the way this site seems to work is by directing a newbie here....
I have been a team partner & car/bike builder for well over 40 years.... We own a Chevy Vega that started life as a stock 4 cyl. powered Vega GT.... In 1978, it began a transition into an altered drag race car.... the lack of a local strip at that time pretty much assured that the car did not get completed in that incarnation.... the car started towards being a "PRO-Street" car.... it never got there as it also fit the SCTA/BNI rules as an Altered Coupe/Sedan..... The car debuted in 1986, set its first record in 1988 (215.015mph in the C/Alt Coupe class), set its second & third records in 1991 (213.246mph and 216.695mph in the C/Fuel Altered Coupe class) and went on to run a smaller motor that qualified several times but never was able to make two runs - and ran a bigger motor that, for a few years, met with the fate of the smaller motor... finally propelling a third driver into the 200MPH Club with a 432 cu. in. big block Chevy engine( 237.938mph and going on to reset the record to 245+mph and 253+mph in B/Classic Gas Altered Coupe as well as setting the B/Classic Fuel Altered Coupe record to 254+mph).....both records are still held by us to this day.
The car is, by ALL accounts so far, the Worlds Fastest stock bodied Vega...and, in ALL LIKELIHOOD, the Worlds Fastest Vega in ANY incarnation (think funny cars etc here)
While we were actively running the Vega, a new car was being built.... a rear engined dragster style of car that runs in the Lakester category at Bonneville.... it debuted in 2006 and was featured on a National Geographic documentary called Slat Flat Speedway (which has been aired quite often on, of all places, The Discovery Channel) .... three running years of shaking the car down gave us all of the data we needed in order to get it into the record books.... in 2010, the fourth year for the Lakester, the car set the C/Gas Lakester class record at 275+mph and, in 2011, reset the record to 276+mph....We did NOT reset the record in 2012 although we DID qualify at over 278mph.... (the car went "flat" on the backup run and it was the last day of the event....) the car remains as the record holder.
In other news.... we expect to go back in 2013 .... a new car (another Lakester - running the "AA" engine class) with a 500+ cu.in. GM design DRCE - which is being made ready....we expect both Lakesters to be there in 'thirteen.....
In yet other news.... I am also a street rod, hotrod, street machine (and custom "chopper" motorcycle) chassis and roll cage fabricator.... my present "pet" project is a '58 Dodge (actually, in Canada, where I live, it is called a Fargo) short box "swept-side" pickup truck with an ALL MOPAR chassis and running gear.... I used an Aspen/Volare front K-member with transverse torsion bars, integral power steering (etc), the motor & trans combo and the rear end... the truck is at driveable stage at this time.... I am considering leaving it as it looks as it would fit right in with the "ratrods" of the present day....
I have been a team partner & car/bike builder for well over 40 years.... We own a Chevy Vega that started life as a stock 4 cyl. powered Vega GT.... In 1978, it began a transition into an altered drag race car.... the lack of a local strip at that time pretty much assured that the car did not get completed in that incarnation.... the car started towards being a "PRO-Street" car.... it never got there as it also fit the SCTA/BNI rules as an Altered Coupe/Sedan..... The car debuted in 1986, set its first record in 1988 (215.015mph in the C/Alt Coupe class), set its second & third records in 1991 (213.246mph and 216.695mph in the C/Fuel Altered Coupe class) and went on to run a smaller motor that qualified several times but never was able to make two runs - and ran a bigger motor that, for a few years, met with the fate of the smaller motor... finally propelling a third driver into the 200MPH Club with a 432 cu. in. big block Chevy engine( 237.938mph and going on to reset the record to 245+mph and 253+mph in B/Classic Gas Altered Coupe as well as setting the B/Classic Fuel Altered Coupe record to 254+mph).....both records are still held by us to this day.
The car is, by ALL accounts so far, the Worlds Fastest stock bodied Vega...and, in ALL LIKELIHOOD, the Worlds Fastest Vega in ANY incarnation (think funny cars etc here)
While we were actively running the Vega, a new car was being built.... a rear engined dragster style of car that runs in the Lakester category at Bonneville.... it debuted in 2006 and was featured on a National Geographic documentary called Slat Flat Speedway (which has been aired quite often on, of all places, The Discovery Channel) .... three running years of shaking the car down gave us all of the data we needed in order to get it into the record books.... in 2010, the fourth year for the Lakester, the car set the C/Gas Lakester class record at 275+mph and, in 2011, reset the record to 276+mph....We did NOT reset the record in 2012 although we DID qualify at over 278mph.... (the car went "flat" on the backup run and it was the last day of the event....) the car remains as the record holder.
In other news.... we expect to go back in 2013 .... a new car (another Lakester - running the "AA" engine class) with a 500+ cu.in. GM design DRCE - which is being made ready....we expect both Lakesters to be there in 'thirteen.....
In yet other news.... I am also a street rod, hotrod, street machine (and custom "chopper" motorcycle) chassis and roll cage fabricator.... my present "pet" project is a '58 Dodge (actually, in Canada, where I live, it is called a Fargo) short box "swept-side" pickup truck with an ALL MOPAR chassis and running gear.... I used an Aspen/Volare front K-member with transverse torsion bars, integral power steering (etc), the motor & trans combo and the rear end... the truck is at driveable stage at this time.... I am considering leaving it as it looks as it would fit right in with the "ratrods" of the present day....