CLASS RACER FORUM - Last Year of Modified? Question

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Last Year of Modified? Question

What was the last year NHRA ran Modified?

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

And it hasn't been the same without it!
Bob Rice

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Rice (Post 105125)

And it hasn't been the same without it!
Bob Rice

I agree

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

At every national event I ever entered, I would drop everything and run to the stands when Modified Eliminator came up to run. That was the best show on the program!

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

I miss it a great deal, it was a fantastic class.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

It was a great class sorry it's gone.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

You saw more innovation and thinking and hotrodding with such different classes and cars and combinations- it was so great to see- so much home-brewed-yeah,it ain't been the same.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Modified was the best absolutely. I was involved with a couple cars and spent time in the lanes when Modified ran in the late '70s at some events. We had a huge number of really good cars here in the northeast. C/SM at the SummerNationals for class had over 20 cars the last couple years. MP Corvettes were my favorites and then Hutchens showed up with the Opel in B/G or maybe C/A...he had everyone covered. If your gonna post pictures......Ya gotta get the one of Garley Daniels on the back bumper with the grey Nova......C/SM cars did some of the wildest wheelstands.....wheelie bars were NOT legal...all the way into 3rd gear in a '69 Camaro and way up in the air......my buddy did that and went 10.60 at E-Town after going 10.42 earlier

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Yup, truly one of the dumbest ( there have been many) things NHRA ever did was to cut Modified Production from the lineup! Nothing like the sound of the high winding Modifieds rowing the gears on those four and five speeds! Jim

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

One year in the early 70's,over 90 cars showed up at Indy to run for the e/mp trophy.I think a guy from Iowa in a 69 Camaro won the well earned trophy.7 rounds in a modified car in those days probably ment he went thru a few transmissions and couple sets rear gears.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Does anyone have any pictures of Jabo Elam? Jim

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Asolutely was one of the most exciting classes to watch. We were @ Indy when the Modifieds staged their "protest" parade lap down the return lane in front of the grandstand. Many were flying "Save Modified Banners" it was a sad day indeed !

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Yea, don't remind me. Great competitive racing

Was there and a part of it.

Still have my "Save Sportsman Racing" button too.

FJ

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

No Factors, No Dial ins, Same motors, No boxes, Just hard work , Great drivers and fun racing. Gee wonder why 90 guys would want to run one class? Because it Meant something to win with the same equipment and hard work...HEADS UP!
Bring back this kind of class structure and it would be just as popular today and MORE fun and less Bitc@@@@ about the rules and factoring. Level playing field, no bogus or paper cars.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

What's the difference between modified stock of today and the old modified class. I'm too young to remember the old modified classes. My dad ran a 57 chevy in F/MP with a 265" and 4 speed in the early 70's I think. He used to run the car in Q/S until they took the 4 speed away from the 57 chevys. From the stories I've heard, I wish I could go back to those days!

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Modified was great but lets talk about the bad side....costs and breakage. Everytime something new came out you had to have it. Driveline breakage was pretty bad and engine breakage could also put you out of action quickly. We raced a car out of our shop in C/SM. I recall one run at Maple Grove where we broke the clutch, fixed it in a hurry and the car wouldn't move after replacing the clutch. The trans was also broken and the rear had damage as well we later found out. Folded the splines on some axles........took the motor out and apart practically after every race to puff it up. Other guys that had machine work done at our shop had all the same stories. I recall one guy built his own engine for D/MP and he was a very competetive car.....the engine blew up on T/K's dyno and that ended that racers drive to continue. Another guy was the class winner from the E-Town SummerNationals and won pretty regularly with it. He blew his engine and sold the car.....My friend bought it to replace his Camaro.....becasue the Novas were better? When we went to pick it up an exhaust valve head fell out of one of the headers.....The guy said....."so thats where that went!" The costs were too high for the average guy to keep up with. I loved the category but I saw a ton of breakage, Only the top guys had all the best stuff to try and limit that breakage.....

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Check out mu video from 1981

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6THODRnF20

Will Lamprecht
Stk #1427 68 Impala I/S

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Modified Eliminator rundown...

For anyone who wasn't around to witness it, here's a thumbnail view of the makeup, as I remember it, and I am sure I've forgotten a lot in the 28 years since it's been contested. Please correct me when I'm wrong.

