Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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SNKEBIT said:
Slippery slope there, John. Been down that road too. You need a large room dedicated to the track/train set up. There is never enough room on the floor in the spare room.
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I hear ya Mitch. If you remember that basement of ours you know I've got a large area that I can use without encroaching on the pinball machines or the movie theater. The HO scale dragstrip will have to be re-located though. I guess I've got other areas where I can put it.

As is the track is fun but most of the time is spent putting around because the corners come up too soon. If I can get at least one really long straightaway I think it'll be much better. My fear isn't that I'll expand the track too far, - it's that I'll want to start adding scenery such as buildings and trees. - Now THAT would get expensive!
 
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Now I realize you have the 1:24 scale Carrera. Mine (well, technically my kids') is the smaller one.

That addition should allow you to build a pretty long track. Maybe make a platform you can winch up to the ceiling between competitions? Maybe could help keeping the dust out too?
 
The other day I was searching for stuff online and came across a few sites that had 'street driven' funnycars. I'd always laughed off the idea of ever putting a funnycar on the street. As insane as some of my ideas may be, - I figured there wasn't any way to pull it off. Crawling in & out through the side windows or escape hatch was more effort than I'd want to do when I gas up at the 7-11. Where would I store my groceries?

Apparently the owner of this '69 Camaro funnycar had a solution to the problem with having to squeeze out of the car. If you look closely you'll see a cylinder running alongside the bottom of the chassis and some hinged bars that he used to lever the body up.

eBay Find: An Original Logghe-Built Street Legal Funny Car - Dragzine
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Although it's still unlikely I'll be driving up to the local courthouse to license my car, it's comforting to know there are people out there more insane than I am.
 
360DartGT66 said:
Now I realize you have the 1:24 scale Carrera. Mine (well, technically my kids') is the smaller one.
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360DartGT66 said:

That addition should allow you to build a pretty long track. Maybe make a platform you can winch up to the ceiling between competitions? Maybe could help keeping the dust out too?
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'technically' it's your kids'? I guess technically my funnycar is both mine AND Teresa's. LOL. Any way you look at it these tracks are a blast if you've got someone else to share them with.

It doesn't really get dusty down in our basement so I'm not concerned with covering it. A bigger concern is allowing enough space around the perimeter to fetch the cars when they fly off the track.
 
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DusterDaddy said:
2 cup holders...
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I should probably drop the subject altogether before I start to seriously consider making the funnycar my daily driver. BUT... - if I was to do it I'd want to install a backup camera.
 
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HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!

Things got out of hand fast!

Teresa's brother (Roger) and sister-in-law invited us over for a barbecue today. Before any cooking was started Roger decided to finish up a go-cart project he'd been working on. He'd just swapped out an 8 horse Briggs for an 11 horse and still needed to get it all put back together. Everything was going well and it test fired fine. When one of Teresa's grandkids insisted on driving it Roger consented even though the exhaust wasn't finished yet.

Within seconds it went up in flames. - It wasn't a piddly little fire, - it was run for your life this thing is gonna blow flames! The exhaust melted the fuel line and the gas caught fire. There was a mad dash to douse the flames with baking soda and flour. It didn't work so they ran for a hose and eventually put it out. No one was injured but it melted the seat, the steering wheel, all the wiring, the air filter, and one rear tire blew during the blaze. The fiberglass body is scorched but will survive. I think it burned for over 5 minutes.

I would have yelled "Quick, Grab the hotdogs!", but I was too busy fighting the fire.

This is an old picture of what it looked like before it was fricasseed.
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I didn't have my camera with me or I'd have taken photos of the aftermath.
 
I'm hoping to have the basement racetrack finished up later this week. The layout is 3 times larger than what I'd started with and it's off the floor now. I got the lap counter/timer fixed and have 12 cars for it now with 3 more on their way. Although I'm not going to get real fancy with landscaping I'll be adding fake grass and trees. I still have a bunch of street lights from the HO scale stuff that I'm considering using even though they're small. It would be neat for night racing.

These first 4 pics are of some of the vintage NASCARs I bought.
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I don't have the 3 Formula 1 cars here yet, but they're on their way.
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These are the 8 cars that I received with the track.
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I don't have guard rails affixed yet and am still waiting for a couple more rolls of the grass.
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It's a fun layout. Lap times are about a half a minute. I'll add the rest of the background photo landscape after I get the trees planted and lights run.
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The fake trees are under scale but still add to the overall look.
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I went to the last decent swap meet of the year (around here) today in Wahoo, Nebraska. - Nothing too fantastic there but I did buy some more Halloween decorations and a used SIMPSON 5 point belt setup. - Also bought a transmission cooler, a ton of aluminum pop rivets, and more sandpaper. I guess I never leave empty handed from these meets.
 
John, where have you been? Theresa, have you painting houses? You watching Bullitt in the theater room? Putting up Halloween decorations? Playing with slot cars? Etc.....check in.
It's been a while.
Larry
 
R4Sedan said:
John, where have you been? Theresa, have you painting houses? You watching Bullitt in the theater room? Putting up Halloween decorations? Playing with slot cars? Etc.....check in.
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R4Sedan said:
It's been a while.
Larry
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I'd like to say that my absence was due to tons of progress on the funnycar or Charger but it was because my garage computer was serving duty as part of our Halloween exhibit.

