Originally Mark wanted to build a bulletproof motor with all the best brand new parts, and go with a new powerglide that has a Deadenbear or Reid case and all that jazz. As nice as that would be, we’ve decided that where it makes sense, we’re going to aim for getting good, clean used stuff, and if we end up with a nearly stock SBC and we only run 10′s to begin with, that’s fine. We can always upgrade later. The first outings will probably be sans paint or the swoopy tail section we hope to have eventually. The goal is to get out there and have fun, and then we can revamp and go faster over time. As super cool as it is to have Rocinante as a roller sitting in my garage, the truth is that it gets a little depressing to not make progress, and to know that how we wanted to do the car all zooty to begin with, just pushes finances and a completion date out so far that it gets to be a little disheartening.

Just to be clear, we aren’t deviating from the purpose of this whole deal, which is to build a dragster as period correct as possible, but she’ll be a work in progress. It still might take 6, 7, 8 years before she’s truly finished- but I hope that by that time we will have been running her and having fun for a few years already.

The goal this year is to get the pumpkin, spool and gears, and the brake system finished.

In the mean time, if any of you reading this have, or know about good used stuff that would work for us for not much money, please drop a line. Finned Cal-custom or Corvette style valve covers, a moon style fuel tank, Hilborn-style timing covers, a Hilborn 150 fuel pump or shut off are part of the list of things we could probably swing now if it was cheap enough. Heck, even let us know if there is a decent 283, 327 or 350 out of someone’s hot rod with no place to go, or a decent shorty powerglide that a bracket racer you know no longer needs.

Not saying we could do something right away, but if the price was right, you never know.

I hope that this doesn’t come across as feeling sorry for myself- it certainly isn’t intended that way. It is clearly understood that building a dragster is about as non-essential to survival as anything. But like the role everyone’s hot rods play in their lives, it serves to allow you to dream a little and the joy and excitement of those hopes and plans makes it easier to endure the bumps and bruises that life hands out. So in so many ways, this reality check is liberating and exciting because it puts the carrot on the end of the stick back into view.

Thanks for reading. Here are a few photos for your enjoyment…

The first one is some of the dragster clips from the Lou Baney home movies that were posted on the Jalopy Journal. Soundtrack is Hotline by the Bomboras.

The second one is footage from the ’65 Indy Nats and the ’65 Winternats set to She Rides a Chopper by Evan Foster.

I think the films further illustrate that at least in my opinion, modern drag racing will never hold a candle to drag racing in the 60′s.

Enjoy!

Thanks for being interested and checking out the blog. For those of you toying with the idea of building a dragster of your own- go for it. You won’t regret it! 

All the best-

Despite our concerns that all the guys wanting old Hilborn setups to convert over to EFI is sending the prices of vintage units to the moon, Mark scored a killer 2 1/16″ set up, and managed to find a set of plated stacks as well.

I had always heard good things about the folks at Hilborn,  so I called them with the casting number, and they told me that our unit was built in 1966. They also told me that there should be a 4-digit serial number stamped up by the front of the manifold, and if I could get that, they could probably get me a copy of the original invoice. So I called Mark back and he found the number. A quick call back to Hilborn, and they told me that they would email a copy to me later in the day. All free of charge! I am impressed and a dedicated Hilborn booster now. Here’s the info they sent us:

While the original intention was to find an even earlier 1 13/16″ setup, the ones we found were either too rough, too incomplete, or just plain beyond the budget. So while this one is from 1966 and not 1963, it still looks the part with the lines running to the outside and the stacks with the two screw mounting. So a fair compromise. It’s a relief to have a big part of the “period correct” puzzle squared away.

I did an internet search on Brockman’s Speed Shop and only came up with a decal set intended to make the Stone, Woods and Cook model kit into the purple ’41 Willys gasser they sponsored in the late 60′s. So I asked on the HAMB and received some very passionate replies. I found out that Brockman’s was a major mover and shaker in the Dayton Ohio era from the 1950′s through the golden age of drag racing. Like most real speed shops that didn’t simply morph into an outlet for custom wheels, noisy exhausts, and bolt-on “body packages” in order to keep the doors open, they closed sometime in the mid-to-late 1980s.

There is no way to know if the unit was ever run on a Brockman’s “team” car, or if it was just ordered for a customer. But as you can see from the original invoice/build sheet, this unit was originally setup for alky (and up to 20% nitro!) so I’m guessing that it was originally on a digger or altered. I’d prefer to think that it was on the baddest B/D in the Dayton area, but that’s just me looking at it as a talisman for Roc.

Regardless, we ended up with a nice setup at a “mere mortals” price. In time we’re looking for a Hilborn front cover, and have determined it’s probably best to get the pump and shutoff new, since those still look close enough to look period, while giving us a fresh baseline to start with.

While there hasn’t been any wrenches turned or welds made as of late, there has been plenty of planning. We don’t have the skills, equipment or funds to have a chute pack tail made for the car, but I think it’s important to clean up the rear of the car, so ala the Surfer’s or George Bolthoff, we’re planning on making a simple rear wraparound tail section, so the frame will be covered.

