Joe Newbie, 20 Builds a "Stocker"' in 2023

[Stan Weiss]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

WOW ! And the reason you have that LARGE harmonic balancer on the engine is …..

Didn't Chevy put a larger one on the 327ci 365HP and 375HP engines in the corvette?


Stan

[Mark Yacavone]

( I'm going to use my crystal ball to finish this. Then I'll offer my personal observations, and then we'll kick it around)

Wild Horse opens in mid September for a Friday night T&T. NB has to work until 5, but then he and VR head out to the track.
There's about 200 cars in line after they tech in.
An hour later ,it's show time . NB brings it up on the two step but the rpm is too high and it rolls the beams, but he runs 102 mph!
Back in the pits , they adjust the pressure gauge and the two step rpm. By now, the staging lane is completely pack again .Might get one more run in. Better make it count.
He does..VR runs a 12.86 @ almost 103 on a 13.45 index. The boys are happy with that on a hot night at a slow track.



NB is horny to race for real now. He'd like to go to Bakersfield in a couple of weeks for the double Divisional but then he puts a pencil to it... 1000 miles, round trip, $ 500 for two entries and fuel. Another $500 for gas @ California prices, etc.
He just can't swing it. He spent or borrowed all he could to finish the car.
Maybe Vegas Div. which is 600 miles round trip.
But then he hears that the local combo series will have an event at Tucson in October.
That's the plan.
The racers in that series voted for head up runs in the eliminator, even though there isn't anyone available for fuel check or to make sure there's no hanky panky going on NB's not worried. He's got to turn on some win lights first.

At the combo, NB is hitting the tree pretty good. First round , against a 9 second S/S car, that guy fell asleep while sitting there so long, and NB wins his first round.
Second round, a big head start, and that guy can't wait that long, and goes red.
NB is having a ball. That is until he realizes he's got to run a b/a turbo TA, heads up , where he promptly gets whacked by two tenths!
Oh, well. NB won some rounds and made a few bucks. He's happy. Now he's going to go home and think about what's next.

Back at VR's on Monday evening , first thing NB says is "I've got to speed that car up for next year. Who makes those tri-y headers, and who to I talk to about getting my heads and manifold "enhanced"?

MY

[Paul Precht]

What is a b/a turbo TA.

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Paul Precht

What is a b/a turbo TA.

That would be a bad azz 80-81 301 Trans Am

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

That would be a bad azz 80-81 301 Trans Am

OK, BUT I heard thru the grapevine that the BA Turbo TA doesn’t have carpet on the floor and isn’t allowed to race in the local combo series .:

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

OK, BUT I heard thru the grapevine that the BA Turbo TA doesn’t have carpet on the floor and isn’t allowed to race in the local combo series .:

That's a different one, here in Fantasyland. This one has carpets ;-)

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Stan Weiss

Didn't Chevy put a larger one on the 327ci 365HP and 375HP engines in the corvette?


Stan

Yes, but I believe those combos could only be had with a 30 lb. flywheel on the other end, too.

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

That's a different one, here in Fantasyland. This one has carpets ;-)

Oh , OK. …!!! I feel better already ..:

[Mark Yacavone]

Some post script observations here ...

For the most part, I wrote this story to illustrate a couple of points.

1, With most of the V8 Chevy combos, there are very little or no parts from the original engine , that would be used to build a semi-competitive car with.
All these changes have been allowed in the last 48 years, yet it's still referred to as Stock Eliminator.
I chose the 283 4 bbl. combo because I'm familiar with it and It's a good one to illustrate my point about using non-original ,or replacement parts.
I could have used the 2 bbl Ford deal instead. Some of those hp ratings are still low enough that you could use a lot of the original parts. In fact, I've advocated it many times, for those who want to build a lower class , V 8 RWD cars, as cheaply as possible. Cheap is a relative word here.
FWD cars could fall under this category also, but they are not as easy as one might think. A lot of the stuff has to be fabricated , or sourced by the builder,..and I don't mean from Jegs or Summit.
I feel that the FWD thing should be a completely different thread from this one.

2, I was in almost the exact same situation as "Joe" was, 50 years ago. Single, living with room mates, working lots of hours, and spending every penny I could make on the race car.
In today's world and economy , I don't see Joe being able to make enough money to finance this car, in less than a year's time. Let alone, putting fuel in it and travel to NHRA races, hundreds of miles away
If you look at a current Nat. entry list, you'll see that a great percentage are either sons, daughters, grand kids or wives of current racer, or people who can now afford to come back in with the factory ringer cars. (Oops..That should be a different thread too)
We're constantly asked where the beginner Stock and Super Stock racers will come from....The way the current rules are, I'll be darned if I know.

Have at it. :-)

[GUMP]

Mark,

As a point of reference, how much did you earn 50 years ago? Also, how much of that went to racing?