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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Drag racing

I had me an old 1946 Plymouth business coupe.....that mean no back seat. It had a little 6 banger motor in it, but old Billy Bob don't do little 6 banger motors. So me and Gerry, an old high school buddy, yank the little 6 banger out and put in a fully "hop up" 1952 Ford flat head V-8 power plant out a wrecked drag car.....3 Stromburg carburetors, full race cam, Hurst shifter, modified exhaust system with 2 1/2 inch cutouts, cherry bomb mufflers....burnd out of course and the biggest back tires we could find at the local junk yards. Now let me tell ya, that sucker would turn some rpm's, burn some rubber....beautiful white smoke, eat up a 1/4 mile in nuttin flat.

Up on Trona hill is where we used to drag race. It was in a different county so we had no law enforcement to mess with us. "Corky" had a 1957 Chevy Bel Aire what he was sooo proud of....nobody could beat him in the quarter....that is until Billy Bob pull up to the line. We come off the line, tires a smok'n, gears grind'n...we was fly'n when we cross that finish line....Billy Bob with his old 1946 Plymouth coupe 2 car lengths in the lead.

Then come the day before the Nationals drag races in Inyokern, that old 1952 Ford flat head developed a knock. "What the hell was that"? So that night, with the help of bout 4 other of the guys, we tore that engine slap down to bare block....look'n for that knock. Weren't nuttin in there but big ol' high compression pistons star'n us in the face. So's we yank them out too. Got the local parts man out of bed and bought up all new bearings, wrist pins, head gaskets and a gasket set. By 4am we had completely rebuild that Ford flat head motor and crank 'er up. No knock.....yee haa.....we in business.

We tow that old 1946 Plymouth business coupe to the drag races.....12 mile down the road. If it had a paint job on it we would have not got so many laughs. It were an ugly green with grease all over the fenders and doors where we placed our nasty greasy hands the night before. Since it was a Nationals drag event, all cars had to be weighed and classed. I was classed 'D' gas. All was well until an inspection was made of the transmission. I had no scatter shield over the clutch and flywheel. Disqualified.....poooof, just like that. Damn!!!
Anyone remember the AA dragsters??? WOW....two 1500hp engines side by side in a dragster. That was a sight.

Got just a tiny bit of rain again last night. Not enough to notice unless ya was stand'n out in it. Brrrrrr....it was cold. Won't be long till the monsoon season starts, but I'll probably be in Texas somewhere's where there ain't no rain. Remember a couple year back when I had that "black cloud" over my head? Everywhere's I went, it rained. Wonder where that black cloud is when ya need it.

Speak'n of rain....ya recall last year bout this time, I salted my yard to kill the ground. Some of ya are still wonder'n if the salt killed the weed growth. Well, I don't know neither. With no rain, nuttin grows. Not even weeds.

Ok....more on "that" later.

4 comments:

  1. Dang, that is a shame. I bet you could have made a good showing in the race. I love drag racing, watch it on TV all the time, and have seats every year at the Top Fuel Nationals when they come to Baytown. What was your quarter mile times and speeds, if you ever checked them?

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  2. Back in them times there was no times and speeds. This was back in 1959 as I recall, before the christmas trees.
    My most exciting memory was when I heard this scream'n engine and up jumped a little Volks bug. My God, I'll never forget that. That was one hot little Volkswagen.

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  3. Well I am still interested in the salt project. Even with the drought those pesky mesquite trees and other desert plans wont stop growing :-(

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  4. Ahhh the speed of youth... now we are Older But Wiser


    Karen and Steve


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    ║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ 4th of July ☆ 2011
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