Interesting or Funny Car Stories

nickh · 11-29-2017, 02:52 PM

Was running at Baytown track at a bracket race, sitting in the car belted in ready to go sitting under the tower one of my good friends (fellow racer) walked up in front of the car dropped his racing pants and mooned me. I red lighted on my pass.

Travis Miller · 11-29-2017, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickh

Was running at Baytown track at a bracket race, sitting in the car belted in ready to go sitting under the tower one of my good friends (fellow racer) walked up in front of the car dropped his racing pants and mooned me. I red lighted on my pass.

Adding that one to the list of different ways to lose. LOL.

voltdr · 11-29-2017, 03:47 PM

Back in the middle 80s, I worked at a Ford dealership in Indiana. I got the glorious job of have to rewire, replumb, and make any other repairs to a customer's Bronco. The car was sufering from and underhood fire. While in the process of making the repairs, the customer came in to see how the progress was coming. He told me how the Bronco caught on fire after some of his at-home modifications, and he hurriedly put the fire out. He asked me what I thought.... O told him he put the fire out too soon............
Dan

Ken Kopecky · 11-29-2017, 04:24 PM

I forget how long ago it was or what track it was at but I was sitting in my car, suited up and strapped in ready to go for first round. We all know that first round is the toughest. Well, an attractive young lady whom I have known for a while, walks up to my side window, saw that I was nervous and concentrating when all of a sudden, she flashed me! My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. She then smiled, said good luck and walked away. Long story short, I won the round and had a .00-something light. We still to this day talk about that first round! She is a very classy lady as far as I’m concerned and is still a good friend.

Ken Kopecky
1454 E/SA

11-29-2017, 04:36 PM

A buddy of mine was changing valve springs in my car at his place of employment after work. I had a bracket car; 1970 Monte Carlo with a BBC, open headers, slicks, ... After we finished he told me to blast down the street to see that everything was in order before I put it on the trailer to go home. What could go wrong?

Well, you know it took about 200' to get passed, in the opposite direction coming at me, by a State Highway Patrol car and of course I was wide open throttle at the time. What did I do? I immediately pulled into someone's drive and luckily they had an open garage door. I pulled in the garage, jumped out, hit the door opener, and got back in the car while the door went down. I stayed in the car several minutes too scared to see if the officer turned around.

In hindsight, that would have been a good way to get shot by the homeowner. Luckily they weren't home.

ALMACK · 11-29-2017, 05:01 PM

10 years ago I was trying to compress one of those "trick" front drag springs with an internal spring compressor.

I was doing this on the tailgate of a pickup that was a few inches below waste level.

Well, the spring fingers let go and that compressed spring let go, missing my "man zone" by 2 inches....

nickh · 11-29-2017, 05:18 PM

Great stories. Back in 2003 my car was down so I started foot braking my company car (2000 Ford Crown Vic) went to Baytown and entered into the bracket series race. Discovered that if I unplugged the air box sensor the car would run 16.84 to .86 but with it plugged in there was no consistency. Also got dialed in on bumping in back then it was the 500 tree. 3 bumps .503 light, 4 bumps .490 red 2 bumps .518. Anyway went several rounds that night and took out some of the point contenders on the way, some were mad at me but hey I paid my money too. They got over it, owner found out about me bracket racing the car and could care less as long as I did not wreck it.

Would dial hard and dump at the line with the abs brakes they would not lock up.

Met Brett Kepner one night at the track and we were sharing our stories about foot braking our crown vics.

Travis Miller · 11-30-2017, 12:54 AM

Back in the mid '60's during my street racing days and before I became a techman I had just beat another '63 Ford with my '63 Ford. The 1/4 mile race was on a deserted street in an industrial park after midnight. I went back to pick up my friend who had flagged us off. I pulled around the corner and we both got out to cap up my plumbing pipe exhaust cutouts. He got his side spun on but I dropped mine and was fumbling in the dark trying to find it when a pair of headlights appeared at the end of the street. He hollered out "it's a cop". I found the cutout cap but did not have time to spin it on the exhaust pipe. As the cop car approached I jumped up, opened the hood and yanked out the coil wire. The cop pulled up and asked us what we were doing. I told him that we came around the corner and the engine just died. He got out with his flashlight and shined it on the engine. I said I thought I heard a noise under the car and laid back down. This time I spun the cutout cap on with the first try. About that time the cop spotted the coil wire pulled out of the coil. He said here's your problem. I put the coil wire back in place and fired the engine up. He smiled at us, we thanked him and he got in the cop car and went on his way.

Bruce Fulper · 11-30-2017, 01:04 AM

You mean "Funny car" stories. I'm not the grammer "police" I just mention this to get a 1/4 chuckle from Chuck Norton. :-)

Leon Rennebaum · 11-30-2017, 12:45 PM

Worked at a service station while going to college. We all had souped up street cars and a couple of drag cars. One weekend home from school, I was tasked to put together a 283 street engine for a parts getting 64 El Camino. Returned the following weekend to screaming and yelling that I had screwed up the engine because it smoked when warmed up. Fired up the car and waited for the smoke – strange thing was that it didn’t smell like burnt oil, it actually smelled like a campfire! Popped the hood and looked over the engine. It seems they didn’t have a stainless steel type gasket for the exhaust heated quadrajet manifold and had, instead, used a piece of plywood for a carb spacer. The wood was actually burning producing the charcoal smelling smoke! My engine assembly prowess was never questioned again!

11-29-2017, 02:52 PM	#1
nickh Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Houston,Texas Posts: 824 Likes: 3,579 Liked 650 Times in 194 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories Was running at Baytown track at a bracket race, sitting in the car belted in ready to go sitting under the tower one of my good friends (fellow racer) walked up in front of the car dropped his racing pants and mooned me. I red lighted on my pass.

