Cars..

[John Ranalletta]

3 hours ago, roadscholar said:

That's pretty cool. On second thought it’s damn cool. Surprisingly, growing up in Daytona in the 60's I never knew anyone with a Cobra, there may have been one or two lurking but we never saw one, sure heard about them though. There were a few NASCAR connected speed shops so you'd think somebody had one. Ray Fox (Junior Johnson's crew chief/engine builder), Smokey Yunick,  Red Farmer, and I'm sure others but never saw one.  When I blew up the engine in my first 356 my step dad took it to Red Farmer to have it replaced, he did a great job probably having never worked on a Porsche before. Came across this story about Red, it's kind of long but well written with good insight into the life of a 'never say die' race car driver. 

 

https://bittersoutherner.com/red-farmers-unfinished-race#.X6rOiWhKjIV

 

Also if anyone's traveling thru the Smoky Mtns on I-40 the Floyd Garrett museum is def worth a stop. Floyd used to have a trucking business in Fernandina Bch, one day in the mid 80's he let a few of us visit his collection. At the time he had I think three garages at his house with about seven cars, they were all some kind of factory race cars in perfect condition including a couple Ford Thunderbolts, Chevy's, and Dodge's from the early/mid 60's. Most of them had aluminum bumpers and fiberglass hoods, I never even knew those cars existed until then. He fired them up for us, it was pretty awesome.

 

https://musclecarmuseum.com/

 

  Edit: I messed up, after thinking about it and a little more research it wasn’t Red Farmer but Red Vogt that repaired the Porsche, he had a shop behind the speedway in those days. You know what they say about the 60’s, if you remember them you weren’t there : ) I’m leaving the story about Red Farmer because it’s a good one, the one about Red Vogt isn’t bad either.

 

https://www.onedirt.com/features/my-dad-founded-nascar-an-interview-with-little-red-vogt/

 

 

 

During our drag racing days in Illinois, we met Stan Lomelino.  https://dragracingonline.com/2017/april/then-and-now.html

 

Stan built and raced a flathead dragster.  He'd tow with an old Ford coupe - also a flathead.  He was known to salvage parts from the tow car during events to keep the dragster going.  Built a twin flathead machine as well.  My friend and later, groomsman, ran a 32A flathead and Stan was a treasure of flathead knowledge.

 

 

 

I visited his welding/repair shop where he was putting a bead of weld on the edges of plow shares to harden them.  He demonstrated his home-built dynamometer - a 50 gallon drum buried under the concrete floor with a psi gauge and a pump to which he could attach a motor via a short driveshaft.

 

I didn't realize then I was in the company of greatness. 

[roadscholar]

Speaking of lightweight Fords this vid popped up in my feed, one of Floyd Garrett's cars was a 63 Galaxie just like it.  Probably wouldn't have noticed or watched it except the little yellow 911 in the background caught my eye, I'm pretty sure it's my old '72 911S 2.5 (predecessor to the 73 RSR). I raced it in historic racing for about 15 years, it was a great car and had some epic battles with it. I know it ended up in England, some guy in a rock band bought it. 

 

Maybe one of you guys can guess but this 427 Ford seems like it's turning some serious RPM's, I've never heard an old V8 sound like that.

 

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

11 minutes ago, roadscholar said:

Maybe one of you guys can guess but this 427 Ford seems like it's turning some serious RPM's, I've never heard an old V8 sound like that.

 

 

One of the scariest rides of my life took place in the 63 Ford I mentioned above.  There were 6 of us in the car out for a drive-in lunch.  I was in the middle front.  Bert Robertson, the owner/driver, was driving pretty sanely when the passenger to my right grabbed the set point knob on the Sun tach, spun it to the right, saying, "I wonder how many RPM this will do."   Bert floored the peddle and the engine just screamed.  I can't say I remember the tach reading as all I could think about was clutch and pressure plate shrapnel coming up through the floor board beneath me.

[realshelby]

19 minutes ago, roadscholar said:

 

Maybe one of you guys can guess but this 427 Ford seems like it's turning some serious RPM's, I've never heard an old V8 sound like that.

