4/2/2007
VIVA LAS VEGAS
(Part 1)
It's been a long and brutal winter but we're finally going racing again! Actually, it doesn't feel like winter ever ended up here because it's still forty something degrees and raining. It's really the kind of weather that can drive a person to desperation and blue ruin, but with Vegas on the calendar we had to get our program together.
With the usual hemorrhaging of cash and multiple phone calls, we took delivery of our latest bullet, a pump gas 440 stroker from Dvorak Machine, and Dr. Big Block went to work. After a thorough inspection, he mated it to a fresh 727 Torqueflite through one of our 9" converters and we stuffed it into the Savoy.
We wanted to test it at the track but the weather wouldn't let us. We had to settle for driving up and down the street when the rain would let up, which wasn't very often, just to establish a basic tune up. It sounded fantastic but it wasn't going to help us figure out much, never mind break in our rookie driver. At least we had motel reservations...
The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains. The rain in March falls mainly on the race car in the great Northwest. Every time the race car has to go out of the garage, it rains harder. What was I saying about blue ruin?
Dr. Big Block took a friend along on a test drive (what are bench seats for, anyways?) and he came back shaking like a leaf. Dr. Big Block said he felt a high end miss, so we decided to swap on our 850 double pumper in place of the big 1050 Dominator and ou r friend was ready for another joy ride. These cars are like crack cocaine. Our friend came back shaking like a leaf again. Now he needs a race car of his own. The first hit's free, baby.
The high end miss was gone but now we had a low end bog. After a power valve swap and another test run the car was running great, the neighbors were pissed, and we were ready to sit in the garage and watch it rain for a little while longer.
What I hate about pump gas motors is that they run on pump gas. It just doesn't have that righteous stank of race gas. Nowadays pump gas isn't even much cheaper than race gas. All my race gas is in lawn mowers and generators, where old race gas belongs. Oh well, we'll be putting something with some compression in this beast soon enough.
Along with flogging all manner of Mopars down the 1320 and on the roads of his top secret island hideaway, Chris Barnes is also the originator of Wagons of Steel Magazine. Check it out at: www.wagonsofsteel.com
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