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Good CHEATING stories?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Groucho, Feb 15, 2007.

  1. Brad54
    Joined: Apr 15, 2004
    Posts: 6,021

    Brad54
    Member
    from Atl Ga

    My favorite racing class is sponsored by my work: Factory Appearing/Stock Tire. Muscle cars that have to look concours correct. Casting-number correct intakes, heads, intake manifolds, etc. Have to run with air cleaner assemblies installed, and run on reproduction bias ply tires. The cars also have to SOUND stock, though they are allowed mandrel bent exhaust tubing with a cross over pipe, they have to have factory-type reproduction mufflers.
    The fastest of the FAST cars are running 10.90s at over 130mph.
    Lots of garage-done chemical thinning of parts (bumper brackets, battery trays, etc), taking the drum brakes out to their max. spec, replacing steel with aluminum fab'd parts, gutted doors, wiper motors, batteries, dashes, seats, gauges, radios...for more weight over the tires, I know one guy who got a 7-inch wide steel wheel (instead of the 6-inchers at the four corners), and filled the spare tire with water; the extra inch of wheel allowed more water.
    They're allowed to cheat with the engines as much as they want, provided they're running the proper exhaust manifolds, intakes, head castings and factory blocks, anything inside the trans is legal, and they can run a spool. No Factory Super Stock cars or parts though--no T-bolts, light-weight Race Hemi engines with factory tube headers, etc.

    To get the tires to hook up, they'll mount them on the wheel, fill the inside with traction compound and then put them on a spin balancer over night to work the liquid into the tire from the inside out.

    No plastic body panels or glass is allowed, and the door glass has to still go up and down.

    -Brad
     
  2. Rex Schimmer
    Joined: Nov 17, 2006
    Posts: 743

    Rex Schimmer
    Member
    from Fulton, CA

    Ran a Mazda RX7 in IMSA GTU class back in the earlie 80s and when we developed our fuel injection we found out we could run a little nitro for some extra HPs. We ran a lot of 45 minute sprint races so we would qualify on 10% and run 5% in the race. Never caught.

    Rex
     
  3. Gotgas
    Joined: Jul 22, 2004
    Posts: 7,175

    Gotgas
    Member
    from DFW USA

    Petty wanted to run his Superbird with the vinyl roof. They should have let him, all the stock ones had it.

    It definitely gives an advantage, as the irregular surface breaks up the airflow slightly, making it much more aerodynamically slick. Same principle as the dimples in a golf ball.
     
  4. brandon
    Joined: Jul 19, 2002
    Posts: 6,368

    brandon
    Member

    i remember the glidden deal.....heck back then all the intakes were duct tape and cardboard.......bruce kinmen (sp) had the camaro........if you want to see a ultra trick cheating car...:eek: ..check out this website ....and the tbird prostocker....
    http://www.theoldone.com/prostock-T-Bird a lot of sneaky stuff on this one.......and a familiar name mentioned above...:D .. brandon
     
  5. brandon
    Joined: Jul 19, 2002
    Posts: 6,368

    brandon
    Member


    jerry eckman (sp) got busted i think at columbus.....word i heard on alderman ....the bottle was in the drivers suit....:eek: brandon
     
  6. In the 9th grade I wrote all my algebra equations on a small piece of paper... in very, very small writing. The plan was to slip the piece of paper into this mechanical pencil I had that was made from a clear tube.

    After taking so much time... and care, in writing them out so small (it took me an hour) I had memorized all the equations.

    And that's basically how I approach all contests of speed...

    Sam.
     
    flatheadpete and Hitchhiker like this.
  7. B.A.KING
    Joined: Apr 6, 2005
    Posts: 4,039

    B.A.KING
    Member

    i wish i could type better than the old HUNT&PECK way.i could tell you guys stories, but it aint cheating, it's called " creative interpataion of the rules " i wish i could spell better also. like i said in another post ,spent 18 years as a tech guy at local 1/4 round track. its amazing what these guys come up with;) ;) ;)
     
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  8. Junkyard Jan
    Joined: Jan 7, 2005
    Posts: 738

    Junkyard Jan
    Member Emeritus

    Drag racing (and modern NASCAR) take cheating too seriously. I've always taken it as my own personal challenge to figure out how to cheat the rulebook when building an oval track car.

