Midnight Oil - Part III

If you have an actual life, don't ever go to Bonneville. It'll chew up and spit out a week of your life faster than a cat can lick his ass with his tongue out and his tail up. I've been back for a couple of weeks now, desperately playing catch-up. I guess it didn't help to crew for a buddy at a three day drag race, days after returning from the salt. But I did, with no regrets, except for a little exhaustion. Meanwhile, this poor blog has been neglected. I just checked in and was shocked at the cobwebs and dust. I swear I saw a tumbleweed roll by a minute ago.

You know those little 15 second blurbs that the TV networks use to promote their programming? This blog entry is like that - just a reminder that we're still open for business. Cool content is on the way, but for today, I'm posting a couple of photos I had hoped to use in my station wagon book as part of a collage. The idea never made it to print, but I'm bravely posting the images here, even though I don't know the photographers or anything else about them. I just saw these somewhere online and saved them because they made me feel good. I hope they work for you, too.

                            The aforementioned book. You NEED one of these to be a complete human!

                                           The images CarTech Inc. doesn't want you to see!                                                                            

Here's salt in your eye...

Every Bonneville pilgrimage is epic by nature. At least that's been my experience over the last 30-some years. 2011 was no different - yet another leap of faith, with thumb out, empty wallet and no expectations.

In the last blog entry ("Gone, gone, gone..."), I alluded to the lack of words to convey the salt experience. That didn't stop me from trying in 1996, when I wrote "Here's Salt in your Eye" for my hot rod album:

Out on the wide open road

Out where the line chasers go

So fast

So fast...

Out on safari for speed

Out there fulfilling a need

So bad

So bad...

Step right up to a dream

Take a chance and believe

And enjoy the ride

And if your hopes are dashed

And if you're broken or crashed

Well here's salt in your eye...

They've been broken before

It's a price they pay over and over and over

So cold

So cold...

Out looking toward what they want

Sometimes they find what they need

So bad

It's so good...

Copyright Squid Valley Music 1996

Those lyrics probably only resonate with those who've lived them. Oh well, I tried...

The 2011 edition began wth my brother Wayne and I loading up my old '36 Ford truck cab (narrowed 20" and chopped 8") into the trailer behind his HHR delivery. I had an afternoon book signing at the Medford Barnes & Noble, then we blew town, targeting Winnemucca, Nevada.

                                        Wayne, "Checking the load", somewhere in Nevada...    

Exhausted from unsuccessfully dodging dozens of jackrabbits, coyotes and owls for nine hours, we made camp at  the Scott Motel -the traditional stop in Winnetown and our oasis in the desert night.

                                                                   The next morning...

Six more hours of bench racing delivered us to Wendover and finally, the salt. It's always such a sweet warmfuzzie to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. First stop was checking in at Sid and Eric Johnson's pit, where I'd be crewing for the week on their Berkeley roadster. Much more on these guys in the story of my 2009 adventure, "Surfing the Asphalt Playground".

My mission was to photograph and interview racers from abroad for my book on the subject, in between crewing for the Johnsons and yukking it up with old cronies. Mission accomplished, on every count.

Some highlights:

It turned out that the big salt news this year was the Italian and French teams I was covering. They both exceeded their expectations - high and low, respectively. I got great stories from these guys, along with Norwegians, Kiwis and a certain Brit from Switzerland, driving for a Scottish team.

Wayne and I attended the premier of The Boys of Bonneville film, with a couple thousand friends. Great documentary on Ab Jenkins, who brought land speed racing to Bonneville from Daytona Beach and the dry lakes. We were amazed to discover how much else he did in such a frantic short lifetime.

Keith and Tanya Turk were pitted near us, with the Hot Rod Magazine Special Camaro. Frieburger, Chad Reynolds and the usual suspects were in attendance. They blew up the big block Chevy early in the week, but called a Hail Mary and ran it in the 2-cylinder class, qualifying for a record at 32 MPH. While preparing for the back-up run, a dedicated V-2 racer reality slapped them with a 120 MPH run. Only at Bonneville...

George Poteet and Ron Main took the Hot Rod Magazine Top Speed award with a 426 MPH run in their streamliner.

Funny Car ace Ron Capps drove the Speed by Spectre 'liner over 300, contracting a nasty case of Salt Fever in the process.

There were way too many more stories to list here. Bottom line: My jaw still aches from laughing.

I can't post the book photos here, but will share some random snapshot out-takes for your amusement:

                                        Last thing we saw at Road's End, before hitting the salt

                      Wayne surveys the salt for the first time in a year. Still tastes the same...

            Going to work Monday morning, after Sunday night's thunderstorm. The course was fine.

                                                           Erik Johnson (AKA Nexxussian)

Sid Johnson (AKA Hot Legs). If you think this is a tight squeeze, you should see Erik shoe-horned into this cockpit. Seven days later, we finally got through tech (long story)...

