History OUR history

If you ever get a chance to get to Latimore Pa. for the Jalopy Showdown or other event make sure you stop by the Museum. Its on the small side but it is packed with all kinds of racing memorabilia. From sprint to drag racing, with films, bench racing, a library and a knowledgeable staff.

 

There's not much I can say about myself but I have written the history of the New Jersey Timing Assn and have many pictures of hot rod shows and drag racing in NJ. Most of what I have written is about the early and most interesting years - 1952 to about 1960. I plan to start posting it here soon. Because it is so long and I have so many pictures I'll post it in sections.

 

I just recently realized that you have been watching me sleep for months! That's right, in my bedroom every night. I've got a magazine rack full of hot rod mags near my bed, the mag in your avatar is on the side facing me. No telling what you've seen. Wash your eyes out with soap please.

 

If you don't want me to see it Scotty, don't do it!

 

I am sure that a couple of the engines I have built in my time never saw a drag strip. LOL

I have never worked on anything that went 3 but I know a couple of my old motors have gone 2 and a little. The deal is that I never made one go that fast, a motor is just a motor and it'll do whatever you want it too. But going fast on any surface is way more then motor, and sometimes you can have too much motor (which I have proven to people more than once the last time was at MOKAN).

I think that a lot of us are hot rodders ( and scooter bums) and have been for a very long time. I also think that most of we that we have done on our lifetimes were just us out having a good time. I know a couple of musicians for example that I only know because they happened to be singing someplace that I was partying. I doubt that substance use or alcohol is something that any of us want to right into our history but it has played a big part of our history. Hell when we stuffed the big nailhead into my Mom's Special it was something that initially came about while a bunch of us were intoxicated. It just sounded like fun.

 

I was hooked early in life and bought my first 32 at the age of 12,I stuffed a 390 in a 54 Ford and shoehorned a 500 CI Caddy in a 64 Rambler and didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.

There have been many cars over the years but my exploits would not make interesting reading.

If you were to read my profile it says in part.

Growing up in the rural south I was drawn to HOT ROD's at a young age,like a moth to a flame,first with the printed word and plastic models,then later the real things.
I eat,sleep and dream about old cars.

That my friends IS my history. HRP

 

We did lots of things because no one told us we couldn't or because they did and we didn't know that it couldn't be done. Sometimes dumb and or stubborn is a good thing. LOL

 

Sat next to Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein at a bar in Denver years back.
Never said a word.Figured they were having a quiet conversation and did not need me in it.

 

On the subject of recording history while those that made it are still around Traci Hrudka and the Project 1320 group are also doing a great job. Here is a link with some details: https://www.hotrodhotline.com/history-drag-racing-quarter-mile-foundations-project-1320#.WL6qoTvyvcc
And some direct from the site: http://quartermilefoundation.org/?page_id=37

Roo

 

I've been asked by a member to share my personal history with the Engine Masters Challenge as it peaked many peoples interest in another thread. Its a rather long one so I will share it in multiple parts for those that enjoy the subject.

A little Backstory: Like many I'm a gearhead and always had a fascination with engines. I started a business in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska (10 minutes north of Omaha) called Smithberg Racing in 2002 at the age of 20. I specialize in cylinder heads and intake manifold development and work on a wide range of engines. Oddball, one off, you name it, etc I'm the guy willing to work on it if it peaks my interest. I followed the contest in magazines since inception and enjoyed the write ups on the builds that showed a glimpse of some of the trick parts used to make the added power. One in particular that caught my eye was Danny Miller's Early Hemi. Danny was a hobbyist and considered a sort of a underdog to the likes of Tony Bischoff and Jon Kasse. So like many I rooted for the underdog to go after the big guys who had a winning streak at the contest. In 2009 Danny Miller and Gene Adams shocked everyone with the performance of a Weber carbed Early Hemi. Nobody thought that induction would perform well, it got 3rd at the event - a podium finish! I found an old post on here attached below.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ponsored-by-hot-hemi-heads-kicks-butt.406111/

