My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head

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AirForceRacer said:
Car looks great!! Maybe you can make it to Spring Fling this year.
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Thanks!

Probably not going to make Spring Fling this year. That's a 6 hour one way drive for me, and the way my work schedule goes this year it would mean taking 2 days of vacation. Plus I suspect I will still be dealing with contractors and setting up my shop.

I'd like to make it a regular stop, hitting Willow Springs before hand and everything. But probably not in the cards this year.
 
Jarlaxle said:
You need to make the Power Tour. :D
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Lol! So the 2024 Power Tour covers about 660 miles. Which would be an absolute piece of cake, compared to the ~4,400 miles I'd have to drive just to get there and back.

Even driving 12 hour days there and back I'd need 6 full days of travel, plus the power tour itself.

Maybe when I retire?
 
72bluNblu said:
Lol! So the 2024 Power Tour covers about 660 miles. Which would be an absolute piece of cake, compared to the ~4,400 miles I'd have to drive just to get there and back.

Even driving 12 hour days there and back I'd need 6 full days of travel, plus the power tour itself.

Maybe when I retire?
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Hey, the year it ran Cleveland to Little Rock there was a dude from Phoenix. Guy is Long Hauling from the Seattle area this year.
 
Jarlaxle said:
Hey, the year it ran Cleveland to Little Rock there was a dude from Phoenix. Guy is Long Hauling from the Seattle area this year.
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Oh I'm sure there are, and really the car will do it. I drove a 1956 Austin Healey 100 about 2,400 miles round trip for a Healey West Coast meet once.

It's just a big time commitment, and with my work schedule, my wife's work schedule, arranging animal care for all of our pets etc I don't see me taking a minimum of 2 weeks off to make something like the Power Tour happen right away.

Ultimately I'd like to fit a decent trailer hitch to the Duster so I can tow a small teardrop trailer to do stuff like the Power Tour or the Ultimate Street Car competitions. I'm not gonna trailer the car but if I want to do events like that I'd need a place to sleep to avoid having to do ALL hotels, plus I could bring some spare gear, set of race wheels, etc.

Something like this
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The smaller ones can be done under 700 lbs without gear, I figure if I keep it under 1,500 lbs it won't be too awful to tow. I'd probably just build my own, I don't need all the cabinetry and stuff that the fancy ones have. Just a place to throw a sleeping bag, an electric kettle for coffee and some storage for race gear.

But yeah, that's kinda my plan for what I'm gonna do once I retire. Hopefully in the next couple years I'll be able to start doing some stand alone events that don't require quite that much prep/planning. But I still have more work to do on the car too before I get to that point.
 
72bluNblu said:
Ultimately I'd like to fit a decent trailer hitch to the Duster so I can tow a small teardrop trailer to do stuff like the Power Tour or the Ultimate Street Car competitions. I'm not gonna trailer the car but if I want to do events like that I'd need a place to sleep to avoid having to do ALL hotels, plus I could bring some spare gear, set of race wheels, etc.

Something like this
View attachment 1716208295

The smaller ones can be done under 700 lbs without gear, I figure if I keep it under 1,500 lbs it won't be too awful to tow. I'd probably just build my own, I don't need all the cabinetry and stuff that the fancy ones have. Just a place to throw a sleeping bag, an electric kettle for coffee and some storage for race gear.
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With the fold down seat you retrofitted, couldn’t you just sleep in the Duster?

:thumbsup:
 
DionR said:
With the fold down seat you retrofitted, couldn’t you just sleep in the Duster?

:thumbsup:
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It would be possible, yes. But the way I did my fold down retrofit, without the additional opening behind the seat, the height of that space is pretty darn limited. Plus for that about of driving I’d need to haul enough tools and spares that I’d probably not want it all in the car. Having the trailer would let me haul all that stuff and then just disconnect the trailer for competition without having to unpack and repack every time
 
72bluNblu said:
It would be possible, yes. But the way I did my fold down retrofit, without the additional opening behind the seat, the height of that space is pretty darn limited. Plus for that about of driving I’d need to haul enough tools and spares that I’d probably not want it all in the car. Having the trailer would let me haul all that stuff and then just disconnect the trailer for competition without having to unpack and repack every time
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Makes sense. Some of it depends on what you are doing, a drag and drive event would be different that Power Tour or just traveling.

