one time I pulled the shut and the guys had pack it with old shirts and pance, I guess that what they mean when they say pull the londrey... But was not a prob I had over 1/2 mile shut down...
Set a bracket speed ... if you break out you lose. That's just one idea. Another idea ... do side by side burnouts. Whoever keeps it goin' the longest wins. Of course, these burnouts are off the line and down the track. To the spectators, it looks like a smoky side by side run. To the drivers ... they're gettin' their jollies simultaneously. Maybe I need to reword that ... they are havin' fun playin' 1960s drag racer.
Oh yeah ... the bracket speed would have to be a speed that is considered safe by the track or whoever the governing body may be.
The old saying is that it's more fun to go fast in a slow car than slow in a fast one. With that in mind, why not pick an engine combo that would have no hope of ever going faster than the 10.0 in your car. Build a carbed gas flattie, or a banger, or a tempest four. I saw one early car that M/T had done that had just two cylinders from a Tempest...blown! Bro, that **** could be a blast to screw around with.
I guess my line of thought was to figure how cars that would not normally be cl***ified together could run together. The reason for that was based on the variety of cars that have been described in this thread and how they could be paired together if there was no other way. Actually, I've lost site of how I got on that. Now, if the desire everyone is really expressing is that there should be a specific style (era) of FED chosen and anyone who wanted to meet and play has to build one of that type ... that's another matter altogether. That would be fun. Still might be some issues about speed, etc. That would be in line with what King Ch***is expressed in another thread. He stated that it was his dream to have a 16 car field (mid 60s FEDs {alky?}) at a HAMB drags event.
I've been keeping along with this thread with great interest. You all have some great input. This last page or so sounds like the beginning of the next step up from the HA/GR cl***. If you can hash it out it might be a natural progression for the HA/GR guys who really have the need for speed. a full field of pre-'64ish slingshots at the HAMB drags would be pure heaven!
Several years ago Roothawg and Samiam did some serious work to put some rules together for a cl*** like this but it never took off. To be honest I'm kind of glad. The HA/GR's are cool but there's always bickering over this rule or that. You guys can do what you want but I'm building this girl the way I want to.
so where do we go from here? i hate rules but speed is where the problem lies. and i too hate bracket racing. and putting a 283 sbc in a rail might start to get pretty fast.
From 1967-1971, Maverick Racing had a Jr. Fuel slingshot dragster with a state of the art Woody Gilmore ch***is. Our shop was in a small town about 120 miles from the nearest sanctioned dragstrip at Green Valley raceway - Fort Worth TX. We did our testing and tuning on a lonely Farm to Market road which was considered an "outlaw dragstrip" about five miles outside of town. We made no full p***es but just 600 to 1000 foot launches. We did the final testing and tuning at the track on race day. We had Enderle fuel injection which was very sensitive to the pill size (jet) and al***ude of the track. Sometimes, a mere 500 ft. al***ude difference would require a jet change. What jet ran great at Houma LA at a al***ude of 14 ft. ran like **** near Amarillo TX at an al***ude of 3,600 ft.
Well, my hemi will be around 370 cid when done and will be blown, injected on alchy but with a very mild cam and some pretty low static compression. That and the fact that with the iron hemi, mild steel frame, transmission, and me ( I should really lose some weight) it will be a pig. I still figure on being in the nines.
Honestly- I say forget trying to make rules and build a cl***. Work together as friends and compe***ors, use a level head when you build, and show up to Mokan with your rails to run each other. The HA/GR cl*** is kick ***, but it has its issues. If there are a dozen or twenty guys building early slingshots with no formal organization to squelch them, perhaps the full feild will come to fruition. The ONLY guidelines I'd suggest would be rock hard pie crusts, and some wheelbase limit. Otherwise, JUST DO IT!
Kerry, a blown ,injected 370 in hemi on alky is some special breed of pig!!!!! it's gonna run a bunch better than you think. Unless you forget to put fuel in the tank!
Kerry - you can BANK on it!! My car weighs 1630 without me in it. EXTREMELY mild in every sense of the word. Went 9.50 this weekend foot braking it & it's still a bit FAT. Oh yes my friend - your's is gonna go a whole lot better than you're thinking
This has turned into a debate over whats common sense & just do what you want regardless of the outcome. Very few people even that compete in NHRA sanctioned racing like all the rules set down by the orginization & that is understandable but from the orginizations point of view the constant push to keep insurance rates at a resonable level they feel require that they constantly demonstrate thier RESPONSIBILITY. Im no appologist for the NHRA & feel that thier strong arm at***ude says more about the people that run the orginization than it does about drag racing. Ive said this before when this topic has come up here that if you want to build a drag racing car then you need to follow the certifiable rules. If dead men could talk they would tell you why the cages on current dragsters are what they are. When you are upside down & tumbling along wheather you are at 100 or 300 mph you would be damn glad that all that steel tubing is going to save your life.
I think most people will agree with you regarding NHRA rules. I certainly do. I think this thread sort of gravitated to a discussion (not really a debate) on how to run for fun (not necessarily race) old style dragsters ... at least, that's how I was interpreting what was being said. It's been a fun discussion nevertheless.
If everyone worked together it could be fun! In other words, build your cars, let it develope, when a new car appears, let the guys who are already running cars that have been proven already look at the new car and give an ok, you know, like....ah, you may want to change this or that. No rules that way. Everyone knows what's safe and what isn't. It could work. Hell, when you climb in a dragster you know things can happen even when a car is deemed perfectly safe . You could police your own cars without having a set of rules. I mean when a guy shows up with a KB in a dragmaster frame, (you know who you are) LOL, the main body of car owners say...get out of here with that thing.
The VDA - Vintage Dragster ***ociation No one is disputing safety issues.. just saying with the tubing used on teh older style ( PRE 61 ) you have larger OD tubing and wall thickness ..The later 60's cars alots of smaller OD tubing. You should be able to add a few safety tubes to a TE-440 and have it be more than safe to run,,at teh speeds the old cars ran Any car at about any speed that goes out of control is dangerous,people seem to think these are some how built to be and that is not teh case..Ryan posted a thing back in the winter of one of the old cars getting out of control think it was " an all he had was a s****e on his forehead" There should be a place or a cl*** or condition to run these old cars..I see total death traps at shows anymore and ratrods making p***es ( cars I would'nt even get in ),,These old cars are built with cages for a reason. Not to sound cold but look at resent lost of life in drag racing,,with ultra modern safety features,,,its racing and it is dangerous and always will me,,you do the best you can to protect yourself,,and the rest is fate..To the people that say "its a death trap,,yeah right ,,I wanna drive mine cause its mine and i built it,,if I wanted to die i'd step in front of a train.. Stared a social group ,,just maybe if enough people who are into this wanna do something ,,maybe we can make it work.
Here are some pictures of Potvin Dug Peterson's ch***is, early 1960s. He made the 6 point cage a larger diameter bends for that old look. Launches at idle, no trans brake on the powerglide, weedburner headers with a alcohol Hilborn injected 392, M & H 31-12-16 slicks, wheels up launch and runs 158 mph @ 8.60 e.t. A real TON of FUN
The Jalopy Journal