To begin with, people tend to say "Modified" without specifying whether they mean "Modified Production" (a type of vehicle that was closely akin to a Super Stocker, but was more-modified), when more likely, they mean "Modified Eliminator," a category of cars of various types (Gassers, Street Roadsters, Modified Production cars, etc.)

Modified Eliminator was a logical "next step" in the upward progression of the degree of modification of vehicles that started with Stock, then Super Stock, then Modified Eliminator, then Middle Eliminator, and finally, Top Eliminator. It all made perfect sense. Like all the cars in Modified Eliminator, Modified Production cars ran a variety of Modified Production classes (A through H??) depending on engine size and vehicle weight. A/MP, B/MP, C/MP etc....

The most popular cars in Modified Eliminator were probably, the "Modified Production" cars that were basically (in the beginning of the class, anyway), pretty much Super Stock-style cars, with unlimited, full-race engines in them, and drivetrain mods that were appropriate for thet kind of horsepower output. The chassis modifications were pretty limited, but the engines could be all-out, except no blowers or turbos were allowed, and they were classified by pounds-per-cubic inch, of course. In the beginning, I seem to remember that Modified production cars had a tire-width limit that may have been done away with, eventually... Maybe originally 7", like a Stocker.... I just don't remember.

Also popular, were the Gas Coupe and Sedans, which were usually built using an earlier chassis (old Willys coupes of the '30s and early '40s were very popular for awhile, but got replaced by the smaller, lighter British Ford Anglias, eventually) with virtually anything from a 4-cylinder flathead motor to GMC-blown 472-inch Chrysler Hemis for motivation. These cars, along with the sister-cars, "Street Roadsters" were limited to a 10-percent engine setback (whereas the Modified Production cars had to put the engine pretty much where it originally sat, with no firewall modifications, originally.) The big-inch A Gas Supercharged cars were the technological forerunners of the Funny Cars, later to come, and ran speeds in the 140-150 range as early as 1962... There were Anglias with 427 Chevy Rat Motors hooked to 4-speeds running A Gas... talk about a handfull to drive!!!

"Middle Eliminator," the next step up the performance ladder, was a place to race if you had built an Altered (which had no street equipment, and usually, no fenders.... and were allowed a 25-percent engine setback), or a Modified Roadster or Competition Coupe (basically a dragster with some sort of OEM body hung on to keep it out of the dragster classes), or small engine dragsters, such as flatheads, six-cylinders, unblown small blocks and the like.

All of these above cars ran in classes that were "A," "B," "C," and so-on, depending on the pounds-per-cubic-inch, within the Eliminator.

The variety of cars running Modified Eliminator was endless. For example, in about 1978, I went to an independent race at Rockford, Ill. called "The Gas Coupe and Sedan Nationals", which probably should have been called "The Modified Eliminator Nationals," since that's what was running there; all types of Modified Eliminator cars, including many, many, Modified Production cars of all types.

The Final, for the money, was between a turbocharged 2-liter Pinto (later owned by Buddy Ingersoll, but, not yet) and the Dave Hutchens Opel GT/small block Chevy from Wayne County Speed Shop. I can't remember what class that Opel ran, but it was probably B Gas Coupe.

They were running off NHRA indexes, and the index for that Pinto was in the low 11's at the time. It was running a Doug Nash 5-speed and so was the Wayne County car. Both cars pulled the wheels on every gear-change... exciting to watch!.

The Pinto could not be beaten that day.. easily outdistancing the Gasser from Wayne County. Ingersoll bought the car from the two Ford Motor Company engineers who had built it, and eventually took that Pinto to 9.80s.... at 134+ mph.... so, it had a lot of potential left, with a low 11 index...

That is the kind of variety that existed on an ongoing basis, in Modified Eliminator. No wonder it had such spectator appeal.... Indy's Modified Eliminator show was HUGE, and about as good as it gets for Sportsman racing, I thought.

Too bad they couldn't figure a way to keep it around. It became a victim of its own excellence, as the cutting edge technology that was required to maintain a winning presence in that Eliminator caused costs to skyrocket to the point that many players just couldn't afford to keep up, and dropped out. Before it was done away with, participation had dropped off, significantly (although perhaps not at the U.S. Nationals).... just too expensive.