    My favorite trick is to throw in some noticable, off-the-wall but barely legal part. That'll keep the tech guy scratching his head and he'll miss a bunch of very illegal stuff. I built a Street Stock Pontiac Grand Prix to run at a local track in '92. I happened to notice that Speedy Bill sells nylon brake line kits for sprint cars and midgets. I plumbed the brakes with this stuff and ran the lines inside the car so that they wouldn't be torn off. These, a steering quickener and the fact that I didn't paint the car (ugly helps) threw the tech guy into such a tizzy that he didn't notice that we'd moved the upper a-frame mounts, gutted and drilled holes in the body panels illegally (covered with rough looking cut aluminum, boxed the left frame rail only to add ballast ..a big non-no and a lot more. There was even lead under the battery which was in a box and under the seat. We locked the rearend by filling each spider gear with weld on only one tooth. When the welds meshed, it was locked. As long as you didn't watch them closely or very long, the rear wheels turned in the opposite direction when turning. The track had a cam rule, 350/350 horse SBC max, so I put 1.6 rockers on my cheap Chevy "recipe motor"..:) This car was so illegal it was funny and the only thing he busted me for was not having stock pigtail rear springs. So I found some rated pigtails at Speedy's and used them. This turkey flew too! I won four features and 8 heats in 12 nights of racing. I'd have won at least 2 more features but got blackflagged for rough driving....:D

    One place that I will NOT compromise is on safety! No outdated, seat belts, a good aluminum seat, current Snell rated helmet, Nomex fire suit, a well mounted fuel cell, solid welds, onboard fire extinguisher, all new front end components and bushings and the whole 9 yards... Anything else goes!

    Jan
     
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  9. Junkyard Jan
    Joined: Jan 7, 2005
    Posts: 738

    Junkyard Jan
    Member Emeritus

    The King did run a vinyl top on his Roadrunner at Daytona in '68.. All it did was blow loose, cost him a long pit stop to pull it off and he lost the race. Bad move at almost 200mph...:D
     
  10. Lotek_Racing
    Joined: Sep 6, 2006
    Posts: 689

    Lotek_Racing
    Member

    SCCA racing:

    I used to run exhaust tube cages in my Starlet, cut a hole with a holesaw and weld in a plate made of the correct thickness tube with the mandatory inspection hole in it. Grind & sand welds smooth, paint and nobody knows the difference.

    The same car had the rockers, pillars and halo section of the roof poured full of 2-part expanding foam. Made the car rigid as all hell.

    My buddy ran a Datsun 510. L18 motor with 0.030 over 280Z pistons installed. The maximum bore was limited to 0.030 but the 280 pistons put it closer to 0.060. When he got protested they usually only looked at the numbers on the piston, finally got caught when they measured one time.

    A local guy that races full contact mini-stock in Tercels poured the 2-part foam into his rockers, quarters and doors. You could hit that car with a hammer and hardly put a dent into it.

    P.S. to the guy commenting about Waltrip cheating: EVERYONE cheats in racing, they just got caught.

    Shawn
     
  11. Redneck Smooth
    Joined: Apr 19, 2004
    Posts: 1,344

    Redneck Smooth
    Member
    from Cincinnati

    What's with this bitching? I thought if you weren't cheating, you weren't trying...
     
  12. guiseart
    Joined: Apr 7, 2005
    Posts: 3,872

    guiseart
    Member

    The guy in the picture below, as reported by his nephew who ordered the etching, ran the driverside of his smallblock bored out HUGE, way over the allowed piston size for his class, he was so fast he would actually have to sandbag to make it look like it was a fight.