 

Rev limiter on the tach is set just over 7,000 rpm. About where I would expect. These engines had forged steel crankshafts, "Lemans" rods with capscrews instead of bolts, direct main oiling ( side oiler ), and were known to hold up very well. The weak point is the factory rocker shafts and support stands. These are not supported on the outside edges and can break. This car probably has a set of aftermarket versions just for insurance.....

 

I may be doing a thread on a modern day version of the Ford FE engine. Built to go into my 1965 GT Mustang.  FEAR...starts with FE!

"And the Porches trembled in fear as the mighty 427 cometh. "

[roadscholar]

1 hour ago, John Ranalletta said:

 

One of the scariest rides of my life took place in the 63 Ford I mentioned above.  There were 6 of us in the car out for a drive-in lunch.  I was in the middle front.  Bert Robertson, the owner/driver, was driving pretty sanely when the passenger to my right grabbed the set point knob on the Sun tach, spun it to the right, saying, "I wonder how many RPM this will do."   Bert floored the peddle and the engine just screamed.  I can't say I remember the tach reading as all I could think about was clutch and pressure plate shrapnel coming up through the floor board beneath me.

 

LOL, that sounds like some crazy but fun times : ) Just realized that guy's tach might be visible so I went back and watched some of it. Looks like the tell tale went to around 7500 a few times and it sounded like more when he downshifted. I think that's getting into current NASCAR territory. I could run the 911 to that once in awhile but it had overhead cams although granted they were just S cams (fairly radical street cams). My first race car, a 75 RSR had Schrick cams,  it could turn 9k but would wear down the valves and seats in 30 hours. It was a rocket though, a previous owner told me who built the engine and that they'd dyno'd it at 365 hp. It was a 3 liter. My first year of racing in SCCA it won every pole and every race except one when Goodyear didn't mount a tire correctly and got a flat on the 3rd lap.

 

Probably a good thing too, it was at Daytona in 1979 before there was a chicane in the back stretch. It would turn 7600 down the back straight with the longest 5th gear Porsche made, one of my buddies calculated that with the ring and pinion and tire diameter to be 185mph. When I'd enter the East banking the car started darting around and was difficult to keep it in two lanes, maybe the scariest thing I've ever experienced in a race car. The next few laps I let off and even braked a little. We knew very little about aerodynamics then at least I didn't (although the factories did), the car had a slope nose front and a normal whale tail which didn't produce much downforce plus the engine was hanging out behind the rear wheels. I didn't find out till years later why from a car owner I was driving for. The flat nose, unlike front fenders let air spill off the sides making the car unstable. Going straight it wasn't a problem but turning especially in the banking at those speeds made it almost undriveable.

 

The first cars I remember seeing at Daytona with a solution were the BMW CSL Batmobiles in 1975, they had fences (skirts) running down each side of the hood and roof, if I'd only known then what they were for : )

[realshelby]

Modern Nascar engines are still required to have flat tappet cams. Still...they are turning in the mid 9,000 rpm range for 500 miles! The science in their valve springs makes your head spin!

 

One of the reasons I want to build an FE engine instead of simply putting a modern "Coyote" out of a new Mustang in my '65 is....the sound of those FE engines!

[roadscholar]

52 minutes ago, realshelby said:

Modern Nascar engines are still required to have flat tappet cams. Still...they are turning in the mid 9,000 rpm range for 500 miles! The science in their valve springs makes your head spin!

 

So true, it is mind boggling what they've been able to do with a pushrod motor. I raced against a guy (Gene Felton) in historic once in my 944 GTR (600hp tube frame funny car built for Trans Am in the mid 80's) with an old NASCAR T-bird. In vintage they could run them unrestricted and were making well over 800hp. At Road Atlanta every lap he'd disappear down the back straight but I'd catch him by turn 3, never could get around him though..    

[roadscholar]

3 hours ago, John Ranalletta said:

 

During our drag racing days in Illinois, we met Stan Lomelino.  https://dragracingonline.com/2017/april/then-and-now.html

 

Stan built and raced a flathead dragster.  He'd tow with an old Ford coupe - also a flathead.  He was known to salvage parts from the tow car during events to keep the dragster going.  Built a twin flathead machine as well.  My friend and later, groomsman, ran a 32A flathead and Stan was a treasure of flathead knowledge.

