The Official Hot Rod Thread

[churchmouse]

Hmmmmmmmm......

I am gonna need a moment alone boys

 

[RustyHornet]

I am gonna need a moment alone boys

Please take it. But which one? One is the real deal LS6 with a stick, the other a real 454SS Elky with crate engine and auto trans. One is sexy black and hauls more than just ass..... Man I'd have a tough time deciding, but would prolly drive the Elky home.

 

[churchmouse]

We run Aerospace 4 piston brakes on the rear with 5/16 thick rotors and Strange 4 pistons on the front. They slow the car down pretty darn quick but because of the rules, we have to weigh 3150lbs and at those speeds that is a lot of energy to stop. The bird is NHRA legal to 4.50/7.50. It's geared for the 1/8th but coasted through the traps at IRP once for a 7.42 @ 189.? MPH had to get off the throttle early, it was tickling the rev limiter. She hauls the mail on the back half. But, we gotta do better in the first 60ft. 1.17- 1.19 has pretty much been the norm for us but others in our class are down in the 1.09- 1.14 range.

Our best 60 to memory was a 1.30 or 1.31 on a day with mine shaft air. Car hauled A$$. That was at 3000 lbs even race ready no driver. If I had trimmed the weight back to 2850 I am only guessing at maybe a 1.28 or 9.....That is hauling for a back half car.
We ran 1/8th mostly. The Good Guys and like events we swapped out the 4.56 for a 4.30 to get us past the 1000 ft mark off the rev limiter. 2 Strange "S" series 9" set up and ready to swap. We could do it in about an hour if we got after it. Drop the shaft/shocks to drop the assembly down to pull the tires and you know what happens from there.
Wish I still had my log books but they went with the car. Best at Terrible Haute at 2850 with all the stops pulled we went 6.05's. Dressed out to 3K with some limits in place to keep us legal it went 6.40's all day long. It was easy to dial it up to the conditions.
Best 1/4 was 9.13's at the good guys. That was the day it pulled 1.30's in the 60. We avg. 1.35's mostly.

 

[RustyHornet]

Just about finished up with this one. Lot of mechanical work on it. This one got the Ford BOSS 302 crate engine.

 

[churchmouse]

Nice Rusty......very nice.

 

[chocktaw2]

Good work Rusty.

 

[thunderchicken]

Very nice Rusty that is a beautiful Mustang

 

[thunderchicken]

Our best 60 to memory was a 1.30 or 1.31 on a day with mine shaft air. Car hauled A$$. That was at 3000 lbs even race ready no driver. If I had trimmed the weight back to 2850 I am only guessing at maybe a 1.28 or 9.....That is hauling for a back half car.
We ran 1/8th mostly. The Good Guys and like events we swapped out the 4.56 for a 4.30 to get us past the 1000 ft mark off the rev limiter. 2 Strange "S" series 9" set up and ready to swap. We could do it in about an hour if we got after it. Drop the shaft/shocks to drop the assembly down to pull the tires and you know what happens from there.
Wish I still had my log books but they went with the car. Best at Terrible Haute at 2850 with all the stops pulled we went 6.05's. Dressed out to 3K with some limits in place to keep us legal it went 6.40's all day long. It was easy to dial it up to the conditions.
Best 1/4 was 9.13's at the good guys. That was the day it pulled 1.30's in the 60. We avg. 1.35's mostly.

That's not bad at all for a true back half car.
When we started out back on '04 the car was a true 2x3 framed back half, factory floor, front stub only fiberglass on the car was hood & deck lid. Even had all lights and power windows. With 4.30 gear, glide, 588 cu in, and 3300lbs it went 9.76 on motor the first time down the track. There have been significant changes almost every year since except this year. Maybe we can finally get a good baseline. Lol

 

[RustyHornet]

Thanks fellas, but I can't take any credit for underhood stuff. Most of my work on that one was under the car or in the interior. Did give her a good polish today.

 

[Leadeye]

Really good looking cars Rusty!

 

[Jeff]

Those are stunning, Rusty!

 

[churchmouse]

That's not bad at all for a true back half car.
When we started out back on '04 the car was a true 2x3 framed back half, factory floor, front stub only fiberglass on the car was hood & deck lid. Even had all lights and power windows. With 4.30 gear, glide, 588 cu in, and 3300lbs it went 9.76 on motor the first time down the track. There have been significant changes almost every year since except this year. Maybe we can finally get a good baseline. Lol

It was 2X3 box with .125 wall.
I made it all. The bar mount tabs shock mounts....everything. Made the links as well. I was going to do a Jacobs ladder to center like I had in the midget but a simple cross bar on the lower links worked just as well. Narrowed 9" rolling on 14WX32's. Dual adjustable shocks.
All the front suspension was after market pieces.
All steel save the hood. Lexan windows. Gutted the doors but kept the crank mechanisms and door handles. Factory floor to the back of the seats and aluminum the rest of the way. No wheel houses. Aluminum firewall. If you did not absolutely need it we cut it off. The rear glass cranks were totally gutted. The striker plats in the door pillars were tagged onto the roll hoop as they were pretty well gutted. Dash was cut back to the windshield. Built out in aly.
Engine was a 454 Merlin block with world head. It went up to 468 and then to 496. The 496 was a full roller. Still had the steel heads. Made a butt load of power. No nitrous. T-400 reverse valve body with a harris 5000 stall converter noid shifted.
It was a serious Super pro/pro car. Cert to 9.90 but as I stated it was much faster.
Weight was at min. 2850 and adjustable up to 3100. Front and rear attachment for ballast.

