Growing up in Chicago in the 60's

[kwhizz]

AAHHHHH!!!........Yeah!!..........I think I remember those days............I Think!!......

[ed mac 70 ss]

It's all true. The last time I saw Ken he was making that great engine change.to the big block. What was he thinking. I think that even I thought it was a great idea, after all if it did'nt work out we could just trade it and get another car. I started with a couple of Mr Norm's street rams ..A 64 and then the next year a 65. Fast but of course not fast enough. One of our friends had just bought a 66 Chevelle 396 - 375 hp. Within a couple of months he had racked up a slew of tickets. His father said get rid of it. A good friend of mine said lets take over the payments and race the car. So we raided our piggy banks and became street racers. When the summer was over we pulled the engine and delivered it to E & R and had as much engine work done as we could afford. Mario and I put the motor together in my dining room..In the following summer we raced wherever and whatever. Low 12,s not bad for a newbee. Then we sold the Chevelle to a guy named al frieman ,payments of course which lasted a few months then the car was stolen so hence no more payments. So ended my racing career. Moved to southern california for about 10 years Brouht back a 73 novaSS 350 turbo which I got new. Drove around a few years then parked it for several years.Chevrolet came out with all the nice crate motors so I spent the whole winter rehabbing the car. Turned out real nice except people would follow me around to see where I Parked the car.Sold it for a lot of money in about 99. In about 2002 I found the world of restored classics, 72 chevelle matching 350 4-speed for a few years now a pretty nice 70 ls6 clone . Not perfect but what I can afford in retirement. Car shows well and I,ve met bunches of nice guya at the shows . Can't wait for warmer weather to "get her out" Well thats my story and I'm sticking to see yall at the show in Nov
ed

[kwhizz]

In the Drag Racing part of the cars history....when the Nova was first put together for racing....I had a Edelbrock Crossram on the car .......we had some issues with the car when we first started running it......It seemed as if i couldn't shift the car at RPM........we always thought it was the trans.....so....we had a local guy in the neighborhood by the name of Howie......you would place a order on Thursday and Friday you would have a trans sitting outside the garage door.....Humm!!....I wonder if he worked at a trans shop...LOL....anyhow he charged $100 for a trans, and I sold the one from the week before for the same amount....so , we just swapped out transmissions thinking that was the problem......No Luck.....When I got the Engine assy back from E&R I also bought one of their inhouse specialties called a "Rubber Drive" clutch assy.......basically what they did was to remove the springs from the Clutch "Disc" and replace them with blocks of rubber....after chasing the shifting issues for a couple of weeks ( and transmissions)....I pulled the Rubber drive out and put a regular disc in and all the shifting issues went away.....Imagine That!!
But......what I then did was to learn how to dis-assemble the trans and groundevery other syncro tooth off and I started running the car with a "Crash" Box in it......Now shifting was a non issue.....we got the car in this configuration to run a best of 11.73........But.......The next "Big" problem was that we had to run against Tony Christian ......The Nova would run 11.80's all day long.....but Tony (who was running his 57) was running 11.50's..........So.........We ended up taking the crossram off and we put a single Holley 3 Barrel and a Z-28 high rise.....with that set-up the car ran 12.10-12.15 all day long.......but....once you go fast(for the time), it wasn't much fun running slower.....but we ran a class called Top Stock and we won frequently.........But....Making $2.00 an hour and trying to race just quite didn't go together........But....It was fun for a year.........But....Like Eddie said.....Good Times.....

Ken

[kwhizz]

Tony's first 57.........

[Tenney]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kwhizz</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Tony's first 57.........

</div></div>

Cool pic (and stories!). Used to score parts from Tony at Grand.

[kwhizz]

Tony's other 57........Still my favorite Drag Car of all time...(next to &quot;No Big Thing&quot..

[kwhizz]

And Of course......Da Shake

[MrsBillyBobcat]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[Xplantdad]

So cool....

Thanks Ken!!

[Verne_Frantz]

Yep, Thanks Ken [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] We old guys who have been into cool cars since the beginning hold memories better than the cars themselves. Your stories remind me of the antics I got into with my '62. Memories I'll never forget, just like yours.
Verne [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]