Story of the "Brotherhood of Builders" (Part 1): I used to frequently visit Speedtalk.com since it's an engine performance oriented site. Danny Miller made a post in late 2009/early 2010 searching for somebody who had experience with EFI. A good friend of mine Scott Clark (aka Dieselgeek) is a EFI Guru and offered to help Danny Miller in his quest to search for answers to refining his Engine Masters effort. Scott headed to Danny's home in California to conduct a test for Danny - Carb vs EFI, what makes more power? So Scott battled that carb with his EFI setup (current technology at the time) and they found that both made power within a few horsepower of each other through the entire pull. Danny knew at some point EFI was going to have an advantage in the contest so he asked Scott if he wanted to be apart of his team. Scott knew I had interest in all of this and called me to report what they had been testing and the results of what they found. Danny had modified a goofy 2 piece single plane intake manifold to accept EFI or a carb. The setup worked well but not well enough to give him the edge in the contest. Plus the fact they wrote in the rules a split intake would not be allowed, he was back to looking at other options.

In came the brainstorming session between the 3 of us over the phone. Danny started rattling off the rules "EFI, Single Plane Intake, 4 Hole Throttle Body, any internal modifications, no external modifications, etc but no Stack Injection allowed." When I heard this a light bulb went off in my head with a wild idea. A current project for me at the time was working on little V-Twin Kohlers for use in Lawn Mower Tractor Pulling. I know right, really you hicks in Iowa and Nebraska are that bored? Well YES! Do yourself a favor, watch this, crank up the volume, and get back to me! That is 10,600 RPM and about 5 times the factory rated horsepower by the way!

Anyhow on these V-Twin engines I found another 10hp on a highly refined Engine Builders combination he had spent the past 5 years developing. The unique thing with these engines is that 2 cylinders shared a single venturi carb. So this was the idea I pitched to Scott and Danny over the phone - opposing cylinders share one larger bore of a throttle body from inside the intake manifold and segregated from the other opposing cylinders. It met the required rules for that year. The idea struck a nerve and Danny asked me to be apart of his team - I gladly accepted and was on Cloud 9 at that point! So for the 2010 build Danny and I emailed back and forth ideas on how to make my idea work.

Danny would make progress and share what he accomplished along the way, we trouble shot issues that came up, and I introduced him to Splashzone epoxy in which the manifold was filled to the brim with (early idea pictured above). In the end the first version of this manifold was ready to be tested after months of hard work and hundreds of emails shared among a big group of us. Upon testing it work better than expected but was tricky to tune. High hopes and a high calculated Engine Masters score was what we had going into the event!


At the 2010 event things didn't go well. During setup in the dyno room the dyno cooling system was air locked. Multiple failed attempts were made to get the water pump on the Hemi to prime. When you compete you have a timer that starts and you have only so much time to make your pulls within to be counted as "Officiall" pulls. Time was running out and Danny opted to go ahead and make pulls, rolling the dice in hopes the engine would survive. It did not, blew the head gaskets out and ended with a DNF.....total bummer!


After everyone took time to recover after the event, the new rules came out for 2011. Danny being the guy that he was got right after patching the engine back up and started back to work. Here was a video from very early testing in 2011 and what could have been the previous year - another podium finsh? Danny had good reason to smile in the video, it was a beast!

We all learned some very interesting info from the 1st version. I begged Danny to let me work my magic in the intake and heads free of charge. Danny didn't fell right about me working for free but I kept insisting. I knew exactly what changes needed made to correct a few issues we had with this unique induction. A few weeks later we got the bad news that Danny Miller had passed away suddenly at home - RIP Danny Miller and God Speed. (Part 2 to come....)

 

Good stuff Bossman I knew it would be a good story.

 

There is a Part 2 & Part 3 for that story. 2017 Engine Masters Rules are out and you may see Gene Adams Performance & Smithberg Racing as entering in the Vintage Class.

 

Story of the "Brotherhood of Builders" (Part 2): Before Danny had passed he had entered for the 2011 Engine Masters Challenge in the Extreme Street Class. The group of us that had been helping him were unsure what to do. Months had passed and everyone still had the desire to continue to compete. Bob Holmes opted to become the Team Leader to organize the group to see if we had enough people and funds to continue the effort. Discussions began with Elaine Miller (Danny's wife) to see if she would be willing to sell the engine to our group to continue on with the build in memory of her husband. Bob reached out to Hot Heads for financial support and Bob Walker of Hot Heads agreed to purchase the engine from Elaine and cover the costs to finish the build. The rest of the group was on board to get to work and finish the project. My sole responsibility was the induction side - rework/finish the heads and do all of the updates that I begged Danny to let me do. We had 3 months to build this engine with about 6 months of work ahead. The timeline was extremely tight along with the budget!