11-29-2017, 03:47 PM	#3
voltdr Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 706 Likes: 77 Liked 100 Times in 51 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories Back in the middle 80s, I worked at a Ford dealership in Indiana. I got the glorious job of have to rewire, replumb, and make any other repairs to a customer's Bronco. The car was sufering from and underhood fire. While in the process of making the repairs, the customer came in to see how the progress was coming. He told me how the Bronco caught on fire after some of his at-home modifications, and he hurriedly put the fire out. He asked me what I thought.... O told him he put the fire out too soon............ Dan

11-29-2017, 04:24 PM	#4
Ken Kopecky Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Edison, NJ Posts: 235 Likes: 375 Liked 273 Times in 56 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories I forget how long ago it was or what track it was at but I was sitting in my car, suited up and strapped in ready to go for first round. We all know that first round is the toughest. Well, an attractive young lady whom I have known for a while, walks up to my side window, saw that I was nervous and concentrating when all of a sudden, she flashed me! My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. She then smiled, said good luck and walked away. Long story short, I won the round and had a .00-something light. We still to this day talk about that first round! She is a very classy lady as far as I’m concerned and is still a good friend. Ken Kopecky 1454 E/SA

11-29-2017, 04:36 PM	#5
Tar Heel Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories A buddy of mine was changing valve springs in my car at his place of employment after work. I had a bracket car; 1970 Monte Carlo with a BBC, open headers, slicks, ... After we finished he told me to blast down the street to see that everything was in order before I put it on the trailer to go home. What could go wrong? Well, you know it took about 200' to get passed, in the opposite direction coming at me, by a State Highway Patrol car and of course I was wide open throttle at the time. What did I do? I immediately pulled into someone's drive and luckily they had an open garage door. I pulled in the garage, jumped out, hit the door opener, and got back in the car while the door went down. I stayed in the car several minutes too scared to see if the officer turned around. In hindsight, that would have been a good way to get shot by the homeowner. Luckily they weren't home.

11-29-2017, 05:01 PM	#6
ALMACK VIP Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bardstown, KY Posts: 1,941 Likes: 132 Liked 372 Times in 130 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories 10 years ago I was trying to compress one of those "trick" front drag springs with an internal spring compressor. I was doing this on the tailgate of a pickup that was a few inches below waste level. Well, the spring fingers let go and that compressed spring let go, missing my "man zone" by 2 inches.... __________________ Alan Mackin Stock 3777/ SS 3377 P/SA & SS/PA Fox Thunderbird I/PS '95 Mustang GT

11-29-2017, 05:18 PM	#7
nickh Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Houston,Texas Posts: 824 Likes: 3,579 Liked 650 Times in 194 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories Great stories. Back in 2003 my car was down so I started foot braking my company car (2000 Ford Crown Vic) went to Baytown and entered into the bracket series race. Discovered that if I unplugged the air box sensor the car would run 16.84 to .86 but with it plugged in there was no consistency. Also got dialed in on bumping in back then it was the 500 tree. 3 bumps .503 light, 4 bumps .490 red 2 bumps .518. Anyway went several rounds that night and took out some of the point contenders on the way, some were mad at me but hey I paid my money too. They got over it, owner found out about me bracket racing the car and could care less as long as I did not wreck it. Would dial hard and dump at the line with the abs brakes they would not lock up. Met Brett Kepner one night at the track and we were sharing our stories about foot braking our crown vics.

11-30-2017, 12:54 AM	#8
Travis Miller Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 478 Likes: 1 Liked 276 Times in 27 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories Back in the mid '60's during my street racing days and before I became a techman I had just beat another '63 Ford with my '63 Ford. The 1/4 mile race was on a deserted street in an industrial park after midnight. I went back to pick up my friend who had flagged us off. I pulled around the corner and we both got out to cap up my plumbing pipe exhaust cutouts. He got his side spun on but I dropped mine and was fumbling in the dark trying to find it when a pair of headlights appeared at the end of the street. He hollered out "it's a cop". I found the cutout cap but did not have time to spin it on the exhaust pipe. As the cop car approached I jumped up, opened the hood and yanked out the coil wire. The cop pulled up and asked us what we were doing. I told him that we came around the corner and the engine just died. He got out with his flashlight and shined it on the engine. I said I thought I heard a noise under the car and laid back down. This time I spun the cutout cap on with the first try. About that time the cop spotted the coil wire pulled out of the coil. He said here's your problem. I put the coil wire back in place and fired the engine up. He smiled at us, we thanked him and he got in the cop car and went on his way.

11-30-2017, 01:04 AM	#9
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories You mean "Funny car" stories. I'm not the grammer "police" I just mention this to get a 1/4 chuckle from Chuck Norton. :-)

11-30-2017, 12:45 PM	#10
Leon Rennebaum Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Williamstown, NJ Posts: 30 Likes: 2 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Interesting or Funny Car Stories Worked at a service station while going to college. We all had souped up street cars and a couple of drag cars. One weekend home from school, I was tasked to put together a 283 street engine for a parts getting 64 El Camino. Returned the following weekend to screaming and yelling that I had screwed up the engine because it smoked when warmed up. Fired up the car and waited for the smoke – strange thing was that it didn’t smell like burnt oil, it actually smelled like a campfire! Popped the hood and looked over the engine. It seems they didn’t have a stainless steel type gasket for the exhaust heated quadrajet manifold and had, instead, used a piece of plywood for a carb spacer. The wood was actually burning producing the charcoal smelling smoke! My engine assembly prowess was never questioned again!