First Car you ever raced. Lets tell it all.

Fathead Racing

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 7
My 1957 Chevy Belair 2dr ht. 283 power pack three on the floor. Full exh. And a pair of 9.50 tires. Mid 15.00's. I'm going to add, I ran the mid 15's after the engine was bored .030 and I added Jahns pistons and a 097 Duntov cam and solid lifters and scored a 4.11 posi from an overdrive car. Engine started making noise late in the season and I found those old forged pistons had scored the cylinder walls.
 
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dm62409

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 12
After a lot of street racing, my first real race car I built was a 57 Chevy, picked up a good deal on a 427 from a 66 Vette, muncie 4-speed, 57 Pontiac rear with 4.56 gear, another good deal on a pair of fiberglass front fenders. Built my own slapper bars for the rear leafs, didn't know anything about proper geometery, rear was so stiff it would barely move. Had a old set of 8" Goodyear slicks that if you hit the 4th gear shift hard it would snap the car loose. First run at Milan Dragway , slid the clutch like I was leaving from a stop light and granny shifted each gear just to get a baseline. 12.96 @ 113 mph. Only made 2 more passes before leaving for the army. Car had a lot of room for improvement, but at 19 yrs old uncle sam had other plans for me. image.jpeg
 

Tom Kochtanek

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 12
I grew up a poor white kid in the SW suburbs of Cleveland and while attending both Thompson and Dragway42 as a teen I never had a car I could take down the quarter mile :(. That was in the 60s. Fast forward several decades and the first ever ride down a quarter mile track was in a 1962 Red on Red Impala convertible driven by Jim (of Phantom 409 fame). It was at the Blue Suede Cruise in Norwalk, Ohio. What was that, around 2005?

First time I ever I was piloting was at KCIR around 2006-7 in what is now the 1962 Belair "Salt Shaker", but it was Ermine White at the time and had a 1965 656 passenger block with a Turbo 350. I think I was around 15 seconds at 98 MPH. I remember going up against a 9 second 1962 Ford Galaxie that came roaring from behind and wiped my butt :(.

That's why I now leave the driver's seat to James, who enjoys it wayyyy more than I ever will :).
 

DIV1RACER-2

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 12
My 1st race car ... 327 - 250 hp w/ a powerglide :dunno Later became a 340 hp w/ a 4 speed ... 1 st time to the track i got a trophy in whatever the class was and the rest is history .... 54 years later and still can't get enough !!! :):):)
 

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RussC

Well Known Member
I grew up a poor white kid in the SW suburbs of Cleveland and while attending both Thompson and Dragway42 as a teen I never had a car I could take down the quarter mile :(. That was in the 60s. Fast forward several decades and the first ever ride down a quarter mile track was in a 1962 Red on Red Impala convertible driven by Jim (of Phantom 409 fame). It was at the Blue Suede Cruise in Norwalk, Ohio. What was that, around 2005?

First time I ever I was piloting was at KCIR around 2006-7 in what is now the 1962 Belair "Salt Shaker", but it was Ermine White at the time and had a 1965 656 passenger block with a Turbo 350. I think I was around 15 seconds at 98 MPH. I remember going up against a 9 second 1962 Ford Galaxie that came roaring from behind and wiped my butt :(.

That's why I now leave the driver's seat to James, who enjoys it wayyyy more than I ever will :).

That Ford belonged to the Boose brothers. Pro Nostalgia
 

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
I had Jack build me an engine for my car in 2010, just because. The original 340hp was ok but I wanted something more. The first time I ever raced any car legally was August 6, 2012 at Tri-State Raceway with the Crusher. My first run was 14.62@97.27. I was running 3:73 gears then. Am basically running same engine now with Bob's heads. Still chipping away. Hope to see the low 11s this year.

My first time at a track was 1970 with my new Harley.
 
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rstreet

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 17
I grew up a poor white kid in the SW suburbs of Cleveland and while attending both Thompson and Dragway42 as a teen I never had a car I could take down the quarter mile :(. That was in the 60s. Fast forward several decades and the first ever ride down a quarter mile track was in a 1962 Red on Red Impala convertible driven by Jim (of Phantom 409 fame). It was at the Blue Suede Cruise in Norwalk, Ohio. What was that, around 2005?

First time I ever I was piloting was at KCIR around 2006-7 in what is now the 1962 Belair "Salt Shaker", but it was Ermine White at the time and had a 1965 656 passenger block with a Turbo 350. I think I was around 15 seconds at 98 MPH. I remember going up against a 9 second 1962 Ford Galaxie that came roaring from behind and wiped my butt :(.

That's why I now leave the driver's seat to James, who enjoys it wayyyy more than I ever will :).

Tom I had a photo of the “Phantom 409” owner’s red convertible but can’t find it. Anyway I think you will remember this Blue Swede Shoes Norwalk Photo. Heh I got to hold the sign! Some real characters in this one.
Robert
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