The intake revisions were my main concern. I had a budget and only two weeks to accomplish 2 months worth of work. I had spent alot of time at a friends shop pre-planning, drawing my pieces in CAD, pricing materials, and trying to figure out a planned schedule to get this done by. If I couldn't successfully do this we were finished! No pressure right.......so here was the list I had for revisions: Billet Stacks with better bellmouth shape, centered throttle shaft (offset before causing bank A/F issues), steeper injector angle, throttle blades tucking into divider, more uniform cross sectional area top to bottom, flow test to know actual info, and revise port design in heads.








Houdini Throttle Blades as I like to call them. Now you see me, now you don't!


So in two weeks I personally had 200 hours in this manifold. I would work on it for 14 hours during the nights, drop it off to a friends CNC Shop during the day so he could make progress, go home to sleep, wake up and go pick it back up at his shop (1 hour away roundtrip), wash....rinse.....repeat..... but we somehow got it finished and shipped off to California for dyno testing in time.

John Beck at Pro Machine in Chico, Ca helped us with machining, final assembly, and dyno testing. In testing the revisions worked well except for one design flaw on my end (see Part 3). The engine scored well but we experienced valve train issues. This year it was an all out effort based on rules. This engine was 15:1 and had .950 lift due to the 1.91 rocker ratio we had on this Hemi. We killed valve springs quick! We learned we could make about 3-4 pulls before we killed a valve spring or an adjuster. All we needed it to do was last for 3 qualifying pulls.....

The cool part for me during the test sessions was seeing if my revisions to the induction helped. It solved 90% of the issues we were experiencing. People were in awe of what I had created, especially this man leaning over the stacks taking a look down - Gene Adams! I got instant respect from Gene after this day, a feat in which I'm told is pretty difficult to do.


Testing was done over a weekend and we did what we could with the time we had left. About a week later the engine was crated up and sent to Ohio for the Engine Masters event. Most of us traveled to Ohio to participate and even Elaine Miller joined us to see her husband's engine come to life once again.

The first few days were pretty rough for me at the event. I had worked myself into physical exhaustion trying to finish my portion of the build and was stuck in the hotel trying to get better. We ended up finishing 10th in the event. We were just happy to get it finished and to be there in memory of Danny Miller. A total win in our books!

The wonderful Elaine Miller

So, Danny had been such a well liked competitor that the event banner which usually hangs in the main room was signed by everyone there and presented by the folks of Popular Hot Rodding to Elaine Miller as a special gift to her. Pretty cool and emotion deal! Since our engine had created such a big stir with it's space age EFI System and the crazy Induction that I had just refined we were selected for a tear down so Popular Hot Rodding could do a write up on what we did and how we did it. Hence the article in PHR November 2011 called "Brotherhood of Builders."
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1211phr-388ci-chrysler-gen-i-hemi/
I got to help Johnny Hunkins with the photo session of our engine.

To be continued.......

 

Good one.

 

