Thought I'd start a thread to share some of the ups and downs as I've "restarted" my little drag racing hobby with my 72 Demon. I bought this car as a roller in the fall of 2019 "sight unseen" out of Texas. It had been a drag car all of its life but had weathered quite well sheltered from the ravages of our northern climates (I'm near Detroit). I got it with the intentions of dropping a motor in it and going racing.
Well...that didn't quite turn out to be what happened. After getting the car, I decided to tear out the front suspension, blast and paint the engine compartment and all the suspension parts, redo the fuel system with new lines/fuel cell, stripped EVERY wire out of the car and designed up my own harnesses/custom control panel then laid every wire in the car one at a time (and it all worked including the battery in the trunk)!), all new brake lines, all new cooling system w/ dual electric fans and a separate fan on the trans cooler, etc, etc. The car's 6-pack hood was red but I had it painted with the black pattern as shown in the pics. It came with a 489 case 4.56 8-3/4 rearend with a spool, a cage and subframe connectors, and a CalTrac split mono rear suspension. The Weld Pro Star wheels came with the car too but I bought new M/T skinnies for up front. It also had Rancho 9-way rear shocks and some 3-ways up front. It also had 5-pt harnesses I had to update. And I got a cool black and red steering wheel from a buddy for it. You get the picture...I didn't actually reuse all that much besides the body and the cheap racing bucket seats it came with. I put a lot of sweat equity in the car as I just enjoy getting my hands dirty and "putting a puzzle together" building a car. My cars are not the nicest nor the fastest but I enjoy them for the hobby and "release" they give me.
This car has a somewhat mild 408 in it. 10.5CR, 850 DP on a Super Victor, Bullet SFT cam with 251/255@050 & approx .560" lift, Eddie RPM heads with some bowl cleanup, and Hooker Super Comp headers. I bought an ATI 8" Treemaster converter that stalls right at 5000 rpm. I got the trans with the car - a CRT build with a Griner RMVB. The slicks came with the car - they are 10.5W's (28" tall) and need replaced but I'll do that when they don't hook. So far, they seem to hook pretty well.
My whole intention for this car was to be a "throwback" - something I would have built in the early 70's if I could have afforded it (but of course I could not!). I wanted the look from that era (60's-early 70's) as that's what I like! Note that I built the car to be street legal so it has turn signals, horn, and the wiper motor/linkage (but I never put the arms on it). Last year was its debut and we got it to the track 3 times. Best 60' in some good air was 1.51 and best 1/8 time was 7.11. More typical is 1.54 60' times and 7.15+ at around 94 mph in the 1/8th mile. I don't run it out the back door in the 1/4 as the 4.56 axle just spins the motor well past where it makes power and I don't want to risk it! I hope to put a 4.10 axle in it soon which will likely slow it down a bit but allow me to race in the Sportsman class with (hopefully) more footbrake cars. Oh, and I have done ZERO tuning on it yet to see if the times can be improved.
Well last year was such a hoot with it the first couple times out that my boss (that's the wife for you single guys!) said we MUST drive this on the street and have fun with it. So I did what any hubby would do - and bought a set of Pro-Star look-alike rims and ET Street drag radials and welded up a short 3" exhaust w/ turndowns ahead of the axle. I put the new wheels on it with the exhaust when we drive it on the street and undo that and put the slicks back on for the track. One thing missing is the weight of the car...I have not yet had it weighed so I don't know if it's 3000# or 3500#'s or ???
OK - so that levels up what it is and how it came to be what it is. So this past weekend, Milan Dragway had an "open" day where the new owner invited you to come and make passes with no entry fee(!) to help train his new employees. So we took the car there and made a couple passes. Milan was still working out bugs (which is why it was free) and had a major issue - no timeslips or times recorded for the first hour or so! But we got a 2nd pass and were just about to make a 3rd pass (I was near the front of the staging lanes) when a guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I knew I had a shock problem. I said nope and got out to look and oops! The LR shock was dangling not hooked to anything down low. So that ended the day for us but we had a good time.
