Event Coverage "Cross country in a gasser"2003 Rod & Custom Magazine "Ego-Rama"

Great read so far, on the edge of my seat for what’s next.

 

THAT IS A GOOD STORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Is that all?

 

Early the next morning I'm back at the shop and hitching a ride to the guy that had the Pontiac diff parts. We rounded up a 3 series open carrier complete with bearings and headed back to the shop. After swapping the ring gear over and re-assembling the pumpkin it went back together quickly, considering I was doing it by myself now because the others were at breakfast, and then they were headed to another street rod shop, Street Rods By Dean for a tour. We caught up with the group in time to travel with them to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. We were given a tour of the facilities and taken for rides around the track by several instructors. They had new 2003 Zo6 Corvettes that we rode in and I gotta tell you those teachers knew their shit. We were ripping around that course literately inches from the other cars. I was expecting paint transfer between the cars, but they put those cars exactly where they wanted. It was very impressive. After that we got to follow an instructor around the track in our cars at a reasonable pace(so we didn't get in over our heads). The black Olds convert was unable to compete in the skid pad portion of the test because the owner had to take his wife to the airport, or pick her up or some such thing, and the Nomad developed an ignition problem and was dead. By attrition we came in 3rd in the corning competition. The cars were tested driving in a circle around a set of cones while being timed. Then driven the other direction and timed again. Times were averaged and scores calculated. I prefer to think we came in 3rd place instead of last even though there were only 3 cars competing.

 

Lovin it !!!

 

This is a damn good thread. I vividly remember reading about the Asphalt Ego-Rama in R&C years ago, so this is great trip down memory lane.

Also, didn't @phat rat compete in one as well?

 

Saturday morning we go to the Good-Guys show in Phoenix. We are led to the front and center to park our group. Once again, we were treated like rock stars. The Magazine guys set up a table and passed out "Peoples choice ballots". It was a huge show. I took a few pics of some of the stuff I found interesting. We got more than our fair share of attention.

 

That night the Magazine guys met in the hotel lounge and compared notes on the cars and tallied up the scores. Somehow I was able to overhear most of it from my vantage point. The scores went like this.
Black Olds, Engineering/Peoples choice
Orange 32 Ford, Cornering/ Skid pad
Blue 41 Chev, Sportsmanship
56 Nomad, Braking/Ride and Drive
55 Gasser, Acceleration/Fuel Economy/ Cost
Man I was pumped! I thought"We've got this in the bag, We're the only ones to have 3 first places.
We are gonna win this thing! " Well, not so fast there buddy. The next morning we had the awards ceremony and imagine my surprise when the winner was the 41 Chevy. It turns out that the categories all had different point values, and although we did good in some, they didn't have as much value as other categories that we did poorly in. There was no second place position, but I suspect we might have come in second. (Or maybe not). In the end it wasn't about winning the deal, It was about showing what the old car could do, to them and to myself, and having a blast doing it. It fulfilled all of that. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget. Well, not so fast there either. Alzheimer runs in my family, So I can't say that for certain, but I hope I'll remember.

 

Old age means u bore everyone telling them the same story over & over again. & this story will be the one u remember. Your 55 will be a 6 second gasser by then