Just Thinking Of The OLD Days

When I was reading Dizuster cooking post of
the 2 weeks before the race fixing the car..
made me laugh a bit.. back when I was YOUNG I
remember it was always about Wednesday when my
buddies would think about going to Detroit Dragway
and wondered if I was going.. MANY times I would be
working on the car(street car back then, 62 Dodge Dart)
on till 12 or 1 in the morning on Thursday and Friday
to get it all ready to head out in the Saturday morning
getting a few hours of sleep before leaving.. still had
to work on Thursday and Friday and go to school... I use
to think it was a great time........ that was back then..
now days it takes longer to be ready

It sure does.
Especially with Children and business in the mix.
I'm just trying to get out out for a few stinking hours tomorrow and bring the car to a club meet and there always seems to be something that takes up the hours, minutes and micro seconds. Sometimes wish instead of creating the Hemi on the 7th day, that the powers that be, should have created 25 hours a day 8 days a week. LOL.

Our past is what makes us who we are today
I think all of us car nuts must have been more than a little crazy back then
Maybe age and experiences teach us what not to do, maybe not

not only does it take longer to get ready, it takes longer to get to the track, Wish Detroit was still open

I grew up working in the old school NY gas stations, which were more or less night time community meet centers. I remember plenty in nights working on my cars or others until 1,2,3 in the morning. The good old days...

Remember taking the 65 out with the straight axle under it.They wanted me to run altered.Made a few passes and watched the rest of the night.No helmets.harness etc.Back ten it was pretty simple.Probally dangerous also.Rocky

It was 1976 and my job kept me out of town Monday through Friday. I had bought a 1970 442 w30 with spun bearings for my wife's driver. Needless to say it took me several weekends to get it fixed and back together. We were planning a trip to the car craft street machine nationials and we intended to take the Olds as my driver was a Swinger with a 4 speed and 3.91 gear with our other car being an A12 bee. Neither one being a particularly good road car I feverishly worked on the Olds to get it ready for the deadline. I fired it up Sunday night the week before we needed to leave and it ran good and the cam broke in fine but oil pressure was low. I had installed a new oil pump and there had been two relief springs in the box with it. I had read the instructions and decided on the one spring. I was wrong, so here we were needing to leave on Friday and I'm going out of town on Monday. All week my head is spinning trying to figure out what to do. I finally decide if we get home at a reasonable time on Friday i will pull the pan if possible and change the spring. My Olds buddy says it will fix it. So on Friday at 6.00 in the afternoon I tackle it. After doing everything possible except pulling the engine, at 3:00 in the morning I fired it and oil pressure was great. I cleaned up, loaded the car and we were Tulsa bound. Adrenaline wore off in about 50 miles so the wife took over. I gave her instructions to watch the oil pressure and the temperature and I ameditely fell asleep. She woke me outside Oklahoma city needing directions. I woke up and looked at the speedometer and it was setting on 90. I said your running 90? She said yea she had to slow down as she was coming into Oklahoma City. Must have not hurt it as we drove the wheels off it for a couple years and I gave it to my brother when we got a new car.

I bought a 70 442 w-30 4 speed when I came home from
Nam.. was a real quick car with a little work... it
was right out of the GM tech center that some hot
shot owned
EDIT
was a real early build.. still had the vent windows

Good that you made it back from 'nam to even enjoy some part of this car culture and remember it.

I had an insanely quick bone stock 4 door 70' olds that had a unique 350 Rocket with a rumpity-rump idle to it. It was quick off the line and ran out quite a few unsuspecting bullies at the haunts.
Found out that it was a special order executives car from Olds.

Anyway, made it out today to the show and time of course ran right by us all.
Comfort, good security and some bank makes days longer and nights shorter it seems.

Thanks... I did get shot up 3 times.. when I finally
got home my brother crashed my Nova so I had to look
for a car.. my buddy told me about the 442 and where
it came from and I bought it... raced it in Alabama
on 1/8mile tracks.. was the quickest car on Fort Bening
and I sold it down there and picked up a real nice 69 Dart
GT

Anyone remember these from elementary school?

I had the flip top desk with the ink well holder
(no thats not a cup holder to the younger group)
but it didnt look just like those desk

Was walking the dog and happened to see this out by the street. I remember sitting at those exact seats in elementary school. Yeah, like kids these days would know what an inkwell is. They removed cursive (script) writing from schools in my area. Seems like the art of penmanship is going away.

My wife has beautiful penmanship and all I do is
print so you can read it

I remember my grandmother doing Caligraphy freehand. We have lot porters that park the cars. I can't even read the parking spot they write on the tags, and it's only 1 letter with a 2 digit number.

I had to do freehand calligraphy in grade school. We also had to use ink, write cursive and got graded on it.

Today, not so much. I'm told they are not teaching cursive, printing only. I have no idea why.

Pretty much why I'm putting a bench seat and back seat in my car. I pulled the race 5-speed and clutch,pulled the spool,changed to a street HEMI pan,put 4 new street tires on,and I'm running tailpipes out to the bumper.
My wife and I were talking about when I used to have a lot more fun when my car was slower and I was chasing trophies instead of lower ET's.
So I'm going back to racing just for the pure fun of collecting trophies and see if I can bring the fun back when Dragway 42 re-opens in the spring. Back in the 80's I would just throw a cooler and an old pair of slicks in the trunk and change at the track.
It will be nice to get back to basics

Gus

I am not young, but we still do it the hard way at times. Been many a race in the not so distant past when I had a bare block hanging on the stand on Thursday and we had to be several hundred miles away by Friday. We always make it. Can always rest when you're dead............LOL!!!!