The track photographer must have captured some photos and posted them up so I thought you might like to see the car doing what it was bred to do.
But first, on the street....
Well...that didn't quite turn out to be what happened. After getting the car, I decided to tear out the front suspension, blast and paint the engine compartment and all the suspension parts, redo the fuel system with new lines/fuel cell, stripped EVERY wire out of the car and designed up my own harnesses/custom control panel then laid every wire in the car one at a time (and it all worked including the battery in the trunk)!), all new brake lines, all new cooling system w/ dual electric fans and a separate fan on the trans cooler, etc, etc. The car's 6-pack hood was red but I had it painted with the black pattern as shown in the pics. It came with a 489 case 4.56 8-3/4 rearend with a spool, a cage and subframe connectors, and a CalTrac split mono rear suspension. The Weld Pro Star wheels came with the car too but I bought new M/T skinnies for up front. It also had Rancho 9-way rear shocks and some 3-ways up front. It also had 5-pt harnesses I had to update. And I got a cool black and red steering wheel from a buddy for it. You get the picture...I didn't actually reuse all that much besides the body and the cheap racing bucket seats it came with. I put a lot of sweat equity in the car as I just enjoy getting my hands dirty and "putting a puzzle together" building a car. My cars are not the nicest nor the fastest but I enjoy them for the hobby and "release" they give me.
This car has a somewhat mild 408 in it. 10.5CR, 850 DP on a Super Victor, Bullet SFT cam with 251/255@050 & approx .560" lift, Eddie RPM heads with some bowl cleanup, and Hooker Super Comp headers. I bought an ATI 8" Treemaster converter that stalls right at 5000 rpm. I got the trans with the car - a CRT build with a Griner RMVB. The slicks came with the car - they are 10.5W's (28" tall) and need replaced but I'll do that when they don't hook. So far, they seem to hook pretty well.
My whole intention for this car was to be a "throwback" - something I would have built in the early 70's if I could have afforded it (but of course I could not!). I wanted the look from that era (60's-early 70's) as that's what I like! Note that I built the car to be street legal so it has turn signals, horn, and the wiper motor/linkage (but I never put the arms on it). Last year was its debut and we got it to the track 3 times. Best 60' in some good air was 1.51 and best 1/8 time was 7.11. More typical is 1.54 60' times and 7.15+ at around 94 mph in the 1/8th mile. I don't run it out the back door in the 1/4 as the 4.56 axle just spins the motor well past where it makes power and I don't want to risk it! I hope to put a 4.10 axle in it soon which will likely slow it down a bit but allow me to race in the Sportsman class with (hopefully) more footbrake cars. Oh, and I have done ZERO tuning on it yet to see if the times can be improved.
Well last year was such a hoot with it the first couple times out that my boss (that's the wife for you single guys!) said we MUST drive this on the street and have fun with it. So I did what any hubby would do - and bought a set of Pro-Star look-alike rims and ET Street drag radials and welded up a short 3" exhaust w/ turndowns ahead of the axle. I put the new wheels on it with the exhaust when we drive it on the street and undo that and put the slicks back on for the track. One thing missing is the weight of the car...I have not yet had it weighed so I don't know if it's 3000# or 3500#'s or ???
OK - so that levels up what it is and how it came to be what it is. So this past weekend, Milan Dragway had an "open" day where the new owner invited you to come and make passes with no entry fee(!) to help train his new employees. So we took the car there and made a couple passes. Milan was still working out bugs (which is why it was free) and had a major issue - no timeslips or times recorded for the first hour or so! But we got a 2nd pass and were just about to make a 3rd pass (I was near the front of the staging lanes) when a guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I knew I had a shock problem. I said nope and got out to look and oops! The LR shock was dangling not hooked to anything down low. So that ended the day for us but we had a good time.
The track photographer must have captured some photos and posted them up so I thought you might like to see the car doing what it was bred to do.
But first, on the street....
