Drag Racing

[Footy Shorts Shane]

Do you race, used to race, want to race?

Does it interest you, bore the sh!t out of you?

This topic seems to have interupted a couple of other peoples threads, mostly by my doing  so I'll start a new one.

And without photos, it never happened !!

Shane.

[Footy Shorts Shane]

Me personally, I love it. Have been involved in it for some time now, with a few years full time on a Group 1 team, but we wont really go into that, due to bringing the sport down with a tarnished reputation........

So far I've run street cars, blown, turbo and nitrous cars. The blown car is by far my favorite. Very exciting, but hard to get a feel for, for me any how. I've only just been licenced in it, and hopefully have it sorted soon, running some decent numbers.

The thing I like the most is the one shot, all or nothing attitude required. You give it everything at once. You lose, you're out. You have 8 seconds or less to get it right.

We get pretty involved in the Nostalgia series at Willowbank. This is a couple of cars I built for that series.

Shane.

[Taz64]

Back when I was a young fella (loooong time ago) I drag raced at the old Surfers Paradise Strip, then Willowbank.

I've circuit raced cars and bikes over the years.  Never got to drag race a bike, built 1 to drag but never got to it before I sold it to fund other 'wants'

[Matto]

Have never raced, but I'd love to have a go some time. I've had quick street cars and bikes, but have never raced. The father-in-law used to be big into it in his younger days - for a while now I've thought that we should buy a cheap commodore, strip it down, and just give it a go. Unfortunately there's nothing even remotely close since the Townsville Dragway closed.

I need to get a trip together back to Willowbank for the Winternationals one year - just an awesome day of racing. When we were there last I don't think we left our seats all day.

I look forward to reading about other's experiences.

Cheers,
Matto

[DannyG]

I grew up in and around drag racing and motorsport in general.

Drag racing in particular in the 70's in Tassie. I worked for and my father was the engine builder for Robin Best RIP.



I spent many meetings at Qtr Miles around Australia and later it was speedway with sprint cars and Nascars at Calder.

Heres a bit of info from 'RJ' our mate. I could tell some wild stories from those days but best left to around a camp fire somewhere

http://namt.com.au/hall_of_fame/robin_best.pdf

Australias first Nascar champion Robin Best passed away in Tasmania last week. Best, 60, was a Sprintcar driver, Drag racing champion, and later at the top of Nascar when when the formula was introduced to Australia in the late 1980s. Best was inducted into the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1999. Best started his racing career in 1967 at Carrick Speedway in a Ford Customline. In 1978, at the Australian Title he was fastest qualifier and finished runner-up. In 1979 Best became the first Funny Car driver to make a seven-second pass. He then switched back to Speedway in the Sprintcar division, scoring 8 Feature wins in a row and the lap record at every Tasmanian track. In 1985 Best retired from Speedway,bought a Chevrolet Monte Carlo and almost 2 yrs later was the 1st and only Australian to finish the opening event at the Calder Park Thunderdome in an International field, going on to the 7 Up 400 at Sears Point, near San Francisco, in which he finished 10th. Best was the first Australian Nascar Champion in 1989 and backed it up again the following year.

[DannyG]

Oh and of course I had my own boy racer cars as a kid. Nothing special, all street registered things, but my favourite was a nitrous injected 351, tubbed LTD

[GeeTee]

Shane I guess these days you drink Jim Beam?!
yes I have a done a tiny little bit of 'street-class' stuff during the 1990s and once earlier this year
... when I get a bit more free time I will do it more regularly and get into the 13s
I'm lucky as I do other motorsport too



cacklingpipes pic

[thommo19]

I shoot motorsports for some local  newspapaers and sometimes a  Speedway mag.
I am lucky to be accreditated for the Drags in Sydney .
The Top Fuelers are the most spectacular motorsport event. You can't comprend  the noise and the flames from the 8000hp monsters.
You owe it to yourself to witness them ,you will never be the same again.
Jeff

[Matto]

The Top Fuelers are the most spectacular motorsport event. You can't comprend  the noise and the flames from the 8000hp monsters.
You owe it to yourself to witness them ,you will never be the same again.

Damn straight that. The way the noise goes through you is like nothing I'd ever experienced before, nor have since. Even if you're not a huge drags fan, get out and see them one day.

Cheers,
Matto

[DannyG]

The Top Fuelers are the most spectacular motorsport event. You can't comprend  the noise and the flames from the 8000hp monsters.
You owe it to yourself to witness them ,you will never be the same again.
Jeff

Cant argue with that

Same as an angry pack of Sprint Cars.

