Here some photos from this year's Nitro Revival. Great turn out of cacklecars and gassers. Always a good time talking to the heroes from the Golden Age of Drag Racing. Sorry about the glare in some of the pics.
Ya know...one negative thing to me, and I talked with another...old timer racer that was there this year, about it while I was at this (and previous) meet... I was looking at the Pedregon Coupe, and we started talking... Two cars that were rebuilt as a replica/restoration cars a few years back. It's been locked away since their owners died some time back. THEY...let the cars look...like, it looked... when they were in their heyday of racing. They had Nitro stains on the barrel valve and injector, had oil stains on the rocker covers, the wheels were not in top notch. polished condition, $15,000 paint jobs, etc., etc. THAT...to me is a proper replica/reproduction/restoration. Present the cars...AS THEY WERE. All of these cars are...over restored. That is, they are TOO pretty. I'd bet that many didn't even look as nice as they do...now, as when they "originally" rolled out of the trailer for the "first time", to go racing. And I do know, that after a weekend or two, that 95+% of them, NEVER...looked that good again ! Like years back, I went to the Udvar-Hazy Air Museum in Virginia. Part of the Air and Space museum of the Washington Mall. I talked to one of the guys giving verbal historical accounts of the B-29, Enola Gay. I asked him about this phenomenon of museum restorations. We talked for a few minutes, and he never "really" gave me an answer !! Like on one hand, he agreed with me, but on the other hand, he could not say anything negative about the museum (or any other) ! Yes, the cars have, in some form or another returned for everyone to see...but... Mike
Is the green '27 T Roadster the one that Pete Chapouris built for his dad years ago? That is such a beautiful car! Lynn
Yes, over restoration happens, These are toys and the current owners have a little more money now to get things to sparkle. Now you prefer the as run look while others ask, "when are you going to restore it?" I had a guy mention to me on one of my builds as to why I left the "run" in the paint? , I came back with---"Hell, it took me 3 hours to put it there" The Pedregon Comp Coupe is a modern build (Pat Foster) to pay Homage to their father, and the original car was a pos/heap. But to build an exact copy of the way it really was, would cost the same or even more at the new build
I don't care if they are over restored or not. I just want someone to keep them off the scrap heap. More importantly, cars like these need to be driven and taken to shows so everyone can see them. Pebble Beach be dammed, what everyday person can afford a ticket for one day at events like that? Cars that are keep hidden and displayed at "royalty' events might as well be invisible, as so few people get to even see them, let alone be awed by their designs, or influenced by their style and innovation.
You cant run these cars anymore, track conditions will not allow it. these cars were not designed for the traction concrete and VHT provides and will cause problems
A number of years ago I was at the Chryslers at Carlisle meet. Roger Lindamood was there with a Color Me Gone reproduction. No one was around so I approached him and began a conversation. He showed me the only part left from the original car which was the driver's side door. I asked him if it was going to run at the track nearby which was part of the event. He said if he ran it down the track, he would need me to follow him with a shovel and pick up all the parts that would fall off. A closer look at the car showed that all the bolts, even those on the engine had the heads all lined up. I have to admit the car was beautiful but not an example of how they truly looked back in the day.
I wasn't necessarily speaking of racing any of them... Drag cars are often "cackled" and / or staged before being driven (or pushed) slowly down the track and back up the return track. Other, essentially stock, classic cars, or rods, customs and other types of unique cars, can still be "exercised" on small cruises or other types of non-competitive road runs, or at shows like the one at this event. The important thing is to let them be seen, all dirty from their last race, or over restored.
Sure... they are expensive to buy, to restore or have restored, and to haul around to all the big Concours, looking for that 1st in class award. On the flip side, I like to take in vintage sports car events. Those folks are still flogging them about, having a lot of fun. Race cars get crashed, and repaired, part of their provenance. Nothing like seeing an early 70's Porsche RSR that ran in the TransAm or Camel GT still working hard 50+ years later.
Bob Nylander RESTORED the original Pure Heaven II exactly as it ran in the late 60's and 70's using the same engine and chassis with the help of the later great Leon Fitzgerald. The paint was even done by the original painter. After the restoration it was ran and ran often. Bob kept it clean and in running condition. The NHRA finally said it couldn't make any more passes, so it went to museums. It always presented well. Now if you are going to restore or replace a Mazmanian or Pisano car it has to be shiny and flashy.
Don't you run any events on old airfields etc, without trackbite and such? In sweden many events are run on tracks that provides quite the same traction as your normally driveway
Cackling is better than static displays. Slow track pushing is better than cackling. A hot pass is better than track pushing. Any of them are better than seeing no cars at all. I love old kit that is leaned on, broken, and fixed again. Others like sparkly new paint like Hot Wheels cars. To each their own. Watching my kids faces light up sitting in a FED were priceless. You could see the gears start spinning in their heads as they thought about how tight ir is, where the diff runs and the speed compared to a street car. cheers, Harv
Yes, there are some events at old airfields that will allow you to make passes, but you do take a lot of risks in the process as there is no proper safety crew to handle emergencies. The tech inspectors just check for double return throttle springs. Fuel cars want to kill you, they did back then, and they do now. This is why restored cars have to go thru a process just to be able to do a short burn-out. To just let anybody run on their word that the car is safe is a recipe for disaster, and the whole thing come to a halt. So have at it boys with your $100k play toy
The Jalopy Journal