I think with the old cars, you could make the open rear section look okay by painting the seat, but the current SFI specs have those extra bars required and they are at different angles that conflict with the lines of the car, and it just kinda bugs me looks-wise. I presented this to Mark, and he signed off on it, so I called Brian and asked what he recommended to use. So we’ll be getting a sheet of .050″ 3003 aluminum. It’s typically used for making cowls on aircraft, and Brian said it’s easy to work with. Not sure when that will happen, but it’s a game plan.

Also countering the old drag racer’s axiom of “too much is just about right” we’ve decided to build a mild motor for the car. This works on a lot of levels, but mostly less expense means we’ll hit the track that much sooner and with me being green as a driver, it’ll flatten the learning curve and give me something that I can feel more comfortable with and utilize all the horsepower that much sooner.  I realize that having a car that runs ETs in the high 9s and 130-ish isn’t nearly as sexy as 8.30s at 175, (and even 8.30s at 175 is only sexy to a very limited audience at that) but the car can always be made to go faster and quicker in the future.

We may find that given our lack of competetive drive, aversion to more hassles than necessary, and desire to do this for our own amusement, running in the 9s might suit us just fine.

We wanted the early 60′s American Racing 5 spoke look to further our vision, so we went with the ETs. “But American Racing makes the Torque Thrusts new! Why didn’t you go with them?” Well, because they don’t make a 10″ wide rim or do custom offsets, while ET will build the wheel to your specs. So we went with a 4 1/2″ backspace with the 5 on 4 1/2″ bolt pattern.

Even though I was dog-tired after 9 hours of driving and a day at the strip, I couldn’t resist and put them on after I got in last night. This morning I cleared the driveway and pushed her out into the daylight so I could get some profile shots. I’m in love!

Here are some of the photos. (excuse the lawn! It has been winning the battle of wits between us. Despite my best efforts, apparently lawn growing is not my forte)

We hit the road shortly after 3am and pointed the car south, complete with the Austrailian lady in Mark’s GPS spouting off directions every mile or two, and in a thinly veiled, slightly frustrated, but persistant tone would say “recalculating” and then re-assert, and almost insist her directions every time I took a turn or road that I wanted to take that I thought was a better route. I felt like I was married again.

Driving the truck at 60 MPH down I-5 made for painfully slow progress.  Made a stop about a half hour out of Burbank to call Lucky and let him know we were close to the shop. Found a pay phone at the WalMart. Mark and I are both Luddites and don’t have electronic leashes, errr… I mean cell phones. (I know, I know…) I knew I was in Southern California because as I was walking to the pay phone in the store, I overheard a lady who seemed to be in her late 70′s, loudly exclaim to her girlfriend ”My vagina is tingling!” Yup, So Cal is a different planet.

Lucky was waiting and got to see my 3-Stooges act of making hash of trying to back a 20 foot trailer into his  driveway. I finally swallowed my pride and sheepishly asked him if he could do it for me.  Sigh.  Trailer backing is a skill that strangely has risen to the top of my “to-do” list.

Loaded the dragster onto the trailer and fiddled with the tie downs. Mark and I were functioning like the two guys working off of a couple hours sleep that we were, so coupled with my ineptitude at backing the trailer up, I’m sure Lucky looked at us and thought “These guys are going to run a dragster?!”  Really, I’m not normally that much of a knucklehead who looks like I might be defeated by industrial tie down straps. But with the way life usually works, we tend to have our bonehead moments in front of folks we’ve just met.  Or at least I do. Once again, sigh…

All loaded up, we took a quick tour of the shop, being mindful of the fact that we were probably keeping Lucky from getting over to the Grand National Roadster Show, so we shook hands and were back on the road by 11:45 with the truck pointed north again.

As is normally the case, the trip home felt a bit like the Bataan Death March as acute sleep deprivation kicked in and I was having to stop a bit more frequently to  stretch and walk around for a minute and pound caffinated drinks to make the slog back home. Mark had mercy on me and Adam (my 12 year old son who came along for the ride and was the total trooper the whole time) and rather than stop in Sacto to drop the dragster off and then slog back over to Fairfield to pick up my truck, we swung into Fairfield first so I could get my truck and not have to do a return trip, and Mark drove the truck and trailer from Fairfield to Sacto.

I made it back here ahead of Mark and quickly called up a few friends who kindly sped right over to meet Mark in front of the house and unload the dragster. The dragster gods were smiling upon us- I was worried that we’d have to just block traffic and stop the rig in the middle of the street, but the stars aligned and no one was parked in front of my house or my neighbor’s house, so Mark could pull to the curb. Andy, Allen, Tim and my neighbor Chris all helped us grunt the dragster down the long skinny driveway and install the car in my small garage. Mark was beat so he split, and I guess having the subconscious relief of completing the task of getting Rocinante from St. Louis to Sacramento unscathed, I had gotten a second wind and spent an hour or so talking about the car to the guys and making them all try her on for size.

Once I got inside, I checked my voice mail, and there was a message from Brian just checking to see how the trip went. It’s nice to know that we worked with a guy that has as much care and emotional investment in the car as we do. I can’t say enough about how I feel that Brian was the absolute right guy to build our car. I can’t imagine any other scenario or articulate just how pleased Mark and I are with Brian’s work and how much of a pleasure it has been to work with him. On some level, Brian will always be the 3rd partner in this car.

Anyway, here are photos that my son took during the day from the trip bringing Rocinante home. I hope you enjoy them.