No I won't! Here is how it ended. This is just as they got me out of the car.. But now that the pain is beginning to subside and the car sustained no damage at all I put this section behind me. The installation of the two 500 Holley two barrels on the homebrew tunnel ram tuned for the cams peak hP spot with the headers tuned for the same spot turned a pretty good engine into a killer. I had found the bottle neck so to speak and it wasn't the cylinder head like everyone thinks. First pass this spring on this combo even though it wasn't sorted out had me lifting well before the traps as I was going way faster then I was comfy. Other then a fuel delivery problem at the very top of first gear at the june race it was surprising to say the least. In fact the chevy rail was out that week with a motor replacement and non of the other v8 rails or altered would pair up even when motioned to do so by the hot lane steward (so he told me.) so I made all my runs that day as singles. I fixed the fuel restriction and this Chevy rail now with his 427 running real strong offered to run me and so we went up. We have run over the last several years 13 times. I had won 5 of those but he had had an issue most if not all of those and I don,t cut no slack. And all but this one he was running a 396 with the same set up. When we launched he got the jump but spun about 1 turn on launch so we actually moved out in unison. I don,t know how many have run against a good working big block Fuel injected car but the roar from them is deafening and throttle response is instantaneous. We did big burnout burn through for the crowd.. His was cooking but mine surprised me too. With the fuel delivery solved it went up through first and second in a heartbeat and I was up track quite a ways for the back up. I rolled in first and brought the rpms up to just under 3800. He staged a bit deep so restaged. The armdrop gal pointed to each raised her arms and dropped. I described the launch already but the slant six had lots for him and I put a few lengths on him out of the hole. The car scared me it was pulling so hard and by the upshift I was already reaching for the brake handle . I could hear him coming and was surprised I had had that much for him as the roar from the square port BBChev was almost deafening. In the photo he is just beginning to catch me and we are a fair ways down track. Rusty O would tell you I was already hard on my brake and could have held him off longer. Could be. I know I was stunned at how the six was running. The adrenalin was sure flowing. It was the most exciting race of my life. I knew he would pass me (our car race weights are quite close)but was thrilled to be able to make him work this hard. My visit to the forest at the end of this run is not what I will take away from this run. It will be the moment of this photo, the roar of the 427 against the deep howl of the slant six giving her all as we duel for position near mid run. I am satisfied now and can retire with a grin. BTW This photo shows better then I can tell why I need such large rollbar.
Wow! Any idea how much HP it's now making with the new set up? What kind of MPH & ET's is your rail currently running?
Love an inline man, you cant beat em for freak factor! Ill walk by a sea of 8s to look at a built six!
I thik ab above 300HP I believe. I haven't run it at a normal track with time tickets since I started running at the airfield. It used to run 11:80s long ago (6 years back)before this head cam and tunnel ram/header combo. I know Pats rail has no trouble running in the 9s. I wouldn't want to say where I am because I would only be guessing. All I can tell you is last year with the four barrel set up but everything else the same I could beat couple of the altered and rails , all big blocks if I had my ducks in a row. And I was never frightened. This year I could not bring myself to hold it down through the eyes. It picked up so much power and top end it was scary. Just today I found two of my runs posted on You tube by ChargerMiles 007 . One I run a 460 ford powered 32 bantam and beat him. The other I ran Pat with his old engine and he caught me snoozing and not on the converter but I did surprising well anyway. Both those are from last year. Pats car is pretty serious. The Ford powered Altered didn't want to run me the last two races I fear. All three cars are close in weight . Pat and I are within 70 lbs with me being the lighter. Our cars are Mild steel to spec. The bantam is CM and lightweight everything so probably doesn't weigh any different by much. I am 1706 at race weight with me in it. I know that is a poor answer but I am in a different mode then when I raced to win. SO all I can tell you is it is now too fast for me. And I am more then content to leave it at that and grin. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would build a slant six that would scare me. BTW at the Airfield we run heads up only.
Since the conversation has turned to racing V8s here's a vid of me racing my buddies injected hemi rail in my old restored Logghe car. Enjoy.
The distributor is in a strange place? Is that digger Roger All red? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Thanks. You certainly have had quite a career! Hope it continues. I actually in the 8 or so years I ran this car have never had the opportunity to run against another 6 cyl. I had hoped building the sr dragster and laying some rules that others would jump in here and try and beat me with a chev six or ford six or even an amc but it never happened at either our main track or at the Airfield races so I always had to play with the giants. And usually BB cars to. I think I only ever ran once against a small block car. Bunch a bullys if you ask me. But I was raised with the golden rules (of drag racing.) "Don't get mad, get even" and "Do unto others before they undo you!" don
I hope you do as well. Dragsters or altereds are the least expensive drag cars to build. Or the HA/GR as well which would be as fast if you stuck some tires on it . Over the 8 years or so I ran this car I spent in total less then $4000 Can funds including the build. and that includes a spare set of new 28inch slicks I bought to try something. An awful lot of bang for the buck. don
You know for truth short cars do not handle badly. That is a myth. Mine I have challenged some FED fellows who said that on another thread that they do not have a car that runs that straight and I mean it and have the video to prove it. Belly tankers and such at Bonneville run speeds we will never see with short wheelbases. Motorcycles every day run with no trouble. I didn't wind up in the weeds because I couldn't steer. The throttle stuck. People like the long cars because of the look and they have 2 inch fever. I can and have when I was shifting instead of running auto shift run the whole pass with no steering corrections all the way down. Two others have driven mine in competition. One who ran a 225 incher for many years and Pat who runs the Gold injected Chevy rail which is lot longer then mine. Both on returning to the pits said exactly the same thing for comment before getting out. "Man, that thing runs straight." One of the reasons a short car runs straight is it doesn't have lot of flex going on. Remember funny cars are way shorter then AA Dragsters and run the same times and even faster occasionally.
Is the car that inspired mine. I had kept the article from years ago. Was also one of the first dragsters with an automatic trans
re my dragster accident sept 20. I was in the hospital for a stuck relief valve (extreme high blood pressure) delivered by a "white truck" The attending Doc and his sidekick noticed I can barely move in some positions and asked what happened. He said after 6 weeks it shouldn't be like that so wouldn't let me leave without an Xray. Result tells it all. Fractured #4 Lumbar vertebrae. Here I thought I was just getting whimpy in old age. The doc said since it is starting to mend on its own and I have no trouble with feet or legs they are going to leave it to mend but warned me it will be a long while. Family doc told me Monday 3 to 6 months.
Get well soon Don. I had a similar incident in 2000 - stuffed the Logghe car head-on into the Norwalk concrete guard wall. Fractured L4 and L5 and was in bed six weeks. While there I got phone calls from telemarketers. So I decided to play a game and time them to see how long I could keep THEM on the line. Hell, there was no place I had to be. I learned that the surest way to get them to hang up was to ask them "What are you wearing?" Every time I see that TV commercial where the woman asks "What are you wearing 'Jake'"? I chuckle.
How about Clark and All red D/D, 1970 NHRA record holder twin scrambler 6's from Amarillo? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Nothing worse than back problems, had some myself. Do what the doctors tell ya, you'll be better off.
The Jalopy Journal
