Everyone tells me to stand somewhere else when I wear that shirt.

Cool pics and write up, I really need to run Drag Week, its got to be a blast.

Awsome pics! Looks like a good time too. I thought I was doing good driving 90 miles to the track today, making a few passes and driving home in my 68 dart, I couldn't imagine what drag week would be like!

Squirrel! You're here! Your 2015 drag week story is Epic, driving your gasser from AZ with your son, changing the fragged blower without breaking the seal on the hood, winning your class! You have got be on cloud 9.

Nick, all the pics were taken in high resolution, I just shrunk them down for uploading to the internet. I can email some, or if there is an easyer way, let me know.

This Hemi powered Cuda rumbled by when we were parked in Hannibal, so we had to track him down and talked with the driver for a while.



There was a statue of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer there too. (they are the 2 upper guys on the slab, not the lower in front of the GTX)



On the way home, the GTX turned over to 50,000 miles. There goes the resale value.

Still amazed To see a rare classic getting used the way God, and Ma Mopar intended!

Awesome post and pics ! Thanks for this post. Your car looks great and runs good for its combo. I would love to see some pics of the Shelby's cammer eng and here some of the specs on that cammer's build. You dont see many cammer's today but they are a cool eng and make a ton of power. Thanks again for the story and great pics. Ron

Ron, there are tons of pictures and details on Jays web forum. www.fepower.net.

Joel's GTX convert is by far the quietest convertible I have ever ridden in. Not a squeak, rattle or any flapping from the top. We put on 2366 miles that week, and while riding shotgun you would have never guessed a HEMI was under the hood, until a free dinner was at stake...

Billy, I just cant not drive it. I love driving cool old cars. The car is very well cared for, I don't want any harm to come to it. But I would feel worse if it sat in a dark garage forever unused than if something bad did happen to it while being used the way it was intended.
I'm more scared of leaving it overnight in the hotel parking lot than going down the drag strip. But I took precautions when parking it overnight.
On the track, I never lined up against one of the berzerko overpowered cars. If I had, I'd have held back and let them make a single.
Thankfully, everything went ok.

Yeah, it was quite a trip! and it starts over again at the end of October...Drag Weekend! starts in Tucson (my home track) and ends in Los Angeles. Of course I signed up as soon as I could. and missed out on the $50 discount they gave us in the goody bag at DW.

mopar content...fired up my wife's 70 Dart on Monday, and we drove it to the car club meeting. It still runs.

I shot a short video of Tom Bailys winning Camaro leaving the small gas station. What a hoot to see a car that has gone mid 5's at 250, driving on the street!

https://youtu.be/uDTkD9DGles

Backing up a bit to a couple pictures that didn't upload right before, here is the Lenco transmission in the 57 chev. There was a twin turbo LS under the hood. (too bad it wasn't a Hemi!) Someday, I hope to have a Lenco in something that I drive.



All the tracks were awesome, but Great Lakes stood out for it's historic look and abundance of fans. The old tower stands in contrast to the mega towers with their air conditioned suites at the more modern tracks.



On the way home, we passed up Kevin and his Shelby. Jeff was hoping to bum a ride in the Shelby for a short segment of Drag week, as Kevin was running sans trunk monkey. But that was not possible. A GT500 does not have much of a trunk, so Kevin had the slicks, most of his tools, supplies, spare parts, and luggage all crammed into the interior. I applaud him for running without a trailer, that's cool. It was out of necessity that his setup looked like the garbage car of a poor homeless guy. He had only a little cocoon like hollow spot to sit in, every other square inch was crammed!



