Hot Rods When is it time to give up tradition over being practical?

I remember looking at a beautiful restored car and a guy sez it's not right it should have fine thread bolts holding the finders on.

 

The question you must ask yourself is , if something happend to it, would you be willing to go thru the process again?. They days of wrecking yard $25 engines and a $100 machine shop bill are over. You are not comitting fraud by making it easy on yourself unless you are tying to pass it off as a selling point. Paint it black or orange and nobody will care

 

Cheating has been traditional since day one..

 

It's not cheating, it's 'creative rules interpretation'....

If you ran all the 'cheaters' out of racing, you'd never get a quorum at reunions...

 

If the only way you can enjoy hot rodding ,is to spend as much money as you can ,,go for it ..

 

I wouldn't consider it cheating, since I am not part of any sanctioning body. It's just more of a personal conviction.

 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Moral compass ? in any form of auto, boat, horse, dog, racing.. Right

 

Texasred: Found a Rotary dinner where Smokey Yunick was honored. Great speech he gave! (I recall somewhere he wrote about rules, and 'overlooking' them.

 

The only traditional thing in my 57 is the driver.

 

Wish I could help man, but I am the poster child for scope creep in a vintage drag car! LMAO

Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

To add to this...

I pitted for a real deal "BO" barracuda. We ran the original body, the dated coded block, and kept the 4 speed....

After a "Hemi car" event, in which our class was supposed to be A Body hemi cars, we discovered that our car was the ONLY REAL DEAL CAR! The other guys laughed at us for running a real deal numbers car. They told us that we were fools. Our car competed in the middle of the group needless to say. None of these idiots with clones were disqualified for not having authentic race cars. They were not heavily "teched" either. In the end we we're proud keep up with the brand new modern cars that were purposely built to look like our real deal car.

So the question for yourself is this...

Do you want to be the fastest guy in the pack? Build it with all new better/revised race parts with another better working chassis that kinda "resembles" the chassis you have with better geometry. Then toss a body on it so it looks like it's close to the real deal. Obviously none of the tech guys care if it's real, by my experience, so why should you right?

-OR-

Keep it real? Stick to your guns, build it the way it was back in the day, and be proud if you are somewhere in the middle of the pack. The real truth is, you will be the winner no matter what. Why? Because YOU HAVE THE REAL DEAL CAR that these knuckleheads are copying to race you with utilizing modern race parts that the so called "tech guys" overlook....

My 5@¢ worth... I am proud of you for all your efforts in keeping the car the way it was meant to be. It's the hard way, and no longer going to be on top until someone with authority steps up to say nay to the copycats with modern parts...

But then perhaps I am a complete dick. What mean by that is, if no one can find the parts to build cars in your class, then you may be the only car racing. This could explain why the tech guys are leaniant to checking for date codes and a factory block casting #. Not much fun in that either if you are the lone ranger....

IDK... It's a tough call, I was only a pit guy that helped keep the car going at the track, paid by food, beer, and the right to tell my story of the whole experience. As you can tell, I was annoyed too, for not being able to be "competitive enough"...

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Well said sir!!! I agree with you.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

The only person you need to make happy about whats on your car is yourself. Nobody else gives a shit about whats on your car. Regarding the "Traditional" aspect, I wonder what the percentage of HAMB cars are in fact 100% traditional? Would anyone like to venture a guess?

Gary

 

There is some lost ET by climbing the ring gear. But Holy Crap knowing that a "301" can do that is so BAD ASS!!! I know wheelies are bad, but they look so cool!!! It pleases the ignorant, and sometimes ignorance is bliss!!!

I just went to the Nostalgia Drags here at Barona Raceway. There was a Pontiac with a 4 speed that popped a small wheelie when he hit second gear. My 4 year old was impressed. Then there was a 1955 Chevy Gasser that pulled that front axle off the ground hard on launch. The kid and I were both like "wow".... But as a retired crew guy I know wheelie = time lost. But it is just so awesome to see....

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I have a lot of respect for guys that run vintage stuff hard as real race cars. I can't imagine the expense to be truly fast with vintage stuff. I don't know how you guys do it but my hats off to you its friggin awesome. If you've gotta cross the line to achieve what you want then do it but don't lose sight of what your goals are. Either way your avatar is sick!

 

This might be a new one. 50 years ago when I first built old Fireball 5 I kind of left rear suspension to the last. Well, we needed open dr.shaft and no time to build a 5 link setup, I used a couple old outer torque tubes for radius arms.. Fabricated 2 pair of deep channels notched and welded under outer ends of r. axle housing and other pair on back end of T.tubes. Bolt together Angled so small end of T tubes meet up under X member.. Mounted a big tie rod end on T tubes and into to a bar welded to x member. Very strong. Lived thru 10 years of dirt and one big endo wreck.
Out of time- I'll finish the rest and best of this application [the maybe it was cheating part] in a day or so.

Fireball 5

 

"They didn't say I couldn't do it' Smokey Yunick'
Some more of the radical rear. Early on, with a much longer wheel base and the heavy I-8 farther ahead, we had a problem on grease or rubber slick with the front pushing, more like plowing in turns with power on.
I knew the theory of rear tire stagger but I had another idea. We put a flat steel bar crosswise in the X of frame
with a pivot bolt and 4 or 5 inches either side of pivot mounted each T tube with a big truck tie rod end.
The bar extended a few inches farther to the right with another link to the bottom of a lever of an old ag. drag.
harrow or cultivator. They have a finger lever at top to lock lever in any of half a dozen notches fore and aft.
One notch moves one wheel back and the other ahead with amazing results. Can also go other way but never did.
With 2 or 3 notches it would take a turn like a winged sprint, steering locked right, just control the ass end with the
throttle. Never spun out. Not the fastest way around the turn but laying the rt. rear against their door with full throttle
and steering back to left gave a nice holeshot into the straight . Also good show off manship and a way to throw dirt into beer cups in the stands. [When in the lead]
Obviously you need to egg the holes a little on the 3/4 bolts holding rear of T tubes to axle housing and double nut
e'm to allow a little slip.
We also had a crank by seat to a rt. angle drive on rt. rear coil spring.
Both these rigs worked well especially with changes in track thru heats or main event.
Officials never changed the rules, don't think they understood it.
Pit meeting boss, while staring me in the eyes, once said " some of you guys are getting pretty fancy with that ass end.
WATCH IT! "

Fireball 5

 

Not very many..... a lot more of them are 99% or less. I gave up on being anywhere near anal with anything, many years ago. It's great that some try really hard, and I appreciate their efforts. Traditional looking is as close as I get.....especially with the 1965 thing.

 

I’ve been in a similar position as the OP regarding where to draw the line on modern parts. I’m building a street/strip 283 based combo for my 64 malibu and have to keep in mind that no matter what I do there’s always going to be someone faster somewhere. My satisfaction will come from having something a little different and wringing respectable performance from it. A short stroke, small journal vintage 283 block that will take advantage of modern tech as far as custom crank, lightweight rotating assembly, 14:1 compression on e85 and lightweight solid roller valve train should yeild a screaming motor that can get it done a little different than the injected bbc/auto guys. I did waffle around a lot regarding head selection and finally decided not to put money into the 520 heads and instead work over a set of TFS super 23 heads and may disguise them. Certainly will be using chevy orange and vintage valve covers w/spacers to maintain some vintage appeal.

 

I want to know more! Very cool car and engine combo!!!


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app