Resurrecting the Rambler

[Pinballer]

I happen to have a little experience in these matters, that is, being hung out to dry while being chased by something so fast it about blows you off the track at the finish line.

Many years ago, 23 to be exact, my then 5 months pregnant wife and I took a vacation to Phoenix and rented of all things, a Geo Metro convertible with a 3 cylinder automatic to tour the countryside with. And of course, every gearhead races his rental car before turning it back in the next day, doesn't he? (shades of Bret Kepner here). Found out there was a gambler race on Friday nights at a track way north of Phoenix, so we headed out there on our final night of vacation. The tech guy there looked at me and then at the car proudly wearing it's Alamo Rental Car plate and asked me if I was serious or not. Well, YEAH!
It passed tech and I was in.

Pictures of the time tickets from Phoenix Raceway park shown here.

The Geo was not exactly a "leaver", was not exactly consistent, and was definitely not fast. This car was all over the place. I dialed it in at something like 21.42 .
My first and only round pairing was with a 12 second early 70's Camaro. I took my best guess on a dial-in, seeing as how the car wouldn't run within .05 of itself, and turned the light green at the start. I had to be about 3/4 of the way downtrack before I heard that Camaro launch. I looked back and saw he'd turned his light green, so the race was on. Just as I'm approaching the traps and am running through the big X and the finish line cones, I thought I might have it won, but at the stripe something went by me so fast it rocked the little car with the wind as he passed by. The only thing I saw from then on was a pair of brake lights melting into one single light way out in the distance. He had went by me at 112 mph.
My wife had a report from the stands that was comical: she said when the people up there saw the pairing of the cars ahead of time, side bets were made on the senseless Geo/Camaro matchup and once the race started, a pack of them started chanting "Go-Geo Go-Geo Go-Geo! " Big moan from the crowd when the underdog lost.
Hey, it was kinda fun, a good memory...

This scenario could be repeated with a COPO, Cobra Jet, or Hemi matchup sometime. I'll have to tell you whether the wind from the fast car blows me sideways or not then.

[Dave Muller]

Very cool! Not sure I would even have thought of racing a Geo!

In 2010 I dislocated my left shoulder a month or so before the King of the Track race at that same venue, which by then was Speedworld. I couldn't drive my Camaro but I could drive my Ranger, as it would shift itself, leaving my right arm free to steer. So I wound up with a mid-15 second dial-in and matched up against Mike Zimmerman's 8-second Mustang. He passed me at the stripe going 65 MPH faster than me, his 150 MPH to my 85. There was a very pronounced side sway from the little Ranger as he went by also!

And yeah, he won that race, though at least it was moderately close.

[Pinballer]

I guess some people tend to progress slower than others in life. It's taken me 23 years to double the amount of cylinders I get to race with.

Now does this mean my ET should go down by half from the Geo one since I'm doubling the engine size? Man, I can only hope! (but I know better...)

[Pinballer]

Been a couple weeks since my last report, mainly because this is a super busy time of year for me as far as the pinball business. Lots happening in late March and all thru April in that world. And in what spare time I did have recently, the winds were howling across the prairie making it nearly unbearable to do what I really wanted to do on the car which was to try and get the hood prepped for paint so the whole car could be red again. (Even though the overall paint quality of the car is certainly not what I'd call good, that blue hood just bugs the crap out of me). So instead, I settled on doing some more mop-up tasks in between frequent excursions to go get more pinballs gathered up from sellers for eventual transport to their new owners out east at a major show in Allentown Pa coming up in early May. After that though, it's full speed ahead on race car!

These last couple week's fascinating work included things like re-engineering an old factory AMC radio to fit into the dash properly and getting the antique Sun gauge cluster mounted. Doesn't sound like these should be something that hogged up an entire evening and one afternoon to get mounted, but they sure did. After all, it takes some time to go through your pile of spare AMC radios and weigh them all to see which one you gotta have! When I selected the lightest one and got all done, the look of the dash improved a lot, and I only have one more empty hole left to fill on the center pod of the dash. A lighted fuel pump toggle switch is slated to go there when I get to the fuel system re-do someday. Initially I'll be running off the regular factory fuel pump and gas tank just to get the car mobile, so it's not like it's a hurry up thing. If I could just quit that regular day job...I'd have a lot more time! (but no money)

A few shots of the recent work shown here...Still looking for my matching Sun water temp gauge I *know* I have stashed somewhere so it can mount to the left side of the 3-gauge panel. The matching fuel pressure gauge and it's chrome cup will go on the outside of the car of course.

[MR DERBY CITY]

Just curious why you are installing a radio In a stock eliminator car ?

[Pinballer]

From the way I read the rule book, the car has to have a complete dashboard that appears factory original, so I can't leave a gaping hole in my dash. Doesn't say things in the dash have to work, they just have to be there.
AMC did not have a radio-delete option on an AMX in 1979--they were normally pretty well-optioned cars with plussed-up interiors--or I would have had the chance to leave it out. Maybe some of their ultra-cheap-for-fleets Spirits of that era had the radio delete option, but I can't truthfully claim it on the model I'm building. The last thing I need is to haul to an event and get tossed for having no radio, so I'm playing it safe. The 2.8 pounds is worth it, and I can lose that much body weight to offset it! No cake for me...

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

From the way I read the rule book, the car has to have a complete dashboard that appears factory original, so I can't leave a gaping hole in my dash. Doesn't say things in the dash have to work, they just have to be there.
AMC did not have a radio-delete option on an AMX in 1979--they were normally pretty well-optioned cars with plussed-up interiors--or I would have had the chance to leave it out. Maybe some of their ultra-cheap-for-fleets Spirits of that era had the radio delete option, but I can't truthfully claim it on the model I'm building. The last thing I need is to haul to an event and get tossed for having no radio, so I'm playing it safe. The 2.8 pounds is worth it, and I can lose that much body weight to offset it! No cake for me...

Trust me on this one, you will be One of the few Stockers in the lanes with a radio....You can FAB your own radio delete plate....Would be a wise idea to join us at Indy Pts meet, walk thru the staging lanes and OBSERVE.....might save you a lot of trouble down the road.....Ed Fernandez , quit being a wise guy ....LOL...!!

[Tom keedle]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

From the way I read the rule book, the car has to have a complete dashboard that appears factory original, so I can't leave a gaping hole in my dash. Doesn't say things in the dash have to work, they just have to be there.
AMC did not have a radio-delete option on an AMX in 1979--they were normally pretty well-optioned cars with plussed-up interiors--or I would have had the chance to leave it out. Maybe some of their ultra-cheap-for-fleets Spirits of that era had the radio delete option, but I can't truthfully claim it on the model I'm building. The last thing I need is to haul to an event and get tossed for having no radio, so I'm playing it safe. The 2.8 pounds is worth it, and I can lose that much body weight to offset it! No cake for me...

gut the radio...

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

Just curious why you are installing a radio In a stock eliminator car ?

Where else are you going to hide the delay box? Remember those days?