  

That left us two days to figure out this year's combo and get back to where we left off in 2009, at 140 MPH. Maybe next year...

I hung with this blown banger A in the staging lanes (they had a nice fan and it was scorching hot). Didn't realize the driver I'd been BSing with was Tanya Harding until later. They were shooting for 100 MPH.

Gene Winfield is still burning salt and building world class customs. He must be 112 by now. He grabbed me in a pinch and put me to work in his pit. Same thing happened to every other journalist type I spoke with. Small price to pay for a moment with royalty. He spun out at 205 MPH, but was back in action and still running when we left.

Old pals Steve Peterson, Frank Silva and John Sprenger ("Got Salt Racing") broke their old record with a 324.961 blast. Way to go, guys! Look for these characters in an upcoming Scotty book ("Black Wednesday Libretto").

Random shots from 2011 Speed Week:

Enough! But super extra special thanks to the Johnsons, who fed, sheltered and chauffered me all week! These guys are genuine hot rod heroes who also taught me what real friendship looks like.

Gone, gone, gone...

It's that time of year again. Speed Week beckons. Funny, the salt appears so pristine, but in reality, is more evil than heroin - drawing in unsuspecting knuckledraggers like myself, who stop by to pay homage and leave swearing never to return to this miserable place. That was my first experience and despite myself, I was planning my return trip well before I ever crossed back into my home state. Insideous stuff. That was many years ago. Since then, I've spectated, crewed and raced on the salt at every opportunity. If you've been there, you understand. If not, you're out of luck, as no words, photos or film footage can begin to convey the salt experience. Sorry.

This year, the incentive is to photograph and interview several racers for a book on overseas racers who come to the U.S. to run in a variety of motorsports. I've been corresponding with these people for months now and am looking forward to getting some in-person insight into why these speed gypsies feel it's worth the shipping costs and passports. It should be a rush to record the culmination of their long distance quests. I'm stoked, to say the least.

My brother Wayne is presently driving from his home in Nebraska to Oregon, to load up my old '36 Ford pickup cab (our dad's last resto project and my last drag car project). This Saturday, I have a book signing at the local Barnes & Noble, then we're off on a banzai blast to B'ville, hoping to catch the premier of the Boys of Bonneville film on Sunday night in Wendover. Wayne and the '36 will head east after that and I'll be in Utah with no room, no ride home and no money. A leap of faith befitting any salt quest.

If I survive and return, I'll post my adventures here. If this crusty hitch hiker is splattered to the winds by a Freightliner on I-80, just know that I appreciate all who stopped by the blog for a look. I hope you left here feeling better than when you arrived, in some way.

Here's some images of Bonneville adventures past, to tide you over and/or inspire your own salty pilgrimage. Kicking off with shots of the Sodium Cyborg Tour of 2007, when Chris Clark and I ran my Morris at World of Speed (see Blast Across the Salt in the July 2008 Rod & Custom).

L-R: Freckles (Jerm's Porsche), Wayne, his son Jerm, Me, CC. Freckles went about 17 MPH faster than the Morris. They whipped us, fair and square.

                                          Sweating bullets at Tech-In.

                                      With CC, happy to pass tech...

                     Unwittingly heading toward a funhouse spin at 137 MPH. 

                           CC, waiting to be waved off on a 140 MPH run.

    And he's off! The freeway is just over the horizon. Interesting, as the      Morris goes good, but doesn't stop worth a #%*$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       Freckles and Lil Zilla going at it, at an undisclosed location. I lost again.

Photo by Jerm, at speed......................................................................................

                            Crewing for Sid and Erik Johnson in 2009.

                    Pushing Erik off on his first run in the little Berkeley.

                                   Wayne's '41 Pontiac taking a break.

     Our buddy House crewed on this 500+" Caddy powered A-bomb in '09.

And finally, some random salt sillyness. Lots more of this stuff in upcoming books. These shots are all out takes - I'm saving the good stuff...

                                             See you on the salt???

Banned! Steve Curry's Mopars

If Steve's name seems familiar, you've been tuned into the good stuff. He and old pal Bob Furry teamed up on a canary yellow straight axle '57 Chevy street/strip sedan that graced the August 2000 cover of Hot Rod magazine. Gray Baskerville was nearly killed getting that shot and the story behind it is a hilarious epic, still in heavy rotation at racetrack pits and burger joints around the globe.

Steve's been a mover and shaker on the local scene for many years and is still into it, up to his eyebrows. In the opening years of the New Millennium, I was doing a lot of musclecar stories for Car Craft and Steve's Mopar fleet seemed like a natural. When I first submitted this tale, Steve Magnante was saturating the (then) Primedia pages with Pentastar lore and CC passed. I shopped it around to all the other titles, who also waived it off, probably because of my amaturish photography (performed on a freezing day with numb fingers), but all insisted they'd get back to it. None of them ever did and it's been sitting in a cardboard box gathering dust, until today.

