Scare Craft

[Jimway]

You know, it has been three years since we talked about the Streamliner. Speed Week, as we call it, is upon us. We all figure that this might be the last time that we run the old beast in combat. Old Shark can barely get around now, uses a cane all of the time, can't see very well anymore but is still able to drive his pickup truck. Still laughs like the postman in the movie Funny Farm and has a smile on his face most every day though. Remember that a small group of us crazies haul the old girl over to Eastern Washington for a few days to stretch her legs. Time marches inexorably on. I think it's been 8 or 9 years better since I first crawled into that roadster. We did away with all of the electronic gadgets and have come back to just a tachometer, oil pressure and temp, and coolant temp. Fuel capacity has been increased so that the car can be driven back to camp after a run. The gear shifting mechanism has been honed to near perfection and one can shift the car quickly now, light years ahead of the old loop system that was on the car when I first drove it years ago. The braking system has been considerably improved and balanced for and aft. One can confidently brake the vehicle below 300 mph. We got into the HVAC spirit and installed an ac system of sorts to help cool the incoming charge to the engine. A welcome benefit of this system is ac into the drivers compartment. She's got some down force added here and there now also. Blower has new seals in it, gear ratio dropped a tooth or two in the rear axle. We'll see what she'll do. Machine is absolutely lethal. Wondering if I'm up to the dance this year...

 

[Jimway]

Temperatures were markedly cooler this year with some actual rain even. Didn't take long to break the car this year. It has become prohibitively expensive in the tire and fuel department. Rear tires can cost upwards of 750 per side, fronts can be 250 per side. The fuel concoction is "Somewhere around 32 Dollars a gallon" states our old friend some of us know as 'The Flame'. You can see that a run can easily vaporize 3 grand, not to mention the set of tires and whatever has been poured into the fuel tanks. I should probably mention right here that I had planed some late night shenanigans to entertain the troops so to speak this year. We go over in some rvs and camp out for the week, spend some time together and also run the old roadster up and down a sparsely used road. We build a big fire at night and sit around and tell lies and drink and even set up the big screen for a movie. Now last year I just happened to notice that the guys kinda got into this movie called Tremors. I also noted that the surrounding countryside bore striking resemblances to the movie scenes. Kinda got me thinking about running an experiment of sorts on the guys psyche.

 

[Jimway]

So after they watched the movie they started doing things like stopping in mid sentence or stride and looking deathly scared at the ground and asking "Do you feel that?" They started calling each other by names like Val, Earl, Bert, and Melvin (names of characters from the movie). So in the off season, on an antique hunt, I flew by the campsite for a day or two and installed a big hole over in the corner of the site. I garage saled an air powered bumper jack and set it in the hole. on top of the jack I placed a pretty good facsimile of the head of one of those worm creatures from the movie. I figured to run an airline out to my usual parking spot so I could power up the worm out of the ground at just the opportune moment and verify any favorable results from the experiment. Had a couple of cohorts build up the head out of some canvas firmed up with concrete with some tubing underneath for support. I put a regulator inline to slow the raising of the jack. The thing is pretty spooky looking in the light, I could hardly wait to see what it would look like at midnight in the firelight heh heh. I was more than a little concerned with leaving the contraption there for a couple of months. Would it work after this time? Would one of the others park over it when they showed up? Would the coyotes dig it up while no one was there?

 

[Jimway]

