Old Man

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pagilman

pagilman

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:burnout:Who is the oldest member out there? There'S got to be some members in their 70's and 80's!!!! I'm 60 and I feel like a kid. If you know of the oldest member please let us know and give us their user name I'd like to see their AVATAR, Walt

ME AND ONE OF MY EX WIVES.............:axe:
 
Probably not the oldest but at 63 feel pretty old sometimes.
 
55 and still going strong....just ask my girlfriend....
 
Hey Walt -
Just turned your age a couple of weeks ago and still trying to figure out where the years went. Seems like just the other day I was out cruisin' Whittier Blvd. in my '69 340 Swinger.
Must be that memory that's driving the build of my 'new' '69 Dart. That car's gonna keep me young!
Tell ya' what, I feel a whole lot younger than I did a year ago - got a total knee replacement last January and it's fun to walk without pain now! Back to league bowling last April and commuting on my Kawasaki KZ1000ST daily in June.
 
OCDART, were the best of times, I was stationed on the west coast when U were on wittier in your swinger, I had no wheels and used to take buses to Carlsbad, orange county, Lions and some of the othe strips, man that was when Muldowney, Sox/martin,Bernstein were running.

I'll never forget I went to a dance, had short hair and none of the girls would dance with me, they laughed and called me a squid as I was in the Navy. Walt
 
54 and still curling momma's toes but that goes along with mopars, either one have never been for sissie's!!!
 
Well let me see The last time I look I was 66 and still married to the same woman. 45 years. How many are still married to there High School girls.

Anybody in Calif. know of Morrow Drag strip in Colton,Ca. and world fasted flat head that kick *** on Hemi's
 
When I got started in drag racing/hot rodding, the ads in Hot Rod magazine often featured a Nitro-burning flathead Ford V8-powered Fiat Topolino coupe, driven by "Jazzy" Nelson... it was winning Top Eliminator against Chrysler Hemi powered slingshot dragsters... ran low 9's in the quarter-mile, which was F-A-S-T for the day!

That was in 1955, when I was 17.

Now, I'm going to be 70 in a little over 3 weeks... can't f***ing wait... NOT!

It's no fun at all, getting old, except for the things you can remember that nobody else ever heard of...

I can, for example, easily remember when there were no Chevy V8s... no Torqueflite, no imported cars at all on the streets.... times when the cars were cosmetically re-designed EVERY YEAR, so you could tell who had a "New" car. Can anybody here tell a 2007 Camry from a 2008??? I sure as hell can't...

It was a very exciting time to be young, and into cars because beginning in 1955, there was a HUGE horsepower war going on, up until about 1964...

FOR EXAMPLE (I'll use Chevys as an example, because I know these figures from off the top of my head from my days as a tech guy at the drags.)

Here's a list of the top HP engines for those years, in chronological order for the Brand X (Bow Ties,) beginning in 1954:

Year HP Application and pertinent equipment

'54 155 Corvette 6-cylinder, with three side-draft carbs
'55 195 Corvette V8 with 1 4bbl and hot (factory) cam
'56 225 Corvette 2 X 4bbls, hot cam, higher compression
'57 283 Rochester mech. fuel inj., "Duntov" cam, hi-compression
'58 315 348cid motor with solid cam and three 2 bbls.
'59 335 same as previous 315, but with better cam and who knows?
'60 350 ditto... 3 2bbls, LOTS of cam and compression...
'61 360? (not sure; first 409, and with only one 4bbl)
'62 409 the year-old (409cid) motor based on 348 design with 2 4bbls, hi compression
'63 430 (427 cube 409-style A/FX motor)

Of course, when the '62 Mopars with the new cross-ram 413 in a light Plymouth 2-door sedan showed up, it was all over for the 409s... LOL!

When the Hemi showed up, 2 years later, it just got worse for the Bow Ties...

It was pure joy for me to stand and watch those Chevy guys row those 4-speeds, doing their best to break those spindly, weak, G.M. ring and pinions, in a vain effort to stay ahead of the Mopar Wedges (Stages II and III), which, due to well-designed 727's seemed to win "AUTOMATICALLY." LOL!