    The trick was, he'd mounted the steering assembly and the brake system right up against the head and valve cover on the driverside, anything he could shove over the head he would, so when they would visibly inspect the bore they would just have to check the passengerside which was stock (or within limits), nobody ever took the time to check the other (hotrodded) head :rolleyes:

    He won a shitload of races and money before somebody caught on, like a decade's worth... I think he was already retired before somebody discovered his "engine-uity" :p
     
  13. noboD
    Joined: Jan 29, 2004
    Posts: 8,458

    noboD
    Member

    Most old NASCAR cheating rumors started with Smokey. He thought of everything. When he ran Hudsons the winning engine had to be torn apart by factory engineers and verified as being ALL factory parts. The cams had factory cast in numbers , just like the real ones, BUT they were ground backwards to run the engine in reverse rotation. More torque off the corner was the theory. Pick up a copy of "Chevrolet Racing", by Paul Vanvalkenburg{SP?}. It was written in the early 70's. It also tells how Penske acid dipped the Camaro bodies for Trans Am. And because the fenders had to be factory sheet metal he had the metal heated and stretched because flares were not legal. There's a story of Smokey moving the frame off center in the car. The engine had to be centered on the frame so he built differant length A-arms and moved the frame to the left. Great thread, keep it coming.
     
  14. Zombilly
    Joined: Sep 5, 2006
    Posts: 351

    Zombilly
    Member

    I recall watching A.J. Foyt doing so well at a calif. 500 (ontario motor speedway) in the 70's that he almost lapped the second place car by the end of the race. Afterwards it was found that he was running nitrous. I remembered that lead he took and by 1977 I had the first Nitrous Oxide injected Rotary PU on the west coast thanks to Marvin Miller.
     
  15. DocWatson
    Joined: Mar 24, 2006
    Posts: 10,273

    DocWatson
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    That T-Bird story was fascinating, all that work then they cut it up!! Man that thing would be my coffee table in the living room!!

    Didn't Junior Johnson run a Galaxy that was sectioned with a pie cut in the front fenders and had a pie section added to the rear quarters to improve aerodynamics?

    Over here in V8 supercars one season almost all the Holden's were running Perkins built motors, one won the championship and the 'Great race- Bathurst', at tech inspection after the race they found that the intakes had better flow than was allowed, they tore down all Perkins built motors to check them and sure enough all were the same. Until that point they had all been measured off one supplied by Perkins himself so they were all fount to be the same!
    What could they do, fail over half the field?? Nope, they just let it go with a slap on the wrist to Perkins and the race results stood!

    During the 80s for some stupid reason they changed from the good 'ol V8 Group C specs the international Group A spec. The German Egenburger Texaco Ford Sierra team came out for Bathirat and slaughtered everyone. Three months later they had the win taken off them, they had radised the wheel arches and ran the cars lower than was legal.

    Doc.
     
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  16. piche582
    Joined: May 12, 2005
    Posts: 248

    piche582
    Member
    from Sonora, Ca

    Me and a buddy used to sandbag all the time streetracing. Get some races lined up for the next weekend with the "fast" cars from the week before with some $$ on em. Always worked well when we got away from home where used to street race big time, they had 890hp 393ci, all motor small block , it was pretty damn ridiculous. They had a Nitrous bottle bolted to the floor where the passenger seat would be with a line plumbed through the floor board & that's where it ended. They whoop the shit outta somebody & just about everybody would go double or nothing if they took the bottle out.
     
  17. leon renaud
    Joined: Nov 12, 2005
    Posts: 1,937

    leon renaud
    Member
    from N.E. Ct.

    It was Smokey Yunic and the gas line was something like 21/2 or 3 inches from tank to engine Smoky was the reason for lots of NASCAR rules at the time he was NOT cheating there was NO ruling on the size fuel lines could be. Smoky says he never cheated just used the area between the lines !If the rule book didn't say outright you can't do this He did it!
     
