Resurrecting the Rambler

[RobbieRacer]

I am enjoying watching your project too. Cool little car. And something different which is good for the sport.
I plan on racing INDY someday. Maybe I will see you there.

[Carguy49]

This is one cool build, but then I am different. Here in Division 6 we have Comets, Mavericks, Pintos, a 6 cylinder AMC Pacer, and a few others. Fun to watch these "slow" cars hold off the big muscle cars. Lots of fun for this 66 year old guy.

[Dave Muller]

Well, as many of you have noticed I tend more toward the classic muscle cars myself, but I can appreciate different projects like this as well.

And I can always learn from how other people do things.

So keep it coming!

[Pinballer]

Originally Posted by RobbieRacer

I am enjoying watching your project too. Cool little car. And something different which is good for the sport.
I plan on racing INDY someday. Maybe I will see you there.

(laugh) You -might- meet me there at Indy, but it's more likely I'll walk up to you in the pits and introduce myself because I'm a LONG ways off from running - .8 or more under to even make the Indy field! Tough tough place to qualify at much less do well at.
My goal for this year is to get my car put together, pass tech, get down to the 14.40 T/SA index one part at a time, and go from there next winter by adding in the 'good stuff.'

[Don Turk]

One of the cool things about class racing is that the ET on the scoreboard doesn't define fast or slow. It is defined by how fast you can go under the Index or how fast are you compared to the car in the other lane with the same set of letters on the window.
Dont get me wrong low et cars are very cool. Low et cars take more discretionary cash not only to build but to maintain. I race where my money allows me to race and be competitive. Keep on updating the build it is very fun to read and thanks for sharing it...

Don

[Pinballer]

Yeah, the faster cars are a lot more exciting to watch and I know I love a four foot wheelie that carries out past the 60 ft clocks, but the expense of running and maintaining those is simply beyond my means. Parts countermen don't usually race big block supercars. I'll start out in T where I can live with it and parlay my big winnings into an O car some day. (you can laugh here)

Spending the waning days of my vacation doing some wiring on the car after outrunning the floods all over the southern part of the country early in the week. I guess we don't use our credit card often enough back home either, the company shut it off mid-vacation for suspected fraud. Makes it more exciting that way...

Yesterday's fascinating chores on the car included finishing up the headlight re-do so they wouldn't be shining up in the stands or at the tower. The old plastic headlight adjusters and a couple of springs too had long given up and broken apart, so that's all good now. Lights shine forward. The neutral safety switch wiring got ran where it needed to, and I tidied up some other loose ends hanging around in the engine compartment like tying the shifter cable back out of the way of the exhaust. Installed a couple relays in the engine bay for later usage of things like the electric water pump and possible radiator cooling fans too. Who knows what else will be needed out there, but electrically it's ready for them.
Took the dash mostly apart for about the third time to get some little things as far as wiring relocated on it for a rocker switch panel and fed the new wires around, plus scoped out where the future gauge pack installation will go. The tried and true antique Sun 2 5/8 chrome 3-gauge cluster out of the old Rambler race car gets moved into the new one now. I always loved the look of those, so it's a little of the old in the new again. I'm getting REAL familiar with how the dash goes together in this car, I think I can identify every danged wire under there by it's color now. The schematic is tossed aside, who needs it?
Also, kept stripping off the GT trim pieces and fender lip chrome for the install of the fender flares. Once those pieces came off, I'm super glad there was no hidden rust under them--this car is about a miracle considering it's life of sitting outside forever-- but it makes it look terribly "plain" now. I know it will change drastically when the AMX decals and the flares get on there and they get painted body color (they really look hideous with the baby blue flares and orange pinstriping held up against the red body, kinda looks like a circus wagon!), but I did do the car some justice in making it look "racier" with my latest effort.

[Ed Carpenter]

I love these quote "slower" cars. When they run a 2015 copo for example crazy how far out there they are before being turned loose. That's cool stuff! Great job keep it up.

[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...)