When we finally got back to our home town in Minnesota, I made a turn that Jeff wasn't expecting. But he figured it out about a minute later. After all the fun stops taking pictures of various out of town monuments and oddities, it wouldn't seem right not to stop at our own:



This is my last update, I'm out of material. As usual, now I wish I would have taken more pictures. Drag week 2015 was great! The tracks were top notch, and very well organized, the routes were great, with very little freeway time and lots of back roads, the weather was as good as it's ever been for Drag Week that I can remember. And of course the cars, the racers, and all the people involved are what really makes it great. I can't wait for next year! Joel

I did get to ride in Kevin's car when we dropped off his truck and trailer in impound. Not too often you get to ride in a 67 HEMI GTX convert and a 67 GT 500 in the same day.

67 was a good year...

Well... To inform Moparts members on 2016 plans. Joel is making me buy my own seat to sit in his HOT ROD. And he calls me cheap...

Well, not exactly. I did offer an upside down milk crate...

Here is the interior of Kevins car, ready for the road!





Here is all the stuff that he squeezed into that little Shelby:

Does anyone around Columbus know if there is a Texas Roadhouse near by? I have a feeling I have a steak dinner owed to me...

There are 4 locations in Columbus

Isn't there like 3 whole months to go? Billy can pull a shell of a car out of a field 2 weeks prior to the event and be in the tech line with 5 minutes to spare! Joel's car is way further ahead!

Let's see... Windows, seat mounts, floor pans, windows, wiring, brakes, get the 392 running, plumbing, build headers,etc. With roughly 120 days to go, that is a tall order. Joel is sending the car out for most of that stuff next week. He is super busy with work, family and driving his parade cars across the country. As much as I should be helping him, I just do not have the spare time. I'm really just trying to get him busy on it, as I know he wants to take the Hot Rod to Drag Week pretty bad, and NOTHING would be more heart breaking then having to buy me a steak dinner.

I took 5 weeks off of work in January - February to try to finish the 31 coupe for drag week 2016, and to beat Jeff out of a dinner. I was going to spend a week or so assembling and dynoing the 392 hemi, then 3 - 4 weeks making major progress on the chassis and body. As usual, lost parts, (launched a circlip, never to be found, had to order a new one from diamond) stuff that didn't fit right, machining the rods for side clearance, cutting the main stud girdle for stroker clearance, remodeling the oiling system, setting up my ridiculous 8 carb intake, etc slowed down the assembly, and I took way more than a week but I got it done, and put it in Jays dyno hoping for big power numbers. (BTW, Jays 427 SOHC Ford headers fit with just re-drilling some holes )



Made some check out pulls, then some full throttle pulls, increasing the rpm a little more each time. The oil got milky, changed the oil. After the 1st 6000 rpm pull, I cooled if off an lashed the valves. Went to restart it, and it hydrolocked. Found water in #8. Pulled the head and #8 cylinder wall was cracked. Figured it was a head gasket issue. Pulled it off the dyno, tore it apart, found shot rod bearings from the wet oil, had the #8 bore sleeved, pressure tested the block, took great care with the copper head gaskets when re-assembling, put it back on the dyno, made several pulls, but again milked out oil. Pulled the heads, brought them to a head shop and had them pressure tested and milled .003 for flatness, put heads back on with thread orings around each water hole in the heads and block, put it together, filled it with water and pressure tested it, leaks, pulled it apart, new custom head gaskets with all the un-needed holes gone, extra-extra carefull assembly with permatex red coppercoat. Mounted a radiator sytem on the dyno to use a closed cooling sytem so I could put moroso ceramic seal in it. Pressure tested with no leaks, made some pulles testing 3 intakes and dialing the carbs on the 8 carb intake. filled the oil pan with water again. Now my 5 weeks was gone, no work done on the car, and a broke motor.

Last night I finally started working on the motor again, and found a crack in the #8 intake port in the head that leads to water. I poked it with a probe, and it went right thru. Why didn't the head shop that did the pressure test find this and save me 3 weeks of chasing a head gasket problem????





Sent the head off today to get repaired. Like jeff said, I'm going to pay someone to get stuff done on the car that I had planned to do on my time off, while I re-do the motor. Will it be ready for drag week? Who will buy dinner? And what about Naomi?