MOPAR pics for The Slab Bacon

[n4vgb]

Hey Frank, here's a fix for your MOPAR habit! YEAH, it's the REAL THING!

Hemi Cuda, $120K!

Mack

[The Slab Bacon]

I went to the 52nd anual Maryland Steam historical Society antique steam, gas enngine and tractor show this past weekend in Arcadia, Md. (This makes the 31st year I have been there) And low and behold.............................In the antique car exibit section there was a lime-lite green 1970 426 hemi Plymouth Super Bird!! Life was good!!! (now tell that to my aching feet!) I had the best of both worlds in one show!! And even ran into a few local hams out there!
It was the poifict endin for a great week away from work!!

                                                      the Slab Bacon

[The Slab Bacon]

Hey Frank, here's a fix for your MOPAR habit! YEAH, it's the REAL THING!
Hemi Cuda, $120K!
Mack

Mack,
        Back in my days of drag gacing a good friend of mine had a numbers matching '70 hemi cuda convertible!! It was raced for many years as a superstocker. He sold it around 20some years ago. I guarentee Jack wishes he had it back!! Oh well, they say hindsight is always 20-20!!
                                              the Slab Bacon

[WA1GFZ]

I ain't  braggen but one night I was driving around town in my buddies's L88 Rat and we came upon a pile of goat ropers leaning over the hood of one of those lime green things.
I leaned out the window and said "My wallet says you can't catch this"
Not a peep........I chugged on.......Good thing because at 1600 RPM idle plugs lasted about a 1/2 hour and two were pretty black when we removed them so there would not have been 600 HP that night.

Yea Frank, I know a Hemi beats a Rat in a fair race

[The Slab Bacon]

Yea Frank, I know a Hemi beats a Rat in a fair race

Frank,
         Ya never quite know whatz gonna happen in a good street race. You just cant always tell. One very kool story happened about 35 years ago at the local racing "flats" behind my house. Word spread around the local "Gino's" one friday night. There was to be a "big race" between Tommy Baker's duster and the Ewing Bros Willys coup. In the back of my mind I thought it was gonna be more like a slaughter than a race.

Tommy's duster was just a 340 automatic, it ran 13.90s all day long, but it was absolutely no match for the Willys. The Willys had a built screaming small block, tunnel ram, straight axle front end, the whole 9 yards. It was a mid 10 second car back then.

Here is where it gets good!! Tommy had a big punk mouth back then. He got the Ewings so fired down mad before the race that they wanted to literally kill him. I forgot which one of the bros was driving, but when they cut it loose, he missed 2nd gear and couldnt get it back in. Tommy rolled on right by them with the little 340 and pulled off the win of a lifetime.

We still laugh about it to this day. Life was good back then!!
A street race is like a marriage: "all is fair in love and war!!"
One of the fastest and most feared cars in my parts back then was a gray primered 67 vette with a supposed 396 (I knew it was a 427) as long a the owner wasnt driving it. He couldnt pull second gear to save his life.

                                                the Slab Bacon

[The Slab Bacon]

OK, I'll admit it, the 3 pictured MOPARS even got me a little excited also. Especially the white Dodge with the blower motor. But the just completed in July, '55 Chevy truck pictured is the one that I'm still on the phone trying to complete a deal on.
Mack

So whatz unda the blowa??

If the finish on the rest of the truck is as nice as it lookz unda the hood, it must be gorgeous!! But for me I'm kinda like the vortex in one respect: Itz gotta "sing for itz suppa!!" If you got enough clearcoat and wax on the rear quarters all of the bitz of rubba dont stick to the paint!!         (there is something about the smell of burning rubba in the mornin)
                                                  the Slab Bacon

[The Slab Bacon]

It's a mild 383 Chevy small block, built for about 600-650HP on pump gas, very mild streetable setup. It's not as wild as it looks! Even the wife isn't afraid of it, that could be a problem!?

Mack 

"Even the wife isn't afraid of it, that could be a problem!?"