Remember that we camp out on this deserted stretch of gravel mat road. We have around 10 miles of uncommonly smooth and open roadway. There is one spot near the end where a culvert passes underneath the road. This part of the road has sunk a little, but only on one side. If you hit this spot at speed it will pretty much break the frame of the car and driver for that matter. We found this out the hard way a couple of years ago and mark the spot with red paint now to stay out of it. The engine and transmissions are extremely heavy. You do not want to put any more stress on anything involved. If you run down the right side of the road at the sunken spot, you miss the rough spot. With the fuel tanks that are now installed, we're pushing 40 gallons of some stuff that will pretty much remove your fingerprints, says the fuel guy. In early years, one would fuel up the smaller fuel cell and drive the car down to the starting area and turn it around. At this time you would get topped up and make your run. You get a couple of miles to get her up to speed and into top gear, six gears and an overdrive on the main transmission plus an auxiliary solenoid operated overdrive unit. The measured mile or 'flying mile' is right in front of camp. If you can find the uninitiated, and have them stand there with a camera or radar gun, you can get some numbers. It's also kind of entertaining to watch them pretty much blown off their feet when the car passes. With the original fuel cell, the car was basically empty at the end of the run which is around ten miles or so. The chutes would have to be picked up and then the car would be loaded onto a trailer and brought back to the camping spot which doubles as the pits. With the expanded supply of fuel, you may now drive down to the start, make a run, only use the chutes if things begin to get sketchy, and drive the car back to the pits, which saves a whole lot of time.

 

[Jimway]

Old Jim has spent quite a lot of time developing a new shifting mechanism for the old girl. You might imagine that my chest is out to here with the success of the new shifter. In the past, there were these big loops of 3/8 steel rod that you could get your gloved hand through. These loops, 5 of them, were attached to the 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, main overdrive, and reverse shift posts at the sides of the transmission. Complicated, to say the least. Also, if one did not return each and every lever to the proper position, one could apply full power from a blown v12 to two gears at once, no doubt destroying the transmission, most likely the car, and possibly the driver. The new shifter is in the spirit of a 't' handled straight gate. On the left side, below the 't' handle, is a finger loop for the 1/2 shift. Likewise, on the right is a loop for the 5/6 shift. The main overdrive, kind of a gear splitter, is now switch/solonoid operated. A small lever on the right, down below the 't' handle, in the same plane as the 't' handle, takes care of reverse. There is a plate mounted forward of the 't' handle that has some various switches attached to it. The main and also auxilliary overdrives are operated here. You used to have to kind of bend forward to reach the loops when shifting the 1/2 and 3/4 loops. You're all encased in a roll/crash cage, strapped in tight, it wasn't easy to do. Now, you can make all of the shifts as fast as a non synchronized transmission will stand. It is all interlocked at the shifter so that you cannot engage any two gears at one time. Complete system has to be in neutral before reverse can be engaged. Feels like we cut shifting time by three quarters. In a realm where time and mph are measured three positions to the right of the decimal point, it is like moving a mountain.

 

[karzrus]

Good thing this is all for personal enjoyment, accomplishment and bragging rights. Otherwise it would just be hard work.

 

[Jimway]

Yeah Buddy. Hours and hours involved by several people. If we go back next year we are talking about perhaps everybody putting in on rebuilding a residential property to sell to come up with funds. It is really expensive to go fast. In the past we have done some tree clearing and land development to supplement for funds. Right now we are in the middle of manufacturing a new input shaft for an unidentifiable possibly 80 year old transmission. Took a good portion of last week to disassemble the car, anywhere from two to eight guys working on it at times. Car is about two hours away from me. I'm wore out.

 

[Jimway]