                              Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

By Scotty Gosson

Photos by Scotty Gosson

                                                               

To the point. Surgically clean. Tastefully understated. Brutally honest. Viciously fast. The anti-bling. Why don't we see more of this? Here are three different approaches to building killer street/strip cars out of pedestrian sixties iron that the megabuck collectors passed on. There are no rules in this game, so why aren't more people playing? It's an inside deal - you either get it or you don't. Get this:

                                                              

'65 Coronet

Originally built over twenty years ago at "Moshers Musclecar Motors" in Monrovia, California, it's still holding up very well, thank you. These build ups are pretty much routine for Mopar guru Bobby Mosher: Blow car completely apart; strip everything to bare metal and rub on everything until it's perfect; stab in a relatively mild big block (440 with 426 wedge decals on the valve covers and a crossram intake for style points); cam with plenty of hair on it, and earthquake exhaust to add interest; prep a 727 automatic for battle and match it with an appropriate torque converter; make sure the 8 3/4 rear is bulletproof and loaded with a 4.10 gear; delete rear seat and replace factory bench with Dodge van buckets; garnish with period correct Sun tach; repaint body factory color.

Simple, huh? There are no trick parts, and no sleight of hand or anything cute about the build-up. The hard part is not getting sidetracked or carried away - a little restraint goes a long way here. The Coronet blows minds on the street, with audio to match the visuals. The combination is a traffic jammer ("Grab your ankles, there's a Super Stocker in the other lane!"). And it runs easy low 13s in full street trim, with cat pee in the tank. Best of all worlds...

                                                                   

                                                                

                                                                          

'68 Valiant

A no brainer. The Valiant spent it's childhood as a Pacific Bell fleet vehicle. These cars came with 6 cylinder/automatic combos (with the light torsion bars.) More light comes from nifty fleet options like heater, carpet and undercoating deletes. A 380 hp 360 crate motor with a 100hp shot of nitrous and an 833 4-speed replaced the anemic factory drivetrain, and viola! Instant funmobile. Shumacker motor mounts made the swap a sleepwalk. The combo was refined with a steering column and clutch pedal assembly from another A body, 3.91 gears and a Sure Grip in an 8 3/4 housing, and a Mopar rear spring relocating kit (3" inboard) to make way for the 275 series BFGoodrich tires and steelies (widened to 8" in back). They look great under there, enhancing the vibe without being distracting. Traction is still iffy though. It can pretty much disappear in traffic (if you're deaf), and goes 12.20s at the track. It's dipped into the ultra-low 11s on the juice. Fun and easy...

This conversion was performed by Gary Streuter and Bob Schiller of Irvine, California, back in 1997. Nothing has been changed since then, except the oil and a few sets of rear tires...

                                                                 

                                                                

                                                                

 '68 Dart GTS

The Dart came with a more common form of weight reduction: genuine midwest rust. Therefore, the price was right, and since the numbers all match on this one, out came the sawzall, and in went the N.O.S. floors, rockers and quarter panels. The chassis remains stock, save for subframe connectors and a 3.91 posi pumpkin. The wick was turned up somewhat on the original 383 with the obvious bolt-ons, but nothing that would take it past the point of no return, if a resto were ever desired. Exhaust cutouts are the most exotic pieces on the car. The original interior was deemed adequate, and left as is. Again, the wheel and tire combo defines the cars personality, with the rear steelies and front American Torque Thrusts telling you everything you need to know about this car at a glance.

The plan from the beginning was to make it a daily driver, and so it is. We've spotted it at the grocery store, the parts houses, and every joint in town that serves lunch. It's a regular at cruise nights, and the drag strip, where it runs very consistant 13.20s (and has flirted with 12s on ocassion). A reality ride with true balance. Proof? The owner is always smiling...

                                                          

                                                                

                                                              

                                                            

The Owner

With one foot planted in the Super Stock wars, and tongue in cheek, Steve Currie has his own private Mopar battallion to rule the streets. Only one of his street warriors came from the factory with its current equipment, and Steve rolls his eyes at the purists who think that it matters. He has a few "chalkmark correct" cars that live pampered lives, but these three get driven. With a wink and a grin.

Collections like this don't happen overnight - there's years of horse trading behind the scenes, and in fact, Steve keeps so busy juggling factory muscle that he doesn't have much time anymore to build his own stuff. The three cars shown here were originally built by three different shops, found their way into Steves hands, and are now tweaked and maintained by the staff at Heritage Motors (Steves company) in Medford, Oregon. We know, "sounds tough". Get over it. The point is, these cars represent the very spirit of "Affordable Street Performance". All three embody common sense ideas, executed with taste and attention to detail. We can all learn from these cars. Our junk should look and run so nice...

