The next thing to advance on the Whatever project is seating. I'm looking at Speedway's bomber seats, they are 16 inches wide. I should be able to fit the gluteus maximus in one. I was going to use Kirkey's vintage seats, as I have one, but they've changed since I bought one. Now they have lightening holes. My older unused one doesn't, so I'll save it for the next project.
So that's this week's efforts, buying 2 seats. I also have to measure for a battery and its box. Dan made me do it! I have an ancient Shell display battery that has a size still available. So I'll start by seeing if it fits in the turtle deck.
Funny side story. I got it in 76 from a friend who had a Shell station in town. It's empty and always was, it was just on a shelf in the station for display. It's a large battery, and Sam had supplied me with a real battery, same one only real. Now when we got to the track, and got thru tech,, mainly weight, another long story, we'd HAVE to change starters. Well that's what we claimed. We did have an engine that ate starters 14 to 1 compression on methanol.
So I had a starter with aluminum snout that was gutted. There went 10 pounds give or take. And Jim never looked at the gauges so no need for gauge lights. Nothing else required the battery as we ran magnetos and mechanical injection. So slide out the full battery, slide in the display battery. Now that's a significant amount of weight to get rid of.
Set up the chassis for half way through the load of fuel, 40 gallons of methanol, and it's going to be better late in the race. Oh and after weigh-In drain the framerails of the 10 gallons of water, change from the trailer tires, old M&H cast iron tires on really heavy steel wheels, and suddenly the car weighs a lot less than 2450 pounds. Which helped because we ran a 350 against unlimited big blocks. Yes they had to run gasoline with a single 4 barrel, but man they had bunches more torque!
Now don't think we were cheating. Most of the cars didn't get weighed evert week, only at the start of the season and maybe once during the year. So a big block car minimum weight was 2650, most cars were probably 3 to 4 hundred pounds underweight, or between 2250 to 2350. In the book "The modifieds of Lebanon Valley " there's a story about one of the track favorites having the tires filled with water. Funny thing was that guy raced against Jim in the sportsman class a few years before when Jim won opening night with a brand new car, but got protested after the race for weight. Even with a full tank of fuel, and the engine filled with oil until it was coming out of the valve covers, it was 37 pounds light. We were forever branded as cheaters!
Jim wasn't a track favorite back then. But he was the first active driver to be enshrined in the New York State Stockcar Association hall of fame, and the Valley's as well back in the mid oughts. At the time he was the second winningest driver across the classes he raced in, and had the most 2nd place finishes by a huge margin, at about 250 seconds. Jim was not a crasher, and raced clean. Of course most of his 50 plus years racing he owned his own equipment. Thus wrecks were his own to repair. Makes a big difference when it's your own money and effort to get back to the track...
So that's this week's efforts, buying 2 seats. I also have to measure for a battery and its box. Dan made me do it! I have an ancient Shell display battery that has a size still available. So I'll start by seeing if it fits in the turtle deck.
Funny side story. I got it in 76 from a friend who had a Shell station in town. It's empty and always was, it was just on a shelf in the station for display. It's a large battery, and Sam had supplied me with a real battery, same one only real. Now when we got to the track, and got thru tech,, mainly weight, another long story, we'd HAVE to change starters. Well that's what we claimed. We did have an engine that ate starters 14 to 1 compression on methanol.
So I had a starter with aluminum snout that was gutted. There went 10 pounds give or take. And Jim never looked at the gauges so no need for gauge lights. Nothing else required the battery as we ran magnetos and mechanical injection. So slide out the full battery, slide in the display battery. Now that's a significant amount of weight to get rid of.
Set up the chassis for half way through the load of fuel, 40 gallons of methanol, and it's going to be better late in the race. Oh and after weigh-In drain the framerails of the 10 gallons of water, change from the trailer tires, old M&H cast iron tires on really heavy steel wheels, and suddenly the car weighs a lot less than 2450 pounds. Which helped because we ran a 350 against unlimited big blocks. Yes they had to run gasoline with a single 4 barrel, but man they had bunches more torque!
Now don't think we were cheating. Most of the cars didn't get weighed evert week, only at the start of the season and maybe once during the year. So a big block car minimum weight was 2650, most cars were probably 3 to 4 hundred pounds underweight, or between 2250 to 2350. In the book "The modifieds of Lebanon Valley " there's a story about one of the track favorites having the tires filled with water. Funny thing was that guy raced against Jim in the sportsman class a few years before when Jim won opening night with a brand new car, but got protested after the race for weight. Even with a full tank of fuel, and the engine filled with oil until it was coming out of the valve covers, it was 37 pounds light. We were forever branded as cheaters!
Jim wasn't a track favorite back then. But he was the first active driver to be enshrined in the New York State Stockcar Association hall of fame, and the Valley's as well back in the mid oughts. At the time he was the second winningest driver across the classes he raced in, and had the most 2nd place finishes by a huge margin, at about 250 seconds. Jim was not a crasher, and raced clean. Of course most of his 50 plus years racing he owned his own equipment. Thus wrecks were his own to repair. Makes a big difference when it's your own money and effort to get back to the track...
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