  18. willys33
    Joined: Jan 31, 2007
    Posts: 144

    willys33
    Member
    from New Mexico

    How about the helmet in the seat during weigh-in. Back in the pits it takes two people to get the helmet out. Solid lead.
     
  19. sawzall
    Joined: Jul 15, 2002
    Posts: 4,721

    sawzall
    Member

    some Nascar stuff that I had the oppertunity to see.. firsthand.. NOT LONG AGO..

    a few years ago.. a "CUP" team, with which I was involved, received a race engine from another racing "team"..

    bolted to that engine was an alternator, that after inspection, provided NO JUICE..

    a phone call to the engine's supplier verified that the alternator was for qualifying ONLY.. and was EMPTY on the inside to save weight..

    THey wanted the alternator BACK...


    Around the same time "gun drilled" axles were in fashion..
    I had the rare oppertunity to watch one being "welded up".. IN a small shop I still enjoy visiting.

    the center of the axle was bored out to make it lighter.. then a small plug was welded back in and finished to appear stock

    but the best was a windshield I saw.
    around its perimiter the shield was painted flatblack (about 2 inches wide)
    when the shield was removed SMALL holes drilled perpendicular to the face of the windshield were visable.. (at the bottom of the shield)

    what was ever UP inside those little holes is still a mystery [​IMG]
     
  20. If i got my facts straight, nitrous was allowed in Top Fuel once upon a time. In an effort to distract his opponents, Prudhomme had plumbed a dummy Nitrous bottle to his fuel pump located on the front of his motor. When the other guys saw this and copied it, all that happened is the Nitrous froze the fuel pump, and it's drive snapped off. Giving the "Snake" yet another advantage that he never even thought of
     
  21. leon renaud
    Joined: Nov 12, 2005
    Posts: 1,937

    leon renaud
    Member
    from N.E. Ct.

    Petty DID run a car with a vynal top!it even came loose during the race! there was lots of speculation by racers and officials alike that the pebble grain gave an aerodynamic advantage to the car like the dimples on a golf ball.that the top was made to peel off later for the same reason.Everyone had their theory. Only Petty Racing knew the real advantage of running a vynal top,It kept everyone including the track officials from noticing the 2 inch top chop!this was before body templets .
     
    kbgreen likes this.
  22. Kurt
    Joined: Nov 18, 2003
    Posts: 698

    Kurt
    Member

    When i met my wife she was running a pavement circle track car. She had bought it race ready. The rules would not let them run any weight bars or ballast. The 10 gallon max. fuel cell was made out of 1/2 plate steel. Heavy bastard.
     
  23. Flat Ernie
    Joined: Jun 5, 2002
    Posts: 8,406

    Flat Ernie
    Tech Editor

    Had an old fellow tell me about boring out the cross shafts in his rear end & filling them with lead & running engine oil in the rear (and low at that) - at the start of the race, the rear was open, but the heat caused the lead to expand & lockd the cross shafts onto the spiders nearly solid.

    He claimed to have plumbed nitrous bottles into roll cages too...
     
  24. What we did back in the eighties wasn't "Cheating".
    I mean....are there really rules in Street Racing?.:eek:

    Do I look for a competitive advantage today.......?
    Come to the HAMB Drags and find out.:D
     
  25. wildwest
    Joined: Jan 20, 2007
    Posts: 373

    wildwest
    Member

    I heard a story about a local racer casting aluminum heads to look just like factory and even "rusting" them. He got caught when a inspector leaned on the head and it slid across the stainless topped bench like nothing.
     
  26. Junior Hanley ran for years without a fire extinguisher in his car,
    even though the rules required them."Tech inspectors" never noticed.

    The rules also called for 4 bars in the drivers door.All the cars
    he built had 3 1/2 bars;the 1/2 bar being a regular door bar split
    in half lengthwise and welded on top of the frame rail.

    A local Stuntman,Ken Carter,was killed when his car flipped
    during a stunt,and the muffler tubing cage collapsed.

