The Road to Drag Week 2016 - Old School Style

[cjshaker]

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone. I'll take all I can get, and I'm not apposed to a little bit of Lady Luck smiling on me either.

As for the updates, I would really like to help keep everyone updated on Jay's, Alan's, Kevin's and mine's progress, which I can do from my phone. Pictures might not be so easy unless I steal the wife's laptop and take it along, which I just might do. I'm a bit of an insomniac, so I'll have to find something to do at night. As far as I know, the only FE's that will be there will be Jay, Jack Miller's Mustang, his Son's Cougar and my car.

The trailer is pretty much finished, but rain has kept me from finishing it up tonight. My only empty bay is taken up by a friends Ford 8N tractor that I'm working on, so I've been keeping the trailer in the car hauler and hauling it out between rains. I have tomorrow off so I need to bust butt and finish the bracing (so the tires don't go bouncing around and try to exit the back) and re-wire it. I REALLY wanted to paint the Ford logo on the side, but I don't think that's going to happen now.

Here it is as it sits...



I still have to wire the car for the trailer hookup also, so that needs to get finished. At least I can do that inside because they're still calling for rain tomorrow. On the bright side, weather here has been miserably hot and humid ALL summer long, but starting Sunday, this rain is supposed to be moved out and cooler temps and lower humidity are moving in. Since I live smack dab in the middle of the Drag Week 'circle', that's a good indicator.

[My427stang]

Doug, aside from the tire, any casualties?  Impressive run for the week, just wondering if the emergency box was cracked open

[cjshaker]

I have to admit, the box was opened on the 2nd day, but only because I was dumb enough to put my spare 124 plugs in there, which I realized I needed at the track if I was going to bump my timing up. The 45's I usually use on the street always have a good heat indicator when I check them, but when I checked them after a run or two, they showed that they were a bit hot and the engine would cut out a bit at the top end, so I switched to the 124's. In my previous experience, with my engine anyway, the 124's are a bit cold for the street and contribute to a bit of a miss at low speeds after they have some miles on them, so I ran the 45's during the drive, then switched to the 124's before racing. Absolutely no issues when I did it that way.

But other than that, I didn't need the box at all. Except for the starter, which is the first issue I've ever had with any OEM design starter, I had zero issues. This is the 3rd Powermaster starter I've had, and it's the first one that's done this to me. I still have no problems with it at home, but I'm not typically driving more than 20 miles before it's allowed to cool for a while. Still, I'm looking at replacing it with the RobMc starter.

I still have a small box with spare ignition parts and tools to change them, that I keep in the trunk, but I now have the confidence to drive the car anywhere. I loved the racing part, but I think I enjoyed the driving part just as much. Lots of nice old country highways, and the chance to spend 5 days with my Son, which I don't get very often. He's stationed at Camp Legeune in NC, being a Corpsman.

[My427stang]

That's awesome.  Especially the time with your son.  My daughter is still in college and lives with us, but even the Sat morning Cars and Coffee Cruise that I can get her out of bed is rare, but a blast.  I can relate to the time spent, and with what your son chose for a career, even more so.

I'll tell you, I also can dig the long rides, I basically try to do a couple of hours around Nebraska if I pull it out of the garage.  I find myself itching to see what it'll do on the track, but not nearly as much as the driving back roads from Omaha to Sioux City, our out to central NE. 

Good work man, hard to call the starter a "break" in my book.  Non-drive parts that fail is just bad luck, the hard parts hanging in there shows the car is built right.