Guess you had to be there. Well, I was....

I was 25 when the Hemi arrived in 1964.

If there's anybody on this BB older than I am, I'd sure like to hear about it!

No fun being the oldest... :angry7:

That doesn't mean I'm not HAVING any fun.

I've wanted a supercharged car all my life. Finally built one. There's a 360 Magnum with a Vortech centrifugal blower in that ugly, brown Valiant 4-door you see to the left. Had to build the "kit" myself; Vortech doesn't seem to know that Mopars exist.... but, that's okay, it was fun putting it together. Blow-thru, 750 Holley double pumper. Snowperformance Boost Cooler alky/water injection, and an MSD BoostMaster timing retard to help keep the head gaskets where they belong.

Lookin' for high 11's/low 12's... We'll see.

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas

100_3230-1.jpg
 
Bill, interesting post, I think you might be the oldest and wisest man on this site. that valient is also probalbly the fastest sleeper on this site. Keep us posted and thanks again for the nostalgia information, Walt
 
Well if it makes you feel any better Bill, I feel like I'm 70. I have VERY high mileage and some rust issues :-D
 
I will soon be 61 and feel 91somedays. Began racing at the old A&H dragstrip in Asheville, N.C. in 1964 with a 58 BelAir sport coupe( wish I still had that car) factory 348- 4 spd. Now when I get in my 70 swinger , 340 -4-spd, or the 69 swinger -512-727 it makes me feel like 1964 again but with more aches and pains.
 
Walt,

I may well be the oldest, but I am not so sure about the "wisest" part...

My second-childhood "blower" escapade cost me dearly in both time, and money. I probably could have built a faster (quicker) car by just dropping a 440 into the engine bay, or spending 1/4th of what the blower setup cost me on a good N20 setup for the 360. I'm not at all sure I got the best bang for the buck, doing what I did, but, hey... I can't be right ALL the time!!!! :happy10:

Besides, I don't have another 20 years to get a supercharged car, and I've always wanted one...

Now, if these ^#%@*$*&!!!! head gaskets will just stay put... LOL!!!

One more nostalgia story and I'll shut up:

I had a friend in 1963 who had a 1962 Dodge Lancer (re-badged Valiant) with an aluminum block 225 slant six/904 with a 3.55 gear in the back. With those little 13" wheels, it was more like a 4.10... Atlas Bucron tires (remember THOSE?) No??? They had bite like slicks... and, LOOKED like slicks... two radial grooves and siping... that was all the tread they had. They were Standard Oil's "premium" tire and were made out of "butyl" (synthetic) rubber... REAL soft compound. Great on the strip; not so great on the street; wear rating would have been about 100, probably, if they'd had a wear rating back then.

He had installed a Hyper Pak 4bbl intake manifold and the Hyper Pak AFB carb (4-bbl), along with the Hyper Pak cam (long duration/high lift) and springs. He'd had the head milled .100". The great Hyper Pak headers couldn't be installed because the starter's solenoid (this was an automatic) stuck out right where one of the pipes ran. So, this thing had only the stock, single-pipe exhaust manifold, and not a very big pipe at that.

He handed me the keys one Sat. night and said, "Take it to the strip tomorrow and see what it'll do." He was a pharmacist, and had to work on Sunday, when the race was held.

I was the "Stocker" Tech guy... heh heh...

I classified it in as a 170cid because I saw this guy named Jerry Davis entering his new '63 Falcon Sprint (260 V8, 4-speed car) in the same class the Dodge would run as a 148hp (170cid) Hyper Pak. I figured the stock exhaust manifold would hold me back a bunch.... which it did. So, I was okay with that...:snakeman:

His car (the Ford) supposedly came with a mild hydraulic cam, but his rattled like a sewing machine and would barely idle at 1,000 rpm, so I didn't feel bad at all.

I made one time trial: 15.88 at 89mph. Pulled the car into a far corner of the pits, with the shoe polish window rolled down, before he had a chance to see it.

Eliminations rolled around and there were about ten cars in our class. Of course, it got down to him and me...

