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That's not primer. It's grey paint. The car (a '63 I think) is very nicely put together. Of note, the front end is made by Creative Car Craft, and it is beautifully made. There is a much-cheaper front end that a lot of guys use, but the headlight area of the front fenders is visibly incorrect for the pre '67 cars, which makes them look kind of Frankensteined together. The CCC front end easily costs twice as much, but the car just looks great with it.

Doug is a smart guy. One of the things that has always kept me from being attracted to pursuing this, is the gearbox breakage issues. These guys are launching at up to about 9,000 rpm, using a gearbox originally designed in the '30s to be an inexpensive way to connect a 22-horsepower engine to the pavement. Everything about them is fragile. Doug had some interesting things to say on the subject.

Clutch selection, set-up, and management has always been an issue with keeping these things together. There used to be a device called a "Washington anti-shocker" that worked like a little shock absorber on the clutch arm, to slow down the clutch engagement. It's no longer made, but there are other ways of doing the same thing. Some guys convert to a hydraulic clutch and control the speed of clutch application with an orifice. Ron Lummus Racing has a fairly trick Rev-6 6" clutch that reportedly engages smoothly, but still holds high horsepower engines. It's about $1,000.

Doug said one of the weak links is the "spades" at the inboard end of the swing axles, so he's done away with that by using a billet-aluminum spool that has Porsche 930 Turbo CV joints inside of it, along with custom 300M splined axles. It's about $2,000 just for the spool.

A Klinkelnberg Palloid ring & pinion set is about $1,000. As you would expect for something originally designed to transmit a couple dozen horsepower, they are ridiculously small- about 6" diameter. And like all ring & pinion sets, the pinion head gets smaller and smaller as the ratio gets deeper and deeper, so using a physically stronger (less weak?) 3.88 or 3.44 ratio is the norm. Hitting them hard tries to push the ring gear out the side of the case. Billet aluminum side covers can help to hold it in place, but the OEM magnesium case itself is pretty weak, so a reinforced aluminum through-bolt "Rhino Case" would be the starting point for this kind of gearbox, and even then, it can be a good idea to weld some heavy aluminum external braces to the transaxle housing.

Then you would need to fill it with a bunch of racing gears from Weddle. They have a great selection, but no matter what gear stack you choose, it looks like it's going to pull the engine down below the torque peak on launch and on every shift.

I'm trying to learn as much as I can- something like this might be a fun retirement project. But I wish I could get some ideas for a baseline engine set-up, without asking these guys to give away their race secrets. I wouldn't be interested in setting a national record, I'd just like to know what it would take to comfortably run under index. I'm guessing heads-up races would be pretty unusual in this class.