Hello everyone, I just wanted to give an introduction to my Dragweek effort. When Jay told us his plan last winter to try and bring all 3 of his cars on Dragweek this year and ask some of his friends to drive, including my friend BradFORD I thought it might be fun to go along this year. I haven't been able to participate previously since Dragweek conflicts with the NHRA division 5 ET finals that I'm usually attending. But this year I didn't do my much bracket racing and I knew I wouldn't be going to the ET finals. I figured if I was planning to go along and watch I might as well sign up and race as well.
Deciding what to race was the next question. I have a couple older cars, but they would require both time and money I didn't really want to invest in what may be a one year effort. And fuel mileage was another consideration. One thing that helps Jay is running the Gear Vendors overdrives, again I couldn't justify that expense. So my choice was to take my 1996 Lincoln Mark VIII. The Mark has been down the dragstrip a few times before. It will spin the street tires at the strip though so I decided that needed to be addressed. I figured I could use some used slicks I had purchased from a fellow racer a few years ago. They are Hoosier 26 x 8 inch. I started watching Craigslist this summer for some used T-Bird wheels to mount the slicks on. The T-Bird wheels are 15 inch diameter by 6.5 inch wide. The Lincoln wheels are 16 inch diameter. Eventually I did come across someone selling what I was looking for, by coincidence it turned out to be a friend of Bradfords. It looks like I could have fit a 28 x 9 slick in the wheelwell, but a 9 inch wide slick would be a stretch on the 6.5 inch rim and the 26 inch tire is closer to the stock tire size which would help maintain what little rearend ratio I have. Here's a photo with the slicks.
Running the slicks would mean having to have a driveshaft loop, per the NHRA rules. I initially purchased a loop intended for a late model Mustang hoping the floor would be similar and an eyeball check seemed like it might fit. My good friend and master mechanic BradFORD was talked into doing the install, but when he attemped to mount the loop it became obvious it wasn't going to fit the tunnel of the car and clear the driveshaft. He ended up custom fabricating a loop that fit the floor, the driveshaft and the exhaust that you can see runs right under the driveshaft. Here is a photo compairing the loop he built which has the round top and the Mustang loop that has the angular bends.
And a photo of the driveshaft loop installed on the car.
I will be running the daily driver class and like most of the participants my main goal is finishing the week with the car intact. I expect Jay to be very busy this year overseeing both cars he's entering ( Sadly the '64 Galaxie won't be going ) and I hope to help provide updates on his forum of the action this year. Thanks, Kevin.
