Any know of any secrets that the old time drag racers used to use to get their full bodied cars as light as possible?
Go on a diet and exercise more. Most racers could lose more weight that way then adding light weight parts - now whether they used that method ......
There are many ways they used to lighten cars but, in the old days they were more about moving the weight they had to the rear for better transfer. Of course it depends on what kinda car you are running. First get rid of dead weight. If it's not functional or for saftey cut it out. If it has glass get it out and put in plastic this goes back as far as the early 60's so it is period correct to a point. Fiberglass was and still is used heavily for body panels. If it's a full frame car cut out the engine crossmember and replace it with a bolt in tube. Easy to remove the bar and pull the pan plus it will save a few pounds. Don't use a hole saw on your front frame rails. This was a common practice. It realy hurts the strength of the frame unless you use tubing to fill it but, then it adds more weight than was there before.
Rumor has it that in the 60's, prominent local racer who was sponsored by a Big Three Auto maker had 1/2" thick quarter panels (covered in lead) to put more weight over the rear wheels. There was also a rumor the "Sneaky" Pete Rombinson would put water in his slicks for weigh-in and then beat everyone with his illegally lightweight digger. I've heard he had lots of other tricks but I don't remember any others. Someone else on the HAMB surely will.
all interior panels/rear seats ...out all floor mat -carpets ..out spare and jack.. out heater core-parts and radio-speakers ...out ash tray ... out extra mirrors... out wiper motor and assembly.... out rear 1/4window hrdw...out all extra chrome trim.. off tailite- headlite housing.. out inner front fender ..off 1/2 of the rear bumper brackets ..off sound deadener scraped.. off deck lid inner structure remove as much as will let you still get it open small gas tank any heavy cast engine parts ... intake -exhaust manifolds ... off front bumper..... off narrow front wheels .... aluminum is better large dia front tires inflated to hard lighter and lighter.. until the car has enuf holding it together well but the piloparts off it is big paperdog
Gut as much of the doors as possible. Remember, it's going to be covered by door panels, right? Pick up a book on the old Super Stock cars, and better yet, find some magazines such as Muscle Car Review and Mopar Muscle that did stories on things the factory cars did. Acid dipping was common--it thinned the metal. Jute backing under the carpet--gone. Some guys in the late '60s/early '70s made fiberglass dash boards that looked just like the stock steel piece, and the dash pad was also fiberglass, with a texture to make it look right. I've heard of a fiberglass mold of the rear seat. Mopar Super Stocks in the '60s used A-100 van seats, mounted on aluminum risers. No slide mechanisms--just bolted in place. Window lift mechanisms were left out of the '69 Hemi Darts and Barracudas, replaced with a simple seat belt--a seat belt latch was put at the bottom of the door, the other half of the seatbelt went through a slot just below the window, and was attached to the window's channel under the glass. Pull the seatbelt and latch it to the bottom of the door, and the window was up. Release the latch, and the window went down. Your only limited by your imagination...Mopar Slant 6 cars used tie rod sleeves and ends that were smaller in diameter than the pieces found of V8 cars, even on big Satellites. Weld a piece of chrome moly tubing into the middle of the drag link. Aluminum Radiator with a stamped tank (Griffin) painted black. -Brad
I don't know about Sneaky Pete, but there was a widely reported incident involving the Ramchargers, and water in their slicks for weigh-in.
That I know of Pete Robinson never ran in a class that had any minimum weight requirement. In the old days, AA Gas and AA Fuel class was wide open. No restrictions except safety, and that included any minimum car weight. However, Petes minimum wieght cars got him beat about as often as it won for him. One day at Green Valley, there were about 10 of us running for the Drag News # 9 spot. I beat Pete because he did a monster wheelly and then couldn't catch the MEL on the top end. And no, a parachute would not have saved Pete on his fatal day. Besides, he had one, but couldn't get it open in time to help. No steel around him as in "the frame" killed him.
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