Grrrrr................. Some things just arent sacred anymore.

Reduce the size of the pulley on the blowa and increase the size of the one on the crank and you will definately be in for pleasent surprizes!!

[WA1GFZ]

Nice thing about a small block is that it is light.

[The Slab Bacon]

Nice thing about a small block is that it is light.

My favorite chebby small block was the one that no one else (at least in these parts) liked. The 400 SB. It had the same bore and stroke as a 402 big block, just in a smaller easier to shoehorn into something package. A big sock from a small block!! 20some years ago they were cheap and plentiful.

                                              the Slab Bacon

[WA1GFZ]

I think the early 400 SB had problems. I think they went to a better crank later. It was cool that they stuffed all that C.Is in a small package.

[The Slab Bacon]

I think the early 400 SB had problems. I think they went to a better crank later. It was cool that they stuffed all that C.Is in a small package.

IIRC, they didnt have clank problemz, IIRC all of those "in the know" used to piss, moan and bitch about the siamezed cylinder bores and swear that they wouldnt cool properly. Methinkz they used pull the clanks out of them and stuff them into 350 blocks to come up with 373s or something like that. Seemed like a waste of perfectly good cubes to me. After all "there's no substitute for cubic inches". A well built 400 SB could crank out a lot of pickled eggplant!!

                                                 The Slab Bacon

[WA1GFZ]

My insurance man is a buddy going back to first grade and has been in the car with me when I spaned second gear leaving a 3 foot void in the bubber mark. He still gives me crap about my Firebird and hope it never goes back on the road. XYL called him today about getting my daughter on the policy when she gets her license soon.

Do you notice people who always drove piss pots are the worst drivers and guys who have been QRO much more mellow. Similar to never having SXX.
Rubber smell is OK but Nitro is right up there with nukes

[The Slab Bacon]

Yea but, getting that blowa overdriven really improves the throttle "snap" and gets rid of the lag in throttle response normally associated with blowas and carburetas!! If it has a real good throttle snap MaryAnn might be a little more afraid of it and not want to drive it.

$250 and no pionts is a bargain!! I'd pay that in a heartbeat to pull off a 500' smokey burnout without having to worry about the points!!
Them pointz get pretty spensive these days,

Like you, my 440 sixpack, 4 speed R/T sitting in the driveway is the cheapest thing I insure. It costs me $108 a year to keep tags on it!!
go figger!!

                                     The Slab Bacon

[The Slab Bacon]

Nitro is cool, but the chemical concoction that you have to mix with it to get it lit is an EPA nightmare these days. Garlits was the master chemist that figgered out how to get to work right. Nitromethane + propolene oxide (to get it lit) + benzine (to stabalize it) + methanol (to lower the combustion flame temp) + a little hydrazine and a whole list of other nasty stuff I'd be afraid to try to buy these days.
 
air to fuel ratio for nitro is 1.8:1 (by weight) It is considered a monopropellant!!

                                              The Slab Bacon

[WA1GFZ]

But Mack that liquid fire looks so cool.
Yup why have lag when you have a bypass valve
Yea, XYL rags on me every time the bill comes but I keep the tags current. I remember taking my Daughter for rides with her car seat next to me. My Son has never heard it run. The tarp is 1/2 off but not ready to let it go.
My OM was into Big Daddy when I was a kid...long before he blew half his foot off when real (crazy) men sat on the meat ball.......
We knew a guy who ran B Gas and taught us how to shift without a clutch.....I never had the BAs to try it wide open but was pretty good at low RPMs. Imagine a crash box between your knees and no time to push in the clutch... he ran a Ford 3 speed between second and third with a drilled out 327 and hilborns
HTF did we make it to prebuzzard status.

[The Slab Bacon]

how many times have youse guys had it all crossed up and sideways and still managed to steer it out!! How many have ever had the experience of driving something that leaves with both front wheels off of the ground. If you havent ever experienced it You'll never understand what you're missing.