 

 

 

I visited his welding/repair shop where he was putting a bead of weld on the edges of plow shares to harden them.  He demonstrated his home-built dynamometer - a 50 gallon drum buried under the concrete floor with a psi gauge and a pump to which he could attach a motor via a short driveshaft.

 

I didn't realize then I was in the company of greatness. 

 

 

The man was definitely innovative, I'm betting Big Daddy learned a thing or two from him.  

[roadscholar]

2 hours ago, realshelby said:

I may be doing a thread on a modern day version of the Ford FE engine. Built to go into my 1965 GT Mustang.  FEAR...starts with FE!

"And the Porches trembled in fear as the mighty 427 cometh. "

 

That'll be good but remember to proof read it first because Porsche has an s in the middle : ) 

 

Speaking of 427's albeit a different flavor, the first race I went to was the 1963 Daytona 500 when I was 15, it left an indelible impression. One memorable thing was when the cars took the green and came by the stands, there was so much litter and paper from hot dog wrappers and napkins flying in the air it partially obscured the race cars. They've since addressed that problem.

 

The other thing was how fast Junior Johnson's Chevy was. Once the race got going he and one other car pulled out a big lead, it was like there were two races. He kept extending the lead until it blew up.. it was a watershed moment in racing though and surely had lasting repercussions.

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

Infrequently while riding in rural areas, I’ll spy a mid-60s Ford with the fender emblem just behind the front wheel and wonder, “390 or 427”?  Usually. They’re on their drums and rusted. 

[John Ranalletta]

3 hours ago, roadscholar said:

 

 

The man was definitely innovative, I'm betting Big Daddy learned a thing or two from him.  

years ago, I was on a commercial flight from MCO to ATL. I recognized Garlits as we exited and told him I remembered watching him shave at the finish line at the NHRA nationals in Indy.  Months earlier he promised to quit shaving until he won a major.  Those were the days of The Snake Prudhomme, Tommy Ivo , et al.  Garlits came across as a very humble guy. 

[realshelby]

12 hours ago, roadscholar said:

 

That'll be good but remember to proof read it first because Porsche has an s in the middle : ) 

 

Speaking of 427's albeit a different flavor, the first race I went to was the 1963 Daytona 500 when I was 15, it left an indelible impression. One memorable thing was when the cars took the green and came by the stands, there was so much litter and paper from hot dog wrappers and napkins flying in the air it partially obscured the race cars. They've since addressed that problem.

 

The other thing was how fast Junior Johnson's Chevy was. Once the race got going he and one other car pulled out a big lead, it was like there were two races. He kept extending the lead until it blew up.. it was a watershed moment in racing though and surely had lasting repercussions.

 

 

Yes, I know better and did fail to "proofread"!

 

Junior Johnson and Smokey Yunick were responsible for Chevy's "Mystery Engine" becoming a force in Nascar. Power was there, reliability was not. At first. But they worked on that ( Big Block Chevy's had a reputation for eating main and/or rod bearings throughout their early life ) and figured it out. 

 

Back when you could take your cooler and sacks of food with you into the tracks.......there was enough paper and sandwich bags to plug up radiators early in the races! I must say that I enjoyed racing more back when you could take stuff in with you. And when the cars were actually factory based offerings with drivers that had a hair or two out of place and were certainly not above showing another driver what they thought of them......

[eddd]

Beautiful and FAST!

 

 

[mickeym3]

Not sure his IRS will hold that for long.  All the ole time NASCAR talk brings me back to this photo which is pretty widely known ...

 

 

 

On RPM when my small block MOPAR goes across the line at 8,300 my butt sure puckers up.  Most automatic trans in drag racing have a “clean neutral” so that you can easily kick it in neutral at the finish line.  Connecting rods and bearings  take a pounding otherwise. Shudder to think what goes into a NASCAR motor to take that kind of punishment. 

[realshelby]

David Pearson: Greatest Nascar driver of all time!