The weather here has been pretty crappy most of the time. It's made it impossible to accomplish much outside on the cars. With the exception of a few days it's been cold, rainy, and windy. To stay busy I've been putting more time on the basement racetrack. I didn't get elaborate with landscaping hills or anything difficult. Instead I've concentrated on lighting, grass, and trees. Most of it is done but I've got a few animated billboards coming yet that should be here by this weekend. They should look great when they're lit up and flashing.
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I used poster board to construct a grandstand and printed an image of spectators to apply on it.
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After adding the street lights I decided to get a few cars that had headlights & tail lights for night driving. The SRT8 police car also has flashing roof lights.
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Although I hadn't intended on buying an additional NASCAR for the track, I put a bid in on eBay on this Charger because it was selling cheap and I won it.
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I'd rather be playing with the big stuff in the garage (or out on the driveway) but I guess I'm keeping busy anyway.
 
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Nice work,John..... Miss ,my slot cars... Fwiw: The Scamp project drove out of the garage,got washed ..Windshield area got rust morted ,painted satin black,window stainless trim installed.. Hope life is good,we have heavy fog,& rain by weekend.Take care ,John....
 
Abodybomber said:
Nice work,John..... Miss ,my slot cars... Fwiw: The Scamp project drove out of the garage,got washed ..Windshield area got rust morted ,painted satin black,window stainless trim installed.. Hope life is good,we have heavy fog,& rain by weekend.Take care ,John....
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Thanks bomber. It seems that there's no end to the frivolous ways I find to spend my time. I kept thinking about all the things I'd rather be doing while I was laying under those tables wiring all those lights but I was determined not to let the project whither away like the HO scale dragstrip I'd been building.

- Glad to hear the Scamp saw the light of day. It may be progressing slowly but it's moving in the right direction. You'll probably beat me to completion on the funnycar and the Charger. We haven't gotten any updates on the Hemi lately and are still hoping it ships this month.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
Thanks bomber. It seems that there's no end to the frivolous ways I find to spend my time. I kept thinking about all the things I'd rather be doing while I was laying under those tables wiring all those lights but I was determined not to let the project whither away like the HO scale dragstrip I'd been building.

- Glad to hear the Scamp saw the light of day. It may be progressing slowly but it's moving in the right direction. You'll probably beat me to completion on the funnycar and the Charger. We haven't gotten any updates on the Hemi lately and are still hoping it ships this month.
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I might have to deal with that, on lawyers working...It's fundamentally safe,I need to finish it....
 
Nuts up Nights out,John..... Been crazy.moving 50 year old garbage,fine tuning a car ....
 
John, very nice. Wish I had the room for something like that. Although if I had that, my son surely wouldn't want to go to school and I would never get nothing done. On another note I got all the front suspension and brakes and the new new rear and suspension in the 'Cuda. Yippe!!!!!.....
 
R4Sedan said:
John, very nice. Wish I had the room for something like that. Although if I had that, my son surely wouldn't want to go to school and I would never get nothing done. On another note I got all the front suspension and brakes and the new new rear and suspension in the 'Cuda. Yippe!!!!!.....
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I still think u got too many toys . it`s in the 40`s here, cloudy, windy, humid, and seems colder than krap. I can`t get turned on to do anything , but stay on the mopar websites. suppose to start warming up and be 91 next Monday--woo hoo waiting on proof of insurance to come , so I can tag the fish and maybe drive it a little before winter really hits. course it`s gonna hit u before it hits me! (not much consolation)
 
Abodybomber said:
Nuts up Nights out,John..... Been crazy.moving 50 year old garbage,fine tuning a car ....
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I HATE cleaning. I can't let stuff accumulate very long before it gets to be overwhelming. I think I'm sort of a pack rat.
 
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360DartGT66 said:
Sweet looking race track, John! :thumbsup:
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Thanks Anders. I really need to rein myself in on some of these projects. Without some constraint I'd likely extend the track all over the rest of the house!
 
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R4Sedan said:
John, very nice. Wish I had the room for something like that. Although if I had that, my son surely wouldn't want to go to school and I would never get nothing done. On another note I got all the front suspension and brakes and the new new rear and suspension in the 'Cuda. Yippe!!!!!.....
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Now that's what I like to hear. REAL progress on REAL cars! I get depressed when I don't get my garage time.

You could always make extra room by eliminating non-essentials like bedrooms or kitchens and track time could be your son's reward for good grades.
 
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famous bob said:
I still think u got too many toys . it`s in the 40`s here, cloudy, windy, humid, and seems colder than krap. I can`t get turned on to do anything , but stay on the mopar websites. suppose to start warming up and be 91 next Monday--woo hoo waiting on proof of insurance to come , so I can tag the fish and maybe drive it a little before winter really hits. course it`s gonna hit u before it hits me! (not much consolation)
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Too many toys? - Too many toys? you can never have too many toys. I only wish I could have afforded to have built some of this stuff when my boys were young.

I'm dreading Winter. Now & then I fantasize about moving further south. - Maybe Oklahoma or Texas. Even Missouri would be a bit warmer.

The insurance proof shouldn't take long to arrive. The 'Cuda should be terrorizing those Okie roads before long. We'll need pics for proof!
 
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