Raced my Fury in Roadkill Nights!

A few people have asked so I figure I'd share on the board. We all have to take up the slack with MoparBilly unable to tell stories anymore.

I haven’t made a pass down a dragstrip in something like 15 years. What better way to get back into it than street racing on Woodward with the Plymouth I bought earlier this year??

Quick background on the car, it's a '68 Fury III with a 10.5:1 446, ported 906's, 590 mopar cam, 850 double pumper, headers, 3.5" exhaust with flowmasters, 4.30 gears, a reverse manual valve body on the column, stock springs, a snubber, and 295/65/15 ET Street Radials. It's gone 12.70's before and usually hooks pretty good on the street.

Just getting up to tech on Friday was rough. I spent a couple nights a week over the month of July fixing oil leaks, putting Wilwood disc brakes on it, replaced the driveshaft and added 1350 u-joints, the oil pan, put a deeper trans pan on it, and other random maintenance stuff.

The car has been fine for months and then randomly ate an ignition rotor in traffic on M14. It then ate two more (one my fault, the other two still TBD), after frantic parts store runs and even getting a ride from a complete stranger to buy the last ones Advance Auto had in stock. We traced the problem to the distributor after using lifelines to multiple friends. A good friend came up to rescue us at 8 mile and Beech Daly in a shady gas station parking lot. We put together one “good” distributor between two sketchy ones. I can’t thank him enough for saving me, I wouldn’t have made tech that night and been able to race without him!

Rolled in with 45 minutes to spare and it seemed to be acting right again, that alone seemed like a victory!

Got back up on Saturday fashionably late and was pitted at the very end of the street. The road was sprayed but wasn’t as good as I expected. My car typically hooks ok on the street now with the new M/T’s but as the day went on it got worse. Messed with tire pressures and it got better towards the end.

It ran well for all the passes, hooked great on pass 1 and 2. Went 1-3 on my 4 races. Fun races against Garbage that Barfed (Drag Week regular) and my super cool pit friends from Appleton in their BBF swapped Lightning! Never met any of them before and he bought us all fried chicken from a gas station behind the fence, lol. I was pretty even with the Lightning, he runs consistent 12.50's. I spun badly on my third race, I think it was the combination of not re-checking tire pressure and also trying to launch it a little harder.

Got absolutely decimated on run 4, nice dude from Arkansas in his Hellcat with nitrous.

Met some awesome people, had a killer time, and have a few ideas of what I want to change for next year.

I am super impressed that so many people can get high powered cars down the street. The top 8 in small and big tire really, really know what they’re doing! There were dozens of cars that run 7's on the property and some 6 second stuff too.

As a random bonus for my second pass they installed gopros in our cars and it showed up on the livestream! The stream had connection issues for just that run so it ended up being choppy.

Great story!

Jim Pranis won quickest big tire Dodge again, 3rd year in a row!!!

Last pic from TurboTara on instagram and facebook. She has an old Mopar gasser style wagon among other cars too.

Not sure if the vid links will work, but this was my best and first run:

https://www.facebook.com/509140003/videos/4362893160431982/

Second run, choppy stream but with in car video:

https://www.facebook.com/509140003/videos/108283874809567/

Now that I'm hooked on racing again I'm going to have to make it quicker over the winter. Plan is to take it to the track once this fall to see if it still runs mid-high 12's, and if the suspension needs work. I think the long term goal will be putting caltracs on it with some real shocks, it definitely has windup issues even with the snubber and I've already tried clamping the front segments.

Also want to put a Holley Terminator X system on it, and then nitrous over the winter. I love the idea of using the fuel injection as a progressive nitrous controller, should help some with tuning it and hopefully will be a little easier on parts. Eventual goal is mid 11's, which is gonna be no small feat since it weighs close to 4500 pounds with fuel and my butt in the seat.

My first car was a 68 Fastop Fury. Spent many nights on Woodward and Gratiot.
Thanks for sharing!
Looks fun, you car runs and looks great!

Great story! Thank you for posting it.

That is awesome, thanks for taking the time to share.

Interesting car I saw it in the lanes. Unfortunately missed any runs.
Doug

Looks like you had a blast.

We did Roadkill Nights when it came to Kansas Speedway a few years back and had a great time.

Very cool Nick. Run it on drag week next year too so it can come see your Charger!

Thanks everybody! When I got back from the first pass my friend commented it was by far the happiest she'd ever seen me, lol.

It was a ton of fun and I'll do it again next year for sure. I also want to do drag week. This year the schedule is perfect but work is hosing me, and I also want to make the car quicker first. If it's in the midwest next year I'm going... really, really want to run it at GLD.

Doug- were you there racing with something? I didn't recognize any of the other Mopars there besides Jim's Charger. I was surprised at how many runs we got, heard horror stories of only being able to make 2-3 passes but I got 4 and could've gone up 6 times total, they were really hustling us through.