I’ve joked with my wife about it and her first comment even on the trailer idea is “what about a shower?”. There are truck stops, but I have to admit it is nice to go from the shower right to bed after a long sweaty day.
 
DionR said:
Makes sense. Some of it depends on what you are doing, a drag and drive event would be different that Power Tour or just traveling.

I’ve joked with my wife about it and her first comment even on the trailer idea is “what about a shower?”. There are truck stops, but I have to admit it is nice to go from the shower right to bed after a long sweaty day.
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Oh it would totally depend on the event.

For something like the Power Tour it definitely wouldn’t eliminate all of my hotel stays. But swapping out a few hotel nights here and there for a campground and a portable shower would make a big difference in costs for 2+ weeks on the road.

Compared to being spiked out on the fire line for days/weeks on end a couple nights in campgrounds isn’t a big deal, especially if I can haul a few things in the trailer. Still I’m not 22 anymore so I would intersperse some hotel nights in there for longer trips. Just adds flexibility into planning stuff, and for long trips I’d need to haul enough stuff I’d need the space anyway. Beats putting the car on a trailer and hauling that!
 
Have ya'll heard of Autocross Week? It's like drag week week, only instead of drag racing, you autocross everyday. It's put on my Jimi Day (FM3 Marketing), who is the same guy that puts on the Optima Events. The classes are the same as Optima. Jimi also hosts the grand champion events at LS Fest, Moparty, and Ford Fest. I would 100% do it if the starting track wasn't 1200 miles away from me in the NE US. I'll never understand why the mid-west and northeast have all the good events and tracks when they can only race 9 months out of the year.
I do think FM3 marketing could do a better job at marketing these events. I rarely see optima ads and I've never seen an ad for autocross week. I had stumbled upon it searching the internet. Perhaps he wants to keep it small, but that goes against any business model. Heck, Optima came to my home track last summer and I went to spectate. The turnout of racers was disappointing, and I may have been the only spectator. No surprise they aren't returning this year.
I just recently learned was SCCA pro solo is. It's autocross, but christmas tree start on mirror image courses. They take your reaction time into account on your time. There are several of them in CA. The closest one to me is about 7 hours away. Seems a little far for a day and a half race, but I may consider it next year. There's also CAM challenge in St. Louis. Results from last year show around 30 CAMT cars. I may also consider going to that one. It's about 9 hours away.
 
Never heard of Autocross Week. Sounds kind of like the One Lap of America, too.

I got to meet and talk to Jimi at the Vegas road course meet last November. Didn’t realize he was part of so many things.

For what it’s worth, they don’t ever do anything up in this neck of the woods. They did do a drag and drive even last fall in northern CA and southern OR, but that was a first as far as I know.

There is a guy that does the drag and drive events in a 9 second GTO with a 6 speed and lives in Canada somewhere. He drove it all the way to Florida a month ago for Sick Week, did the event and I saw pictures after he drove it home through the snow and everything. Like 9k miles or something?
 
DionR said:
Never heard of Autocross Week. Sounds kind of like the One Lap of America, too.

I got to meet and talk to Jimi at the Vegas road course meet last November. Didn’t realize he was part of so many things.

For what it’s worth, they don’t ever do anything up in this neck of the woods. They did do a drag and drive even last fall in northern CA and southern OR, but that was a first as far as I know.

There is a guy that does the drag and drive events in a 9 second GTO with a 6 speed and lives in Canada somewhere. He drove it all the way to Florida a month ago for Sick Week, did the event and I saw pictures after he drove it home through the snow and everything. Like 9k miles or something?
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I think the autocross at One Lap is non-competitive. Not that I would win, but I'd like to know people are really trying to do well and not just goofing off everyday.

Yep, that's Rich Guido. Insane what that guy does with that car. It's actually an 8 second car. I think it was -40C when he left Canada for sick week. It's a Pontiac motor too.
 
racerjoe said:
I think the autocross at One Lap is non-competitive. Not that I would win, but I'd like to know people are really trying to do well and not just goofing off everyday.

Yep, that's Rich Guido. Insane what that guy does with that car. It's actually an 8 second car. I think it was -40C when he left Canada for sick week. It's a Pontiac motor too.
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It’s an 8 second stick shift car.
 