Such a great thread, our history is in a bunch of young guys sitting around a garage working on a car of some sorts, taking it to the drag strip, on the streets, to the salt flats.
At the very start of this, Loudbang made referance to Mr Gasket, part of my story is part of that. At the time they started we were all working on our engines, and most were small block chevys, the gaskets were asbestos sandwiched between tin, tough to keep in place, just a pain in the butt. These guys started in a garage on the west side of Cleveland (where I am from, only I'm from the east side)they punched gaskets out of the stuff you use under flooring, and look what happened.
What I really want to tell, is the great competitive racing we had in the Ohio and the midwest. California gets most of credit rightfully so, most everything started out west and filtered its way back east. Most of our parts came from the west coast. But we had our share of really tough cars. At the end, when we finally had to give it up, we were running T/G, with a best time of 7:44, 201 mph, on gas. In 1968, one of our best years we were running at least 3 days a week. Friday night at Quaker City, Sat. wherever had a event, Sunday, maybe Columbus, or where we thought paid the best. One of the reasons it was one of our best years, we didn't break any parts. There are so many stories, I might have to put them in a couple of posts.
There was a time we were running a Div 3 event at Muncie Dragway in Indiana. we made it all the way to Comp eliminator finals, we were to run Ohio George Montgomery. Somewhere along the line, I said if we were to win, dinner was on me. Damn if they didn't make it happen. George was tearing down parts of his engine, getting ready for the final, then all of a sudden, we were called to the line, George couldn't make it, so I had a by & we won. Needless to say, I had to buy, there was a pizza restaurant not too far, so that's where we went. Damn if everyone wasnt there, including Wally Parks & his wife, Bob Daniels div 3 director, all the tech guys, I would have been better off with runner up money.
Then one time at National Trail in Columbus, they were having a 1/8 mile race. Every run I made was within 1/100th of the other ones. I was so consistent, I couldn't loose we made it all the way to the final, I was running a car that was owned (or so they said) by a Playboy bunny from Cincinnati, at National Trail, we pushed out from the end, started, then turned around behind the starting line. As we were turning around coming to the line, this girl got out of her push car, TOPLESS, she bounced right across my car, took the push bar out of her car, then bounced right back across my car and into her push car. I was so blown away, I red lighted and lost the only race I couldn't loose. No one could believe she did that in front of the crowd, God, & everyone, but she did & I lost
I will post more tomorrow, with all the guys we raced, its late & time for an old guy to be in bed.

 

Now that is a great story but incomplete without PHOTOS LOL

 

RIGHT?.

 

Just to back up quickly on how we got started. I had a '56 chevy, 327, .030 over, Isky cam, dual quads, 4 speed. It was quick, on the street & strip. I took it out to Thompson to race, they put me in B gas, and I got killed. Not even close. In talking to several guys, I guess I was a bit naive, everyone was cheating but me. So the next week, I loaded the trunk full of old heads & anything that weighed, I also told them it was a 265. I took all the weight out and ran. I still got killed. Turns out, they were cheating more than I was. Right then, we (my wife & I) decided we were going to race something that you couldn't cheat in. I found an 1930 Ford coupe that a guy had started, & bought it. We put a 292 chevy, Crane roller cam, Hilborn injectors. We ran in B/C, that was in 1964, we got married that year & spent our honeymoon at the Nationals in Indianapolis. I want more though, when I said I wanted a dragster, my wife said ok, but only if it has a blown hemi. My plan was to take the chevy out of the coupe and use it. I found a new frame that a guy that owned a speed shop in Bedford Oh had, we made a deal I we were on our way. I put up some pictures of the couple & the first dragster, we built it all right in my back yard & garage.
We ran that car all of the 1965 season in B/D, and did pretty well, learning all along the way. I still wanted more though & the cars we were seeing from out west were getting fancier, I found a buyer for my frame & bought my first car with a body. I got it from Al Bergler in Detroit Mi. We moved up in class to A/D , we ran that car for 2 years, we were doing really well, but wanting more still. At the end of 1967, I sold that car, and made the big move up in class. Al Bergler had another car he was thinking about racing, but plans changed. I bought that car from him & we were on our way. It was the latest thing at the time, and had a w/b of 180", which was the longest gas car around at the time. Its the car in my avatar. We had a 392 hemi with a 1/2 arm in it. I think it worked out to 454 in. Mondello heads mag blower, enderle injection. The very first run on the car was 8:06, 189.00, the national record at the time was 7:98. We were now running AA/GD.
Along the way we learned. To this day I wish I had the foresight that some of the guys did. For example, during the 1967 season, it was drop the hammer, smoke the tires for as far as you could. Then get bigger tires if you needed them. I made a run one day, and my clutch slipped, I went quicker & faster than I had ever run. I was racing the Owner Brothers dragster from Bedford Oh, they went wild, wanting to protest I had a bigger engine & whatever. I didnt put 2 & 2 together, I went home a put a new clutch in. The next year, I was buying a clutch from Ed Pink that was made to slip. Go figure. More tomorrow

 

Interesting thread, Please keep posting, Fun/Interesting to read fellow enthusiast's history/stories, A LOT of history shared. On the HAMB I have have shared my story of life long car addiction, Hello, my name is John, I'm a raceaholic/caraholic, will be till my time expires, took the cure on racing addiction/obsession , But NO cure available for my car addiction, in my DNA, it's a Good Thing !

