You, my friend, are a wordsmith! Love reading your stuff!

I'm envious...

I also recognized the Horn's Challenger from this link on Hughes' web site.

Hope mine launches that hard when it's back on the track!

I bet he's been hearing THAT for years!

Yeah Brad,
The Horn family impressed with those launches!! Hard to believe they completed the entirety of Drag Week on race gas...had to be a hefty bill, but it paid off with a class win!

In 1989, I made a deal with the Devil that I would give up street cars, and only have a trailered race car, in exchange she would support my racing hobby. I honored that agreement until 2009, when I informed my loving wife that I was putting the Valiant on the street. I woke up the next morning, so I figured she was ok with it.

November 1st was my 50th birthday, so I loaded up in the Valiant, and headed to the local cruise spot behind a Mexican bar and grille. It was a fun evening of catching up with some old friends, and by old, I mean, as I sat there with my huge goblet of seafood ceviche, I quickly realized that at 50, I might have been the youngest patron in the establishment!

The next weekend I was over at Rachael's, and one of her roommates is a big guy in his 40's who does dialysis three times a week, and loves to regale me with stories of the 455 Pontiacs he had in high school.
I coerced him into a ride in the Valiant, and after 3 or 4 first and second gear squirts he was laughing and carrying on about how great if felt to really get smacked in the backside again!! I've always loved making memories for others... it's one of the gifts of the car hobby that should never be taken for granted!

DW is not DW without the whole clan there.Rachel wanting to go faster,your brothers waiting til the last minute and your dad just shaking his head.LOl.Sitting here looking at my "Good Luck" wrist band that Steves family gave me.I only wear it one week a year.Your family is the "Spirit of DragWeek".And your story telling is ok.LOL

On November 15th, I finally got the opportunity to take the Valiant back to the drag strip, and it was important to me that I drove it out there. The 33 mile trip from my house to Wild Horse Motorsports Park went off without a hitch, but driving through the gate did cause a stir. You get numb to the fast street cars driving into racetracks on Drag Week, as it's part and parcel to the event. Show up on a regular bracket day, find a pit spot, and start unloading your trunk full of tools, and uncorking your car, and it draws quite a few curious onlookers!

Most of Drag Week, I had struggled with a hesitation at the hit of the throttle that had kept my 60ft. times mostly in the mid 1.50s. After I got home I had made a squirter change that seemed to alleviate the problem.
My first run back on AZ soil, I left at 2500 on the foot brake, and the Valiant responded with a nice wheelie and a 1.466 60ft., it seemed to level off at about 1000ft. and we ran 10.612 at 124.76

The second shot was a "Run for the money", so you are required to put on a dial-in. I borrowed some shoe polish and scrawled 10.58 on the windshield, that got me quite a few more questions about the car in the staging lanes.

This time the thing kept the front tires up for quite a ways, and gave me a great 1.427 60ft. Then the driver hamfisted the Cheetah shifter and went first to third and ruined the run! I settled for a 10.75-122.98, and as I dropped it into low to pull away from the timing booth, it wouldn't move. I acted as if the trans brake was applied, so I shifted to second, then drive, and the car finally moved forward.

Back in the pits, I ran it through the gears, and it acted as if the transbrake was always applied. I walked over to the Downing's pit and discussed it with them.
"Front clutch pack is welded together...or the piston his hung up", Brian concluded.
"So..is it safe to put in 3rd, and limp it home?"
"Yeah, you wont hurt anything that isn't already hurt."

So, my day was done, and so was the 904, but we made it home in one piece.

A couple of weeks later, the Valiant was moved to it's "Holding Cell" under the carport, where it always ends up when something is broken.

After some discussions with others, I decided on a few upgrades to the trans, and ordered the 300M input shaft, and hardened pump gears with the wider lugs, from A&A. Surprisingly I received a call from them a few days later, to explain that I needed to use the .030 washer they were including, if running a stock drum. Very impressed with their customer service.

Ordering parts is easier than working on the car though...and this picture was taken Feb. 1st, and I still didn't even have it on jack stands!

Second pic is of tubular K for turbo toad. I wanted it because it opened up much more space around the oil pan, making it much easier to remove, and install the engine, also will make it easier to install a diaper or pan for oil retention.