I ran another 15.88 to his 16.00 and beat him about two car lengths for the trophy, which was HUGE since it was the Arkansas State Championships at Carlisle (Ark.)

He was mad as a wet hen because his 4-speed V8 got dusted by a six-cylinder/automatic, but knew he couldn't protest because he knew I would protest his cam! He was screwed...

On the return road from that Class runoff, the Lancer started running on 5 cylinders... I couldn't imagine what was wrong. By the time I got the car home (30 miles of highway driving), it was runnning on only four...

Turns out it had two broken rocker arms. The guy who owned it had installed high-lift rockers when it had a stock cam, and forgot to take them off when the Hyper Pak cam was installed! Total valve lift was about .535"... instead of the .410" it was supposed to be. Probably was coil-binding the valve springs. It was pure luck that they lasted through the eliminations!!!

He was happy though, with the big trophy and the 15.88 time slip.

That was 1963.... only 45 years ago... Seems like yesterday!!! :profilel:

I'll stop with the nostalgia stories, now...:stop:

Thanks for listening. It's all true!

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas
 
Yeah Bill, those were the "good ole days" in the 50-60's. And I remember watching a 413 cross-ram take out a 409 chebby one night on our local "drag strip". There were cars and people lined up and down the highway watching. BTW, I just turned 65...... some days I feel 50 and some days I feel 80.
 
Still old enough to know better, but still young enough to want to.....57 big ones. I'll have to come down to Conway and meet you.
 
Small Block...

Come on down; it's 185 miles directly South of you...

I'll buy you some Arkansas pork barbeque!! :)
You'll like it, I'll bet!

OR, I could meet you and Memike in Searcy at Grandpa's barbeque... it's good, too...

Just let me know: [email protected]

Bill
 
Bill Dedman said:
When I got started in drag racing/hot rodding, the ads in Hot Rod magazine often featured a Nitro-burning flathead Ford V8-powered Fiat Topolino coupe, driven by "Jazzy" Nelson... it was winning Top Eliminator against Chrysler Hemi powered slingshot dragsters... ran low 9's in the quarter-mile, which was F-A-S-T for the day!

That was in 1955, when I was 17.

Now, I'm going to be 70 in a little over 3 weeks... can't f***ing wait... NOT!

It's no fun at all, getting old, except for the things you can remember that nobody else ever heard of...

I can, for example, easily remember when there were no Chevy V8s... no Torqueflite, no imported cars at all on the streets.... times when the cars were cosmetically re-designed EVERY YEAR, so you could tell who had a "New" car. Can anybody here tell a 2007 Camry from a 2008??? I sure as hell can't...

It was a very exciting time to be young, and into cars because beginning in 1955, there was a HUGE horsepower war going on, up until about 1964...

FOR EXAMPLE (I'll use Chevys as an example, because I know these figures from off the top of my head from my days as a tech guy at the drags.)

Here's a list of the top HP engines for those years, in chronological order for the Brand X (Bow Ties,) beginning in 1954:

Year HP Application and pertinent equipment

'54 155 Corvette 6-cylinder, with three side-draft carbs
'55 195 Corvette V8 with 1 4bbl and hot (factory) cam
'56 225 Corvette 2 X 4bbls, hot cam, higher compression
'57 283 Rochester mech. fuel inj., "Duntov" cam, hi-compression
'58 315 348cid motor with solid cam and three 2 bbls.
'59 335 same as previous 315, but with better cam and who knows?
'60 350 ditto... 3 2bbls, LOTS of cam and compression...
'61 360? (not sure; first 409, and with only one 4bbl)
'62 409 the year-old (409cid) motor based on 348 design with 2 4bbls, hi compression
'63 430 (427 cube 409-style A/FX motor)

Of course, when the '62 Mopars with the new cross-ram 413 in a light Plymouth 2-door sedan showed up, it was all over for the 409s... LOL!

When the Hemi showed up, 2 years later, it just got worse for the Bow Ties...

It was pure joy for me to stand and watch those Chevy guys row those 4-speeds, doing their best to break those spindly, weak, G.M. ring and pinions, in a vain effort to stay ahead of the Mopar Wedges (Stages II and III), which, due to well-designed 727's seemed to win "AUTOMATICALLY." LOL!

