A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.

[MR DERBY CITY]

Dude, I have tried to follow along with your journey . Are you an author / write books ?? And who is McConnell ?? You have known him / raced with him forever but I can’t find his name on any Q sheets ?? You are killin me . LOL.

[Cglrcng]

(Oh man, really sorry I cannot believe I did that not just once, but like over 4 times, I am lousy with names, but that is usually people I have only met a couple of times in life, not people I have known for decades! I just corrected each post, my apologies to both Bill and others reading the thread, a very good reason you could not find him on the sheets...crap, what an old fool I am.) I typed Mr. O'Connor and somehow that transposed or corrected to McConnell. (I really need to use the preview more before clicking post!)

No author here, except for my racing Novel's here (I may not remember names well, but details of events that happened in my lifetime...every detail is unforgettable, like it was imbedded on a memory chip). Bill O'Connor has a Dark Brown boxy 83 Dodge Omni "Slo Roller" is on the side now in large letters (and the announcers know him well, since our billboards are on track the longest of any at the events), w/ that carbed low HP VW or Mitsubishi I think 87 HP engine, weighs in at like 2,223 pounds or so (my Daytona 2.2L/135 99HP currently has a 6 HP factor on it to 105- that is an extra 150 lbs @ 25.0 lbs/HP, and my min. wt is 2,795 lbs). I think he said his minimum was (a 500 lb difference, but beam scales were junk, and I was carrying in actuality 550 lbs more). Check down near the bottom of the Bakersfield Famoso Div. 7 Double (or the Div. 7 NHRATV Live Stream Replay on YouTube), held at the beginning of October, and again at Phoenix early in the Spring of 23'. He just ran 16.95 then 16.85 on Thursday, then a 16.95 in our Class race (my ET w/ the win was 17.204).

He has been racing that car in Div. 7, and mainly West Coast National events since the early to mid 1990's. I have raced him in Class races back in the mid to late 90's in GF/S and mine was a GF/SA, he is now in EF/S as am I (since they did away w/ FF and GF classes and combined all slower into EF/S), same 17.45 Index, same 25 lbs/per HP (same 500 lb plus wt difference too though). Friends w/ a slow roller rivalry. (Only I sat out the last 26 yrs.). The prior last class race together was The Atsco Phoenix Nationals in Feb. 1997, he got to the finish line an inch before me...not this time. But, if anyone gives me 4/10th's at the tree I will get there first (not to say I could not have competed well if it had been even lights). I just have no time slips that show a 16 sec. E.T.....yet. I just finished the car, barely got the rings seated before Bakersfield. Just changed the oil after the event from Breakin to real oil.

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by Cglrcng

No author here, except for ny racing Novel's here. Dark Brown 83 Dodge Omni w/ that carbed low HP VW or Mitsubishi I think 87 HP engine, weighs in at like 2223 pounds or so I think he said his minimum was. Check down near the bottom of the Bakersfield Famoso Div. 7 Double held at the beginning of October, and Phoenix. early in the Spring of 23'. He just ran 16.95 then 16.85 on Thursday, then a 16.95 in our Class race (my ET w/ the win was 17.204). He has been racing that car in Div. 7 and mainly West Coast National events since the 1990's. I have raced him in Class races back in the mid to late 90's in GF/S and mine was a GF/SA, he is now in EF/S as am I, same Index (same 500 lb plus wt difference). Friends w/ a slow roller rivalry. (Only I sat out 26 yrs.). The prior last class race together was The Atco Phoenix Nationals in Feb. 1997, he got to the finish line an inch before me...not this time.

are you running the stock transmission?

[Cglrcng]

Originally Posted by David Lee

are you running the stock transmission?

Yes and no, the same stock OEM A413 Auto Transaxle that came with the car from the factory yes, w/ some major gearing changes internally, side case gears, 1st and 2nd, some valve body changes (still forward patterned, but the D.C. Valve Body shift kit / plate, along w/ some custom drilling, gov. wk, etc. that I performed in 1994). And the 20" tall M.T./E.T. Slicks X 6" on the heavy 14" Stock Alum. wheels further helps improve lower gearing, and it still has the un-equal length half shafts it came with stock (though I do have a broken equal length set someone gave me in 1995...carrier bearing is loose/out plus 1 cross on the right axle has 2 damaged caps & boots), that I have yet to repair or install., (I have only broken 1 short axle ever, and did the repair myself along w/ rebooting), and A custom built in 1994 Turbo Action Converter (needs loosening up a lot to use that other cam I talked about earlier, along w/ a manual brake conv.). I will be freshening it this Winter season while the converter gets reworked, since it has to be dropped out. (it still has the 1984 factory bands and clutches in it).

