In the October, 1965 issue of Car Craft Magazine, Cec Draney wrote up a number of stories pertaining to low-life cheating bastards. He had Alex Toth follow up with some illustrations. The result was something that should have turned into a monthly co... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
This is Great! I've heard many stories about the cement believe it or not, even adding it in the rear push bars, pretty interesting. Cool stuff man!
Lots of good books out there with colorful stories of the grey area's in racing. "If your not cheating then your not trying and if you get caught then you weren't trying hard enough!" Good one Ryan!
Should of spent that time on cheating building something that was within the rules and go fast. Always glad to see cheaters busted, but it sure does make great reading. Thanks boss.
Dad likes to tell this story. Once upon a time he was running a ZL1 motor in a car which he tried to pass off as a cast iron block. A suspicious tech man tried to stick a magnet to it. Busted. So he goes home and that week he gets the idea to mix a bunch of steel shavings into some chevy orange and paint the block with it. Goes back to the track the next weekend. The tech man smiles and pulls out his trusty magnet. It stuck that time.
A seperate fuel tank is lame, My buddy use to drain the secondarys and fill them with a hot mix, drive up on the primarys. At the flag would mash the throttle and away he went. Back at the pits he would make more money during teardown protest's then he would racing.
I clearly remember this article from 47 years ago and virtually word for word the Hudson on alcohol story, that is a heck of a good memory for a 61 year old fart dontcha' think??? Today however, I am well known to have many conversations where I am totally unaware that the question I asked was answered minutes ago and spend immeasurable time walking around the garage looking for that thing I just put down. What a crappy memory I have dontcha' think???
The cheater column was reprised by Car Craft in the '70s, where the "Bogusity Meter" was always being seriously deflected, if not pegged or out-and-out imploded in photos of the cheater tech in one Pro Stock car or another.
One omy favorites was Smokey Yunicks interpretaions of the rules. They had specific size gas tanks you could run but his car car always seemed to go farther than anyone else. It was later discovered that he had a huge fuel line running from the tank to the pump. This was later addressed in the rules to eliminate that advantage. Imaginative rule interpretation was one of his best secrets.
HA! Me too!!! I work at a certain auction house and currently hold the trophy for fastest go kart racing...... recently when I was about to get beat I simply grabbed on to the cart in front of me and pulled my way forward. I am not sure that is cheating or not.... ha
Agreed! I was always told read the rule book - whats important is what it doesn't say. In my last year as a profesional racer in the 15 race series I was protested 12 times - not one upheld. Won the national championship. They never did find what it was - it's in the details not cheating.
There is a story my dad told me about a stock car driver in the 50's? who would pass the motor tear down tech. The story was that the tech would show up at car drivers bay in the pits and the car owner would say, hey I have all my tools out, you can use mine. The car owner would then offer to let the tech official use his mic's (micrometers) to take measurements on the engine. Well the car owner had his mic's rigged, so he was running a larger displacement motor but with the rigged mic's everything checked out.
My favorite memory was watching two linbacker-sized crew guys trying to raise the trunklid on 64 Plymouth. It was full of lead.
Don't know if this one is true or BS but I read somewhere that Smokey would run larger than class displacement engines.After he would win they would make him pull the valve cover,loosen the pushrods,and pull the sparkplug on # 1 cylinder and P&G the engine.He figured out that he could drill a small hole in the bottom of the headers and run a guitar wire up under the exhaust valve and it would leak down just enough for the displacement to check correct.
A buddy of mine did a lot of restoration work on a bunch of old super stockers. in the process of tearing down a well known 'Cuda (I can't remember who's), he un-bolted the gas tank with the car up on a lift. When he pulled the last bolt, the tank fell on him and nearly killed him, it was full of lead.
I always loved that devil guy from that article. I use to have it pinned to my wall years ago but lost somewhere along the way. Neat to see it again.
Yup! The large fuel line is a great example of that. Rules are reactionary, not preventive. Superbirds are a shining example of things change when somebody does something not expected and therefore not addressed in the rulebooks. I love the thinking of these folks. If you blatantly are circumnavigating or ignoring the rules you are a cheater and any win is a hollow one at best. Who wants to win that way anyway?
Wasen't it Smokey, that after getting a complet built baned In '66(?), and coulden't race that car at All. Then the year after getting a car disqalifiet on ten points, telling the official to make it eleven and left the track. Since that day, the NASCAR rule stated on the last page; and all that ain't In here, ain't free game! A Real hardcore engine builder and a rule bender, if there ever was one!