    How about drilling a hole between #2 and #4 cylinders,
    with a 400 SBC block ? The cylinders are siamesed,so there
    is no water between them. Drill the hole in the right place,
    and it bleeds off air when they "tube" the motor,so the true displacement is not measured.That was done a Canadian
    Pro Stock car,back in the '70s.

    Some of the CART teams used to spray metalize their brake rotors,to make them look like they were made from a legal material,instead of the illegal lightweight stuff.
     
  27. a buddy out west ran dirt stock classes and placed very often .. as the wins added up so did the inspections ....every thing would check ok ... until one sat nite.. he won ona slippey track and when he got to the pits .. he parked his nova and and had to crap bad ... when he got back the tech's were waiting to look at his car .. this time he was not able to get the trunk lid open in time and prop it up for the inspection
    he had filled the innner structure of the decklid with concrete and this time it took 2 tech's to open it up about 200 lbs rear ballst ... busted cuz he had to crap
    paperdog
     
  28. gowjobs
    Joined: Mar 5, 2003
    Posts: 776

    gowjobs
    Member

    It was the Shadow Can Am cars that used Corvair cooling fans on the 10" dia. front wheels "to promote brake cooling".

    Not cars but boats:
    On at least one race on the Colorado River, my father ran 40% nitro in his Mercury outboards, masked by a liberal dose of smelly Castor Oil. He felt kinda bad when the racer following behind him after being passed for the lead started to lose his vision because he didn't have goggles to protect his eyes from the fumes pouring out of the twin two-strokes.

    When Mercury was developing their "Black Max" 200 HP engines, my father recieved a pair of prototype powerheads in crates, with the admonition that he just "take them out of the crate, run them as sent, and re-crate them for pickup after the race." My father "got in the crate with them" before he installed them, and at the next race, all the changes he'd made to the previous powerheads were incorporated into thew new ones.

    Not cheating, but a psych-out:
    At a high altitude race, my father installed adjustable needle jets on the carbs of both his boat and Roy Rogers boat, which he was also head wrench on. He made a big show of taking both boats out during practice, and then pulling the cowlings and adjusting the jets repeatedly. Their team finished 1-2, and at the next race, all the other teams showed up with needle jets installed. While everybody else was tweaking their jets (many of them probably doing more damage to their performance than help), my dad brought out a big wooden compartmentalized tray full of jets, and removed the FIXED jets from their carbs and replaced them with the next size up. They went 1-2 again, and just confounded everybody.

    I'm sure there are plenty of other stories I'm forgetting right now, but you get the idea... every sport has it's cheats and its psychologists.
     
  29. Junkyard Jan
    Joined: Jan 7, 2005
    Posts: 738

    Junkyard Jan
    Member Emeritus

    Sorry to contradict, but the Batmobile raced at Syracuse in '81. It was a MUCH tamed down version with a '71-'73 Mustang body and Anthony Ferrioulo III (I believe) at the wheel. With Weld getting deeper into drugs and less assistance from Don Brown...the car's co-designer, I believe Ferrioulo wrecked it in a qualifying race. Even though this car changed BB modified racing forever for the worse, it was cool in '80 to see Pete Hamilton, Mario Rossi and other big timers working on it in '80. I must've stood at the ropes around it on race morning for two hours just watching watching.

    Jan
     
  30. john56h
    Joined: Jan 28, 2007
    Posts: 1,760

    john56h
    Member

    Yeah, I remember the 73 too, but the 112 never raced again in the Syracuse 1980 configuration. I remember, back then Eastern States Weekend was the next big race after Syracuse. The 112 was already banned from that race before it even showed up. All the cars that had been cobbled up to compete with it, were required to patch up the "aero" holes in the back panels, etc...before they were allowed to compete at Middletown.

    The #112 has been restored and is now on display at the DIRT hall of fame in Weedsport NY.

    [​IMG]
     

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