Terry Yager
Veteran Member
Yet another suggestion (for Erik), could we have a forum for discussing cars, bikes, speed, racing, etc. (since so many computer people are shade-tree mechanics, and vice-versa)?
--T
Anyways, for starters, I'm watching 2Fast, 2Furious right now, (for the first time), and I find that it pushes my ability to suspend credibility just a little beyond the limits. While I find Vin Deisel's 9-second Charger from the first movie believable, (blown 426 Hemi. without benefit of an N-unit), a ten-second Honda Civic??? Even if it is possible, it ain't bloody likely. I mean, who in thier right mind would hang $100,000.00 worth of speed equipment onto an $20K car? I mean, I've built a few cars in my time, but I find it hard to believe that modern cars can be pushed to that point.
Anyone else here having any experience with building modern HotRods (I retired in the late '80s), feel free to enlighten me.
While I can't say I've ever built a 10-second car, some of my 'rods have hit in the elevens, which wasn't bad for a street-legal car back in the day. I used to wrench on my buddy Pete's brace of AMXes, which always ran in the mid-to-high elevens (he also had a third one, a straight Javelin, that he drove daily as his regular car). By the time we parted ways, (he became a guest of the state for about 4 years, then moved to Illinois), he was almost as good a mechanic as I was (of course, I didn't teach him everything I know).
I've built (or worked on) some pretty fast cars in my time, but I've never been much on drivin' em. I found out a long time ago that while I could easily build 150-MPH cars, my own personal limit is right around 120-or-so (I lose my guts before the car loses it's). My nephew, who's a lot crazier than me, got busted once for doing 153MPH (cop's actual clock) in his '70 Continental Mark III (460 cu.in, factory stock). That same nephew was also busted for doing 60 down Detroit Street in a go-kart that Pete & I had built, based on a 440 Rupp snowmobile engine. One of my brothers, Greg, went head-on into a bridge abutment once, at 100MPH (as clocked by the State Bulls who were right on his bumper at the time) in a stolen (hey, the owner left the engine running while he ran into the 7/11) '66 Buick LeSabre (401 cu.in., 4bbl), and the only injury he had to show for it was a broken nose. They hit him with RADER just before he left the roadway and went thru 75 feet of chain-link fence and two phone poles before hitting the bridge. We went to the police impound the next day to view the wreckage, and I couldn't believe my eyes. The front clip of that car was upside-down on the ground next to the rest of the car, having broken the frame on the left side, and twisted the frame rail 180-degrees on the other side. (*Do you know what it takes to bust a '66 Buick in two?*.) I looked, and every part of that car was caved-in, except for the area right around the driver's head, which was completely undamaged. (Greg has always lived a charmed life tho...once he fell off a third-story roof. and landed unharmed in a cedar bush below, which broke his fall).
--T
--T
Anyways, for starters, I'm watching 2Fast, 2Furious right now, (for the first time), and I find that it pushes my ability to suspend credibility just a little beyond the limits. While I find Vin Deisel's 9-second Charger from the first movie believable, (blown 426 Hemi. without benefit of an N-unit), a ten-second Honda Civic??? Even if it is possible, it ain't bloody likely. I mean, who in thier right mind would hang $100,000.00 worth of speed equipment onto an $20K car? I mean, I've built a few cars in my time, but I find it hard to believe that modern cars can be pushed to that point.
Anyone else here having any experience with building modern HotRods (I retired in the late '80s), feel free to enlighten me.
While I can't say I've ever built a 10-second car, some of my 'rods have hit in the elevens, which wasn't bad for a street-legal car back in the day. I used to wrench on my buddy Pete's brace of AMXes, which always ran in the mid-to-high elevens (he also had a third one, a straight Javelin, that he drove daily as his regular car). By the time we parted ways, (he became a guest of the state for about 4 years, then moved to Illinois), he was almost as good a mechanic as I was (of course, I didn't teach him everything I know).
I've built (or worked on) some pretty fast cars in my time, but I've never been much on drivin' em. I found out a long time ago that while I could easily build 150-MPH cars, my own personal limit is right around 120-or-so (I lose my guts before the car loses it's). My nephew, who's a lot crazier than me, got busted once for doing 153MPH (cop's actual clock) in his '70 Continental Mark III (460 cu.in, factory stock). That same nephew was also busted for doing 60 down Detroit Street in a go-kart that Pete & I had built, based on a 440 Rupp snowmobile engine. One of my brothers, Greg, went head-on into a bridge abutment once, at 100MPH (as clocked by the State Bulls who were right on his bumper at the time) in a stolen (hey, the owner left the engine running while he ran into the 7/11) '66 Buick LeSabre (401 cu.in., 4bbl), and the only injury he had to show for it was a broken nose. They hit him with RADER just before he left the roadway and went thru 75 feet of chain-link fence and two phone poles before hitting the bridge. We went to the police impound the next day to view the wreckage, and I couldn't believe my eyes. The front clip of that car was upside-down on the ground next to the rest of the car, having broken the frame on the left side, and twisted the frame rail 180-degrees on the other side. (*Do you know what it takes to bust a '66 Buick in two?*.) I looked, and every part of that car was caved-in, except for the area right around the driver's head, which was completely undamaged. (Greg has always lived a charmed life tho...once he fell off a third-story roof. and landed unharmed in a cedar bush below, which broke his fall).
--T