|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
#160609
12/04/08 07:15 PM
12/04/08 07:15 PM
|
Anonymous
OP
Unregistered
|
Anonymous
OP
Unregistered
|
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
#160610
12/04/08 08:38 PM
12/04/08 08:38 PM
|
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 633
NY/NJ
DV8
mopar addict
|
mopar addict
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 633
NY/NJ
|
Great stories & times but I'm suprised at your ages back then that none of you were in Vietnam during that period?
Steve
"The function of man is to live, not exist..."
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
[Re: Billy B Bad]
#160612
12/04/08 11:16 PM
12/04/08 11:16 PM
|
Anonymous
OP
Unregistered
|
Anonymous
OP
Unregistered
|
Akron Arlen Cuda. I agree this will be a great place to also share pics of these cars.  
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
#160613
12/04/08 11:49 PM
12/04/08 11:49 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 11,541
In Limbo
Billy B Bad
I Live Here
|
I Live Here
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 11,541
In Limbo
|
Quote:
Akron Arlen Cuda.
I agree this will be a great place to also share pics of these cars.
Arlen is the guy I have got to know (borrowed photo).
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
[Re: Billy B Bad]
#160614
12/05/08 10:45 AM
12/05/08 10:45 AM
|
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,752
detroit area
moderncylinder
top fuel
|
top fuel
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,752
detroit area
|
arlen cam back to racing about 10 years ago,, i did his heads and manifold work for super stock,, he raced a 65 car in nostalgia super stock at the nsca/nmca races that belonged to tony depillo.
i remember arlen telling me back when,, 72 or something,, they had a meeting of pro stock guys with nhra,, the hemi cars were the ones to beat and one of the chevy, pontiac, or something,, a gm guy said they needed to put weight on the hemi cars,,, that all he was looking for was a fair advantage.. after that they put the weight on.
i never talk to older guys about days gone by,, spehar is supposed to stop by my shop today, and george delorean stops by here every other saturday or so,, i think im going to start getting some history lessons,, though i must say,,, spehar,,, delorean,, and even maskin do not like to sit around and talk about the past.
jeff
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
[Re: unknown]
#160619
12/09/08 10:15 AM
12/09/08 10:15 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 67
Howell, MI
Mopar Missile JP
Back To The 70s With J.P.
|
Back To The 70s With J.P.
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 67
Howell, MI
|
Quote:
Hey Joe , You said Don Carltons shop was close to Mike Fons Shop, Where. I know Mikes old shop was in Troy, MI. A old freind of Mike and Kenny told me they use to watch movies out the back door of his shop, coming from a drive in theater. Are you involved in racing any more? Oh yea, I here there might be a 70s pro-stock class forming, what do you think  More to come, now back to work on my car 
Our shop (Carlton's) was on a street called Elmwood in Troy MI. It was just 2 doors down from where Trick Titanium now resides. Fons' shop was about 2 miles away on a street that paralleled I-75. When I worked for Fons that was the shop we had moved to when we moved the shop from his house to a commercial building.
Currently I spend a small bit of time doing autocross and road racing with occasional trips to the drag strip. Everything I do comes out of the general "fund" and living and working in the Detroit area is real hit or miss right now.
I know about the possibility of a 70's class forming in Pro Stock and it would be fun to see. With the economy in the dumper right now it may or may not be able to get a foothold. Also, for safety and cost reasons there will need to be some deep thought put into the structure / organization of this series. Maybe it should be structured like the United States Racing Team was back in 1972 with 16 cars (4 Chevys, 4 Fords, 4 Dodges, 4 Plymouths)???
Joe Pappas
Joe Pappas
MOPAR MISSILE
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe Pappas (Missile Team) Q & A Thread
[Re: B Dartman]
#160620
12/11/08 07:58 PM
12/11/08 07:58 PM
|
Anonymous
OP
Unregistered
|
Anonymous
OP
Unregistered
|
Hey Joe, Hope all is going well on your vaction/trip to Fla. Sure you have been super busy.  Had a member ask on another thread about the 72 Cuda. Where it is now, why still sitting unrestored, any other info about the past few years ect. of its "under 3' of snow" life. Or possibly even Stewart could fill us in, as I am sure he knows the facts, ect. 
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe Pappas (Missile Team) Q & A Thread
#160624
12/13/08 07:23 PM
12/13/08 07:23 PM
|
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 28
columbus oh
moparrob
member
|
member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 28
columbus oh
|
Hey Joe, REALLY glad you have decided to join our little crazy club. What type of HP do you feel the HEMI P/S cars were making in the 72-74 seasons.? If Fons ran a 8.550 in 1975 @ 2250lbs. He must have been getting around 750HP+. 