 

[thunderchicken]

It was 2X3 box with .125 wall.
I made it all. The bar mount tabs shock mounts....everything. Made the links as well. I was going to do a Jacobs ladder to center like I had in the midget but a simple cross bar on the lower links worked just as well. Narrowed 9" rolling on 14WX32's. Dual adjustable shocks.
All the front suspension was after market pieces.
All steel save the hood. Lexan windows. Gutted the doors but kept the crank mechanisms and door handles. Factory floor to the back of the seats and aluminum the rest of the way. No wheel houses. Aluminum firewall. If you did not absolutely need it we cut it off. The rear glass cranks were totally gutted. The striker plats in the door pillars were tagged onto the roll hoop as they were pretty well gutted. Dash was cut back to the windshield. Built out in aly.
Engine was a 454 Merlin block with world head. It went up to 468 and then to 496. The 496 was a full roller. Still had the steel heads. Made a butt load of power. No nitrous. T-400 reverse valve body with a harris 5000 stall converter noid shifted.
It was a serious Super pro/pro car. Cert to 9.90 but as I stated it was much faster.
Weight was at min. 2850 and adjustable up to 3100. Front and rear attachment for ballast.

Very nice. Definitely had to be fun
Compared to where we started with it, it's a completely different car now. Now it has. More cu in, 4.71 gear, updated 9" rear, 34x14 tires (used to run 33x16.5), cut out the back half and put in new round tube moly 4 link, upgraded chassis to full tube chassis, larger tubs, aluminum tin work, moved the firewall back @ 6" moved the motor back and down in the car, fiberglass front end & doors with all lexan windows, removed anything that wasn't necessary and got it down to just over 2500lbs (no driver or ballast)...then had to bring it back up to 3150

 

[den57]

Brother in Law's '72.

 

[churchmouse]

Very nice. Definitely had to be fun
Compared to where we started with it, it's a completely different car now. Now it has. More cu in, 4.71 gear, updated 9" rear, 34x14 tires (used to run 33x16.5), cut out the back half and put in new round tube moly 4 link, upgraded chassis to full tube chassis, larger tubs, aluminum tin work, moved the firewall back @ 6" moved the motor back and down in the car, fiberglass front end & doors with all lexan windows, removed anything that wasn't necessary and got it down to just over 2500lbs (no driver or ballast)...then had to bring it back up to 3150

And you could put the ballast where you wanted it. You have a serious piece right there.

In that 2850 minimum weight was a 12 gallon fuel cell and twin deep cycle battery's in the trunk. A bracket car has to fire and run in the short rounds if you make the last four. It has to sit in the lanes and run the fans and water pump to cool down in the short rounds. Guys with 1 battery sometimes don't make the call on a seriously hot summer day. I have seen guys run out of fuel with the 5 gallon cells. My car always started. No sweat. It would run 4 rounds with no re-fuel it just got lighter.

 

[churchmouse]

Brother in Law's '72.

I think I have seen this car.

 

[thunderchicken]

Brother in Law's '72.

Obviously a long way to go to be road ready, but looks like it's going to have a lot of classic style. What engine/trans??

 

[thunderchicken]

And you could put the ballast where you wanted it. You have a serious piece right there.

In that 2850 minimum weight was a 12 gallon fuel cell and twin deep cycle battery's in the trunk. A bracket car has to fire and run in the short rounds if you make the last four. It has to sit in the lanes and run the fans and water pump to cool down in the short rounds. Guys with 1 battery sometimes don't make the call on a seriously hot summer day. I have seen guys run out of fuel with the 5 gallon cells. My car always started. No sweat. It would run 4 rounds with no re-fuel it just got lighter.

Yeah it's honestly a dang site more than what the class started out to be 15y ago. Originally was meant to be a big tire, back half, big motor nitrous class.. Even had to have a passenger seat, basically street legal cars. What a long way it has come since then. Back in '13 we sat out and had the chassis redone went into the shop with 57% on the front get it all together add weight and dang if we didn't end up with 56% on the front to keep the nose down.
Sounds like you had a good, well thought out combo. There's a lot to be said about your car having that kind of reliability. Nothing much worse than losing because your battery went dead. Our first year we sat in the lanes during a oil down in mid Oct and had to keep turning on the bottle heater and killed the battery. The next year we made it to our first final at the last race and went to start it up to pull into the water box and the starter wouldn't engage the flywheel just gave the dreaded zzzing sound sucked watch the other guy cruise down the track on a bye for the win.

 

[den57]

TH, yeah it has a ways to go. He works on it after work and on the weekends. Took him a while to get the body the way he wanted it before he painted it. I'm trying to talk him into a 454 but I think he is leaning toward a LS of some sort.....

CM, he wish's you had seen it on the road, that way sister would be able to park her XTS in the garage.

 

[Gluemanz28]

In my spare time I am building a car that will certify to 8.50 just to have something to play with. The outlaw series stuff is fun but costly and the series only runs once per month.

That sounds like more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

I look forward to seeing pictures of it.