Funny.. I hadn't visited BR Central for several months after not shooting for awhile and the first discussion I see is on cars. There are some great cars listed above. I've gotten away from competitive shooting for a little bit to stay closer to home while my boys are teenagers. But, like everyone else I had to occupy some of my time with something. Well my Dad has always been associated with modified racing since i was a kid in some way, shape, or form.
My dad and has worked on, built, maintained, and basically crew chief'ed a modified until everyone hung it up in 1983. Well, about 2003 or 2004 we discovered a vintage racing club local to NC/VA area and one of the members come to find out owned a modified and was located bbout 8 miles from me. Got to know Rodney (car owner and driver) and worked on his crew working with chassis setups and general crew work in my spare time. Well last year Rodney had to have major shoulder surgery on both shoulders so he put me in the seat. wow... what a ride. After working on and setting up these cars for many years... to finally jump into the seat was awesome. But to go from never driven under green flag conditions to jumping into a 600+ hp, 2600# full blown modified was a large step. But last season I was able to go the whole season all the way until the last race of the season without putting a scratch on the old girl. But it became really loose and ended up backing into the second turn wall. It was mostly cosmetic damage, but still I was hoping to go a whole season without a problem. But if you race long enough at 100+- mph you will bent it up eventually. But the chassis is all modern day tubular offset chassis with the old tin on top to make them look like the cars I remember seeing race as a kid.
Car Info for the gearheads:
Weight: 2635# race ready
Body: 1939 Ford Coupe (original steel body that was a former race car of the car owner's hero growing up)
Tires: 15" wide Hoosier racing tires (used tires from NASCAR modified tour cars)
Motor:
- 406ci SB Chevrolet (600+hp and 560 ft/# torque off the dyno)
- Wetsump oil system (because of rules)
- Lightweight 43# crank
- 11 to 1 compression
- Brodix 76cc aluminum angle plug heads
- 850cfm, double pump, mechanical secondaries carburetor.
Chassis:
- homemade modern day NASCAR modified chassis, 2x3 rails with all 1 3/4 dia x .095 wall chrome-moly tubing.
- coilover shocks/springs on all 4 corners
- independent front suspension
- 3 link with torque arm rear-end setup
Misc:
- 5 1/2" dia triple clutch
- 3 speed tranny
- QuickChange rearend
it is basically a over sized go-kart that will set you back in the seat under acceleration in a heartbeat and get away from you even quicker if you aren't careful. You can tighten the 5pt harness system to where you can't hardly breath, take it out for 10 laps of practice and have to re-tighten the belts from the centrifugal force of cornering with those big tires. What a ride. The wife isn't happy, but got to live a dream at 45yrs old. Our new season starts in April and will get to race 2 new tracks this year. All of my BR and 600/1000yd guns are still in prime condition and I'll get them back out someday soon.
http://www.sgpvintageracing.com/rdye9_m47.jpg
http://www.sgpvintageracing.com/rdye9_m81.jpg
http://www.sgpvintageracing.com/rdye9_m82.jpg
Great rides fellas! that 1967 'vette... wow. That was the year I was born and would love to have a '67. Now if Tooley would only let me drive his C6 vette...... still waiting on that!! hehehe
Be safe, have fun. and keep the hammer down!
Steve
Here's an interesting fact on the 'W' 348-409 motors..the intake port spacing is almost identical to a Mopar 383-440. I've seen some slick 409 intakes made from a sheet alum. lifter valley cover and the plenum and runners from a B/RB motor welded to it. The last 409/425 motor I did went into a '63 Bel Aire 2 dr sedan (32,000 miles). The car won an Editors Choice award at the Super Chevy event at Indy. 
