'70-'73 Camaro Rally Sport front end

[Dwight Southerland]

Originally Posted by Andys dad

SO super stock should cost more than stock - pony up and spend the money for non-performance oriented accessories - I am afraid that is no longer true any more

IMHO

Another two months of these sort of meaningless threads - then back to racing and discussing performance advantages.

Sorry - I just think it is funny when we get into the winter doldrums.

Ron

Except that diligence to retain factory produced accuracy is one of the major factors that has sustained the value and credibility of Stock Eliminator for close to 60 years. If you throw that to the wayside as "meaningless", then you will erode the identity of the eliminator significantly. And that's not an opinion, it is truth.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

At first glance,this thread appeared to be a by product of end-of-season malaise and boredom, but it does bring up some interesting points.What if you had a car with some small exterior errors,such as a '72 Chevelle with '71 parking light lenses and bezels,otherwise it's completely legit,you went 1500 miles to a national event only to have a tech official not pass it over that? That could be an aggravating circumstance at best. As long as the car is correct as far as the generic appearance and the year,make,and model claimed,the combo is legit,and the weight is correct as it passes over the scales, there should be no problem. All efforts to make it legitimately correct should be made.If it's a '69 Nova,it should look like one. On another current thread, the discussion came up as to openly discussing illegal weight reduction of body parts,illegal modification of the body itself,etc,and whether openly advertising this kind of thing is wise. Tech officials read these discussions,they basically know who is legit or not, and they probably don't appreciate confronting every incident where somebody deliberately is trying to fudge on the rules.They already allow us some pretty good breaks,after all, you could have been one of those folks with a 69 Camaro 255/285 horse car with the SS hood a few years ago. So many of those cars were around with the SS hood for so long that many were probably bought and sold like that with no intent to cheat anybody or anything. It would be wise, however not to advertise the ways people push the rules.No sense waving a red flag in front of a bull.

[Rob Petrie E395]

Didn't someone get sent home from Indy this year for a incorrect grille? I thought I read or heard that somewhere.

[Stocker 2]

Originally Posted by Rob Petrie E395

Didn't someone get sent home from Indy this year for a incorrect grille? I thought I read or heard that somewhere.

There was a Firebird owner that failed tech, but it was because he claimed a year that came with the heavier energy absorbing parts behind the front bumper. He claimed that year so he could run the larger and better factored engine. The problem was he used an earlier Firebird that did not come with all the heavy energy absorbing parts. And yes the grille was also incorrect.

All this was discussed on here a few months ago.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Thanks for the complement,Ron.Why were you surprised?You're right. After the end of the season,the level of communication on these threads does seem to wander from its usual level. When we get bored, we do tend to sound like it.

[a pontiac]

Neither of the 2 remaining 73 FB at Indy had bumper reinforcements, only correct grilles.

[Dwight Southerland]

First of all, I am not a purist about this issue. Having been bounced in tech at the US Nationals for a Chevelle that had the sway bar installed upside down and seen a '56 Chev bounced because it had '55 sun visors, I would not wish that level of scrutiny ever again. However, Ron, I took exception at describing the issue of correct representation of car models in stock eliminator as "meaningless". I liked Greg's statement that "All efforts to make it legitimately correct should be made.", although I would condition it to say "all REASONABLE efforts". What I do not want to see happen is that the attitude become one of "as long as it mostly looks like a (fill in the blank of year-make-model), it's okay", especially when some one intentionally picks and chooses stuff to gain an advantage. Heaven knows that "the advantage" is the Holy Grail of so many racers that is it easy to step over the line of selling the integrity of the Eliminator for it, actual or not. I believe we all fight for that.

Ron, I do keep up with the specs of the new cars. I lived through the 60s, the other era of so many special issue factory cars, and know how difficult it is to establish what was and wasn't in regard to those cars. Hopefully, 50 years from now, we will have better documentation for this set of extraordinary race specific vehicle than we have for that earlier era.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Back in the day when I built my first Chevelle,it was a $500 roller (these don't exist today),and it had a lot wrong with it. I had a bent 69 front bumper,a 69 grille,numerous trim and moldings were missing,no front seat,but the body was near perfect and the glass was all good.I dismantled it, did a firewall forward disassembly and rebuild of the front end and steering,and immersed myself in catalogs from OPG and Muscle Factory and learned that 68 Chevelles did'nt have near the parts availability that 66-67's and 69-72's did.I built the rear end and got it under the car and put the sheet metal on the front,and took it to my buddy's shop for paint. He needed an engine for his truck,so we traded jobs-the paint for the engine.I put all new rubber moldings and weatherstrips on it and new parts as necessary-one of the last NOS grilles OPG had before they were discontinued.This race car started as a restoration project before we could even consider racing it.I made sure it was correct because it was just as easy to assemble a correct car as an incorrect one. I also heard nightmare tales like Dwight just described in tech and didn't want the drama. I had that car a long time and built three more just about like it.I never had an issue in tech at any race,Travis teched me at the first WInternationals it went to, Bruce has teched us since then,and I think they realized that an effort had been made to try to be accurate,rather than an effort to try to see what we could get away with.

[Andys dad]

Originally Posted by Greg Reimer 7376

At first glance,this thread appeared to be a by product of end-of-season malaise and boredom, but it does bring up some interesting points.What if you had a car with some small exterior errors,such as a '72 Chevelle with '71 parking light lenses and bezels,otherwise it's completely legit,you went 1500 miles to a national event only to have a tech official not pass it over that? That could be an aggravating circumstance at best. As long as the car is correct as far as the generic appearance and the year,make,and model claimed,the combo is legit,and the weight is correct as it passes over the scales, there should be no problem. All efforts to make it legitimately correct should be made.If it's a '69 Nova,it should look like one. On another current thread, the discussion came up as to openly discussing illegal weight reduction of body parts,illegal modification of the body itself,etc,and whether openly advertising this kind of thing is wise. Tech officials read these discussions,they basically know who is legit or not, and they probably don't appreciate confronting every incident where somebody deliberately is trying to fudge on the rules.They already allow us some pretty good breaks,after all, you could have been one of those folks with a 69 Camaro 255/285 horse car with the SS hood a few years ago. So many of those cars were around with the SS hood for so long that many were probably bought and sold like that with no intent to cheat anybody or anything. It would be wise, however not to advertise the ways people push the rules.No sense waving a red flag in front of a bull.

Greg - very good post man .. I am surprised .. These experts have no idea what is legal on the new cars (last eight years) because they have not had forty years to figure it out and have never owned one.

The rules of NHRA stock eliminator have changed constantly - some have not noticed - various heads, manifolds, valve spring, transmissions, etc and other performance oriented things do not upset them as much as an in correct tail light.

Some things (people) never change.

Next year it will be new - old things.

Oh well it is winter and I am bored - so you purest fire away - it gives me an occasional minute of joy.

This is drag racing not world peace.

Ron