Dang.... I sold a diaper that fit that pan. Have you had Rachel drive ole blue since you "discovered" the new tune up? Wish I was a bit closer.... I've got a couple carbs that would be fun to play with on that combo.

Bump!!

Hey, you're a good writer. Your stuff is readable and interesting. If I had a magazine I'd be looking for a column from you.

The Valiant takes me back.....my grandfather sold Plymouths and DeSotos. His first new car after a couple of Plymouth fin cars was a white Valiant that looked exactly like yours did before modification. He'd always tell us to watch for him winking as he drove away, he'd use the turn signal for the wink.

R.

Rachael and the 67 Belvedere

We returned from Drag Week 2014 with one thing in the back o my mind..."Why hadn't the 2.76 to 3.55 gear change helped the Belvedere as well as it did the Satellite the year before?"

All the feedback I could get from my lovely daughter and her sailor mouth was "It has no balls this year dad!"

There was also the lighting issue, with the brake lights and turn signals bleeding over that I hadn't dealt with yet.

So, other than a few drives to work, the Plymouth was mostly ignored while I finished my story, and played with the Valiant.

When Boone, Mom, and Dad came out for Christmas and New Years, Boone and I used the Belvedere every day, so my interest was re-kindled.

30 days......

Kinda let this drop away because of a the lack of communication from my brothers. I've asked them repeatedly for pictures of their progress, and time slips from their trips to the track, and I'm getting nothing in return!

That stinks, gravy the whip and get them going. Would love to see you righting again.

Yeah,
I know.

Everyone always asks why I don't write for magazines, or do blogs. Well this is why. Overcoming "The Wall" in a Marathon is way easier than tackling a bad case of writer's block. I like to do things in chronological order, but that is tough when I'm trying to catch up with ten months of automotive treachery.

One of the things that have lead to my overwhelming frustration is that I have misplaced the Log Books I started for both the Belvedere and the Valiant at last years Drag Week, and half the time slips were still in them.

Anyway, since Rachael had all the seat time in the Belvedere, I decided I needed to test it some on my own, and see why we had failed to run the consistent 11.50s I felt it should be capable of, I decided the best way to test it would be to drive to MATS, race, and drive home.

I drove it back and forth to work for a week, leading up to the trip, just to make sure it was ready, and of course, once again, my resolve to be a law abiding citizen was tested.

The drive is 17 miles, on city surface streets, with three lanes in one direction, arrow straight, and stop lights every mile section, speed limit varies from 40 to 45. Four miles into the drive I pick up an admirer. It's a 30 something couple in a new SS Camaro, they have the windows down and are listening to the pipes, and their daughter keeps scooting forward in her booster seat to peer out the quarter glass at me. I start hanging on to first till about 3500 with the RMVB, while he would row through the gears. 6 miles later, we pull up to the next light, at the front of the traffic...and a cop come off a side street and pulls in behind me. 2 miles later the cop hangs a right and is out of the picture. I've only got 1 mile section left by the time we catch another light, but I have one car in front of me in the middle lane. The right lane driver appears to be ready to turn however, so I may have an opening. When the light changes we start our established routine of accelerating away at normal speed, and sure enough the right lane opens up, and I move over, still in low, and ease up even with the Camaro, as the tach needle swung past 3500, and they didn't hear me shift, they both looked over, and the nose of the Camaro lifted up...The dirty dog got the jump on me!! By the time the 440 was at full song, the SS was 3/4 of a car on me. When the tach hit 6K, I had made that up, and the bottom of second put the Belvedere out as much, then stretched it to a car by the time I shifted to third and let out of it, realizing we were about a quarter of a mile ahead of the traffic we left the light with! I made a right at the next light, and he made a left, the last thing I saw was his wife and Daughter smiling at me, with their thumbs up...I love this country!

Getting seat time in the Belvedere wasn't my only motivation for attending MATS...I HAD to get my son moving on his 76 Fury Sport. We had purchased it 18 months earlier, but since he couldn't get it though emissions, he hadn't tagged and titled it yet.

I actually convinced him to make the trip on a 30-day permit, and while his ET's were very disappointing for a factory 400 car, the trip provided the necessary kick in the tail! It was tagged a week later, and has been his Daily driver ever since.

Is this going to be the year that your Dad and brothers have to wait on you and Rachael? LOL