Last race at SGMP, we dropped a valve on Wed testing. Pulled the motor, drove it to Ky, got it repaired and were in the lanes Friday morning at 10am for a qualifying shot

A few years ago I was getting ready to go to Norwalk
and freshened up the engine and made a couple changes..
went to fire it up on Thursday and it had low oil pressure
so I started tearing it down.. seen that when I changed
over to a gear drive it didnt cover the front oil galleys
so I had to pull the engine and pull it all down so I could
clean it after drilling and tapping the end of the galley..
had it all done and back in the car and running that same
day and loaded in the trailer so I could head out in the
morning.. sure was busting butt

When I was in my mid 20's I had a 340 duster that would eat 904 high gear clutches on a regular basis. Went to a party on a Thursday night, and gave someone a (sober) ride in the car. Sure as hell ate up the high gear clutch and started slipping.

Unfortunately this was at about 1am the night before we were leaving for a NSCA race in Cordova, Il. Went home, pulled the car on the trailer, and dug out enough parts to rebuild the trans.

Drove 7 hours to get there, and never even started the car up. Just pushed it off the trailer, and ripped the trans out. For those of you who've never been to Cordova, the track sits right on the Missisippi between Illinois and Iowa. One of the most miserable humid experiances of my life.

Got the trans out, rebuilt the trans in the pits, and got it back in for Saturday Qualifying. Ended up winning the race on Sunday!!! Can't believe I'd do something like that now... lol

My first great day at the track! 1973 Minnesota KDWB drag festival, bracket 2. Got there very early, and it was a zoo. I told the tech guy pass my car, and I am out of your hair. He was looking really frustrated, and did just that! I had a 69 Charger RT 440 auto, running mid twelves. I got two time trials before anybody else was in line, and some guys never got a time trial. Bracket two, very large field, seven rounds at least. My father in law said before I went "you will never win anything". I brought home first place money in bracket 2, and he didn't have much to say.
Second most memorable event;
Eddyville Iowa, 2000. A local hot shoe was looking for a duck, and picked me. I knew this guy, and he thought I would be easy pickings. That peed me off, so I rolled another .005 out of the box and staged. My .020 light to his .019, he went .005 under, I went .001 under for the win. The best part of that race was that win for me broke a twenty five round win streak for him. A lesson I never forgot; NEVER offend an opponent, it sharpens them up!

You guys have some hardcore stories.

Not really the old days but in September 2010 I had a freeze plug shoot out of my motor in 2nd gear at the Norwalk Chrysler Classic race in my '69 Dart, almost crashed the car as it made an immediate left turn for the wall.
I was slightly traumatized by that but 340Rick and BondoBob stuck a new freeze plug in there for me and the next day I went to the final round in the 10.00 Shootout! The final was ran at 5:15am Sunday so I slept badly on the light.

Back in the '70s spent many long nights on a Vette drag car instead of sleeping, towed it a few hours to its debut race, and when it kicked a rod my 2nd thought was that I finally could get some sleep. Rebuilt a sprint car ground-up in a motel parking lot one night. Had to drop the 180 header setup & change the clutch in a TransAm Javelin in between sessions. Another T/A car, we went 3 days & nights straight wrapping it up before a 4-hour tow pre-dawn; we were literally holding tools and asking where they were, but the car qualified well and ran well until the driver brain-faded & did some off-roading...and he was the only one getting some sleep.
And I'd probably do it again, so I guess I must like a battle.

I remember when I was 18 or so we used to meet up in parking lots on some of the coldest nights of the year and get together to talk cars or race while warming our hands on some long tubes. This lead to a lot of wrenching outdoors in some bitter weather.

I remember one time myself and 540Challenger did an entire suspension overhaul front and rear on my Impala SS at night in a blizzard. We kept having to shovel the snow out from under the car while working and the we couldn't even fit some of the bolts back through the holes without heating the metal up with a torch.

We ended up finishing it up, but I think it took 5 years off the life of my joints LOL

Until that day, I never really had a problem with working on my cars in driveways, in the dark, in poor weather etc... After that, it suddenly became a lot more important to me to not take on projects in conditions that wouldn't* make me hate the hobby. Yet here I am about to drop my engine in my E body in a tent rolling deeper into December.

Brings back a memory in 1967 of helping put a driveline into a 56 Belair body with my budry Fred in the snow. It was below zero true temp back in ND at the time. That car provided a warm place for dates with his girl friend. They had to get married in May!😂😂😂😂😂

SGcuda we had them at the one school I went to.My old man was born in 1920 and he went to the same school I did and I was born 30 years later.Rocky

In 69 the AHRA Midwest division 5 finals were held in Kansas city Ka. We left the Chicago area Friday morning and got as far as Pontiac Illinois before the clutch went out on our tow vehicle ( 1960 Chevy Nomad wagon - 348 with 3 on the tree ). We disconnected it from the trailer along side the road and limped it in to town to find a parts store. First place we hit had a clutch and pressure plate in stock ( if you could believe that!). Jacked up the wagon, pulled the trans, and changed the clutch on the side of the road. We were back on the road in about a couple of hours. UGH!!!!