 

If you like speed...A fellow Texan holds the standing start to 1 mile speed record! "Street" cars go to an airstrip here in Texas each year for the Texas Mile. This is MUCH more technical to do than you think. The "293" on the side of his Ford GT is the previous world record he held. 

Turn your speakers up as loud as they will go!

 

 

[roadscholar]

A tutorial, Porsche GT cars. Long and likely boring to many though informative if interested, it's like 911 graduate school.

 

   

[roadscholar]

 

[Hosstage]

And when was the first car race? When the second was built!

[TEWKS]

Jeep is in for a bit of a spanking me thinks. 
Split personality hot cakes below.
Street Bronco

[realshelby]

Maybe. Maybe not. 

 

No solid front axle. Now the poseurs will be quite content. But will the hardcore off roaders put up with IFS? Didn't go over on the FJ Cruiser and some others. 

 

That said, I would probably like/buy a Bronco over a  Jeep if buying today. Probably a LOT nicer driving vehicle. But my Jeep has never done anything that makes me want to get rid of it. There is something about the simple purpose built Jeep that just works. 

[Hosstage]

Jeeps have gotten a little complicated, but nicer. I would worry about them getting rained on with the top off, unlike my old CJ, which got soaked pretty regularly. No real electronics to worry about, no electronic dash, that's for sure!

[roadscholar]

My old TJ is kind of a beater and sits outside sometimes, no doors, sides, or carpet but has semi waterproof seat covers and no ill effects. Jeeps/SUVS are like dual-sport motorcycles, there's no perfect one that does everything really well, if it's good offroad it sucks on the highway and vice versa.  This one's a ridiculous amount of fun in Colorado but I wouldn't drive it the excrutiating six days/3500 miles to get there and back.

 

 

Conversely this guy's a magic carpet on the freeway (at 90 or 100, try that in a Jeep : ) and being a diesel gets around 25mpg but would probably get ripped apart where I'd want to take it in the Rockies.

 

  

[TEWKS]

A couple Interesting Wraps.

 

Bill, cover your eyes! 

 

Where they be at.   Edit...Link may be broken. 

 

 

[wbw6cos]

I was on my R1200C behind one of those smart cars and the bumper sticker read:  "40 mpg and fun to drive, too"

 

I chuckled as I thought it described my motorcycle perfectly.   

[TEWKS]

Never mind what I said about Jeep.   

[roadscholar]

I was just telling somebody awhile back if Chrysler put a hemi V8 in a Wrangler they’d sell every one they could make. It would be scary but with all the nanny controls these days they could make it work.

[roadscholar]

 

[roadscholar]

Nicely done film featuring a few old guys that like them all, were young once. They're fortunate as are we they are/were still around to talk about it. 

 

 

[John Ranalletta]

More Porsche eye candy. 

 

 

[Rougarou]

13 minutes ago, John Ranalletta said:

More Porsche eye candy. 

 

 

 

Ya, well, I traded mine for a low mileage only pushed once Yugo GV Sport

[randy]

not specifically mine, but I have invested money into it  :-)

go to Facebook and look up FunkeBuilt LLC. or the car name RainMaker

For those that remember Ryan (my son) riding with us back in the late 90's and early 2000's he finished his time with the Marine Corp and ended up in Colorado and got into the Subaru scene

He is the owner of the fastest Subaru in Colorado   9.47 / 152+ top speed

And that is running at Bandamere, I think the highest elevation drag strip in the USA.

 

They made lots of changes this off season and IF the pandemic clears, they are shooting for 8.95 this year.  

Funk E Built LLC | Facebook

[ESokoloff]

9 hours ago, randy said:

 

He is the owner of the fastest Subaru in Colorado   9.47 / 152+ top speed

And that is running at Bandamere, I think the highest elevation drag strip in the USA.

Well reduced atmosphere would help in reduced aero drag but also effect normally aspirated engines.  
I would expect a vehicle with a boosted engine would do its best there.  

[roadscholar]

Don’t believe I’ve posted this before, all the Petrolicious stuff is good but this one hits home.