The big news this year, right before old Jim seperated the input shaft at the front of the transmission, was a new young driver getting some seat time. A quiet young man, studious, observant. Absolutely steady hands and a steely determined look in his eyes once strapped in to the car. He did good but was embarrassed at the end of the run when he got the shakes. I simply told him to wait for my next run and to take a good look into my eyes just as I roll to a stop. We make some runs with an older f150 and even a motorcycle or two to check out the course and get ourselves up to speed also. We are running over 150 in the truck and can get nearly 200 out of the bike depending on temperatures, humidity, and stuff like that. We do this as a prelude to the main event. Something to see when the driver is strapped into the vehicle, the bodywork that covers the cockpit is closed, tire warmers come off and old Shark shoots some fuel into the intake and points his index finger up and twirls it around. The driver depresses the starter button and that big v12 roars to life with a big black cloud of exhaust snarling from low down on each side of the body. Usually everyone present takes a step back and glances at each other with a holy blank look on their faces even to this day. If you feed some throttle in, you can tame the blower roll until she warms up some. The old girl is sporting some pretty tall rear axle gearing these days and you have to slip the clutch a bit to get her going without spinning the rear tires. The first three gears were designed to get a heavy load moving so they are pretty close to each other. You can hit fourth, then main overdrive, and you have to get all over the downshifting and brakes to get stopped and then turn around at the starting grid. The fellas down there look the car over and there is some communication with the course boss to get an ok to run. The starting guy gives you a thumbs up and a ZZ Top wave and you are headed forward toward a right handed sweep in the road. You hit this curve at a 100 or so and then you let a whole lot of hp loose in gradual increments so as not to just smoke the rear tires. Back into fourth, main overdrive, fifth and sixth gears pass momentarily as the tach climbs to 5000 each time. You flip the auxiliary overdrive and once the rpms drop you are on the throttle again, aiming for the middle yellow lines. The torque of the engine rears the car over toward the side. You're flat out as you reach the flying mile, which goes past really fast and then you are starting to let off of the throttle ever so easily and begin slowing down. The resistance of the wind is incredible and it is like hitting the brakes to just let off the throttle. You can use the brakes below 300 but you can also just let the resistance of the air slow you down and then take the auxiliary overdrive off and down shift. We paint the road red down by the low spot so you can move over to the left side to miss it. There's a truck and trailer down there if necessary and they'll pick up the chutes if you've had to deploy to get the old car back onto the ground again. Pretty kool stuff.

 

[Jimway]

The input shaft has been repaired way quicker than anybody thought possible. We assumed that they were somehow going to manufacture a new piece($$$$$'s). The machinist made a new shaft, cut a hole in the old input gear, splined it on the inside, made it a real tight interference fit on the new shaft that has corresponding exterior splines, pressed it on and wah lah. The input bearing is held on to the input shaft with a nut so everything should work out. The new shaft is larger as the old shaft was turned down thinner behind where the clutch disc splines are. It is this area that separated. The new shaft carries a fuller diameter all the way back. The shaft has a pilot bored into the back end for the mainshaft to fit into. Did you guys know that GMC built those big v6's up to 478 ci? A great deal of parts are interchangeable between the v6's and the v12. Shoot, iffen you bore the 702 to 4.87 with the original 3.58 stroke, you come up with an 802 heh heh. Offset grind the crank and you can come up with even more. Figure out how to bore it to 5.125 with a 3.86 stroke and you come up with somewhere around 950 ci. or 15 and a half liters.

 

[Jimway]

I broke the input shaft on the third run just after getting into final overdrive and accelerating really hard at about 4200. Glad I had used the facilities earlier. It was like stabbing the clutch pedal at over 300 mph while simultaneously hitting the brakes. Time ceased and I and the car became one and were suspended in infinity there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably not more than a few seconds. I believe that I used each and every inch on both sides of the road there for a stretch. Once I got her back over the yellow line, I hit all three chutes, a first for all of us. Everyone was all business at the sight of two main chutes and one emergency chute in the middle of the course. I have to tell you that it were a somber few moments sitting there waiting for the guys to show up with the trailer. It took us quite a while to figure what had happened. We got the car back to the camp area and back up on the jacks. The car has a belly pan now so you just cant crawl under there and look at stuff. Takes a while to remove the bodywork. We were surprised to find everything still connected. Only by removing a small access cover and employing a mirror could you see that the flywheel would turn but not the input shaft just aft of the clutch disk and pressure plate. Knew we were done for this season. By this point it was getting on toward dinner time. I started thinking about springing my little experiment on the boys.

