Excitment building all week, watching the weather channel, getting the cars ready for the big 2500.00 race. Rain moves in and hopes are dashed, then yesterday turns warm and just a chance for the wet stuff. Wait till the last minute and track owner says "lets try it". Made the 70mile trip in fog but it lifted after all. Fired up the Fairmont with the 331, had less than 5 minutes run time on it. Made a couple warm up trips around the pits and then got called for first time trial. Felt great to be able to race in Jan. 65deg but 100% humidity. Figured I would not get much traction because of it. I was so right, inadvertantly forgot that the 302 was gone and in the burnout, mashed the gas and the tach reads 7500 in second. Release the line lock and shift to third, stage to go and pedal to the floor at the third yellow. Did not move, engine reving and car lurching sideways, lift and hit it again, heads the opposite direction. Slam the shifter and tires are frying on the concrete with little foward movement, lift and slam the pedal down again and finally get pointed straight at the 330 mark. Going to stay in now just to see how it performs etc. 7:50 at the 1/8th, which is slower than the old 302 but tires were just floating on the water soaked track. Ended up at 107mph at the 1000ft which is a couple mph faster than the 302 at full traction. Back at the pit felt as if this motor will run high 6's in the 1/8th on a good day. Life is good, oop's, begins to rain, races cancelled and back to the house we go. Mavmans 408 plus, in the yellow Maverick was awesom on it's only run. Even his 14in wide Goodyear's spun for almost the entire 1000ft. Had to tell all this to you guys and gal's, because we both felt all the hard work and expense building these two beasts of drag racing, was very satisfying and look foward to better and "Faster Times"
great to be at the track in jan. hope our weather holds out too. our first points race is jan 16. was at the track for a banquet today. first to go was the coat, then the heavy shirt. sure was nice out. good luck to everyone this season.:bananaman :bananaman
I think Old Guy's 331 will be one to watch out for. Sounds like it'll be a great combo for the old fearmont, just like it is. That car has always been real consistent. Mine, I don't know what I'll do. We only got one pass, and the track was slick as owl poop. My intent was to do an easy burnout to keep it under 5000 RPM, and that was the easy part. Pulled to line, tree came down and I hit it probably 1/4 throttle and immediately went sidways. I knew it would and was ready to get off the loud pedal. Drove it on out to about 300' then nailed it, shifted to high at 6500, and by the time I got to the 1000' finish (actually just shy of the finish) I saw 8300 on the tach and I figured that was plenty. Still went 121 mph so the power is definetly there, but putting it down may be a challenge. I also need to get the RPM down, but that may have been due to crappy track conditions and tire spin. The 414 that's in it now is MUCH snappier than the old 14:1 351w was...not that it was a bad engine, but it was very responsive. This one blows it out of the water. I can't say enough about Scott Main at Cam Research. The cam works VERY well, much better than the old Comp I did have in it. Next time out I'm going to have to watch the tach and hopefully the track will take the power. No matter what happened, it was nice to get back in the Maverick after being out of it for a few months. The sound of a cammed smallblock and 600+ horsepower combined with instant throttle response and the smell of alcohol sure cured the boredom of sitting & watching the rain fall
Glad you 2 had fun. I was going to come up there, but decided against it. I got the head back on my car, just gotta put manifold and find a carb for it. Hopefully I'll be there by 1/2 way thru first half. I sure do miss racing New brake shoes, bleeding lines, carb, putting in shifter and ignition box and I'll be ready hopefully. Just hope that tranny holds up. I got a couple spares sitting around so I may start a rebuild on it. Sorry for hijacking the thread, was just rambling. Glad you guys had fun and good to hear both motors seem to be doing good also.
Sounds awesome! Man I cannot wait to get mine back and get it to the track! Great stories Todd & Dave. You guys are so lucky to have each other at the track for support, friendship and fun!
