Old Dog, New Tricks

We're getting there, only 13 days till we leave for Chihuahua, and we still have lists of stuff to do. And, as with all newborn, there are some growing pains involved.

The car is complete, well, except for a little more wiring and a few incidentals. The front and rear windows are in, the hood's on, the front end's aligned, forget that, another thing for the list!

What's needed is the car to be driven, and driven hard! A shake-down cruse, so to speak. We're having fuel problems and that's not good. I gave it a go last weekend, but something wasn't right, maybe a piece of crud in there, or a slightly kinked gas line, or just not enough carburetor, definitely not on it's best behavior. In fact, she was buckin' like a bronco. The brakes seem to work, but are they ready for the Copper Canyon? The transmission seems alright, but where's that engine oil leak coming from??

Unfortunately these things don't repair themselves, these have to get fixed, and soon, I'm running out of fingernails!

Next Time: Stack-O-Carbs

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It starts, It runs!!

The news from the pits is good, the car starts and drives, hallelujah!! It didn't go far, mind you, just around the block, but it works!
There's something satisfying and very exhilarating about starting a big performance motor for the first time. Putting in that first can of gas, switch on the electric fuel pump, ignition switch on, and push the starter button. Oh yea! A little POP, maybe a touch of flame coming out the carburetor, a turn on the distributor to get the timing close, and OH BABY, what a sound!
This puppy doesn't have mufflers yet and only has the exhaust to just past the Dr. Gas X pipe, so things were quite loud, make that invigorating to hear. I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled.
The check list is getting smaller and in a few days this critter should be out for some serious road testing. We've got to be in Chihuahua in less than 30 days.

Next Time: Old dog, new tricks

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Nice Brakes!

Alright, the engine is in the car and all the main parts are in place. The alternator, distributor, the belts, the hoses, fuel lines. We've got tires and rims, it's ready to roll, we've got a fuel cell, it's ready to suck gas like a Hoover. It just needs oil, a lot of wiring and it's ready to start.
So, are we ready to stop this brute, yes we are, and that's what I'll tell you about this time.

First, let's go back and again check the rules. Originally, the cars had to have the stock brakes, but because the Porsche's, Ferrari's and Mercedes used disc brakes, it gave the Euros a big advantage over a 52 Caddie. In the early renewed version of the race, disc brakes were allowed to be fitted on the front, and nowadays you can upgrade both the front and rears. The dimensions of the brakes are restricted by the wheel size and the drawback for us is the wheel height we're allowed to use, in our case a 15".

Let me tell you, there's not a lot of high performance brake kits for 64 Chevelles out there. In fact there's maybe two, the one we were looking at is made by a company called Wilwood. These folks make brakes for everyone from NASCAR to NHRA drag racers. In talking to their tech guys, the kit they recommended for our size wheel uses a 10 3/4" rotor, and with a little more talk, they decided it would be "inadequate" for what we're doing. Great... now what? We decided just to use that kit for the front and come up with something patched together for the rear.
Wandering around the Internet, looking for a price for the "inadequite" Wilwood kit, I happened on a company called "Hot Rods USA" and spoke with Dean O , the owner. He's pretty busy, anyone who's on a speaker phone must be, but I won't hold that against him as he had the good price which included a proportioning valve and steel brake lines. As we got to talking about the race, he became more interested, and suddenly said, "how about I build you a great set of brakes and help out on the cost". If you've been reading this, you know we're looking for sponsors, so I bite hard on this carrot, "great idea, whatd'ya'got"? He said he'd get back to us with a brake that would work for our wheel size. Now as I said, Dean runs a busy Internet company, so when I talked to him again, he needed to be reminded a couple of times who we were, and what was what, "remember... La Carrera... 64 Chevy"! Well, Dean did remember who we were, and has put together a set of brakes that just fit, by a whisker, inside our wheels. They are beautiful!We both hope to be the ambassadors for better brakes for everyone at the La Carrera.

Next Time: It Starts, It Runs!