 

[Jimway]

I never even finished the story, day-um. Sorry about that. Here we are nearly a year later. This will be a little different this year as there isn't going to be any Streamliner running this year. I believe the machine to be capable of exceeding 400 mph. It sits in a big old barn up in the woods at old Sharkbait's ranch. Old Shark is doing poorly, I'm very sad to report. He's had a couple of additional mini strokes unfortunately. He barely gets around now and can hardly see. He is but a whisp of his former self. State revoked his drivers license when he couldn't pass the sight test. It's terrible. When you take away a persons drivers license, you take away their freedom. We go up and mow the grass and do store runs and get together for football games and camp out for the weekends. This year with all of it's craziness has been somewhat unbearable. We got to talking about his old 50's Ford pickup sometime ago and decided to do a little make over. Figured we would install a later model v8 with an automatic transmission. Maybe some disc brakes with power assist, power steering too. Lower it a little so old Shark could get in it without too much trouble. The old flathead v8 in the truck was starting to emit a knocking sound from the crankcase. It could barely be heard but it was there. Sharks ranch house is a house of sorts slouched back beneath some big old oak trees. The entire property is littered with the assorted remains of trucks, tractors, automobiles, farm equipment, motorcycles, aircraft, and some equipment that defies the imagination.

 

[Jimway]

We pick out an old late 50's Mercury and pull a 430 ci big block from what's left of what looked like kind of an ugly car. Big engine. We called these engines MELs, back in the day. MEL stood for Mercury Edsel Lincoln. In the Mercury model, they put three Holly two barrels on top of that big wedge motor and rated it at 400 ponies with about 500 ft lbs of torque. This fits the 'No replacement for displacement' theory to a tee. Mercury called it 'The Maurader' heh heh. I should mention right here that they made a marine model, since this IS a boat forum. Shoe horn it into a 3000 pound vehicle and get ready for some fun factor. Now old Shark named the truck Donna years and years ago, but now we've been calling her Melody, or Mel, for short. You should just hear the 'melody' that is emitted from a pair of 3 inch exhaust pipes exiting the rear of the truck. Truck has been lowered, rear frame narrowed. 4 link and coil overs for rear suspension. Power brakes and steering added. Narrowed 9 inch with 4.88's. Did a lot of work on the old 'Merc-o- Matic 3 speed that is behind the 430. It now actually starts out in low 1 instead of second. Cobbled a Gear Vendors Overdrive onto the tail shaft to compensate for the low geared rear axle in case one might like to get the truck out onto the road. Roll cage in the cab. Fire suppression system. Line lock. Moon eyes down low on each front fender. All of the goodies. Truck is relatively quiet but ever so lightly rattles the windows when it pulls into the driveway. It is capable of some rightous quarter mile times, but can be a handful. It has exibited steadfast reliability so far. I like to run a new engine for 500 miles to break it in just right. I think that the only thing we did in the first 500 miles was tighten the lower radiator hose a little to stop some seepage. Shark says it's the first truck he has ever owned that doesn't mark its spot in the driveway. I've got to throw a shout out to the guys down at 'Fast Eddies' for all of their expert help and contributions. Fast Eddie has at his disposal, an awesome shop where one can fabricate just about anything.

 

[Jimway]

If we flash back to last year for a few, you should have seen the look on the guys faces when that facsimile of the worm came up out of the ground. You might remember that I had rigged up an air jack and buried it in the ground for some future shenanigans. After I broke the mainshaft in the Streamliner, we were all kind of bummed out so to speak. New driver blew past 300 mph on his shakedown run. Don't want to tell you what he did on the second run. I am a proud Pop. I killed the shaft on the third run just when we all thought things were going to get incredible. It was very strange to watch the car from afar. I positioned myself at the sweeping right hander near the start of the course. You take this turn at around 100 mph or so and then you let that car loose. Third and forth gear go by in a couple of seconds each as the big v12 revs to 5000 rpm that fast. You use up about three seconds selecting main overdrive and getting it to 5 grand again. Fifth and sixth go by at three second intervals and then you ease up on the throttle and flip the auxiliary overdrive and then try to wind her out. Hard to describe the exhaust note from the Streamliner, as I stood there and watched it go by. Exiting the turn the exhaust note just blows your ears and leaves them ringing. The car grows small real fast in the distance with the exhaust note echoing off the surrounding countryside. I'll never forget the car leaning over to the side on acceleration as the chassis is affected by the torque. Second run I was at the flying mile part of the course. Imagine for a moment, standing 50 feet away from a runway as a P51 mustang thunders by at 450 mph on the deck. Replace the propellor sound with the howl of a really big supercharger and the sound of four tires clawing at the roadway and there you have it. Frightening to see how fast that car approaches, goes past and how fast it recedes into the distance.

