Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there wer

[Dan Lattimore]

Originally Posted by Jim Kaekel

Cool thread.
I heard one second hand from the "ole days" that was pretty funny. A Stock class racer made a pass and proceeded to get out of his car, with helmet in hand, prior to scaling. He then walked away from his car, picked up a large piece of lead that he had hidden in the weeds and placed it inside his helmet. He then hopped back in his car and strolled across the scales. Of course he must have been caught or I wouldn't have heard this story.

Another good one was a fellow that was caught with loose lead ballast in his trunk. From what I was told, the official grabbed it and tossed it on the ground. The official then went about his business, while the racer then grabbed the ballast and tossed it back in his trunk.

That story reminds me of something that happened to me a long time ago and I'm sure the statute of limitations has run out so I'm going to tell on myself. I had set the record in my class and was just getting ready to hit the scales after my backup. It dawned on me that I hadn't added any fuel after the previous pass and told my wife that I thought I might be a couple pounds lite. Just as I was pulling onto the scales she handed me a big gulp cup full of ice tea and set it on the window frame. I reached for it and she backed up. I couldn't hardly pick it up, she had put a big lump of lead in it and poured tea on top of it. I don't know what shocked me most , the fact that she did it or the impact it delivered when I put it in my lap. The good news is I was heavy enough without it but God bless her I asked her to never do that again. :-)

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by art leong

Another one from the Mike day's was "where's yours" .Reffering to an electric fuel pump.
They allowed them one year and nobody went any faster.
Ours was a Carter (quiet). And It was hidden between the quarter panel and the rear window interior panel. Used 2 Y fittings and a plugged piece of tubing.
The Carter would allow you to run the engine at an idle without being on. We had a switch to turn it on and off seperate from the key.

I thought I posted this yesterday, but don't see it now ???

Anyway I had my Carter electric pump hidden pretty good. I built an open box which I welded into the top of my fuel tank on the 66 convertible.
I ran the pickup tube into the pump in the box, then ran the outlet back into the tank ,and out through the normal sender location. I used the gauge wire to power the pump . I had tapped into it with a toggle switch up under the dash where I could shut it off if anyone got too close!
I left the pushrod out of the block pump, and the removed the divider walls from the valve area in the bottom of the pump..It was there strictly for looks!

I think it was '75 or '76 when you weren't allowed much of that stuff in Stock.
Same with spool and axles and solid trailing arm bushings.
Of course I had the frame from the S/S 4 door Bel Air , spool and all , under the convertible body!
I made the solid bushings kinda short so I could hide them with a slice of rubber from the original bushings on both ends.

The next season ,they allowed all that stuff anyway , so I didn't have much to do over the winter ;-)

[Bobby Zlatkin]

Wow, I feel that I really learned some new inovative speed secrets here.

My big cheating was when I had my '69 Nova. We had the rear bumper off and noticed a perfect pocket between the bumper brackets. So we melted lead and filled it completely.
Had to use a floor jack to get the bumper back in place.

My wife and I used to joke about how funny it would be if, when we did our dry hop (everybody did them back then), the bumper would fall off right there on the line and when the track worker went over to pick it up, he couldn't.

[Ed Wright]

Wow! I really feel straight arrow after reading some of this stuff.
If I showed up with this kind of stuff, I would have looked so guilty Red or Wesley would have figured out why. LOL

[rtr0id]

the thing to remember is.....


"its only cheatin' if yer caught"

keep'em coming i'm getting some ideas

[treessavoy]

There was a friend of mine that raced a 1958 Olds with the 371 tripower engine. After removing as much weight as he could he was too light so he sectioned a second rear bumper, put it inside the stock rear bumper and welded them into a sandwich, ground everything flush and had it rechromed. It took 4 of us to lift it into place.
Last I heard the car was in a junkyard in Burlington, NJ.

JimR

[Dan Lattimore]

Trust me those old boys from Farmer's era were no dummies and no where near naieve. They chose to turn a blind eye for lots of different reasons on things like creative places to hide weight because they new we had no other choice within the rules that were in place. Like Buster once told me " Son I don't care if you put in your pockets as long as it's in the gee dee car while it's going down the track"----- 1975 Div.II points race Warner Robbins Ga. It was about 1:00 am I had set the record in the old Delta 88 and just sat down at a picknick table after teardown. Along came Buster and sat across from me, to say Buster had consumed a drink or two would be a gross understatement. He asked me how I was doing and I told him fine except nobody has the time of day for me cause they all think I'm a Yankee. He gave out a big laugh and asked me where I was from. I told him born in Charlotte N.C. and live just above Richmond, Va. He said unless things had changed from when he was in school that was still a part of the south and as long as I had a Div 2 number on my window and a Buster's rebels decal on my car I was one of his. Well buddy let me tell you, he was in rare form and started telling me stories about all the things he had seen racers do over the years. Talk about getting an education on the creativity of drag racers and each story ended with a little laugh and a shake of his head. One of the things he said and I'm quoting here, was " Son--There is the caught and the uncaught and that makes for winners and losers" Buster was a master at running his Div.and dealing with people. He was a very smart man and knew how to fairly temper his decisions. Needless to say he became one of my new favorite people.

[race watcher]

This is a story about a comp eliminator driver that got bounced intentionally. He made a qualifying pass and ran very fast #1 qualifier. Faster than he wanted to run. I think back then there was some type of penalty for going fast even during qualifying. On the return road his crew told him how fast he had run. He drained the water from radiator and engine. Hit the scale and was light.

[X-TECH MAN]

Back in 1970 I carried an extra set of half shafts and some lead in the area behid the seats of my 69 Vette H/S car to make weight. I would pull them out when I ran Larry Lombardo in his "Buck Shot" Nova for class at 75&80 drag way but he still out ran me.....LOL. I could get the car about 200 lbs light. Guess I wasnt fast enough for any one to catch me. I still think the 7 inch tire Jr. stock days were the most fun. Yeah even us old tech guys did some funny stuff back in the day. It was FUN !

[Dan Lattimore]

Hey Terry----Look familier ? :-)