Interesting or Funny Car Stories

[nickh]

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]

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]

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

[joe huestis]

Always out in my Dad's garage working on my stocker and in April of 1976 had the car all apart. My girlfriend would always come over and sit in a lawn chair watching and lending a hand when I needed. We always argued about how much time and money I spent on it so I decided if this racing thing always came between us this is how it was going to be. I was under the car and asked her to help hold the starter motor in place. Told her to place her left hand down the side of my motor and as she did asked her to marry me while slipping a diamond ring on her finger. Her tears were falling down on me from above. Now after almost 41 years of marriage, there's still a stocker in my garage and yes we still argue about time and money, but not as much... and yes her name is "Annie".

[nickh]

Great Story Joe.

[midnightbluS10]

First day on the job at a local Chevy dealership in a small town. The shop is beautiful. Freshly painted floors. Nice and clean. I loved working there.

Anyway. I'm doing an oil change on something and all we had to hold a catch pan was some fairly old air-operated bumper jacks. I roll it up under the truck on the lift and sit the pan on the tall part of the jack like they told me to. Oil drains and I push the jack to the side a few inches to get some room to put the plug back in.

No sooner than I turn around, I hear a loud crash behind me. The damn catch pan fell off of the jack and put 6 quarts ALL OVER THE FLOOR. Lmao. I just knew I was about to be let go. I had been there all of an hour maybe.

Yea, it sucked. Luckily, they didn't run me off.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Many,many moons ago, I had a 62 Chevy Impala SS with a 409 and a 4 speed. I had put an 11 inch clutch in the car, a scatter shield,a 12 bolt out of a Chevelle with 4.56's,and a pair of H60x15's in the rear when we weren't running slicks for the original Irwindale. I drove it on the street occasionally, but it was such a brutal car that it was easy to attract the wrong kind of attention. We went to lunch with a buddy, and I wa fixing to drop him off, and one block before his house on a rather narrow residential street, some guy was out in the middle of the street talking to some guy in a van,blocking the street. I drove up, waited, engine idling and all, they ignored us, so I threw about a five grand rev. Loud to say the least. The guy blocking the street in his van drove up and pulled over to the curb,and the other guy walked up to my window, cussed us out real loud, and told me that if I ever did that again,blah bla bla, so i said, "What did you say? Take this"! I shoved the shifter forward, five granted the 409 and dropped the clutch. At first, it seemed like we were barely moving, then the car oozed forward,never hooking up. It seemed the shifter selected third rather than first, and the street tires never hooked up. All I could see in the rear view mirror was gray tire smoke rolling up into the air. I stayed in it, and when we got to the end of the block, I stopped at the stop sign, went up the next block to bud's house, and he got out. He said,"That guy's going to kill you for that!!" I said,"He doesn't know where I live, and you're not gonna tell him!" Six months later, we went somewhere in another car, and as we went down that street, two ten inch wide by 400 foot long tire marks were still very visible in the street, starting at his house. It never pays to lip off to other people in public.

[richie 2]

dragway park cauyga wwcs '82. I had just purchased a super/stock Camaro. some hot laps the week before and went through a couple valve springs. was'nt ten minutes on the road headed to cauyga and seized a rear wheel bearing on the ramp truck. next day after repairs got there and someone had taken up our hotel rooms. saterday the car was'nt up to par...crew in the bar got drunk that evening...sunday morning a racer friend hands me a spare converter and we r the last car down the track after the swap (they used to give you a time shot sunday morning) went the index so I was happy....went through 3 fellow Canadians, buy into the final and a total of seven rounds and won the thing! final round was dead beat for sure and he broke out !!!...then passed tech...when its your day, its your day.

[Dirk Olson]

Was I in tech school just finished the motor in my 67 Chevelle. Drove it 5 miles with open headers to my Mom and Dads place. About a 1/2 from the house could not resist it, had to run it through the gears (4spd car). Man it was sweet but the local law was coming in the opposite direction. Pull over as fast as I could, open the hood and jerked the throttle rod off. He pulls in behind me walks up to car and asked was going on, told him just got the motor done and the throttle stuck and then the rod fell off. Said boy you were lucking you got stopped. Asked if I needed help I said no just live down the block. He said have a nice day... never said a word about how fast I was going or the open headers.

Dirk

[nickh]

hope Billy Nees, Jeff T and some others throw some stories on here, this is great