In the late 60's my friend Leon dick ed up his 283" '57 Vette with a 301(maybe a little more) block and fuelie heads. The Powerglide car looked pure stock but was heavily breathed upon by some of the best in the Boston area. The block was tanked clean then assembled bare with no paint and we poured muriatic acid on it to let it age then we threw some accelerant on it and burned it to look even worse. We spent hours with grinders files and J-7 body filler reshaping the camel hump heads to look like old standard power pack heads. The final deal I did was to close up two holes on the valve covers with JB Weld then drill 2 new ones in the staggered position and poured a shit load of liquid gasket maker on the valve cover gaskets. It kinda sealed the engine up but it still weep-ed a little oil out of my disguised straight over holes. That was to be our undoing. On the starter line one Sunday the order came down to kill the engine because of oil flowing from the mill down onto the strips surface. The tech guy got real interested when he and the tree guy were studying the leaky valve covers and spotted my bogus modifications on the valve covers. Also his magnet did not stick too firmly to the front of the heads. When talk of "pumping" the engine came up we just quietly packed up and became spectators for the final weeks of the season. We really weren't big deal racers but we thought we were cool anyhow.
I know of a late 60s NHRA world champion whos altereds tube frame was made of muffler moly tubing which is a lot lighter then chromoly tubing. 99% of NHRA stick shift stockers are running illegal clutchless Jerico transmissions too but who cares, its NHRA stock class where even illegal stuff has letters from Shelby that make it legal ,aftermarket heads & carbs, cams etc.
Back in the old NHRA econo-dragster days there was a team, I think from Dallas, that was just kickin' everyone's ass, race after race. Everybody just knew they were "cheating" but they were never caught doing anything illegal by tech officials. The team eventually parted ways and in a interview one of the fellers addressed the question of cheating.....He replied by saying they had done extensive dyno testing and had determined that the 100+ psi oil pressure used on competitors race motors were robbing horsepower. They modified oil pumps to produce much less pressure at WOT, saving an amazing 20-30 horsepower, If I recall he said they would go through the traps with 20 lbs. oil pressure @ 8 grand. They also used multi-vis oil (light) instead of the straight weight 50 everyone one else was using......just enough to beat their counterparts. And that was all there was to it.
Back in '67 when Royal Pontiac was Pontiac's back-door performance outlet, they used to have a car or two running on Woodward Ave to fly Pontiac's banner in the street wars. They had an ex-customer who had traded in his GTO on a Hemi Satellite or Coronet and was out running his mouth about how much faster is was than a GTO. Jim Wangers (Pontiac ad man and "advisor" to Royal) decided to shut the guy up by sending their driver out with a '67 GTO H.O. that had an automatic and the regular Bobcat set up. The race was run and the Hemi defeated.... all was right with the world until a guy in a Vette goaded the GTO driver into an unscheduled run on the way back to the meeting spot. The Goat lost and by the time the driver got the GTO back to the meeting spot, the win against the Hemi was forgotten, overshadowed by the loss to the Vette. Wangers was pissed, to say the least! HE did, however, come up with a plan. He set up a rematch after putting the word out the Royal GTO had a bent pushrod and wasn't up to snuff. What the Vette guy didn't know was that Royal had another identical LOOKING GTO, this one a 4-speed car that was basically a legal stocker (blueprinted engine, steep gears.... the whole nine yards). The Royal driver showed up at the meeting spot with the original automatic car, then on the way to the race area, stopped at his house and switched cars. The second car handily defeated the Vette then, on the way back to settle accounts (money had been put up on the second run), the driver returned to his house and swapped back into the first car. No one caught on (despite the extra shift from the 4-speed car) until both cars appeared in a magazine article!
I remember in the mid 60's some race team drag racing mopars had shortened the wheelbase by moving the rear end foward and the wheel wells to match and got busted
The BATMOBILE! That car was the turning point for big block modified racing. BTBM (Before the BatMobile) the cars looked more or less like cars. ATBM (After the BatMobile) the cars look like the result of a Stearman biplane crashing into a Silver Crown race shop. Don't get me wrong, they're bad fast now, and honestly, I like the way they look. Kind of a "so ugly it's beautiful" thing, or maybe it just appeals to my engineer side that values function over form. Either way, that car was definitely an inflection point in the history of dirt racing. I'd love to drive a big block modified, but alas, those beasts keep to the cooler climates of the northeast.
On the flathead Ford that Speedy Bill has with the updraft carb inside the intake valve cavity, he only got it after the guy dide and the widoe was selling his stuff!!!! What a thing to find after the guy who beet ya dide, and you go "SHIT!" Thats how he did it!!!! One of thoes thing that makes you feel pissed and good all at the same time!!!! ..............Roach.