At least, that's the way I remember it...

If someone sees mistakes I made in this explanation, please correct me; I've slept since then...

Bill

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

My good friend Jay Kalmus is the person responsible for me and my partner getting involved in drag racing in the mid 60's. He ran various MP cars. At that time he ran what was called Street eliminator. That consisted of MP cars and some other classes of the day. Like the classes for Corvettes and Cobras....AA/Sports down thru about E/Sports. Gassers also ran Street eliminator. Blown gassers ran Super eliminator and then there was Competition eliminator for gas dragsters, altereds and some other cars. They all push started from the top end of my local track but Street eliminator cars had to self start. At some point Modified was created. My friend Jay ran D/MP with a '57 chevy wagon. It ws a 301. Intakes were still real old school stuff back then. Inline 2 fours then a cross ram deal was tried. I traveled with him a lot in 1968 and we tried to set the record a few times. It was about 12.60 at the time. I think we did set the record at one race at 12.57.......He passed away after a long battle with cancer......We had a lot of fun back then for sure..........

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Will - Thanks for the link to the Connecticut race. That looked like it was the 1981 WWCS race in which case I was there running Stock. I was looking for Frank Fitts at the starting line. Mark Yac - did you recognize anyone? (You might have been working line!). To get back on topic, the shop that sponsored me also sponsored the "Precocious" B/SM fielded by Nick Mazzeo and Steve Negrini. I still run into Nick from time to time and Steve still races (I think in SS/DM). These guys held the record in B/SM for some time. That was quite and accomplichment back then as there were so many SM's around.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Bob Don

You ran that V/SA Nova right? My bvrother went to that race to look at your car, he also built V/SA the following year, check out video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL-Xp3gMWuw

I also have footage of your car if you are the one with that blue Nova, I will try to upload.

Will Lamprecht

Re: Last Year of Modified? 1970 INDY ENTRYLIST

how about this many cars being told STAY HOME we don't need you guys!

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Will - That was me with the blue Nova. I would LOVE to see any video or stills you might have. Just hearing the sound of your brother's V/SA brought back memories. Thanks!

Re: Last Year of Modified? page 2

of 6 pages
Having trouble ,had to make them smaller,sorry

Re: Last Year of Modified? page 2 pt-2

Re: Last Year of Modified? bottom of page 2

I think this is going to take to long, but If you guys want to see all of them, I'll post them IF it's o.k.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

2 part s of this page

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Page 6 of 6 pages of entry

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOM KASCH (Post 105271)

page 4

Looking at the last three names on this page, I know that Ed Sigmon is still racing comp and Sherman Sligh just built a manifold for a new comp motor, but did that guy Danny Jesel ever amount to anything?

Thanks Tom for posting these.

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Bob or Tom, do you guys have or know of any pics of the silver Camaro that ran in MP out of the Corvette Shop in Winter Park FL? Chris Trabulsy(sp). We used to call him "The Camel Jockey". Not very PC now. The shop used to employ a guy named Rick Mann before he worked for Bo Laws and now Dale Jr. jim

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

Anyone have any pics of the Baldwin Chevrolet / Motion Performance Camaro driven by Dennis Ferrara in A/MP, and B/MP? That was one of my favorite Modified Eliminator cars.
Bill Seabrooks - superfan1

Re: Last Year of Modified? Question

One of my first drag racing experiences was with a guy named Pat Warner out of Greenwood Indiana running a C/mp 67 Camaro. Went to the Nationals with him in 74 or 75. He let me drive the car to the staging lanes once. I remember seeing the Ault and James Gasser split window pitted near us and thinking, "that is what a race car should be..." High strung small blocks and five speeds, I do miss those days. Later he helped me put the Dana under the Camaro in my avatar, the goal was to run modified some day... Wish I had a picture of that old camaro in action. here is the Ault and james car.

http://www.vetteweb.com/features/vem.../photo_07.html

I went with my partner to the track a few times with some guys running a D/MCP 2 liter Pinto, naturally asperated, well over ten thousand RPM shift points, and As I recal a doug nash with a 3.25 first gear and a 6.0 rear end... I have a video of it on VHS if I can ever figure how to digitalize it.