Thought some of you senior fellows like myself would like to see this pic. The man is 71yrs young and races on a weekly basis. came back from 30yr job in Cal with this car. Had run every kind of Fomoco engine made in it and could not keep them together. So decided to try a 440 Mopar, this car weighs over 4000 lbs and he runs low 7's in 1/8th. Great fellow to know and race with(did beat him last week heads up with a 506 light in the Fairmont) Does all his own work alone, amazes me and I bow to him and his ability.
Hey Dave, Man, I just hope I LIVE to be 71 - let alone be drag racing too! I hold in very high regard the old-shool guys - yourself included (not that you're that old). Without you guy's willingness to share the encyclopedia's in your heads, the information would be lost forever. I'm just confused on his switching to a MOPAR rather than going with the tried and true rat motor? I guess he's definetly not a bow-tie kinda guy. Also, I'll bet with the right gearing that thing could haul it down the 1/4 mile (where most big blocks come on strong). Congrats on your victory. I'll bet you felt good when he said he got beat by a "young punk". Thanks for the post, Dave. ' Always a pleasure. How's the points race going? Keep us posted, Rick
Now that is cool!! I sure hope I am healthy enough to enjoy these cars at that age. I'm having too much fun to ever stop.:bananaman Dan ps thanks for the post Dave, made my day.
The golden years I hope all can enjoy life as some of us have with our cars and racing etc. The younger generations do not have the same type of enviroment to grow up in, the newer cars are user friendly and grease under the fingernails is a no no. Course our relatives said a similiar thing about us when Henry's invention, was forcing the horse and buggy out of the picture. Everything must bow to progress but sometimes, in my opinion, it sucks. Keeping a young thinking mind will often offset the drawbacks of aging etc. The Mopar's are very popular around this area, as are Ford's, I guess it goes back to the old saying "Anybody can make a Chevy go". Les Higgens and his 56 tank, has many others also, he just sold a 74 Grabber that was sitting in his shop for years. Love to listen to his race stories from Orange County, Ca. Just to see if it would work, he put a Hemi in a 56 Chevy, as an example. Anyway Rick, the points deal is a tough road this year, cannot blame the car, has been the nut behind the wheel and some very good compitition. Reaction and 60ft times, leave a lot to work on for me, am running a 10yr old Fairbanks converter and I will blame it on that . Need a few more R's at launch and a lot more mental concentration, still if the fun is there and you can go home with the car in one piece, we have won. The Mopar/Ford runs the 1000ft(only a couple of these tracks left) in the low 9's at 108mph. Has had a 8.96 in early spring weather. Nuff of taking up space, can't wait for your numbers with the stroker Mav.
Off topic here a little, but do you flash your converter, Dave? Re: My Maverick I finally got my deep front sump oil pan in. I just couldn't make the rear sump work. The 'drag link' (?) of the steering just didn't allow a big enough sump area for comfort. This pan has a nice baffle in it. I'm not afraid to run it. New off Ebay for $89.99 . Beats the snot out of spending $300+ for the Canfield. Better luck to you during the home stretch of the season. Rick
Rick and converter Used to flash it but with our on again off again track conditions, it made my 9in slicks make tons of cigar smoke and react time and 60fts were suffering. So now take some stall out by coming up on it to 1800 . The rating is 4200 but is closer to 4000. Don't know if I told you but when I built this Fairmont 4yrs ago, we had been running Todd's 74 Mav and had bought a couple other scrap Mav's for parts. So to be an inexspensive project(cheap) used may Mav parts as we could. Had an 8in rear and some 4.62's so took the whole leaf spring and axle housing from one of the Mav's and adapted it under the Fairmont used homemade slap bars and still have them on. Did change to a 9in to get a little deeper gear later on. Works very well but I think the original 4 link type set up may have been better with some mods. Will find out when we get Jr's 5.0 Stang on the track next year. Big problem with leaf springs is tire clearance, among other things, Todd's Mav with cal-tracs does better and he can run 10.5 with some clearance left. Still not enough tire for the 351 14:1 rollor mtr. and definately not when he had the 393 in there. Plans are to go to back half and coil over etc. Maybe I will post a pic of the Mont one of these days, have just about used up enough space on the board today.