in the 80's l raced a 66 chevelle in the roundy rounds [circle track].. stock engine class.. no mods of any kind allowed and cast intake and cast stock exhaust... found the largest stock exhaust manifolds i could and a friend of mine owned a boat shop,, got a aluminim intake with a chevy part number off a inboard marine motor, painted it chevy orange and wallla. 30 pounds off the nose...later
I heard first hand from the Pettys about cat and mouse games with Nascar in the late 60's First it was small nylon spacers between the torsion bar arm and the control arm that would collapse and fall out on the first corner, dropping the nose of the car 2-3". After Nascar got wise and started measuring AFTER the race, the adjuser bolts were mounted on the floor pan in the car, and the driver would crank the car back up after the race. Once again Nascar caught on and the bolts were removed, replaced by small pneumatic cylinders in the torsion bar cross member that had a single shot of CO2 to raise the car up after the race... I have also hear that the 68 Road Runner was the most "Cheated" car they ever ran in Nascar, even using the Vynil top in a couple of races to hide the mods. Not that it helped, 68 Was a rough year for the Petty boys, leading to the 69 Ford deal, and eventually the Superbird in '70
back in the day smokey yunic use to field a camaro in the trans am series and there was a fuel cell limit so he run his fuel line back an forth between the frame and gota few more gallons out of it and when everyone else would have to pit hed make it a lil farther and win
This is a great thread, thanks Groucho. Not that I would cheat at anything, or be involved. I heard of a duster in S F valley in the 80's, that the nitrous plate painted black & fake vacuum plugs on the sides. The solenoids were hidden in the air cleaner & lines has black hoses around them. it fooled alot of people but not all.
Ive heard stories about begging for the used oil from the fuelers between rounds and putting it into the stockers. It was supposed to be "lased" with nitro. Tim
This really sounds interesting and possible. With some loose rings that allow some 'slight blowby, there might be some combustible Nitro fumes in a Fueler's old oil.
Royal Pontaics race cars tended to be slightly larger then the motors that came in the cars, like 421 & 455 larger. Also 301 is as big as you can bore a 57 vette 283 thats 1/8 over, I had one in mine, then later a 327/340
there was a program here in san diego that was for people under 26, drag racing at the stadium, mostly tuners with a couple muscle cars. well, i wanted to run my model a but was slightly over the age break so i would have different friends sign me in every other week. so every time i went there i was the only guy with an old car and my name was always different, real problem started when i won a trophy, so i ended up getting a fake id to race with they later changed the program, partly because of me to include all ages in the program
An old timer I know said he used to take his '58 Thames across the scales at Lions with water filled slicks and a spun aluminum fuel tank filled with concrete. Then off to the pits to swap out the slicks and tank and start taking names. He said everyone was doing stuff like that, every weekend. You just had to keep up and be more creative than the next guy.
Smokey was the Founding Father of the race team...Kanawee-Cheatham and Howe...He was a very intelligent man and a real tribute to racing.
Smoky Yunick was famous for his interpretations of the NASCAR rule book. One classic was when they limited the size of fuel cells to even out the pit stops so he used the required cell but had 2" fuel lines that held several gallons. It was an ongoing battle that lasted for years and was entertaining.
In Nascar....I don't remember whether it was late 60's or early 70's. But Junior Johnson built a car and he ran a nitros tube in through the roll bar!
My friend was best friends with Smokey Yunick (smokey is his sons godfather) and he tells me some stories every now and then. One time smokey had him go to the store to buy two basket balls. When he asked smokey "what for?" he just,, just go get them and I will show you. Then smokey put them in the fuel cell and after Nascar checked the tank because they were only allowed so many gallons. He took a knife and popped them and got allmost three more gallons on the tank. Or how about one time he was helping another racer. I cant remember who but it was a Ford and he some how welded fins on either the clutch (PP) or flywheel and the had a small hole in the top of the bellhousing going up into the air box. They dont know how good it worked but he did say the car was fast. I guess they were one of the first to use a centrifical supercharger. He also said that one night at his shop GM brought a car in all covered up and after all the doors were shut and widows blocked they took it out of the trailer and it was a 1966 Chevelle. The was in the summer of 64. They wanted Smokey to spend a couple of days with it to see what he thought would make it better for Nascar. Im sure this has something to do with his 66 race car.
I ain't going to read it all so pardon me if Smokey has already came up. I read a big article in Circle track 20-30 years ago and he had great stories. Everyone knows the story on the "7/8" chevelle, the Hudson stories are some of my favorites. One I liked was about a tear down. He had a cheater cam and needed to disguise it. All the parts were in a washtub of gas. There was bleachers and at the critical moment he had one of his crew throw a pack of firecrackers under the bleachers and while everyone was distracted he pulled the switcharoo on the cams. As much as I don't like DW he told some great cheating stories in an interview once, mostly on the 75 Monte, Bertha I think.
Back in the 70's DK Ulrich, a mid field independent, was trying to qualify for the Daytona 500 through one of twin 125's. He got in a wreck and one of his front fenders got torn off, all the world and especially the Nascar officials got a clear view of the previously hidden nitrous bottle. I well recall a picture in Stock Car Racing of the car missing the skin and the bottle in plain sight. Oops...
I thought of another one. In 1955, Red Vogt built the #M-1 Fish Carb Buick for the Fish Carburetor Grand National Team. He called Bill France a few weeks before to ask him if he could run the push rod something like .40 mm longer. Fireball won the race over Tim Flock in Daytona of 55'. Tim had a good car, but it was a automatic transmission Chrysler 300. Fireball's Buick was manual, so he was better in the corners. After the race was over, Carl Kikahfer (Flock's car owner (Kinda like the Hendrick of his day, he had 5 cars)) caused a fuss to Big Bill, he claimed there had to be something wrong with that M-1 car! Bill told his boys to go through that car with a fine toothed comb. They reported back with it all clean. France didn't want to loose one of the best money makers and car owners in the sport, so he claimed that Vogt built the car illegally. Nascar took the push rod to the local Fish Market and they said it was too heavy. -Cody
How did Waltrip manage to have the rear spoiler break at just the right time on the last lap of the Nationwide race last week? Why wasn't he DQd for spoiler angle after the race.
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