On one of the Florida drag and drive events they interviewed him and he said he drove it down from Canada visiting friends along the way, did the whole event (running deep 8s) and was planning on driving home again, visiting people along the way, he guesstimated about 11,000 miles total trip. Unreal. And some guys trailer 12 second cars to the track.
 
TT5.9mag said:
It’s an 8 second stick shift car.
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Regular stick shift or a Lenco?
TT5.9mag said:
On one of the Florida drag and drive events they interviewed him and he said he drove it down from Canada visiting friends along the way, did the whole event (running deep 8s) and was planning on driving home again, visiting people along the way, he guesstimated about 11,000 miles total trip. Unreal. And some guys trailer 12 second cars to the track.
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Some people don't have the cubic dollars to pay to have a busted car hauled hundreds of miles home on short notice because they NEED to get to work the next day.

I knew a guy who trailered his 12-second car because one, he didn't want to drive 100 miles on his drag radials, and two, he swapped to deep gears with a locker and had no OD.
 
Jarlaxle said:
Regular stick shift or a Lenco?

Some people don't have the cubic dollars to pay to have a busted car hauled hundreds of miles home on short notice because they NEED to get to work the next day.

I knew a guy who trailered his 12-second car because one, he didn't want to drive 100 miles on his drag radials, and two, he swapped to deep gears with a locker and had no OD.
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Faceplated T56 6 speed. He runs a slipper clutch too.
 
Jarlaxle said:
Regular stick shift or a Lenco?

Some people don't have the cubic dollars to pay to have a busted car hauled hundreds of miles home on short notice because they NEED to get to work the next day.

I knew a guy who trailered his 12-second car because one, he didn't want to drive 100 miles on his drag radials, and two, he swapped to deep gears with a locker and had no OD.
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The drag and drive guys are pretty extreme there’s no doubt about that. And then there’s the Canadian Chuck Norris (Rich Guido) who is an animal. He’s retired and is enjoying life driving his 8 second stick shift GTO thousands of miles AND beating on it at the drag strip and I applaud him for it. That’s all.
 
TT5.9mag said:
The drag and drive guys are pretty extreme there’s no doubt about that. And then there’s the Canadian Chuck Norris (Rich Guido) who is an animal. He’s retired and is enjoying life driving his 8 second stick shift GTO thousands of miles AND beating on it at the drag strip and I applaud him for it. That’s all.
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Yessir, that's the dream! Swap out drag racing for autoX/road course and I'm there!
 
From experience, the One Lap autocross event is competitive within the classes, and overall rankings. I raced the One Lap in 2019 (Chevy Sonic), our autocross member was a regional champion in CAM-C. Then we moved on to the road tracks after that first day event.
racerjoe said:
I think the autocross at One Lap is non-competitive. Not that I would win, but I'd like to know people are really trying to do well and not just goofing off everyday.

Yep, that's Rich Guido. Insane what that guy does with that car. It's actually an 8 second car. I think it was -40C when he left Canada for sick week. It's a Pontiac motor too.
Click to expand...
 
A little update, my constant searching for the Circuit Car catalog paid dividends and I scored a cheap copy on eBay! Was super stoked about that, it was practically a steal and that's not something that happens on eBay much anymore. It even came with a copy of the '74 Chrysler Kit Car specifications (already have a PDF copy of that though).

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Pretty cool all in all but between @autoxcuda sharing some info and my internet searching of some circuit racing groups I'd already turned up pictures or specifications on most of the parts I was interested in. Definitely gives some insight on what they were doing to make these cars handle back in the day but quite honestly I think some of the parts you can buy off the shelf now from @BergmanAutoCraft, Firm Feel etc., are better or better suited to modern handling and most certainly better suited for the street.

My shop is "done", the building anyway. Have electricians coming to do the wiring and a few other things to get sorted before I really start moving stuff into it and start real project work.
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Unfortunately the first item of business is going to be dropping the T56 on my Duster to change the pilot bearing. Not entirely sure what's going on there but it started making noise so I'll have to drop the transmission and figure it out!
 
Here's a few for the "the weather is always nice in California so it's easy to drive all the time" crowd. No, it's not all beaches and palm trees...


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These are from today!!!
 
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