[Stuckinda60s]

In 1997, I had a conversation with Bruce Fulper. I was intrigued by the 350 and thought it had potential, was thinking of doing one for a friend and asked him if he'd had any experience with one. I got the same tired old mantra from him that you always got if you were thinking of doing one. "Don't waste your time, build a 455 and tear everybody up."

There have been a lot of NHRA class records set by those poor old 350's despite being factored up just about every year. Bill Rink got his '74 GTO down into the low 11's running Stock. He's running S/S now, holds the SS/LA record at 10.51.

Oh, yeah, remember Fulper telling me to not waste my time? Well, he built one and got 632 hp out of it, naturally aspirated. There have been a couple of magazine articles written about it.

[ponyakr]

here's what TJ recorded in our scrapbook about this mopar(will have pics soon) april 6, '75--she was #3 in an 8 car qualified field--a y/sa 6 cyl chevelle was #2--& the b/sa national record holder from houston was #1. so they finished like they qualified--the y/sa beat TJ in the semi's, then lost 2 the cuda in the final. they built the straight 6 chevelle because of a super low hp factor. if i remember correctly, somebody bombed the record with this combination, so nhra refactored the hp, which moved him up a class. anyhow, for what ever reason, the car disappeared. this happened 2 a lot of old muscle cars thru the years. some super smart class racer would figure out a way 2 coax a little more out of a certain combination & set a new national record, which would bring it 2 the attention of the nhra officials, & they would increase the hp factor on that combo. then everybody else runnin that combo would have 2 go quicker, switch combos, or quit. only the strong(smart) survived. lots of class racers would watch the hp factors & records closely & quickly switch 2 another combo if what they were running suddenly became non-competitive. i figure thats the main reason we saw all the 4 cyl, 6 cyl, & wagons. so many people flogged the popular musclecar combos that very few could be competive with them after a few hp refactors. but, the refactoring had 2 be done 2 keep the classes competitive. pontiacs are a good example. in '68 & '69 base 400's were rated at 330 hp in birds, but 350 in goats. or how about '69 ra4--345 in bird--370 in goat. or ra3 in goat 366--ra4 only 4 hp higher. so you can easily see why somebody had 2 sort all this out & come up with more realistic #'s. anyhow, in mid season our local track went back 2 running off local track records instead of the nhra index(i guess they got tired of TJ winning all the races) & cenla at forrest hill,la closed for good--so we hung it up for '75--no more stock elim for us--although it was fun while it lasted! Thank God for bracket racin that was rite around the corner!

[ponyakr]

here's the b/sa record holder, a 6cyl chevelle, & TJ's bird at cenla, still in red primer.

[ponyakr]

this lil injun is goin 2 do battle in the east texas bracket wars--lookin 2 take some chevy scalps. ba with the snorkel is the last early bird i had. mb's wife drove it. i got it from him after he started dirt racin. he likes red & white, so naturally, it had 2 be painted before we could race it(black is beautiful)(& quicker 2!) but hey, thats just my opinion--you are entitled 2 yours(even if its wrong!) ps: just noticed the '66 goat in the background is the 4-speed car i sold 2 my 1st girl friend & her husband in the late '80's. it was a nice ride after a tranny swap.

[ponyakr]

looked thru a paper sack full of old racin pics & found some more 2 share--a few went thru then they stopped--pics won't upload now--i hate it when that happens--don't ya'll. oh well, i'll just try it again tomorrow. thanks for lettin me vent & good nite!