Anyone like racing?

[durand mortenson]

 

[durand mortenson]

View attachment 1496138

A guy came buy the house wanting to know if I could make him a pair of spindle hubs for towing. He brought this little race car with him that he had built for his son.
I don't remember seeing one anywhere since. Anyone?
P.S
Did a little research and I'm thinking this is a 1/4 Miget racer. There are still organizations that sanction these cars and there are many classes based on age and engine limitations. There many changes for safety reasons that have really changed the cars appearance. They don't look like this anymore.

Mort

 

[Kittitas George]

'Way back when', late 50s early 60s, there was a man here, in the NW, racing a '55 Chev, don't remember if it had 265 or 283 cu. inch motor. The story was it had a 'Racer Brown' cam, meant to be used in a limited class hydroplane. Of course the motor had pistons, headers, carburation, everything done right, and 4.56 gears. He was very knowledgeable, worked as a mechanic, a frequent winner and well respected. The tachometer he used, maybe because of limited availability only went to 8,000 RPM. So the story was he turned the motor to 8K , count to three, then shift. He thought that he was getting about 10K RPM out of that Chevy motor. Some said he would lift the left front tire off the ground, the first wheely I remember. One thing I know for a fact is he, like many others at the time, he
drove the car to work daily. It was the only car in the family. The shop he worked in was broke into, the only thing stolen was his tool box, shortly after, he disappeared. I was hired, a real rookie, about 20 yrs. old. It helped pay for college, I certainly didn't replace him. My brother saw him about 20 years later, at 'the drags' in Florida. My brother managed and 'wrenched' the Bubble Up car '240 Gordy' Bonin drove.

 

[D Coots]

 

[durand mortenson]

'Way back when', late 50s early 60s, there was a man here, in the NW, racing a '55 Chev, don't remember if it had 265 or 283 cu. inch motor. The story was it had a 'Racer Brown' cam, meant to be used in a limited class hydroplane. Of course the motor had pistons, headers, carburation, everything done right, and 4.56 gears. He was very knowledgeable, worked as a mechanic, a frequent winner and well respected. The tachometer he used, maybe because of limited availability only went to 8,000 RPM. So the story was he turned the motor to 8K , count to three, then shift. He thought that he was getting about 10K RPM out of that Chevy motor. Some said he would lift the left front tire off the ground, the first wheely I remember. One thing I know for a fact is he, like many others at the time, he
drove the car to work daily. It was the only car in the family. The shop he worked in was broke into, the only thing stolen was his tool box, shortly after, he disappeared. I was hired, a real rookie, about 20 yrs. old. It helped pay for college, I certainly didn't replace him. My brother saw him about 20 years later, at 'the drags' in Florida. My brother managed and 'wrenched' the Bubble Up car '240 Gordy' Bonin drove.

Those little Chevys would really spin with their short stroke. With my race motor I was always checking the rod journals and changing bearings.
Racer Brown, Howard, Crane, Sig Erson, Harmon Collins, Chet Herbert, Isky and Ed Winfield were all making cams back then. I think Winfield was the oldest. Some of the cam specs were done inhouse and then farmed out to a cam grinder to be later sold under your name.

Mort

 

[Kittitas George]

Those little Chevys would really spin with their short stroke. With my race motor I was always checking the rod journals and changing bearings.
Racer Brown, Howard, Crane, Sig Erson, Harmon Collins, Chet Herbert, Isky and Ed Winfield were all making cams back then. I think Winfield was the oldest. Some of the cam specs were done inhouse and then farmed out to a cam grinder to be later sold under your name.

Mort

I knew a man that designed cams for Howard, 6 cylinder Chev and GMC. Sig Erson worked for Isky before starting his own company. The Duntov cams that Chevy used were made by or designed by Zora August Duntov, also of Ardun overhead valve heads for Ford flat heads. I think I'm remembering this all correctly.

 

[Ringostar]

Dave, when is the last time you heard a song written about a Camaro?

Mort

Bitchin Camaro by The Dead Milkmen!

 

[durand mortenson]

I knew a man that designed cams for Howard, 6 cylinder Chev and GMC. Sig Erson worked for Isky before starting his own company. The Duntov cams that Chevy used were made by or designed by Zora August Duntov, also of Ardun overhead valve heads for Ford flat heads. I think I'm remembering this all correctly.

You got it.

Mort

 

[durand mortenson]

An invite from a good friend. This event started out with a dozen of us at his house for dinner. Butch eventually was renting halls for the dinner and sending out the invites with photos of local racers.
The younger guys were usually bracket racers and volunteered to help in the kitchen ( ; .The food was always excellent as well as the company....good times

Mort
PS Never got an invite that featured my car!

 

[durand mortenson]

 

[mauser284]

Yes!

So glad this was not NASCAR! I grew up with F1, Indy, Rally Racing etc......Although NHRA was all the rage in the 1970-2000 for me as well!

 

[mauser284]

Isle of Man was always great so was Monaco and Pikes Peak was a beast of a trial back in the day!

 

[Brians356]

-

 

[jackieschmidt]

While not a race car, this is Kinda in the spirit of this thread.

We had a beautiful day last Sunday so I detailed the Malibu.

I drove it around the block, nailed it a few times just to remind me why I like big blocks.

 

[ISS]

Better yet, the days when I could drive my 68 Hemi Road Runner (puchased at the Plymouth dealer's for $1650 in August of 1970) to the drag strip and run it for $5. Ahhhhh, the days of .36-cent a gallon of Sunoco 320. You old guys may remember the Sunoco "dial an octane" pumps with a dial on the front...?

ISS

 

[ebb]

While Mitchum fictionalized his own character’s backstory, “Thunder Road” was a well-known moonshine route that ran from Kentucky, through Maynardville, then into Knoxville on what is now Kingston Pike, and he incorporated a legendary car crash that disputably occurred either in Bearden, near Asheville Highway or in Concord (now Farragut), depending on who is talking. My grandparents lived about three house back from the Kingston pike on a little residential side road. When I was very young I got to witness a shine runner that was sent to test the new 1965 ford police special that the Union County sheriffs has just acquired. The next day he could be seen with his arms hanging on the bars from his cell in the basement of the Maynardville court house, with all of his friends out in the court house lawn.

 

[andym686]

Better yet, the days when I could drive my 68 Hemi Road Runner (puchased at the Plymouth dealer's for $1650 in August of 1970) to the drag strip and run it for $5. Ahhhhh, the days of .36-cent a gallon of Sunoco 320. You old guys may remember the Sunoco "dial an octane" pumps with a dial on the front...?

ISS

I remember those pumps.

 

[durand mortenson]

While not a race car, this is Kinda in the spirit of this thread.

We had a beautiful day last Sunday so I detailed the Malibu.

I drove it around the block, nailed it a few times just to remind me why I like big blocks.View attachment 1502583

Driving a car that nice is a pleasure. I used to enjoy taking a day for a detail cleaning. It was a must before a road trip with the Corvette club.
Bet you get a lot thumbs up while you are driving.

Mort

 

[C_Ackley]

Frequently watch Indycar and IMSA, watch F1's highlights. If stock car racing could find its way back to a pre 2004 rules package then maybe I could watch. It's hard to stomach the gimmicks and contrived nature of the results.
Hard to be a motorsports fan in general without all the tobacco money.

 

[ebb]

ISS you must have had a mighty good friend at the Plymouth dealer, I went with my dad in 1968 to get a new VW bug and it was $1683 on the sticker.