True.....My mistake for firing back. It's weird how people accidentally end up on the HAMB when they are clearly looking for Ralph Nader's blog,though isn't it....? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
There.Im all done. Actually,I apologize to everyone for piping off.It's been a long day. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
No apology needed. I don't go into threads and bash them, just cause I don't agree. I don't think anyone else should either. Rick you should post some pic's of the 4 door. Ray
I had a 68 Camaro and was racing a 64 Fairlane on a lonely stretch that met another lonely cross street. We were doing around 100mph as we went thru the intersection. I had a big lead when a car on the cross street went between us. counted our blessings after that!!!!!!!!!
That blue car in the third picture!THATS the car I was talking about the other night Ric! That's Dick Gazan's car,right..? Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I think that was the first car I ever saw that had the hinges shimmed do the back edge of the hood left a gap for airflow....That thing was cool. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I remember seeing the wagon at Chris's house. he said you guys were thinking about getting it running. I remember when you brought the Big Old out to Glenoaks. Exhaust manifolds and no exhaust....SWEET.
That little trick was good for 2mph on the Chevelle and 1 mph on the 4 door Olds 88 (slower car, less benefit) The first time I did it to the Chevelle was Super Chevy Phoenix 1991. Gazan was bitchen that it looked stupid, but I reminded him about the Super Stockers/FX cars back in the day, he just rolled his eyes until it picked up the 2 mph. Later during a Hot Rod Mag. photo shoot @LACR, Jeff Smith an Gazan were talking about the "cowl induction benefit. I mentioned that there was probably more benefit from relieving packed air trapped in the engine compartment, Gazan rolled his eyes again. The track was dusty/sandy as it was a week day and we only had a couple cars there. I told Gazan/Smith to go to the finish line and see how far the car was blowing dust off the track in front off itself..,just a couple feet in front of the bumper. Then I took the shims out and put the hood down flat. The dust was blowing off the track about 25-30 feet in front of the car..,and it slowed 2 mph.
That was when they did the articles on torque vs horsepower right? With Gazan,Joe Sherman,and....Who was the other guy?I can't remember for the life of me right now.... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Holy shit.I never expected that....lol I figured at worst it would let heat out,and at best,might allow the engine to suck a little cooler air in....it makes sense though;all that air blasting through the rad at 100+mph needs to escape,so why not just open the door and let it out,right..? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
But I remember the 66 car with Gazan in some articles.....my brain must be turning to mush...ugh.....lol Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Yours truly on the cover of Oct. 91 Super Chevy with Bob LeClerc (the actual owner of the '66, and Gazan's ex-partner). Bob had a real '66 SS, and had to give it up when he went to Vietnam. In 1990 he bought this "66, (a frost green non SS '66 with a beater 454 wagon engine and long tailshaft turbo 400) for $1000.00 from an ad in "The Recycler". He wanted to do a Marina Blue tribute to his long lost SS. I stripped the car to shell on the frame, and Gazan and I installed a Chris Alston 8 point cage kit, then we sent it to Bob Uden Designs, to have it painted including the dash, and cage. We got the car back, then it sat for nearly a year as we moved the business to San Dimas, Ca. from Van Nuys. Meanwhile, we had been racing the "house rear end dragster" in Super Comp, Comp. Elim. & bracket one and I got to be the shoe. Driving the dragster was cool, but I'm a door car guy. We had completed the business move, and about a month before Super Chevy Bakersfield in 1991, Bob asked me if I could get the Chevelle together and drive it there with our 489" Iron head BBC that we called "Beatty". I said, I'll get it done, but I want to us "Bertha", or 511" aluminum headed engine. He said, you really think you can hook that thing on those M&H 275 x 60's..,yep I replied, so he gave me the green light. Now Gazan was not happy about this, he was a dragster guy, and we had recently sold the digger for $6750, minus running gear to one of our customers, and Dick had his eyes on a new Spitzer roller, so we could be competitive in A/Dragster. Bob was "over" the dragster thing, and I told him I thought we could sell more engines, M&H tires, and No Hop bars with a high 9/low 10 second all steel Chevelle. Dick was pissed at me, cause the $6750 was spent getting the Chevelle, ready. I pretty much assembled/prepped the whole car myself and Dick would barely speak to me for the whole month. We got the car fired, and I test drove it in the parking lot to make