 

[Jimway]

I hooked up a regulator to the air line that went to the jack that I had buried in the ground. I had to go down earlier than everybody else to set up my trailer so I could access the end of the buried hose. Then later, after copious ingestion of adult beverages by most of those present, and the embers of the nights fire were beginning to wane, and it was just about time to hit the rack for some shut eye, I slunk off to my trailer on the pretense of needing to answer a call from nature. I turned on the air supply and returned to my seat by the fire to observe the festivities. Old Sharkbait is about as vain and arrogant as they come. I had decided to run a test on his psyche. Any good clinical researcher knows that a test should be designed to produce discernible results. Old Sharks unreasonable fear of big worms was one of the reasons that I constructed the "Tremors" worm monster. You might remember that we set up a big screen tv down there where we camp out for speed week. We've been watching the Tremors movies and the surrounding countryside bears a resemblance to the movie setting. I stood up and looked quizzically around at the heavens and eventually down at the ground beneath my feet. "You hear that?" I ask those present.

 

[Jimway]

Since they all have no small amount of experience with shenanigans, mine in particular, they at first regarded me with suspicious looks and smirks. I presently grabbed up a powerful flashlight and began to look around. "You hear thet?" asks Shark. He's looking underneath the picnic table that he is seated at. "I thank it's tham coy-o-tays agin" he says. "Whaazzaat?" I blurt out as the jack begins to push up the big worm head seemingly out of the ground. You have to remember that I had constructed a worm head remarkably like what was in the Tremors movies and buried an old air powered bumper jack in a hole before any of the others had come down to the campsite. With the air pressure regulated, it slowly lifted about three feet out of the ground. I snuck a quick glance at the fellas. They stood dumbfounded staring at the apparition before them. Old Shark was scrambling up onto the table while expending a good portion of his vast swear word vocabulary. The monsters head glowed softly in the glow of the dying fire. I pulled my sidearm and yelled "Contact!"

 

[Jimway]

So I gleefully empty a full clip into the 'monster'. The muzzle flash reflects off of the surrounding campsite. The report of the shots echoes off of the countryside. I hold the pistol out to my right and drop the empty clip and quick as a wink, insert a new one and click the slide closed. I draw down on the target again and cautiously step forward. I quick shoot a glance back and most of the group has taken to what ever they could find to climb on. One of the shots at the worm head severed the airline and blew a bunch of dust and dirt into the air with awesome unexpected effect. When the jack settles down some it appears that the creature has been done in. So I get a little closer and give it a kick. The guys set a record for the longest sustained inhale. I should get an award for keeping a straight face as I exclaim "Wait a minute, this thing is fake!" I turn on the guys and with an accusative tone ask who is responsible for this and exclaim that I almost immediately had recognized it as fake. "Sure you did" quips Shark. "You didn't whet yer pants did yeh?" he adds. "What was all of that stuff you was yellin about when you jumped up on the table?" I ask old Shark with a smile. An uneasy calm descends as no one would own up to the creature. I really enjoyed it. So now we have to fast forward back to Melody (Sharks old Ford pickup). So we been spending a lot of time fixing up old Sharks truck for him. Now Mrs. Jim starts feeling a little persnickity about me being gone all of the time. When old Shark leaves a message on the phone machine stating that Melody is wondering if I'm gonna be up to see her tonight, a flicker of suspicion is sparked. This is never a good thing. A little flicker of suspicion can transform into a blaze in a heartbeat.

