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  • Found A Pile Of Pics

    I've been digging thru my office (sort of a junk room w/computer, really) and came across a couple of CDs of digitized photographs from my earlier days and I though y'all might enjoy a pic or several.

    215 Buick in my Vega. This was the first body - I later found a much nicer Arizona body and swapped all the 215 stuff over.

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    And the first Vega running with the 215. Me in the foreground - yes, this was in Michigan.


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    My MGB, rebuilt from a rust total. The car was so bad that it actually ran and sorta went down the road but it was given to me. The car was upside-down in the shop for about 6 months as I gas welded structure back into it. Sold it way to cheap to make room for the Vega.

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    My '73 Celica. Nice car which I enjoyed greatly. I really didn't modify it, just polished the cam cover and kept it clean.

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    Forward it time quite a bit. This was a Mitsubishi Starion that I painted with my daughter's help - it was her car. We'd get asked if it was some kind of Ferrari as we removed all the badging, something I usually do to this day.

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    A Duster I bought and rebuilt. It needed body rust repair, an engine rebuild, and a bunch more and taught me that to make money on them you start with a 1 problem car.


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    And finally, an unpublished pic of the Crusher Camaro on the dyno at EPA. I'm behind the wheel so it must have been some kind of warm-up as I didn't drive the official tests. You're watching my career turn into a job - but it was worth it!

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    Dan

  • #2
    Really cool stuff! Although I don't believe that's you in the foreground in Pic 2. That guy's tall.
    Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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    • #3
      Originally posted by pdub View Post
      Really cool stuff! Although I don't believe that's you in the foreground in Pic 2. That guy's tall.
      Me at my full 5' 6 1/2". That's all she ever wrote.....

      Dan
      Last edited by DanStokes; January 26, 2022, 06:12 PM.

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      • #4
        Wow, great pics. Really like the aluminum slots on the Celica.
        2011 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.89 avg.
        2012 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.55 avg.
        all time best 10.27 @ 127

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        • #5
          Originally posted by prostreet34 View Post
          Wow, great pics. Really like the aluminum slots on the Celica.
          Thanks! That was the first newish car I owned - it had been a demonstrator (w/o the slots - I found them used somewhere). At about 80K miles it swallowed a valve and I swapped it out in a day - I had been the service department at a small Toyota dealership (that's not a typing error - I was it). It was about a year after my Toyota dealer experience that I got into EPA and had a couple of nickles to rub together so I got the Celica.

          Dan
          Last edited by DanStokes; January 26, 2022, 06:39 PM.

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          • #6
            Kool Pix.
            the Starion reminds me of the 2nd Gen Dodge Chargers. Had one, Burgundy Red.

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            • #7
              Great pics. I had those 13x7 Libre wheels on the first couple Vegas, a proud purchase representing many hours of after-school work, man they look tiny now huh. That whole EPA thing as far as I understand it seems like a heluva story...I doubt they much liked getting their crap exposed at all.
              ...

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              • #8
                cool stuff, thanks for posting it
                Doing it all wrong since 1966

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Loren View Post
                  Great pics. I had those 13x7 Libre wheels on the first couple Vegas, a proud purchase representing many hours of after-school work, man they look tiny now huh. That whole EPA thing as far as I understand it seems like a heluva story...I doubt they much liked getting their crap exposed at all.
                  Actually, the DAA at the time was Margo Oge (pronounced OHgay, Greek) who was running the Mobile Sources end of the Agency. I picked her up at the airport and while I had her in the car told her about the Crusher Camaro project and how Rob Kinnan from HRM was trying to show that it could be made to meet emissions standards and still be fast. She said that we should get involved so Dave G and I and a few others went for it with the blessing of my immediate boss. The problem was that Margo was stationed in DC and not at the lab on any regular basis and a bunch of the Ann Arbor managers didn't like the Agency being involved and took it out on, especially, Dave and me. Dave eventually moved along but I was too far invested in my EPA career and w/o degree decided I better stick it out.

                  As far as the wheels - a friend had them from an Opel project and I bought and/or swapped for them. I rarely spend on wheels for my projects (note the wheel discs on the Duster) but these looked SO good on the Vega. I most have a pic around here somewhere of the final body I found, silver over forest green.


                  Dan
                  Last edited by DanStokes; January 27, 2022, 09:43 AM.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by DanStokes View Post

                    Actually, the DAA at the time was Margo Oge (pronounced OHgay, Greek) who was running the Mobile Sources end of the Agency. I picked her up at the airport and while I had her in the car told her about the Crusher Camaro project and how Rob Kinnan from HRM was trying to show that it could be made to meet emissions standards and still be fast. She said that we should get involved so Dave G and I and a few others went for it with the blessing of my immediate boss. The problem was that Margo was stationed in DC and not at the lab on any regular basis and a bunch of the Ann Arbor managers didn't like the Agency being involved and took it out on, especially, Dave and me. Dave eventually moved along but I was too far invested in my EPA career and w/o degree decided I better stick it out.

                    As far as the wheels - a friend had them from an Opel project and I bought and/or swapped for them. I rarely spend on wheels for my projects (note the wheel discs on the Duster) but these looked SO good on the Vega. I most have a pic around here somewhere of the final body I found, silver over forest green.


                    Dan
                    Yup! And remember the stink when I called Scooter who called Margo who called Chet who called John Anderson and I finally got the data? Yeah that's part of the reason why I was the only engineer during the reorganization that didn't get to request my own work assignment, and ended up with she who will be named as my immediate manager.

                    And you and Lou, and the other techs who worked with me on the Crusher project sort of got pigeon-holed as well. But hey we gave the world the drippy car... The best hybrid technology government money couldn't get!

                    Yes still have a couple of issues with that period of time. But I'm much better now!

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                    • #11
                      I'm sort of over it though not quite. At least we had the experience.

                      BTW folks - the drippy car was a stupid project one of the Big Bosses pushed. It was supposed to compress fluid during deceleration (think hydraulic braking) and store that energy to reuse it to overcome the inertia of rest when needed. I remember Dave and I and another engineer named Paul (cool guy) sitting around on that first day of the project saying that safety and weight will make this non-viable. We were right that first day and are still right today. I don't know how many wasted millions were poured into this and its the only time I observed REAL waste of taxpayer dollars. The problem was that the people who could have turned off the tap were in DC and weren't tech savvy enough to call the most equal boss' BS (look up animal farm - "we're all equals but some of us are more equal") BS. It was a crazy time......

                      Dan

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