I'm so happy I could cry. I'm sure that more than one of you has had to
sideline your racecar project a time or two beause of shortage of green stuff.
Well, when the cost to rebuild my hemi came in at 600% more than I had
estimated the day after I retired, I had to put some serious brakes on the
project. Today, out of a clear blue sky, a guy who owed me some bucks, whom I
had long written off as a bad debt, suddenly paid every dime he owed me.
Shortly after that, I get a call from a fellow that wants to buy a spare motor
that I have. Suddenly, the machine shop can get back to work on my hemi and I
can't wait for this damned rain to stop so I can get outside and get back to
work on my car.
For those of you who don't know about my newest project (assuming you care), I
became a motorhead just before I turned thirteen, in 1955. At the time, the
Chrysler hemi had all but taken over the drag strips of America, it was
starting to get pretty strong at Bonneville, and it totally swept NASCAR,
setting many records that still stand to this day. The Firepower hemi, and
specifically, the 1955 C300, became my life-long dream. I am in the process of
building, what I call, a tribute (not a repica - not a clone) of a 1955
Chrysler NASCAR Grand National Stock car. In 1955, the C300 earned, among
other things, the title of America's fastest production sedan, which was set
on the sand at Daytona Beach. My goal, over the next five years, is to exceed
that speed - - at Maxton, at El Mirage, at Muroc, and at Bonneville.
It's a very doable thing, and although it certainly won't challenge any of
today's records, it gives me an achievable goal, and a sense of drive that
brings back some mighty fond memories of my youth. And for any of you who have
never had the opportunity to sit behind a thundering hemi, find somwe way to
try it, at least once.
Dick J In East Texas
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