So, are you a........

[Andy Friar]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

I would have to say both. I built my 1968 Camaro super stock car. All welding fabricating and chassis. I build my engines but have a machine shop do the machine work. I do the assembly. Do my own transmission work and set up the rear end. I even did all of the body and paint work.
I think that qualifies me as a builder. I had a really talented mentor that taught me the craft when I was younger.

I just verified my driver status by winning the D2 divisional in Reynolds a couple pf months ago. That was my first big win in NHRA. I have also won an IHRA Iron man and won several SSSSA races along the way.

Wish it was the norm, not the exception, that the guy or gal driving a car did most of the work. Winning with the car is icing on the cake. Walking around the Norwalk points meet, only a small minority of the people we talked to about their cars and combos built there own motors. Most didn't knew what was inside their bought motors, Don't remember anyone that did their own cage or chassis fab, tig welding, etc.

[GarysZ24]

I'm more of a driver, and had lots of help in prepping my car for how it is today. I have to give you props Billy, because I'll always remember assistance you gave me a few years or so back that was worth.2sec. However, I'll call myself a bit of a tuner too, because there was no baseline for 60 degree V6's back in the 90's when the Fuel Injection craze really began, and I wasn't close enough to either Woodro Josey, or Craig Railsback (at BDS), to really wake up my Accel Calmap. It's bad enough that my car was horribly factored back in the mid-90's when my first year for production MFI system was so basic, that the X-11 Citations had more power than my 120hp. Having to fight with computer chips for my factory computer system was a pain in the *****! So I went with the Calmap a try, and my last tuning venture was worth a .4sec gain, which was good. What was bad, was I was factored back in '94/'95 to compete against Turbo charged 4cyl Mopars (that came from the Factory with 150hp ratings)! How was that ever fair? Even worse was the 1980 Chevy Citation 4dr version of my 173V6 was rated at 115hp, but those cars were able to run EF/SA, when I was factored to run BF/SA with only 5 extra hp, in a car that was heavier than the Citation (2511lbs Shipping weight for my Z24 as opposed to the 2475 for the 4dr Citation)! I had help from several people to get my car where it is today, but I oversaw quite a bit of it.

A much longer answer than everyone else here, but my hands got dirty in getting it to where it is now too. Plus I pay all of the bills, so I'm glad it's a low buck stocker!