Ha/gr

[Ryan]

It started with an idea from Kevin Lee. He wanted to build a bare chassis that he could pull to the track with his modified roadster. Once there, he would yank the mo...

To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

[cruzr]

ahhhh Dick Kraft.......an Orange County, Ca boy , i think the car club "The Krafters" was named after him as i recall. Santa Ana drags was a hoot in the early days, i remember it well as a kid.

[blown49]

Great post Ryan. Your original thoughts were dead on even though it spawned two "classes"; it was well worth the effort.

[3wLarry]

The Ramrods swing both ways...

We saw this coming and updated our fuel system to a 4bbl to compete with the SDRA boys, BUT...we also still have the 3x2 Stromberg setup to run at the hamb drags. Our car still has a 3 speed stick and bias ply tires. As for the anodized fittings...every B-25 came off the assembly line with them...

...oh, and we just removed the modern tuned headers and installed chrome plated short zoomies...

[GMC BUBBA]

Good post ! Its all about the " spirit of the bug" , after the Mo-Kan drags last year we discussed the HA/GR class all the way home and started our build plans. We used the rule sheet and stayed pre 62 on the entire project. No calls were made to Jegs or even Speedy Bill! The car had to be build out of stuff the group had laying around.
The front axle is a 37 Morris and Tom C ( Culbertsons Customs) starting welding up the frame.

A short couple days and Tom was ready for a sit down test drive ?

The engine was a 1956 GMC truck engine with a handmade period intake and old Mallory rev pol split coil ignition system. Engine came from a pulling tractor project in Tennessee.
i
Some red paint and we have a roller?


We now have only two runs on the car, ( breaking the car at Goodguys Indy) and have ran 90 mph. Rear end ??
Nothing can ever take the excitement away from dropping the clutch on one of these and knowing the "Bug and the spirit" must be happy as well!!
Thanks Ryan and Kevin and anyone else for thinking this class up. Its been a ball for all us Indy dudes to put together and we are packing our bags for Mo-Kan as we speak.
We will be the crew grinning and enjoying the weekend fast or slow!!!

[recycler]

Amen

[Drewfus]

Ryan,

fear not, teething times for sure, but the passion you describe still exists, the desire and the attitude.

The class 'down here' is being accepted well, and at the end of the day, each group of people who have actually built one of these style of cars shares a similar attitude to what they represent.

The 'vision' is alive and well dude, alive and well......

Note:We've currently got 10 cars 'race ready' for our 'Nostalgia Nationals', with a further 4 that will be racing by December 2....all home built - no prize money, just racing for the fun of it.

Cheers,

Drewfus

[Roothawg]

Good story and timely at that.

[Kevin Lee]

Cool. I wish I would build as much as I talk.

Study that picture of Kraft and the BUG. Pioneer. Insane car. Uberconfident smirk. At that very moment - when the shutter went off - he was the coolest MFer on the planet and I think he knew it.

[Old6rodder]

Yep,

And I still firmly believe the SDRA "spin-off" class is a good thing for the HA/GR in the long run. Broadens the appeal of the underlying principles while leaving the hard core niche its own turf. Two different forms of the same concept and all that.
While of course there'll be a few hard cases on both sides I'm also looking forward to the inevitable good natured rivalries that're certain to develope.

In a like situation I'm priveledged to be a founder in a 22 year old model train club fielding layouts in two competing scales, thoroughly enjoying just this sort of rivalry there already. And while at times short sighted outsiders can take it wrong we members consider that part of the fun too.

My one regret (and a small one at that) with our car is that I actually rather wish it'd been possible to have built without (or at least better hide) a couple of the more visible concessions we had to make to modern safety practices. I understand their need of course and fully agree with the reasoning , just wish I didn't have to look at'em.

Still, it's the first thing that's gotten a quarter mile rise out me in far too long and I won't give it up .......... for anybody.
If HA/GR's to be truly an ode to what was then I'll eagerly write a verse for it myself.

So "chin up" Ryan, it's obviously worth doing, it's being done. Besides, there's no way to cram this thing back in the box now ..............

[Chili Phil]

So, I was talking to Dick Moseley. He told me he was doing some stuff for the Ratican, Stearns and Jackson Fiat. I sped over to his shop. Never even talked about the RSJ car because he was building a couple of HAMBsters. A couple of weeks later ANRA had their deal at Famoso and invited some poeple to display HAMBsters to gauge interest in the class to see if ANRA would want to host them at their events. Big crowd around them all day.

