dragcarz

My best friend out of high school was a guy I met while street racing in South St. Louis, around 1975 . Most of the guys back then had nic names they were either called or went by. Crash was what everyone called him, and we hung together almost nightly worked on each other's cars and eventually even worked together for a year before I learned his real name was Steve. Crash owned a 70 Super Bee, 440 Torqueflite , bench seat, and column shifter. It was painted Vitamin C, with a burnt orange interior and white C stripes. Crash purchased the car used as we all did back then. They were inexpensive at the time as the gas chrisis ( gas costing more than a dollar a gallon) and higher insurance cost scared most people to economy cars. This car ran very strong, Crash was a tuner, he would adjust the timing a degree and go try it out to see if it was quicker or not. Always tweeking it to make it quicker. We had a lot of fun in this car. I remember one time when the 4:11 rear gears were broke and since it was the daily transportation a trip to the salvage yard for another 3rd member yielded up a set of 2:73s. The car was a dog with these gears for racing. So late one night on the interstate Crash decided to see how fast the car would go, so a couple miles down the highway the 150 mph speedo was pegged. All of a sudden bam bam ca-chunk. The drive shaft came out oh the car. Scared us to death! So I'm trying to replicate Crash's Bee. AMT / MPC 70 Super Bee kit. I painted the body with Vitamin . Placed the White stripes, foiled the trim. Chassis painted with over sprayed rockers. I don't remember where the Torqueflite came from. The kits 440, and a resin bench seat from Harts Parts. As always comments welcome

I should have never looked here, now I want one?

Nice!

Love it, looks great,

Amazing!

WOW I like this!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOUR PAINT STAND. TOO COOL!

Love these builds

Beautiful

Thanks Alan, Im gonna try it . I'll let you know how it comes out.

Looks great Wayne!

Wow Alan your Camaro looks great. Glad I inspired you. I'll be following along. I did a Grumpys Toy years ago and kinda fell in love with this kit. I think AMT really got the body the closest to correct. My next Camaro will probably be the Modified Production, Check Mate car. I'd be really interested in a little more details on your subframe connectors.

Great job, I love it, thanks for sharing!

I'm good with that . This might help get things going.

This might help get things going.

Would you mind if I jump in with my 66 Bonneville?

It's based on the AMT Tommy Ivo Rear engine dragster kit.

Just looking at the pre production pics, I would instantly recognize this as Prudhomes wedge car. No model car has ever been produced as 100% accurate, it's impossible from a manufacturing standpoint. It captures the idea and essence of the car even without paint and decals. I applaud Round 2, for giving us drag car fans something new. It will look great in the display case as is. Your wife, buddy,brother in law, or whomever won't know it's a little short, or that the roll cage is wrong. What will count is your quality of work. How clean you build, the shiny paint and colorful decals. If you want it more accurate, scratch build what you want. Drew, I love your work, I've been a fan for years! I totally get it, as I've aged I don't have the eyes, hands and patience I once had. But I still get very excited when I finish a build, pop it in the display case along with all the other highly recognizable dragsters and funny cars that aren't 100% accurate, and I still enjoy them.

I've got a couple of these from Galaxie, I have them on the build lis. You've got my attention, I'll be watching.

Thanks Alan. No Slapper bars, not really needed with the automatic trans. Years later Pat came did reveal some of the details. 302 cubic inches. Vega torque converter, And I don't remember the gear ratio, it was 4:11 or 4:56. Something like that. I also came clean with him, that I was not playing with him, that I was racing him hard.

Yes it was, some of the best times of my life!

Finally, the second in these builds is finished. If you've been following along, you'll notice it's been a while since I've updated this post. Life has been a little crazy. I had to move to Atlanta Georgia for work. I work a lot more hours now and I don't get much build time. I took Friday off and spent Friday and Saturday to finish it. I didn't do any super detailing to the motor, just paint. Pat's butternut Camaro , as I remember it anyway, came out better than Eddies camaro, but it's just practice. Right? I could not get Pat to race me. His Camaro was a small block turbo 350 automatic plane Jane car. Not A Z-28 , SS or RS Camaro. Pat wouldn't give up any info on this car. He wouldn't tell you engine size or rear axel ratio. But Pat was a tuner, and he could get a lot out of a car. One weekend night after a lot of cajoling on my part, Pat agreed to race. We went out onto I-44, and a couple cars blocked the two right lanes, turned on their emergency flashers, someone ran out between us and flagged us off. Knowing I had Pat covered, I let him leave first, he jumped out about a fender on me and I came out on the clutch.My Chevelle leaped out in front of Pat by about a fender, and while I thought I would just pass him by, I didn't. Pat stayed with me, he didn't gain anything, and neither did I. We just stayed like that to the finish.Needless to say I was surprised. All of a sudden flashing lights, BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH! The Cops were busted. We both pull over, Pat's was in the right lane so he pulls down the exit ramp first and onto the shoulder, I pull in behind him, and the Officer is behind me. Spotlight on my car, lights still flashing. The Officer comes up to my window, and he waives Pat on, tells him to get going.....I get a careless and imprudent, a drag racing, and speeding tickets. He should have just arrested me, but didn't. When the officer was finished with me, I asked him why he let Pat go? He smiled and replied you won......I finally get let go and returned to the White Castle where we hung out. Later that night, Pat and I were talking and he asked if I was just playing with him, or was I really racing? I lied to him and said I was playing with him, but I wasn't, his car was fast. As always, comments welcome.

Here's one style

Back in the 70s these street funny car headers were sold for real cars. They bolted to your headers there was an exhaust pipe, a muffler, and then, the tail pipe if you will, dumped into four pipes that looked like funny cars had, exhaust only came out of one of the pipes though. I'll try and find a pic to post.

My wife and daughters are great with my hobby, apparently I'm easier to live with when I'm building.....hmmmm? Where I get apprehensive is with other people. I'm practically a closet builder and I don't share what I do for fear of what others might think. At 60 years old you'd think I wouldn't care.