Definitely. I can't remember for certain but I think you guys left the rebuilt 440 in the Charger that came out of my '67 Imperial. The trans in this Fury is the 727 that I pulled out of that same Imperial, so they're related by organ donation!

Very cool thank you for posting the pics and story. That is such a cool car. I never would have thought the wo/ro scoop would look so good on that body style.

It will be interestung to see what improvements come with the suspension upgrades. You would think it would touch the 10s with a 175-200 shot.

Yes, it's still running that 440. I want to do 'more', but it's waiting behind getting my Fury running again with it's new 383 under the turbos and my Coronet through body and 5.7'ed.

Jeremiah, I agree. The whole thing is just a cool old school oddball musclecar/land yacht. Steve Magnate couldn't stop talking about it on the live feed, I think just because it was pretty unique compared to almost everything else there.

I dunno about 10's, but I will be happy if I can get it into the mid 11's, but it's going to need an easy extra 150-ish hp to get there. I really want to see what it runs now, if it's still at 12.70's or if it's improved any, before I do anything else with it. Need to start ordering parts now though since everything under the sun is on backorder!



Right on. We'll see what the Drag Week schedule looks like next year, but I definitely want to take it. We'll have to meet up for sure.

Garbage that barfed, Good guy right there.

great story nick thanks for mentioning me im going to do dragweek again not this year hope to go next year !!

Matt (Garbage that Barfed) was cool to talk to as well, I was pitted a couple cars back from him. I lost count of how many Drag Week people were there, was really awesome to see!

Jim, you've gotta update your signature! Add 2021 to it.

Super cool, thanks for posting!

What happened to charger?

Cool car! Congrats on getting in the program.

Very cool!

Thanks guys!! It was a riot and definitely a unique experience.



Furious70 has it now. I sold it to his dad not running shortly after I bought a house. It was completely rebuilt and is beautiful now. Mild 440 and a 5 speed.

That Fury is awesome! The picture of it leaving the line I have saved for a screen saver. Your car is incredible and please keep us posted on the upgrades. 8-71 maybe??

So glad you're back into it, buddy.

The Wallace calc says you only need 700fwhp to run a high ten fwiw. : D

It also says 12.70 @ 4500 lbs is 434fwhp. All you need to do is put some rings in it and open up the gap.

I'm helping I promise!

This fellow has the right idea!

Charger

Booo shoulda kept

What a nice read. Thanks for sharing.

Zippy, definitely. I love having something old to tinker with again.

Thanks again everybody, and the Charger is looking amazing like usual!!



My worry is high 10's is where everything else starts breaking at this weight. The 8 3/4, possibly the trans, and I also don't want to put a rollbar in it either. I think caltracs/monos/shocks for sure over the winter, and then either a head swap or SOME nitrous. Not ALL of the nitrous. lol

Is it really that heavy?
my 70 Fury was 4200lbs with me in it with a 383 with headers and a/c, no power windows/locks that sort of thing. Heavier with the turbo gear.

Supposedly it was weighed before and it was 4200# empty. I haven't confirmed that, but I also enjoy my beer and cheeseburgers, so it's pretty close to 4500 if that number was accurate. I can probably take it to scales at work at some point in the future, or if I bring it to a track this month.

You kind of have a point. : D

I forgot about the 8.75...i guess *next* winter it will be time for a Dana!

According to the ballers a 250 shot is just a whif lol. Just don't leave on it! Wait .2 seconds like I do : D

I see fury memes in your future sir.

Quick update: got it out to Norwalk Friday for their last T&T of the year, another friend/coworker was racing his n/a fox body Mustang so we cruised out there together.

Only got to make 2 passes due to a ridiculous number of bracket racers there for the race today and tomorrow, and also a couple oil downs and some other malfunctions.

Went 12.56 @ 107 with a little bog on my first pass, we ended up changing the accelerator pump cam and squirter on the primary side.

Second pass 3 hours later, the weather got a little better, and the bog I felt after the launch was gone too, but I also short shifted 2nd. Oops. That one was a 12.46 @ 108 with a 1.79 60'.

If we got a 3rd pass I was going to check plugs and try jetting it up some, but overall I'm pretty happy. Thinking with just tuning I might be able to get another tenth or two out of it, will try to get it to the track one more time before the season ends this year. Right now my fuel system is suspect so I'm curious to see what it does with jetting changes - it's currently the stock 5/16" line and a replacement mechanical pump from Autozone. lol

Nice!

5/16" is fine.

I assume you at least have something better than a $26 fuel pump though.

The Carter Street/Strip pump.

As long as it makes pressure 140 or 25 dollars is what it is. I used an edelbrock mechanical pump because it has the largest ports. Not sure if that that really makes a diffeeence, just my OCD kicking in. It was overly expensice and too shiny looking back. I have had good luck with the newer Carter mucle car pumps sold through summit.

Great results! That thing really moves out given it's hefty foot print.

Looking forward to the results if you can get it back out this fall.