The Details
Car: '65 Dodge Coronet
Owner: Steve Curry
Engine: Dodge 440 production block, stock bore and stroke; Keith Black hypereutectic pistons, stock polished rods w/ ARP bolts; polished crank w/ oil holes chamfered, by Dales Place in Baldwin Park, California
Heads: Stock cast iron, mild porting, multi-angle valve job
Induction: Factory cast aluminum cross ram intake w/ (2) Weber (repro AFB) 650 cfm 4-barrel carbs
Exhaust: Doug Thorley headers w/ 2" primaries, 3 1/2" collectors, 3" exhaust w/ mystery mufflers
Camshaft: Mopar Performance hydraulic flat tappet "509 purple shaft" w/ 248 duration @ .050", .509" lift, 114 centerline
Transmission: Dodge 727 automatic 3-speed w/ 10" 2700 rpm stall A&W converter, stock column shifter
Rearend: Mopar 8 3/4 housing, SureGrip 3rd member w/ 4.10 gears, stock axles
Front suspension: Stock w/ 90/10 drag shocks
Rear suspension: Stock w/ Chrysler Super Stock leaf springs, 50/50 drag shocks
Brakes: Stock factory drum, front and rear
Wheels and tires: Stock steel narrowed to 15X4, w/ 205/75-15 radials, front; stock steel widened to 15X8, w/ 275/60-15Firestone Firehawk radials, rear
Assembly: Bobby Mosher at Mosher Musclecar Motors
Paint: Factory red re-spray
Upholstery: Repro vinyl by Quality Upholstery in Irwindale, California

Performance: 13.32@103.20

Car: '68 Dodge Valiant
Owner: Steve Curry
Engine: Mopar Performance 360/380hp crate motor; cast iron block, 380hp@5300 rpm, 410ft lbs@4400 rpm (without nitrous)
Heads: Stock cast iron w/ 1.925" int./1.625" ex.
Induction: Mopar Performance M1 manifold w/ Holley 750 cfm 4-barrel, NOS 100hp nitrous plate system
Exhaust: Hooker Super Competition headers (1 5/8" primary pipes, 3" collectors) w/ 3" exhaust and X pipe, Magnaflow mufflers
Camshaft: Mopar Performance hydraulic roller, .501"/.513" lift, 288/292 advertised duration
Transmission: Chrysler A-833 4-speed w/ Hurst shifter
Rearend: Mopar 8 3/4 w/ SureGrip 3.91 gears, stock axles
Front suspension: Stock
Rear suspension: Stock
Brakes: Stock drum, front and rear
Wheels and tires: Stock steel, narrowed to 15X4 1/2" w/ 205/70 - 15 BFGoodrich radial TAs, front; Stock steel, widened to 15X8 w/ BFG 275/60 - 15 BFGoodrich radial TAs , rear
Assembly: Gary Streuter and Bob Schiller
Paint: PPG copy of original "X code" fleet color
Upholstery: Stock reproduction from Legendary, installed by Mission Viejo Interiors, rubber floor mats

Performance: 12.20@103 on motor, 11.24@120 w/ nitrous

Car: '68 Dodge Dart GSX
Owner: Steve Curry
Engine: Dodge 383, bored .030", Keith Black hypereutectic 9-1 pistons, stock rods and crank
Heads: Cast iron 906 castings, mild portwork, multi angle valve job
Induction: Edelbrock Torker manifold, Holley 750 cfm 4-barrel
Exhaust: TTI 1 3/4" headers, TTI 2 1/2" exhaust w/ crossover, Flowmaster Delta series mufflers
Camshaft: Mopar Performance hydraulic flat tappet, .484" lift, 241 duration@.050", 108 centerline
Transmission: A-833 four speed w/ factory Hurst shifter (modified w/ fabbed shift plate, etc)
Rearend: 8 3/4 Mopar w/ SureGrip, 3.91 gears, stock axles
Front suspension: Stock
Rear suspension: Stock, w/ pinion snubber
Brakes: Stock drum, front and rear
Wheels and tires: American Torque Thrust, 14X6 w/ 175/70-14 radials, front; Stock steel 14X7 w/ 26X9.50-14 Hoosier Quicktime slicks, rear
Assembly: Heritage Motors
Paint: Factory red respray
Upholstery: Original vinyl

Performance: 13.09@105.67

Source: Mosher Musclecar Motors, Monrovia, California 626-303-2427
Dales Place, Baldwin Park, California 626-851-1353
Gary Streuter and Bob Schilling, Irvine, California
Heritage Motors, Medford, Oregon 541-772-5222