Some days it DOES pay to get outta bed...

At the last minute, I decided to take the coupe to Indy with us(the Ramrods) to compete in the Goodguys 'Hot Rod of the Year' contest while the Hambster did battle against all the other contenders at the dragstrip.
Did I think I hadda snowballs' chance in hell of winnin' against some really cool hotrods?

...'course not.

...but...one of the criteria for this coveted award was that all of the cars had to cruise a 100 mile predetermined course that included...get this... a trip around the Indy 500 Racetrack in your own hotrod!
Hello,...I'm in!

After we returned from the cruise, we were immediately ushered to the starting line at the drag strip where we were told to: "Run 'em like you stole 'em", and that 'at***ude' counts on our final score...no wimpy runs. Well, I did that and broke a motor mount on the launch...which shoved the fan into the radiator and shroud... It made a lot of noise, but was kinda still drivable.

The last task that we had to do was clean our cars from the rain-soaked 100 mile run, and compete in a show-and-shine. This is where I met Ken Gross(yes, him) and his cameraman from the TV show Car Crazy. Ken was interviewing a couple of the contestants when he spotted the coupe and made a beeline for it.
He said he knew the Rolling Bones crew personally, and that he had always wanted to see what one of their cars looked like painted and detailed.
He asked a lot of questions and shot footage of the coupe and interviewed me for an upcoming episode of Car Crazy...talk about stoked!

About this time a photographer named Bo Bertillson(spl) came up and asked if I would be willing to let him shoot the car for Rod and Custom magazine...which we did... Somebody friggin' pinch me!

Before Ken left, he handed me his business card and asked me to send him some pics of the coupe to send to a friend of his at The Rodders Journal...(Steve ****an). I ain't makin' this **** up...

The last thing that happened was that I was picked for the Top 5. All 5 of the cars were to go to the host hotel where Marc Meadors would present the runner up trophies and anounce the winner of Hot Rod of the Year.

Well... while limping my way to the hotel, the Pertronics ignition decided to take a dump 3 miles from the hotel...I came in on a wrecker.

Needless to say, because I didn't complete the dragstrip part of the course, I was knocked out of contention for first place, but I got a REALLY cool trophy for the top 5.

You couldn't pry this grin off my face with a crowbar...

 

that is some crazy luck. sounds like alot of fun. wish somethin like that could happen to me.
but you could always look at it another way. if you didnt get out of bed your fan and shroud, motor mount, and ignition would still all be working. but what fun would that have been.lol
congrats on all of it man.
dave

 

Nice! Post a pic of this here coupe o' yours. I went looking through your posts to possibly get a gander of it....but, 500 pages is just a little more than I wanna look through.

 

is your gold chain ok ?

 

...

 

If you've missed this car, you've missed something, and quite possibly been living under a rock. Congrats Larry. Couldn't happen to a better guy or a better car (the good stuff, not all the bad stuff you listed)

 

Thanks Toot...it was a ****load of fun bein' there...

 

you should expect it with a car like that!
TP

 

Congrats Larry...... sounds like you got stories to last you the rest of the summer. I've been on the OL Brickyard with my 40 so I know what a thrill that is. I also met Ken Gross at the York show while he was getting stuff for the Car Crazy show. Neat guy. Then to get a shoot for R&C, and the possibility of getting into the holy grail of printed hot rod mags, the Rodder's Journal, well......all I can say is "aint he neat?"(in my best American Graffitti voice).

 

bad***.

 

Shoot if i had known you were bringing the coupe to Indy i would have went. Congrats on all that cool stuff that happend Larry!

 

Congrats Larry............this time the "real Beer" from Texas is on us...

Will be sure to bring a case for your consumption in Tulsa on the 30th

Mark and the Texas Thunder bunch

 

Well, there ya go...If ya had used the gold chain to back up the motor mount you would have been fine!

Sorry to hear about the damage. Cool that you had a good time doing it!

 

Good for you Larry!
Get over it.... its all about your car not you.
You deserve it. Congratulations.

 

Congrats Larry !!! Way too cool and well deserved . You da man ...
Danny

 

Good on ya Larry !!!!!!!!!!!

The big question is DID YOU SELL THE CAR???????????????

BB

 

A fiew picts

 

what is this about SELLING?!?!?!

say it aint so larry... say it aint so!

PS... the story that goes along with that "top 5" trophy is, in my opinion, worth MORE than the GG hot rod of the year award. . . congrats bro. look forward to seein it in print!

 

That Is One Good Looking Car.

 

So you tore it up ripping around the Indy track and you still made R&C?!?! You're my hero!!

Congratulations Larry, you deserve it. It's great to see that you're enjoying driving the car, as they were meant to be used.

 

What Bob's referring to is that some guy was standing around all the while Ken was talking to me. He asked alot of questions. He asked to sit in it, and was crawling all over and underneath it. He talked to Ken for a bit, and was there when Bo asked to shoot the car for R&C.

When they left, he asked me what I had in the car($$$)...I told him, and he took down all my info and said he'd be in touch, and that he was going to buy my car! That's all I know...

 

Damn Larry , thats the ****s but i bet it was still a load of fun, You gonna make it to Lamar next week?

 

That sounds like a total and complete blast! I know my aspirations are lofty, but someday I hope to have that kind of fun with my Dubble A.

How'd you break the motor mount? Did it break off of the frame, or just come apart itself?

Anyway, congrats on your victories. It appears and sounds like you won several of them over the weekend!

 

...dunno...depends on how fast I can fix her.

 

Hey Greg. I've got your tires from the guy in Indy. Let me know when you want to come get 'em.

What happened was that I did a burnout and then pulled to the line and staged. I launched at 3000 rpm, and her ***-end drifted to the left...I lifted...it corrected itself and I nailed it again, but the tires wouldn't bite and she spun to 6000 rpm before I could back out of it. The motor mount decided it had enuff fun and went back to the hotel...which allowed the fan to go for a walk...

 

WAY COOL!!!!!!.....Does the prospective buyer know it's fibergl***??? hahahahahahaha...(me so funny)

 

You ain't gonna believe this Steve, but the eventual winner and 2 other contenders in the Top 5 were gl*** cars...

 

Somebody PLEASE get this man a THRONE for the HAMB Drags, will ya !
Dude, that's a killer story. MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS.

 

did we gind too much off the welds to make her pritty? or did the actual mount break? very kool deal man,but your still a punk..........seeya at tulsa, hehe

 

this is one of my favorite cars.............