 

Cool wife

 

We were on our way home from the nationals in 1967 when we picked up a flyer about a gas dragster meet at Detroit Dragway. We were sort of headed that way anyway back to Cleveland, so figured we'd stop and see if we couldnt pick up some gas money to help us get home. We made it there & made a round or two. Its seemed we could have run much faster, but couldn't figure it out. Much to our surprise, Connie Kalitta stopped by the car and in talking said we needed more boost from the blower. He in ivited us over his place, which was not too far, and said he would look at it. Wow, so off we went. While at his place he took the blower off of our car, took it all apart & adjusted the clearance between the rotors, something I had never done & didn't know how to do. In testing it, he spun the blower and squeezed his fingers. My wife felt so bad. Its something we still talk about to this day everytime we see him run or at a track on tv. What a hell of a guy. But that's how it was back in the early days.
A quick story about one of the T/G nights at Quaker City. One of the guys, Dave Shaffer, had blown an engine a few weeks earlier at Norwalk, and it caught fire & Dave got burned a bit. It really spooked him & he didnt want to drive much anymore. So he hired a young kid named Howie, dont remember his last name, and cant really say what we called him at times. Anyway, the guys figured out you could rattle Howie pretty easy. At QC, you pushed out from the end and went to the starting line from there, they had a hill, still do, you would go over the top and then up to the starting line. As we would turn around at the bottom, when the two cars got side by side, as soon as the engine was next to Howie, we would rev the engine, the noise & flames from the headers so near him blew his mind. He was done. Easy picking, and on to the next round.
heres a pic of the car Kalitta did the blower on. Pretty crude trailer in those days

 

Love is that what is this thread is all about

 

This post could go on the AA/GD section, but I have been posting here, so I'll leave it here. 1968, as I have mentioned before, was one of the best years we had. We got to the National's in Indy, the car was running great. We had a new Ed Pink 3 disk slider clutch, new tires, we were ready. Our first run off the trailer was a 8:14, 180. I thought pretty darn good. It used to be after you qualified, you had to stop at the end, go across the scales & get a fuel check & be certified. Farmer Dismuke was doing the inspection. When I gave him my time slip, he said in what I thought was pretty condescending, no need to worry about checking in, you're not getting in the field with that time, not nearly good enough. Man I was bummed.
So back to the pits, so we went to see what we could do. I felt the car bogged just a little about the 200 ft line or so, but other than that, it felt strong. I figured we needed to do something with the clutch, but didnt know what. I found Ed Pink in the pits & explained my situation. He said "tighten the clutch up, everyone is tightening the clutch's". I started back to my car, on the way, I stopped by the Valvoline tent to get some oil. The guys there were about as friendly as Farmer Dismuke, they said the didn't have a lot of oil & were saving it for the qualifiers. Damn, my next stop was at the Kendall tent, the were more than happy to help me out & I was away with a full case of Kendall 50 wt. As I got to my car, and sat there looking at it, I was thinking, the car bogged, I don't need to tighten the clutch, I need to loosen it up. So that's what I did.
We went out for our next run. I ran a 7:68, 185.0. At the time it was good for low et of the meet on gas. At the inspection tent, all I said to Farmer was "is that good enough?' I'm not sure he knew what to say, but I knew & just smiled. We got back to the pits & I was like a proud rooster, grinning from ear to ear. A short time later damned if the Valvoline guys didnt show up, at me car, wanting to give me oil & anything else I might want. I told them in no uncertain terms, to kiss off. Honestly, 49 years later, I have never used or bought a Valvoline product, and still wont to this day.
We ended up qualified 4th on gas at that meet, only 3 cars went quicker. My next post I will tell you what happened at the rest of the meet.

 

Great story and you did just what I would have done.

 

I would guess that my mentor Carl Wolf would have said the same thing before he died. I idolized the man and will aalways have a great admiration for him. I'm sure you probably have had the same impact on someone over the years like Carl did for me. I'm sure they'd disagree about no one reading your story too!

Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

@Ron Stevens

Waiting for the rest Ron!

Heck of a thread , BTW...man, reading through this is really a time capsule type of thing...if ever a post should be stuck up top, this should be one.