Drag Strip Gear Question

[Rory428]

Bob and Randy, were either of you guys from the Pacific Northwest? I remember a Boss 302 powered front engine dragster at Mission Raceway in the early-mid 70s. I think it was from either Washington State or Oregon.
As for using a line lock on the starting line with a clutch car, I always use the line lock on the starting line, since its called a "Line Lock", or "Roll Control", it would seem that was why Hurst developed such an item. I have both my 4 speed cars set up with the line lock and 2 step wired together. On the Fairmont, I have a switch on the clutch pedal, wired thru a relay, so once I am staged, I hold the clutch pedal down, and I can release the line lock button, as long as the pedal is down, the 2 step low side and line lock are activated until I release the clutch pedal. Its been working well for many years.

[gt350hr]

    No Rory ,
        Mine only ran in So Cal at OCIR for about 6 months until I converted it to the aluminum 351 engine.

[machoneman]

Bob and Randy, were either of you guys from the Pacific Northwest? I remember a Boss 302 powered front engine dragster at Mission Raceway in the early-mid 70s. I think it was from either Washington State or Oregon.
As for using a line lock on the starting line with a clutch car, I always use the line lock on the starting line, since its called a "Line Lock", or "Roll Control", it would seem that was why Hurst developed such an item. I have both my 4 speed cars set up with the line lock and 2 step wired together. On the Fairmont, I have a switch on the clutch pedal, wired thru a relay, so once I am staged, I hold the clutch pedal down, and I can release the line lock button, as long as the pedal is down, the 2 step low side and line lock are activated until I release the clutch pedal. Its been working well for many years.

No, mine was locally built (Chicago and Racine, WI) and race only here in the Midwest. From an old post:

I don't know.....   January 11 2009, 10:42 AM

It was allegedly built by Bob Rose here in Chicago, IL with expert technical help on the chassis from the old R&B shop out of Wisconsin (the B stands for Ron Buttera....later of mucho funny car fame!). The quality of the entire rig was outstanding and I was amazed that he could build a chassis like this himself...although he did have Ron's help.

http://www.carcraft.com/thehistoryof/ccrp_0803w_lil_john_buttera_death/index.html
Rose ran a auto trans shop here in the city (forget the name right now, Rose Transmissions? RSI?) that mainly specialized in performance applications. The chrome-moly chassis was sweet, engine was a slightly warmed over Boss 302 with Hilborn injection on gas, rear was a Pontiac/Olds and the trans a highly-worked over C-4. The name on the car's dark blue cowling when we purchased it was "Underdog"....like the flying caped cartoon character from TV.

Rose kinda' struck me as local Midwest racer only....could be wrong! I do miss that dragster as it would have been a great bracket car today! Was a ton of fun to drive too. We raced it at Union Grove (WI) and Rockford (IL) Dragway.









   

[gt350hr]

    mine was an SPE chassis , turned out to be an ex Howard Cams Rattler. I ran a custom built "short" C4 with a 5.14 gear and a Bud Moore mini plenum with an 850 Holley.Fun ride.

[Falcon67]

It's so bad at one track they divided up the no Box,  NB or footbrake.  The footbrake guys were whining that a trans brake(even bottom bulb) is an advantage.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  I can't run in NB, because I use a line lok.  WTF is that about?  Ya, it is an "advantage"?  Say what?  How the hell do I hold my car from rolling without using a line lok?  Needless to say I don't run there, except when the stick group does and we run out own program/rules.

LOL, we had those whiners for a while - they apparently gave up because they don't come anymore.  We give buy runs to the best reaction time after 1st round, the few that whined "I'll never get a bye" also don't run anymore.  Yea, if you think that way you've already put yourself behind.
 I've made several rounds against box dragsters and the wife has also.  Last big payout race I lost in the 4th, ran "Bob" in a Super Pro rail dialed 4.76 to my 8.16.  I had the light but ran .01 off, he got there first by a hair and went by at 80 MPH.  Went over to Bob's pit, said "Scared you, huh?"  Reply "I hate running you footbrake guys."  LOL.  I have a picture and a $1000 check in the shop with my wife's name on it.  Beat some hotshot guy in a roadster in a big money final.  Guy's name was Luke Bodacki, you can look him up.  She had no idea who, just put a wheel on him at the stripe and got the win light.  That's how it's done.  I'll line up against Ron Capps in his funny car, don't matter to me. 

Bob,
           I had a FED in '76 with a Boss 302 and C4. Ran 8.90's at 154 all day long. Too slow for A/ED and canted valves kept it from being C/ED legal. Fun car. Ended up with an all aluminum 418 ci Cleveland and went 7.60's in '78.
    Randy

Now that would be a fun ride.

[machoneman]

Chris, a dragster story for you and other digger owners.

My pal's injected, gas SBC 355" front-engined, direct drive rail, which he bought running could only manage disappointing low tens and IIRC about 145 MPH. Randy and I talked a few times about it but the jetting, plugs, clutch slip was all a-o.k.

So, one day at Great Lakes Dragway, Union Grove, WI I talked his bro Ritchie into having him and I tune the Vertex magneto by ear (no kidding) on the in-ground rollers then in use. After it fired, I turned it up a lot until the exhausts were really crackling at idle.....and fought Ritchie to not turn it down! Locked the mag down and pushed it off the rollers.         

Randy lined her up and let fly. Previous best e.t. IIRC was 10.10 or 10.09. This run?

9.27 at 158 mph!

Turns out the previous owner bought a used supercharged F/C mag set up to advance the mech. timing up to about 6,500 rpm and then retard down a steep slope very quickly after 6,500 rpms.....while the rail was geared for near 8,000 rpm! Once he had the Ono Brothers, a Vertex dealer in Chicago, re-do the mag he was flying to I heard later 9.01's.

Pays to check every single thing.   

[BattlestarGalactic]

I'll line up against Ron Capps in his funny car, don't matter to me. 

Yup, my thoughts too.  Put a number on your car and run it.  So many racers put too much thought into it.  Or are just "scared".   I see the guys that "Must stage last" or whatever their hiccup is.  I don't care.  I do my thing and you can do whatever makes you happy.

I'm glad I run with my stick group.  We are all in the same basket and there aren't really any whiners in the group.  We have fun, all bets are off when the staging lights come on, but we enjoy the fellowship in the pits.

[gt350hr]

     This will be my 50th year of racing and I have had far more fun foot braking my way to the winners circle at a bracket race than any other form of drag racing. I tried the heads up dragster classes (Top Gas West) and Super Comp , Super Gas but nothing is better than the left and right shuffle on the last yellow. I have to admit it was fun racing a 20 second Pinto with my seven second dragster but it's fun being chased too. Shoe polish and a good reaction time are all that's needed. I think I'll do it for at least 10 more years.
     Randy