But for those of us that have, seeing it still gives that "warm and fuzzy feeling" and still makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up!!

Those of us that made it to pre buzzardom made it because we were good at what we did!!

                                                  the Slab Bacon

[The Slab Bacon]

That's why the AA/F guys have a hard time keeping all 8 cylinders fired up during each pass.

"AA/F".............. Mack, yer givin yer age away on that one
I just caught that one!!

AA/F and AA/FD classes were replaced many years ago simply with T/F!!

AA/FD goes way back to the good ol' days of drag racing

[KB2WIG]

   "    Do you notice people who always drove piss pots are the worst drivers and guys who have been QRO much more mellow.  "

Its the Darwin Effect in conjunction with the Peter Principle.   During peoples' rise to their level of incompetence they are killed off.  The enhanced "mellowence" is a survivable trait, whereas the "pisspot" gets the shaft.... ..  

[The Slab Bacon]

  "    Do you notice people who always drove piss pots are the worst drivers and guys who have been QRO much more mellow.  "

Its the Darwin Effect in conjunction with the Peter Principle.   During peoples' rise to their level of incompetence they are killed off.  The enhanced "mellowence" is a survivable trait, whereas the "pisspot" gets the shaft.... ..  

Naa.............   The fast guys knew how to drive and didnt ever forget.
We sewed our "wild oats" back then. 

[WA1GFZ]

WOW I didn't know they changed to TF.....I heard the term but always thought it was AA / FD. I don't get out much anymore.

Closest I been to a drag strip was when I visited Bob in Colchester
Old Frank Sole off to consumer's years ago. My buddie's Dad street raced with old Frank back in the 30s and 40s.

BTW yanking the wheels off into fourth gear is real QRO.

[WA1GFZ]

I've noticed even goot runs a lot of raw fuel belching out
Maybe they could an afterburner in each pipe and mix in something to reduce harmful emissions and make more fire.

you should see the flame the new F35 motor makes.

[WA1GFZ]

We make the carb for both motors.
Yup the SR was handed down from God to Johnson in a dream.
My Dad worked on the motor
I used to go over and touch one every chance I got.
greased lightning just sitting still

[The Slab Bacon]

The problem of course is that when you try to 'lean out' the mixture on a nitro engine to keep things fired, you seem to instantly go into piston & valve melt down from the high combustion temps! Unlike gas & alcohol, you have to flood the nitro in to keep the cylinders alive at all. There never seems to be a 'sweet spot' on the mixture.

Like Mack and i have said Nitro is somewhat difficult to keep lit, and if leaned out too much becomes not unlike a cutting torch. Thatz when you see the "tracer bullets" coming out of the zoomies. Bye bye pistons!!

But........dont forget that nitromethane is considered a monopropellant,
so basically the more of it you pump in the more QRO the engine makes.
(and cools down the flame as well) Just about to the point of hydraulic lock. When a piston trys to compress a wall of uncompressable liquid the parts really fly!! This type of catastrophuc failure is not at all uncommon in T/F racing. Thatz why you need sponsors!!

                                               The Slab Bacon

[WA1GFZ]

I was a kid the first time my Dad told me about JP7. He said you could throw a lit match into a pail of it and there would be no fire. Now imagine nitro in a J58 afterburner.......tank empty pretty quick.
Enclosed very good reading tells how P&W hot rodded the JT10 into the J58.
http://aerostories.free.fr/technique/J58/J58_01/page14.html

[The Slab Bacon]

If we had a good chemist in this thread, we might all become millionaires!

If..............If I had a million bucks, I wouldnt have to work!!

If a bullfrog had wings, it would never bump its a$$

Yea, but it is always fun to ponder things. Especially when you "know just enough to be dangerous" about that subject.

Tell me what fledgeling drag racer didnt secretly yearn to be a T/F driver deep inside. (The thought of it now would be frightening now that I'm startin to geeze)
                                               The Slab Bacon