Guess you had to be there. Well, I was....

I was 25 when the Hemi arrived in 1964.

If there's anybody on this BB older than I am, I'd sure like to hear about it!

No fun being the oldest... :angry7:

That doesn't mean I'm not HAVING any fun.

I've wanted a supercharged car all my life. Finally built one. There's a 360 Magnum with a Vortech centrifugal blower in that ugly, brown Valiant 4-door you see to the left. Had to build the "kit" myself; Vortech doesn't seem to know that Mopars exist.... but, that's okay, it was fun putting it together. Blow-thru, 750 Holley double pumper. Snowperformance Boost Cooler alky/water injection, and an MSD BoostMaster timing retard to help keep the head gaskets where they belong.

Lookin' for high 11's/low 12's... We'll see.

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas
Click to expand...

I am right behind you at 53 and god bless the mopar guys & gals
 
Bill Dedman said:
Small Block...

Come on down; it's 185 miles directly South of you...

I'll buy you some Arkansas pork barbeque!! :)
You'll like it, I'll bet!

OR, I could meet you and Memike in Searcy at Grandpa's barbeque... it's good, too...

Just let me know: [email protected]

Bill
Click to expand...

Sounds good to me Bill Dedman, I would be the young gun:cheers:at 50 and enjoy meeting you.
I enjoyed drag racing at George Rays and it was one of my smaller engine
car that won trophies, a 1970 barracuda two barrel 318 7 1/4 rear.
They called it J pure stock, Allot of fun and when I was killing 4 barrel 350 chebbys they would come over and look and see a two Barrel intake and carb.
I cooled my gas and had a 340 cast iron exhaust manifolds 3.55 and peddled it out and away I went. A Dart from a small town of Bono showed up with a dart
two barrel car and he started taking the trophies from me.
Bono was only 10 miles away from my house and it started a great friend ship.
His dad was a racer and said he could get him "Stacy Brodway" a car to start out with so he could win J pure stock every week end.
Our first race he spun to much and almost caught me :happy10:
But when it came time for the trophy run Stacy figured out how to get out of the hole with me and took over my two season run.
Making memories :cheers:

cook and fish 332.jpg


cook and fish 830.jpg
 
Hey Walt -
Never ran at Carlsbad or Lions, ran once at Irwindale and thought I'd fallen off the end of the world since the pits were gravel rather than paved like at OCIR. Did all of my drag strip running at OCIR - what a class place that was.
I used to run the '69 340 Swinger in G/Pure Stock before I did any "heavy" mods to it. Ran best of 14.28 @ 98+ mph with a non-SureGrip 3.23 gear.
Best race was against a '69 Road Runner that had some mods he'd snuck past the tech inspector. My buddy and I knew he was illegal but so were we with a carb insulator plate and some internal carb work so we couldn't holler. Anyway, this guy'd been raggin' on me all day and it came down to him and me in the final. He came up to us in the staging lanes and sneered that "it won't even be close".
Well, staged just enough to make the 'stage' light flicker, cut the best light I'd ever cut up to that point and we were dead even going through the lights. I couldn't see a 'win light' come on for either of us so didn't know what the outcome was until they handed me the 'WIN' slip at the end of the return road! Was all smiles as I came back down through the pits behind the Road Runner.
My (now 'ex) wife stepped out in front of the Road Runner and stopped him from getting to his pit spot, walked up to his window and said something to him before he drove on. I drove back into my pit and my buddy was laughing his head off - turned out my 'ex' had walked up to his window and said "You're right, it wasn't even close!"
Man, those days were the best! 3 classic dragstrips to choose from within a 30-minute drive.
 
dart64gt said:
Anybody in Calif. know of Morrow Drag strip in Colton,Ca. and world fasted flat head that kick *** on Hemi's
Click to expand...
Hey dart64gt -
I remember there used to be a drag strip in Colton and one in Fontana too. Used to do all of my racing at OCIR except for the one time I raced at Irwindale.
PM sent to you.
 
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