Fast forward to the Mooneyes BBQ last Saturday. There was a big bunch of HAMBers hanging around in the machine shop. Man, you could feel the spirit of Fred Larsen in that shop. I mentioned that I had a hard on to build a HAMBster to Burny and a few others. Timebomb and I have been talking about it since I visited Moseley's place. Well, I'm not spilling any details, but I believe that there will be an entry in the class made up of HAMB buddies.

So, thank you Kevin Lee. I think you have created something huge here. And of course, thanks go to Ryan too. This community is so much bigger than the sum of its parts. I know a lot of real old time drag racing people who are VERY interested. The competition will be intense in this class, but I don't think there is any reason to fear losing sight of the original goal. The spirit of the early pioneers will be honored, the racing will be close and most importrantly, it'll be FUN.

Let's go racing, guys. I guess I'll have to make a lot more chili.

Phil

[Kevin Lee]

Where did your post go Larry? There is no interest you said? Are we talking about the same class here? Seems like every other week I'm reading a post about a new rail being built.

Anyway, as I see it there only needs to be two people interested enough to build cars to make it a race. You (with friends) and those other guys proved that the first year out. Yes?

[Mr. Mac]

Well said Ryan.I'm very proud to be one of the first to have driven in the first HA/GR race at Mokan. This is our third season and time moves on. I bet Kraft didn't drive that car very long with making some(alot) changes.Looking foward to driving the Ram Rods car this year at Mokan.

[SamIyam]

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...arasite+digger

I also brought it to the top in hopes that this thread gets saved.

There was a lot of good thinking going on... and hopefully guys will reign things in after reading how it all started.

That is "the spirit of the bug", "on the cheap", "not wanting to exclude anyone because of any one rule" and "to get more people on the track having fun..."

Sam.

[SamIyam]

And here's the follow up post with the first rules:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=46778

Can these be saved Ryan?

Sam.

[Godzilla]

When I look at Kraft sitting in his car with a big smile...I imagine that he is smiling because he knows that he is going to go out there and blow some doors off. He discovered that less is more...and started a movement where everyone started taking off all the do-dads and making their cars lighter.

I imagine it was all about performance and going quicker and faster than the next guy...I don't think he gave a hoot what it looked like. Maybe if there is a "spirit to the bug"...it should be...make it go as quick and fast as possible and don't give a hoot what it looks like.

[Flat Ernie]

Tech archives perhaps??

[Dakota]

Amen to this. I had all the pieces to build a HA/GR and decided not too, after seeing the money poured into some of these.its one thing to build a car to compete, and one to have one to have fun with.

If i am gonna build a car just to have fun with, im gonna built it the way i want it not according to some RULES that other teams seem to sneak around to get that extra .001 out of their car. Those kind of people ruin it for me.

[3wLarry]

Originally Posted by Kevin Lee

Where did your post go Larry? There is no interest you said? Are we talking about the same class here? Seems like every other week I'm reading a post about a new rail being built.

Anyway, as I see it there only needs to be two people interested enough to build cars to make it a race. You (with friends) and those other guys proved that the first year out. Yes?

I deleted my earlier post because I realised I was pissing in the wind.

You're right in the fact that it only takes 2 cars to make a race, but it also takes a fan base to support it...otherwise racing is dead.

I invested heavily into this endeavor because I really do believe in old-time racing...just for the fun of it...but everytime a post is made about this series on the main board, it fell off like water. It almost seemed as though nobody here was interested, except for those owning a car.

I never really understood why Ryan put us off to the side on our own website, with no link to the main board. Yes, I know he thought it would be better for the racers to not have to listen to non-car owners' opinions...but ...now we are alienated. The only ones that make the effort to find the HA/GR site are the car owners.

Put us back on the main board where we can show our updates and improvements like everyone else here that has a new improvement on their rod.

...end of rant.

[Ryan]

Larry, wtf are you talking about?

Seems like we have a post a week on the big board. Maybe you are just missing them?

I think there is ton of interest in the right car, but when guys start making these things look like a modern race car things start to slide down hill quickly. The awkward lines of a "bug" style car just don't work well with modern appointments.

------

but it also takes a fan base to support it...otherwise racing is dead.

Fans? Fans? What the hell good are fans for? HA/GR racing is certainly not supported by fans. It's supported by the drivers that build the cars.... especially in the beginning...