 

 

[Rougarou]

interesting:

 

 

[roadscholar]

17 hours ago, Rougarou said:

interesting:

 

 

 

 

Btw that Michelin Xas (asymetrical) from the 70's was notorious for the tread coming off at speed, I've torn up more than one 911 quarter panel back in the day. 

[roadscholar]

 

[Rougarou]

Wonder where I can get the tune that starts at about 4:50

 

Edit, nevermind, found I wasn't the only one looking

 

[roadscholar]

15 hours ago, roadscholar said:

 

 

On the computer the other day a photo of a quaint little village in the Lofoten Islands of Norway popped up which piqued my curiosity, being a map junkie got on google maps and began exploring the northern Scandinavians and Baltics and discovered exactly where Mermansk was and a few other places I was a little fuzzy on. By pure coincidence a day later found these kids who were driving thru it all, in an old 924 of all things that they built themselves with the help of a nicely equipped shop. There's a whole series of videos on it but here's one more with some nice scenery/footage (and music).

 

 

 

 

[scout6]

If you are a MOPAR fan, you should spend some time with Scout7 (Susan) talking about her dad, and her relationship with all things automotive speed.  Her dad, Richard (Dick) Maxwell was very involved in hot rods, race cars, dirt bikes, and rally cars.  More here:  http://www.semahof.com/Dick_Maxwell_2006_Inductee

 

[RandyShields]

2 hours ago, scout6 said:

If you are a MOPAR fan, you should spend some time with Scout7 (Susan) talking about her dad, and her relationship with all things automotive speed.  Her dad, Richard (Dick) Maxwell was very involved in hot rods, race cars, dirt bikes, and rally cars.  More here:  http://www.semahof.com/Dick_Maxwell_2006_Inductee

 

Definitely looking forward to seeing you again at START, and meeting Susan.

[BMW_Ken]

17 hours ago, scout6 said:

If you are a MOPAR fan, you should spend some time with Scout7 (Susan) talking about her dad, and her relationship with all things automotive speed.  Her dad, Richard (Dick) Maxwell was very involved in hot rods, race cars, dirt bikes, and rally cars.  More here:  http://www.semahof.com/Dick_Maxwell_2006_Inductee

 

Sounds like a very interesting man.  I bet he didn't mind going to work.

[TEWKS]

Something you don’t see everyday.

 

[roadscholar]

https://www.hagerty.com/media/entertainment/these-8-car-movies-from-1971-brought-hot-rubber-to-silver-screen/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Saturday_RoadTrip

[Highway41]

Like German iron (or aluminum).

A Christmas present from my bride.  2011 335i with 11K miles.  Same color as my bike:

 

[roadscholar]

Someone mentioned Finns, it reminded me of this guy, and this other guy.

 

 

 

 

[Highway41]

26 minutes ago, roadscholar said:

Someone mentioned Finns, reminded me of this guy, and this other guy.

 

 

 

 

My all time favorite F1 driver.

[roadscholar]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TEWKS]

Warning, this is a blue collar beer guy funny! 

 

[taylor1]

  That  reminded me of 35 years ago when I had my vasectomy .  I was in the stirrups and the doc had my jewels in one hand and a needle in the other.

He just looked at me and said , this is going to hurt . He wasn't kidding 

[Rougarou]

12 hours ago, taylor1 said:

  That  reminded me of 35 years ago when I had my vasectomy .  I was in the stirrups and the doc had my jewels in one hand and a needle in the other.

He just looked at me and said , this is going to hurt . He wasn't kidding 

 

LOL,...I got snipped on 1 April.  Wife drove me to the naval hospital, I go in, come back out 18 minutes later, wife says "you done?",   I say, "yep",....she replies "no you're not, get back in there",.....corpsman behind me says "ma'am, he's done".  I'm still pissed the doc doing the cutting wouldn't let me watch, I says, it's me you're cutting, he just responds with "nope".

 

The shot was slightly uncomfortable, like a slow steady squeeze almost to pain level.....anyway, this was a Saturday, and I was jogging by Wednesday, fully good by the following Monday.

 

Brother in law, well, he swelled like a couple of softballs.