You know you are a Gearhead when...

[SlyOneJr]

Ok, had to post this. My Dad has been involved in drag racing for over 50 years now, he is in the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame, has like 15 different NHRA, IHRA, and even one NASCAR records, still builds intake manifolds, and helps about 3/4 of the people in NHRA that run Competition Eliminator, so...

Dad has had the same Craftsman riding lawn mower for over 15 years, and the old 12.5 Briggs engine finally let go. Dad gets another used motor from a friend of his that ran low on oil and spun the rod on the crank. He goes through the motor, polishes the crank, gets a .020 under rod to put in it, shaves the cylinder head down to up the compression, puts an offset key on the crank gear to advance the cam, puts a three angle valve job on the motor, does a mild port and polish on the intake and exhaust ports, sets the valve lash tighter, puts a offset key on the flywheel to set the timing, re-jets the carb, re-weights the governor, and bolts everything together and puts it back on the RIDING LAWN MOWER!

If that's not a true Gearhead, then I don't know what is. Figure now he might get a few minutes quicker time on cutting the lawn!

[4-barrel Mike]

The USFRA barstool records look pretty soft: http://www.saltflats.com/barstool.html 

Mike

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Mike (and everyone):

Have you ever been to the USFRA meet and watched the barstools run?  They're tons-o'-fun.  Especially vehicles like the Nish 'stool.  Cecil McCray, the crew chief, rides it.  When the stool leaves the line it's spewing purple smoke (Nish is sponsored by Royal Purple, remember), and when the rider gets to the end of the run he tosses out the laundry -- really!  A chute is deployed to help bring the speeding vehicle down to safe speeds.

And as for the records being soft -- well, keeping in mind the strict limitations on propulsion systems (only one 12 V battery, only one electric motor, etc) and the classes (lakester and streamliner) and the fact that the rider must be sitting up on top of a barstool -- unh, maybe they're not all that soft.  I don't think I'm likely to run a 'stool this year -- but they are fun to see.

[johnneilson]

What really scares me is that I know where to get the parts to do this..............

[relaxedphit]

What does a streamline barstool look like?

[DallasV]

http://saltflats.com/barstool.html

[temple2u]

This is a for real story ran in a newspaper -

[John Noonan]

This is a for real story ran in a newspaper -

Funny story....is the car still around?

John

[manta22]

That newspaper article is an urban myth that has been around for thirty years...at least.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