Out With the New and In With the Old.

[Isaac Zane]

It certainly is special getting HIS car back. Good Luck finding yours Woodro! Jim's friend had a '68 Z/28 and it was really neat seeing the 68 and 69 sitting or riding together! Our little town of 1500 people had a number of performance cars riding around in the day. There were two 68 Firebirds, 400's I think before those guys switched to 69 AMX's. A couple of Mopars, a Road Runner and a GTX along with another AMX and a SS Nova along with a Corvette. My sister, as Miss Four Seasons Campground, rode on the wing of a Superbird in a July 4th parade.

I think that there were 32 or more C/SM at the Summers. I seem to remember Jim saying that there would be 6 rounds of class and that the winner probably needed a fresh engine for eliminations....

[Dennis P Chapman]

Jim
Have fun with it the second time around.

[Bob Bender]

Wish I could find my old Z/S or the W/S cars I had...........

[Rich Biebel]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zane

.

I think that there were 32 or more C/SM at the Summers. I seem to remember Jim saying that there would be 6 rounds of class and that the winner probably needed a fresh engine for eliminations....

The shop I worked at.....3 of us had cars. I ran my 69 Camaro in SS/JA ( it was never very fast)
We also had a C/ED car...front engined for a time.....

and a C/SM......the C/SM was driven by Dennis Siderko and I traveled with him quite a bit. We spent an enormous amount of time working on that car and especially the engines for it. Dennis was number 3 on the qualifying sheet in '79 I think it was, and got down to 4 cars in class. We were subsequently tossed in the barn for a really miniscule infraction......but none the less no matter how much we plead our case we were out.....very heartbraking to say the least to us all and especially the shop owner.......I still recall the ET's.....GarleyDaniels went 10.32.....Billy Mansell was #2 and we went 10.42 for #3.......

The last 4 cars?....not sure here but we lost to Walt Siler in a close one.... and I can't recall who won that year. Maybe Roger White.......Garley redlit in rd 1 or 2 probably to save parts....His car was awesome and almost always faster than anyone else....

Dennis made one run on the back bumper into 3rd gear and ran a 10.60......

Billy Mansell won the eliminator.......

I loved the time I spent hanging in the lanes during Modified Eliminator in those days.......

[Isaac Zane]

Modified was indeed a special class. Hood scoops, shifting gears, wheelstands in every gear......

Now that I think about it, I made the last run in that car for our family. We put the engine from my street car in the Z, along with a slightly bigger cam. It was the first time I drove the car as we were trying to get some grade points for me so I could gain entry into next years Summers in the Opel. It was quite a pass for me with the firm launch and wheelstand on an 11.80 pass. Sure was different than my 70 1/2 RS/SS Camaro that had stock suspension. Next pass, the rod bearings decided that they didn't like 8,600 rpm with the stock rods and that 5.86 gear and parted ways. Boy that mechanical tach sure does go back to zero quickly with 6 spun rod bearings. What a blast it was!

[Angelo DiTocco]

Congrats on getting your old car back!

That has to be a great feeling

Are you going to race it again? If so, what class.....

or is it going to be restored?

[Isaac Zane]

Let's see.... First there was a Super Stock 327 possibility which has changed to a 350 possibility. This would be run with a 4-speed, as it should be!! This would run in SS/J. Jim never really liked the automatic! He could possibly switch it back to Stock and run an IHRA Stock GT class with a Buick 350 engine. Another possibility would be to run a 377ci Modified engine that is sitting in his shop. This engine ran 8.18 as a SS/AM a few years back. This would require a little suspension work and isn't likely.

Being restored?? Doubt it, he probably just wants to have fun with it! I don't blame him.

[Ronnie Smith Jr]

Isaac,

That is a great story. Congratulations on getting the old car back. I know exactly how Jim feels.

I recently bought my first race car back after a 22 year absence. The 66 Chevy II, an original Super Sport, was purchased back from the family we sold it to in 1988. She kept her word that she would give us first right of refusal. She was able to track Dad down and offer it back to us in January. We travelled to Kentucky between the big snow storms and brought it back to Dad's house. We stripped everything out of it and it now sits at Steve McCreary's shop for a total restoration and paint. We plan on a resto mod look and enjoying it for street cruising and driving.

Keep us posted on what Jim Does to the car.

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Smith Jr

Isaac,

That is a great story. Congratulations on getting the old car back. I know exactly how Jim feels.

I recently bought my first race car back after a 22 year absence. The 66 Chevy II, an original Super Sport, was purchased back from the family we sold it to in 1988. She kept her word that she would give us first right of refusal. She was able to track Dad down and offer it back to us in January. We travelled to Kentucky between the big snow storms and brought it back to Dad's house. We stripped everything out of it and it now sits at Steve McCreary's shop for a total restoration and paint. We plan on a resto mod look and enjoying it for street cruising and driving.

Keep us posted on what Jim Does to the car.

Now that is cool. Congratulations. I remember when your dad ran it and won the championship in IHRA. I imagine that a lot of older race cars will end up being restored and put back on the street when enough new stuff hits the tracks.