sure the brakes worked etc. Friday, we finished it up, and I called my buddy Dale Enoch, at Enoch's Muffler in Burbank, and asked if they would stay late, and put a full 3'' exhaust w/tailpipes on our way to Bakersfield.., I would bring pizza & beer, he agreed. Tim Morse, who has his own place now, Morse Muffler in Burbank did the work (as he always did, he was the real talent). While he was at it, a few of the "Valley" street race dudes dropped in to see what was going on. Todd McDonell asked, "what do ya think its gonna run'. I said, when its really sorted out, 9.90's-10.00's 135+, they all laughed their asses off at me, including Gazan, who himself said, shit, you'll be lucky to run in the 12.00's cause its going smoke the tires the length of the track. When Tim was done, I backed the car out of their shop into the alley to load it in the trailer, I did a dry hop, and it hooked. The very first pass, no burn out, just a couple hard dry hops, it blew the tires off in low gear, I peddled it and short shifted into second, and let off about 1000 ft., it went 11.32 @ 123 mph. Next pass I did a descent burnout, still had to peddle, and short shift, 11.11 @ 123.50, third pass, more burn out, less peddle fest, 11.00 @ 123.89. Fourth pass hard burnout, still peddling and short shifting, 10.89 124.90. Now I know that's not that big of deal today, but this was just before the fastest street car/small tire racing started, and it was plenty impressive at the time. After every pass, we had a crowd, 2-3 rows deep, and people asking about engines, suspension, tires etc..,and now Dick was "onboard" withe the Chevelle, and Bob and I had a shit eating grin on our faces. More later, Ric.
That is scary fast for back then....and I always suspected that Gazan was a crusty old dude from some of those old Hot Rod articles....I guess I wasn't too far off...lol! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
And those "Told ya so!" moments are absolutely priceless,aren't they Ric..? Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Great story! I was there at Bakersfield and saw it run right in front of us on it's debut that weekend. Very impressive runs and an extremely clean car.
We did have one snafoo at that first race. We had forgotten to equip the Chevelle with a neutral safety switch, and got busted for it by the tech inspector. Back at the pits Bob started jacking up the front of the car to put ramps under it so we could install the neutral safety micro switch/ bracket on the trans pan/rail. I started to help Bob position the ramps under the front wheels when I noticed the jack hat was barely half way under the front cross member, and mentioned to Bob we needed to work fast before the car came sliding off the jack! Bob decided to lower the car instead and start over, only when he started lowering the jack, the car did slide off and smashed the front portion of the pan (brand new Milodon kickout model )into the jack. We turned the starter over with the ignition off, and you could hear a rod "tink'n" the pan..,uhg! We jacked up the car (the correct way this time), drilled a 1/16 hole in the pan right in the middle of the dent. We screwed in a "rim screw" and pried it down with a set of channel locks, and then covered the screw with JB Weld. While the car was still on the ramps, Dick took the shifter out of park to see if the new switch worked. When he did the car rolled down off the ramps knocking me into the open trunk, and the car was stopped when the left rear tire tried to run over the battery charger we had hooked up while we were working on it. While I was climbing out of the trunk, Gazan yelled "holy shit! are we a bunch of f#$%Ing begginers here? Are we all done acting like jackasses!? Well we recuperated, and I runner upped in the street tire eliminated on Sunday, and I believe we had the fastest street tire car there by a decent margin.
That is just scary....There were a lot of bullets dodged in a short period of time. Somebody was looking out for you guys.. Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Are you guys dense or what, where talking about stuff that happened 20 30 40 plus years ago in general.
Geniuses,eh Joe? Once again,if you don't like it,DO NOT READ OR PARTICIPATE. Nobody wants to hear your preachy whining about stories from when we were all kids.Youre ridiculous.Listen to yourself. Pso we whine about how stupid and dangerous the figure eight racing you are all nostalgic about in your profile is?No,we don't,so feel free to NOT chirp off about our 20 and 30 yr old races and cars we are reminiscing about. Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Guess the need to feel superior overpowered his desire to actually read any posts on this thread and see what it was actually about. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Yeah,but what if you decided to take the kids for a ride down to the aluminum smelting plant....at 3:00am...? What?!?!? It could happen...... Lmao! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The Jalopy Journal
