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Englishtown was built when fuelers were running 200 mph...the shutdown lane has not been lengthened to accomodate today's speed....  All driver's in all forms of motorsports know there is an inherent risk and even a possibility of death....  but that's no reason to compound the risk by having a too short shut down area...  Compared to the majority of the other tracks where NHRA conducts national events, this shutdown area is short....

Of course Scott raced because he wanted too...  Then you get caught up in the points chase, sponsor committments, and the competitive nature of the type A personality of most pro drivers and often the dangers are overlooked.  NHRA needs to step up to the plate and require the tracks to have adequate safety provisions...or lose the national event...  or as Jim Head stated, on the tracks like this with a too short shut down area, then make the race 1000' ft....

Unfortunately, it always takes a major incident to get folks to wake up and see that safety issues need to be addressed....

A law suit would accomplish nothing and I doubt seriosly if Connie Kalitta would even consider it.  As was mentioned in another post, Just like the death of Dale Earnhardt, maybe the death of Scott Kalitta will bring about some needed changes in track facilities....

BTW--I haven't seen many drag strips with a barrier at the end of the shutdown area, especially a short shutdown area like Englishtown.  Pamona is another track that needs to address this same issue.  Some of the newer tracks like Vegas have much longer shutdown areas.  The older tracks were designed for much lower speeds and need to be improved.  

There shouldn't be any blame or fingerpointing, just a conscious effort and some very specific rules to ensure that a similar situation doesn't happen again.  If there is a specific cause of the crash, IMO it would be complacency.....

I caught the interview with Jim Head after Scott's crash and he offered a practical solution to the short shutdown area...  If the track can't lengthen the shut down, then they should shorted the race itself to either 1000' ft or even down to an eighth mile...  Doubt NHRA would go for it, so maybe it's time for the track mangement to step up and either solve the short shutdown problem, or build a facility elsewhere that would not have the restrictions on extending the shutdown area that Englishtown must have now.....

Best of luck to you Don.  I've had my own shop for better then 30 years.  When I was faced with some health issues a few years back I sold the big shop and now work out of a 3 car garage and a shed at home.  I work when I want, for whom I want, and on what I want....  If I had it all to do over again I doubt I would change a thing!!!!!!

More pictures please. Looks very '69ish.  I like it so far.

Tom

Haven't done much on it lately, got a couple other projects with a higher priority...  I finished smoothing out the fenderwells a bit and put some prime on them and set a dummy engine and tranny in to start figuring out some mounts.....  Hopefully I'll have some time to get back on it around the end of the month.  Also did away with the glass hatch and did some tin work on the roof and rear....

Sweet!!!

ya gonna chop it??

Vance

The owner won't let me--he's 6' 5" tall, sez it's the only coupe he can fit in!!!!  Should be a fun one for him and I'm having a blast building it.

Well, I know it was true in South Dakota...still have a few of them that were Grandpa's and a couple of great Uncles....  Grandpa and his brothers all farmed, so I would imagine the T's and A's were used as pickups.  In Granpa's pictures, firs real pickup that shows up is a '34....sure wish I had that one!!!!   This coupe came with a usable trunk lid, even had the hinges intact!!!!

and here's one I'm doing for a friend over in Austin, Mn.  Going to be powered by a V-6, full fendered.  Should get the frame and other parts brought over in a month or so when the body parts are ready for a trial fitting.....

I never seem to get anything of my own done, but here's a shot of one I'm building to sell.  It started life as an '82 Camaro, lots of body mods later it's almost all in primer and ready for blocking.

Hopefully this works, trying to attach a chart I copied from the Speedway site......



Didn't work....the chart is on the Speedway Motors web site if you want to take a look

Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating or something.  My shop is 20 paces out the back door of the house, a grocery store across the street, and I run the shop truck on E-85...  The biggest fuel expense is getting to the drag strip on weekends, but it's only 60 miles away.  We used to race alternate weekends at another facility that is 200 miles away, not doing that one this year!!!!

I guess one of the bennies of living in the sticks, no such thing around here.  One "no right turn on red" camera at an intersection in Sioux Falls.  It's about 50 miles away, everybody knows it's there, and I hate going to the city anyways.....

Not that I'd ever do it, but I've been told that a hinge pin and a very light pressure spring on your license plate, the wind will fold it over at about 45 mph......

Just this from an old Multi-carb bike guy....  The Mercury filled tubes are dead on accurate for setting carb sync.  Ya, i know 4 and 6 carbed bikes aren't the same as Webers, but in theory all carbs are designed to do the same thing....

The balance tubes I have are the big ones, 18" long with incrementation reading down to .10" vacuum....  If they're good enough to keep my 6 cylinder, 6 Mikuni carbed Honda balanced and synched I sure don't see any reason they wouldn't work on Webers.  With one tube measuring manifold vacuum, and one each tube to the idle vacuum port on each carb synching should be easy.  

Anyways, because the tubes have Mercury in them, all the shops have had to dispose of them....  I was nice enough to help the shop I worked at the time "dispose" of their set by putting them in my garage.  The best thing I like about them is that they are long tubes, and even a very minor change in vacuum is readily apparent...

If you have any friends in your area who do Multi-carbed bikes, see if you can borrow his balance tubes.  Not saying it's a cure all for the Weber blues, but it would certainly help with the synch.

For the off idle to WOT checking is a bit more difficult.  The shop we chassis dyno cars at has the regular exhaust gas analyzer, but also has one of the old 4 gas analyzers robbed off an old Sun Engine Analyzer....  Probably another tuning tool that is out of production now in the EFI era, but IMO worth checking around for....

You're right though, the challenge of getting them right makes getting them right just feel that much better!!!!!!

nope, no block plate

The compression ratio will be dependant on what pistons you use, etc.  I've run a 347" (302 stroker) with AFR heads with 195 CFM intake runners, 2.02 intakes and 64 cc chambers in my '83 Mustang, it was a great setup.  Made respectable torque for a small inch engine.  Replaced it a couple years ago with a 408" (351w Stroker) and reused the heads....  Huge increase in torque!!!!  Stump pulling power with the 408.

The difference in the blocks is the deck height, the 351 being the taller block.  You will have to use the appropriate intake for the block you use.  302 intake with the 302 block, 351W intake with the 351W.

Or, you can get into the poor man's Boss 302 and use 351 Cleveland heads (2V for the street, 4V for racing) and the special intake that goes with these heads.....

Sounds like a fun trip!!!!  I'll probably be down there with one of the local racers again this year....  Have to let you know later what the plans are, still a long summer of racing ahead.   We usually take a motor home and park out back with the animals.....