You guys are getting me down. I've been getting all wound up about building a HA/GR car and it looks like the idea is starting to wind down. I'm 16 hours from eagle field but I'm sure I could make that trip a couple times a year. I'd certainly run the Billetproof drags since it's only a few hours away. If I went to our local dragstrip, I'm sure they'd have a fit. I doubt anyone there would "get it". Shawn
dont let any of this 'talk' get you down. consider these things: 1-those who want to find excuses to NOT build a car, will find those excuses. 2-let them 3-build what you want, not what someone else thinks you should 4-you already identified 3 or 4 events where you could/would run the car so whats buggin ya? get it built and no. 5- when i get mine built, and i will, if we ever meet at the starting line, i have a c-note on me to win. so get it built and i hope to see you at the drags some day.p
Lotek, don't let it get you down. I've gone up and down this road myself, and you can't lose sight of the end result....fun. I'm doing my car in such a way that it can easily be converted from stick to auto and back in a couple hours. I can put on my 8 inch slicks, stick in the powerglide, and run brackets at our local NHRA track. If I get the chance to meet up with the other guys at Eagle Field, or wherever, in goes the stick an on go the treaded hides. My heartburn is the roll cage that NHRA forces us to run. It doesn't look right with the rest of the car. But let's look at options. I think the cage on 64 Dodges car looks wrong, wrong, wrong, on his chassis. But when the T-Bucket body is installed, it looks like it belongs there! I'm putting a coupe body on mine, with a roof hatch! Hides everything, and will look cool as all hell! Now, let's consider your location. You're not too far from the guys in Oregon, who are building the class of SDRA type cars. You can play with them, and would be welcome, I'm sure. If you only get to "Mecca" (Eagle Field) even once a year, so be it. That will be my situation, when my car is done. Just BUILD THE CAR. That's half the fun anyway, and when it's done, something good will happen. You just know it will. Life keeps getting in my way, but I'm still adding to the parts pile in anticipation of my eventual build. I'll have everything I need (and more) when I get started. Had some bad luck, bad health, and bad JuJu come my way, but it's NOT gonna get me down, or stop me from seeing my vision through. My car will be different.....just like all the others! LOL!
You know, I really do understand those who only want to build the second car in their area. The devil himself knows it's not my way of doing life (but he also knows I'm a long way from normal). You'll just have to decide for yourself if clearing new ground's your thing. That old saw; "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." sure crops up in the damnedest places, eh wot?
Well, I've got the donor car, what the hell! Looks like I'll be running a 261 and a three-speed, gotta love Canadian Pontiacs I don't think I'll need an NHRA legal cage, I'm pretty sure Mission Raceway is privately owned, they run NHRA races there but there are plenty of test and tune nights as well. Shawn
a little while back i asked about using bodies on these cars. i got good answers then, and now ya'll bring it up again. the whole subjuct of this thread has me thinking. first about the bodies. i have several metal cowls but i dont really want the weight. i also have a glass t body with the turtle hull. i may make it so it can be swapped on and off. ??? i also have an old glass coupe body on an old dirt car. makes me wonder??? the other thing that puzzles me is why some people think these cars cant be multi purpose, so to speak. like four banger said, i intend to make provisions to swap parts for whatever class/track i want to run at. might even enquire about the legality of some land speed type runs somewhere. who knows. in my book versitility was and is part of my vision of what early hot rodding was all about.
Guess I am that "hard core". Nobody is holding a gun to your head saying build an HA/GR. Build what you want, buy an already built drag race car or don't build anything. It doesn't really matter to me, I just get tired of all the complaints and excuses people come up with about what's wrong with the class and why they won't or can't build one. I consider others...I just don't get the attitude that if the car doesn't fit into the mainstream, it isn't worth building. You can build one with a "legal" cage...yes, it won't look "period correct" but there are lots of vintage cars running these days that have updated cages and still look the part, compare any of the old AA/FA cars running now, Pure Hell, the Winged Express, Blue Blazer etc. with how they looked in the late '60s, early '70s and you will see a big difference. Yes, I would have rather built our car with a three point, or four point cage, but reality says otherwise. We all compromise. If "fitting in" is important why are you involved with hot rodding? I always thought we were supposed to be a bunch of hooligans. To me the build is a great deal of the fun and if I can only run the car once or twice a year that's still cool. AMEN Duke! Four Banger, thanks for the kind words on our build. I put a lot of thought into the cage and as you said, if we didn't have the body I really think it would have looked wrong. From the beginning I had felt that the car needed a body to "hide" the modern parts if nothing else and tried my best to make the structure fit into the vintage look as best as I could. As for life getting in the way...Been there, done that as the saying goes. You get knocked down, get back on the horse and keep at it, the project in itself give life a purpose. I think I may have had the "second" car in our area...It just seems like other people build faster than we do. Start a build thread...we're looking forward to seeing the progress!
Hey Shawn, build one, someone has to be first. I live in NZ but I have a base near the truck crossing in Surrey too and a bunch suitable motors and parts in the barn. I will be there this October/November and back there in February/March and again May until October 2012. I can build a HA/GR there and I am sure my business partner or his sons will race you at Mission when/if I am not there. I know lots of people in Vancouver that would be into it actually, I mentioned it to a bunch of people at the '08 Langley Cruise In swapmeet .There were some quite keen punters then, I think it just needs someone to get the ball rolling. PM me contact details and I'll call you when I am there next.
64 DODGE 440: It's not a "fitting in" thing, it's more like the track officials having a knee-jerk "OMG, that's not safe, you can't run here! Won't someone think of the children!?!?!?!" reaction and getting all confused about letting me run or not. Most guys out here seem to run muscle cars and pony cars. Not many people understand doing something simply for the sake of the experience. 97: I'll PM you with my contact info. I'm about a 15 minute drive from the truck crossing and there's cold beer in the shop fridge I'll be screwing something together in the garage this winter. I already have 90% of the parts in inventory. Hope to see you guys next year! Shawn
I understand where you are coming from. We have the same kind of stuff here. Build a cage along the lines of the N(o)H(ot)R(ods)A(llowed) "10.00 seconds E.T. or slower" Altered and Funny Car design...(buy their rule book, it does have some good information) and ask the tech guys what they want to make the car able to run. It may be a painintheass, but you can make it work and with a little effort have a fun race car. If it was easy, everyone would be building them. The extra effort makes it that much more rewarding.
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