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by Cglrcng

Yes and no, the same stock OEM A413 Auto Transaxle that came with the car from the factory yes, w/ some major gearing changes internally, side case gears, 1st and 2nd, some valve body changes (still forward patterned, but the D.C. Valve Body shift kit / plate, along w/ some custom drilling, gov. wk, etc. that I performed in 1994). And the 20" tall M.T./E.T. Slicks X 6" on the heavy 14" Stock Alum. wheels further helps improve lower gearing, and it still has the un-equal length half shafts it came with stock (though I do have a broken equal length set someone gave me in 1995...carrier bearing is loose/out plus 1 cross on the right axle has 2 damaged caps & boots), that I have yet to repair or install., (I have only broken 1 short axle ever, and did the repair myself along w/ rebooting), and A custom built in 1994 Turbo Action Converter (needs loosening up a lot to use that other cam I talked about earlier, along w/ a manual brake conv.). I will be freshening it this Winter season while the converter gets reworked, since it has to be dropped out. (it still has the 1984 factory bands and clutches in it).

if i remember right getting gears for that transmission is amost impossible these days. is that true

[Cglrcng]

Yes if looking in salvage yards, but there are direct ways to find the gears that are hidden away by some that love the vehicles, and have parts rat holed away, if you know where to look, and today almost any gear can be cut if the right person you know has a mill, and you have deep pockets. The service manuals the dealers used list all the gears made, and installed in different year cars and vans..

I now own a set of those service manuals, and the info is nearly priceless if running a manual or auto for the 80's or 90's efi/carbed Mopar's to get the lowest gearing for the combo's.

[Cglrcng]

I won't go round by round but just back from the last LODRS Div 7 race, found out in the lanes during Q2 that there has been an issue w/ the new shifter cable I had installed just back in April 23', (I am now sure it happened in the Lanes during the Test and Tune evening of Sept 8th when the plastic lockout lever on the stock shifter T-handle broke internally locking the shifter and the transaxle in Park, many together attempted to help Rock The Car (because I originally thought it was transaxle related, when in reality it was locked in park at the shifter), and I was almost at the same exact spot in the lanes this last Friday morning lined up for Q2, and as everyone in front of me was pulling forward, sure enough as I went from Neutral to drive the cable let go of the grommet at the shifter and went freewheeling no longer even connected within and below the stock shifter console. Ohhhhh, Nooooo!

There I was again just 2 months later almost to the day, waving all those behind me to go around please (a few nice gentlemen offered after our lanes were empty and I had missed Q2 completely to help push the car back and beyond on the other side of the staging lanes barrier (a hearty THANK YOU ALL!!! to those very kind people, and then of course I called my great friends The Irving's (both John and Jon), and they came with pit vehicle and a tow rope, and towed my 2,845 lb slow sled back to their pit, where I had a brand new spare cable amongst all the hundreds of lbs. I take to the track within that packed hatchback, and a couple of hrs. later it was not only fixed correctly, but it was ready to run under index the following morning in Q3 (and it did).

The Indicator is now out (removed completely), as is the old shifter stick boot slide, so I may just look down now and see within the console and not only monitor the condition of that cable end, but reach it with fingers and or tools for the short period of time left before I receive the backordered aftermarket B& M ratchet shifter and the Tunnel Mount shifter stand I ordered last month (due to arrive this week).

The repair cable was smooth and straight...and shifts like a dream now. I cannot believe how badly the other 1 was bent up (see the 2 pics below).

The car from Q3 on was working like a dream, still short shifting it a lot 1-2, and a bit 2-3 (and still under once that repair was done)...The Q1 1-2 shift flat did not happen properly (now known why, but at the time hidden & unseen below the console so the first pass did not have a minus in front of it for the first time in 3 events, I was on the Q-sheet, but below where I needed to be....I would rather screw up 2 Q passes than 1 or more Elim. runs! (As long as the issues I find are fixed! And the overall car combo is improved).

Lots of changes/improves still to go this Winter off season.

Thank You GTX John Irving and The NV Missle Jon Irving...Without you guys and your deep hearts and compassion, friendship, and your never ending hospitality, we would never be this far along, in this mission of the 2nd chance in life return to class racing at this point My Brothers!

Our gratitude is endless, but thank you's can never be said enough times.

To the Emmon's Family of brothers and a few others, I had not seen in ages, have missed for so long, and have had a precious few minutes to visit with this week after almost 3 decades...It was fun to visit and allow me to invade your space, Gary, you found out exactly how stubborn this old man really is...You have been the only one that actually asked me "How I could possibly keep that car and not sell it for a quarter of a century?"

My answer was truthful...No mechanical entity is going to beat me, not a desktop or laptop computer (I am a 30 yr. IT Tech), and certainly not a vehicle, unless I get it fixed, or fix it myself...it will not go to another human being for their use, and this car will eventually be used by some younger person in the future than I.

But, it will go to them only after It is performing the best I can get it to do so. And it was plenty of time to educate myself to solve the issues that dinosaur of a rudimentary computerized one off oddball class car. It is getting there, slowly....A decade plus of Mentoring High School Robotics Teams (via the F.I.R.S.T. ROBOTICS PROGRAM), from 2011 (when our youngest of 3 sons was a High School Freshman), forward to the present day actually taught this old dog a few new tricks (by being surrounded by every imaginable Type of Engineer, Master Machinist, Mechanic, Teacher, Professor, Marketer, you name it by the bushel basket full at team shops, Meets, and Events all over the country (and those were Engineers from all over the WORLD, from NASA to what seemed like beyond The Moon to Mars and back), all very open to any decent human or mechanical discussion, but especially those not robot related, each more than willing to have dinner and talk race cars instead...I learned EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION, you just must think "outside the box"...or build a new box...or reshape the box, and never be afraid to fail and try, try, try again, and again.