Rule #1 - - - MOPAR or NO car
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
[Re: B Dartman]
#160625
12/14/08 11:14 AM
12/14/08 11:14 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 67
Howell, MI
Mopar Missile JP
Back To The 70s With J.P.
|
Back To The 70s With J.P.
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 67
Howell, MI
|
Quote:
Joe,
1) What are your thoughts on today's highly sponsored driven Pro category drag racing culture?
2) Is it where you would have hoped to see the sport grown to or does it miss the mark that your generation of racers set forth with in the 70's?
3) Today the Pro categories are thinning in numbers and suspect the economy could in fact cripple current sponsorships....what were common numbers of cars that would show up to qualify in those days
Thanks for taking the time for some questions us "kids" with inquiring minds would find fascinating to know!! 
1) I think today's sponsorship environment is just the evolution of what we experienced in the 70's. If you look back to those times, we (the Missile crew) had Chrysler Mopar Parts as our primary sponsor with associate sponsorships from Lee Eliminators, Trick Titanium, Fenton, etc. Certainly the dollars involved in those days were much different than today but none the less they were needed. The primary difference we had was Chrysler's money. They funded just about everything for us from salaries to parts. The top teams of the era had backing in one way or another from the factories. Either they were given parts or parts and cash. The regional PS racer of the day pretty much had to look for help from local entities like dealers or speed shops for help. Today, the costs of running in the pro categories is astronomical. To show up and be competitive takes tons of talent and tons of cash. Often, talent is more plentiful than the cash. Thus the need for the deep pocket sponsorships. I don't have a crystal ball that would predict the "look" of today without the big sponsorship dollars but things would most probably be downsized from what we now see.
2) Yes, I like what I see in the Pro ranks today. The technologies being utilized by these racers is really amazing and like I said above is the evolution of what was pioneered in the 70's. The impact of television has really helped but as everyone knows, drag racing is really tough to package into a 2-3 hour segment like NASCAR so there is an "impact" loss for the viewer. Drag racing needs to be experienced in person. The sights, sounds, and smells are what capture the excitement. If the industry can figure out how to make it more affordable to take your family out to the track then maybe it can grow even more and launch the next generation of racers.
3) Today we qualify 16 cars to make up the field in the pro ranks. In the 70's the fields were typically made up of 32 cars. I am not sure of the dates when this changed but it makes a lot of sense. I don't remember how many cars would be sent home as non qualifiers in those days but I would guess that there were not too many. The fact of the matter was the spread between the #1 qualifier and the #32 qualifier could have been as much as a full second or more!!! Today, these classes see the full field qualify within a couple of hundredths!
Joe Pappas
MOPAR MISSILE
|
|
|
Re: Official Joe PAPPAS Q & A Thread
[Re: moderncylinder]
#160626
12/14/08 11:51 AM
12/14/08 11:51 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 67
Howell, MI
Mopar Missile JP
Back To The 70s With J.P.
|
Back To The 70s With J.P.
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 67
Howell, MI
|
Quote:
i have a question that may shed some light on some things... spehar never likes to talk about old stuff,, i think he thinks its outdated,, but i dont know..
in talking to ted i believe he said that the missle was the first car to have titanium spring retainers on it and that before that they had to change the retainers every other run or something,, runing aluminum ones.
what innovations or technological advances did you see or partake in with the missle's early pro stock cars that is still around today, changed the course of racing, by making things faster or last longer, or is still used in average bracket cars to pro stock cars of current day.
jeff
I see Ted several times a year and have known him for nearly 40 years so the things we talk about and how we talk about old and new stuff may be a little different than your experience.
Anyway, getting back to your question on innovations the things I remember the most was the use of titanium not only in the valve spring retainers but throughout the car. We used titanium to replace steel for nuts, bolts, fabricated assemblies, brackets, you name it...
Another thing that sticks in my mind was that Ron Killen created our crank trigger ignition. Those early pieces were machined to his specificatons and we utilized this system on all the engines. We typically had a 10 degree start position and once the engine fired we would throw a switch to our "run" position for full advance.
Ron also set us up with data aquistion equipment for the Missile. I really do not think that anyone used this stuff back then. To say the least it was cumbersome. We had a couple of wire bundles that had to be at least an inch in diameter coming from the recorder that was in the trunk into the cockpit to another box which I think acted like a big splitter. From there the wires went out to the transducers located around the vehicle to pick up data we wanted to monitor. I think we could only record 6 items per run so this was a pretty crude setup. After each run, we removed the tape from the recorder in the trunk (reel to reel) and played it back in Killen's truck plotting it out on a strip chart recorder. Hoover, Coddington, Adam, and Killen would then sort out what we did with corrections for weather. Crude but very effective...
Joe Pappas
Joe Pappas
MOPAR MISSILE
|
|
|
|
|