[gowalkabout]

I've done a bit in the past. nothing to full on mainly boy racer type stuff with Toranas, falcons xa - xc (4doors and coupes) and a few chargers as well. fastest was my old 2 door uc torana with a rammed 350 chev all regoed of course  use to be fun sitting in the traffic watching the fuel gauge slowly going down and making 3 point turns at roundabouts  . one day i wouldn't mind getting back into the drag racing

[Footy Shorts Shane]

Shane I guess these days you drink Jim Beam?!

No, I still don't mind a JD. 

Shane.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Mate, if you were working for Brett, you'd know Aden and Skinny Mick that use to do a lot of his paint and artwork.

I see you did some work for Chris too, him and Brett get along like a house on fire...... 

I'll have to try to dig up some pics for this thread, i love drag racing.....

[weso]

I used to be an official at WSID, have a car half built and also used to crew on the only super charged outlaw hearse "the Undertaker"




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[Jeepers Creepers]

Yep, that looks like Michael King's old car.

[weso]

I'm not sure if it was JC but you most likely right


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[oldmate]

I haven't done it, I like watching it, both on tv and live.  I am a bit of a Motorsport nut really. I can watch all types of the sport. I have raced stock cars at the Cullen bullen speedway for those that know the area. Long time ago but was fun

[Mallory Black]

Just one drag race at Willowbank
Holden v Ford Grudge match between myself (253 HG ute) and work colleague in his 302 XT ute. the XT dropped coolant on the line so I got a solo win otherwise he would have got me for sure cos my old girl was just a stocker after all.

I did assist my mate to go 11.56 at (i think)120mph in his SS/CC Escort for a national record around 1987. To run those numbers back then practically everything about building a car like that was hand made and very rewarding.

That's about it, drags is a very social sport as far as spectating goes especially with a few friends for company.
Tough on competitors when things are down. Saw a fella drive all the way from WA to break the trans on his very first stage and then put it on the trailer for the duration

[Jeepers Creepers]

Hey MB,

there was a tough as nails little red Escort that came out of Wynnum with a turbo on it... is that the one?

[Swannie]

Haven't had the Torrie down at Calder yet although its 10 minutes away. Spent my early years as a fire Marshall doing the drags, nascars, aus cars, F1, super tourers etc and in the early days many a long nights in the paddock with Victor Bray during the nationals at Calder and many others. Did take my work Hi ace  down the strip one night after all was over and did 24 seconds though

Swannie


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[kylarama]

being a Victorian, I'm deprived of my 1/4 mile fix these days.

Never run the 1/4 personally, but have mates that used to do a bit of street meet stuff.  A mates old man ran a gasser and funny car back in the 70's early 80's.  We used to a some ripping weekends with him and his former racing mates at the Calder Nationals in the 90's.  Set a tarp up on has been hill in the stinking hot weather and charge sunburnt spectators a beer for some shade

Another mates dad sponsored and spannered his mates pretty successful Super Sedan on the dirt ovals, so I spent a bit of time in the early 90's loitering in the pits.

[kylarama]

Me personally, I love it. Have been involved in it for some time now, with a few years full time on a Group 1 team, but we wont really go into that, due to bringing the sport down with a tarnished reputation........

What was the outcome for this persons alleged actions?  Not much on the web about it since 2011.

[UR-50-LO]

Used to race Rotaries back in the day when they weren't popular and cost almost nothing to build...

[Mallory Black]

HI Jeepers,
That's the right Escort but it's time at Wynnum was when the Munro Brothers had it. My mate sold the rolling chassis to them sometime after he got the record (1989?) and it took the Munro boys a few years of trying with their own combo they subsequently got it into the 10's I think. We were very pleased to see the scorty run so hard. Would love to learn where it is now.

I suppose i can let the cat out of the bag now about the setup we had. It looked like any other 2 litre road registered Escort with a turbo.. but....

Had a Sierra Cosworth block cos the normal 2 litre ford block can't reliably do more than 250hp without risk.
Ross forged pistons,
some really good rods from Germany
Extremely trick head with chevy valves, great port job and the other secret key was he re-made the centre cam bearing mount as a bigger separate piece to make it all stronger there too
revved to about 8,000
steam pipe manifold with a very well matched TO4 and 4 inch dump
MDS7AL crank trigger ignition was a big contributor to power
At the time we did the record it was drawing through a weber carb and had a methanol/water mix squirted in there to keep the charge air cool, preferred the shorter inlet tract anyway.
twin plate clutch, toyota box and very trick narrowed down falcon diff.
Mate did put a motec EFI on it and it immediately went 11.2 with no fine tuning but from memory it did a gudgeon clip and the decision was to move onto other things because if it went any faster it would mean a chute and all that stuff. not interested at the time.

[UR-50-LO]

Brian Munro got it down to high 9's with a Motec ECU and Auto trans