepower, but I'm still having fun and that is why I built my car.
I only pulled 1400 miles to go out in the first round, I will do it again next year if at all possible.
Robert

 

"Anyway...the moral of the story is...the only way you can not have a blast doing this is if you do not build a car. Just build it...you will have fun and screw everything else." Zilla.

AMEN!! If ya ain't in it for fun, you have the wrong concept of what it is all about.

 

The land is owned by the city, leased to the track. I've heard various things about the new management, but div. 5 member or not, it's not run by the NHRA. It's also p***ed around certain circles that tech is "friendly"

 

Tech friendly or not, the group formerly known as the Denver Flatheaders, now Vintage Drag Racing ***ociation, will be at Pueblo on October 11th. I've mentioned the HAMB/GR thing to several of them and a few had some mild interest. I'd say this would be an opportune time to show them one. And Pueblo is an NHRA track. You can check the VDRA schedule on their web page and maybe make your way up to Denver sometime when they are running.

 

I stand corrected- twice- All along I thought PMI was not NHRA.

I wish I could make a showing then- my car most likely won't be anywhere near something to look at by then. There's always a chance, but right now its REALLY slim

 

I can understand your frustration BUT if Old6' would of given up I wouldn't of caught the bug! A bug that fired me up to make the one race that would let us run (Dragfest) at an NHRA track and they realized hey they aren't so Dangerous, add the ANRA which put in a good word for us (thanks Butch) and now we have a place to race! We take the car out and run in the 15's (that's about to change) and have a great time, and there are 2 more cars that I know of that is being built as we speak. If ya wanna go racing put it together and lets all get together next year