 

[Jimway]

You can just imagine Mrs. Jim fielding that phone message. Now, she shouldn't have been, but she was pissed. So we've been getting Sharks truck all dialed in. The faster it gets, the faster old Sharks mouth gets too. Before long he figures that he can take down all comers this side of the Cascades. Right here we have to pause and retreat back to 1968. Buddy of mine bought an old 55 two door post. It had a 235 six and a three speed on the column. She was straight though. Before he had to go off to the 'University of Southeast Asia', the car got a 302 with a turbohydramatic, 4.88's with what we called a Detriot Locker in the rear, all the goodies up front, and a really nice black and white repaint. He redid the upholstery right before basic. He parks the car in his moms garage and we put wood blocks under the car so that the wheels are a couple of inches off the floor. We pour some oil in the cylinders and button her up for the duration. Didn't make it back. Last year I get a call out of the blue from his sister. Their mom passed and there's gonna be a reception. I give a pretty good speech and show a couple of photo albums of us building the car and being notorious on the weekends. She's selling Mom's house and wants the car out of the garage. It's been sitting there for over 50 years. Talk about deja vu. Car had about an inch of dust on it. Brakes were froze up and fuel pump was all dried out but a new pump and fuel in the tank and a replacement of some of the rubber parts of the fuel system and the black box for the magneto and she lit right off. Re did that big Holley carb with some new gaskets and we had her ticking over good. She's pretty sanitary. There's some rust on the bumpers but all in all she cleaned up nice. Car comes up out of the hole like a scared jack rabbit. That little 302 small block will wind up tight too. You basically get a 302 by using a 283 crank in a 327 block. Forged steel crank and rods. Forged pistons too. 2.02 heads. With the big bore and short stroke it'll rev easy into the sevens. Throw some good valve springs in there and it'll rev to the moon. We put a front distributor drive magneto with a gear drive timing setup back in the day. Higher stall speed converter. She's a hot little number. You might imagine that I'm kinda proud of the machine and run it up to old Sharks place to show it off. Sharks mouth is running rampant and he disparages the old 55. Granted we have had a liberal share of adult beverage as the conversation gets a little edgy. We are seated at the local watering hole and it's late.

 

[Jimway]

After a few too many crass remarks, I tell old Shark how I feel. "I'm gonna draw the line in the sand right here". "You're going to far my friend". "I need you to listen carefully for just a moment". " You get one warning and this is it" "You're mouth is writing checks that your face isn't going to be able to cash". "You're pushing all the wrong buttons". "You cross the line and I'll drop you fast". "Fast as fast". "You feeling frogy, than go ahead and jump! Old Shark is grinning at me like an old sheep dog and hiding his fear of me pretty well. The red that I am seeing begins to clear enough to notice that all other eyes of the people who have stepped back a bit are now darting between me and the entrance. Much to my surprise, there stands Mrs. Jim, hand on her hip, and she is wearing the dreaded LRD. That's little red dress. With her, is my childhood buddy's wife, also dressed to the nines. She looks more than a little apprehensive. Que the 'Im your Venus' song like from the 'Grumpy old Men' movie as they strut over to the table. "Keep your voices down, you're scaring the regulars" says Mrs. Jim. "Been drinking all day have we?" she adds. "Nonsense" I state, "I have not yet begun to defile myself". Mrs. Jim has an unnerving habit of showing up out of thin air. Kind of like the time you shot that deer and it was getting pretty dark. You finally get it drug all the way up this steep embankment and flop down on the side of the road there all hot and sweaty in the near pitch black and remark that you are sure glad that there were three of us to drag the deer up the steep hill. Your hunting buddy states that there should only be two be two of us dragging the deer. The game warden states that there shouldn't be anybody dragging the deer up the hill at this time of night. Kind of like that. "Have you lost weight"? I ask. "Keep talking" says Mrs, Jim. "How about a couple of drinks for you too ladies"? I offer. "Don't think so" says Mrs. Jim. "Who and where is Melody"? she says frostilly.

 

[Jimway]

"She's parked right out front" I say. "Let me show you what we've been doing to her" I add. As Mrs. Jim exchanges glances with her buddy, a faint flicker of light begins to emit from a dusty corner of the brain. I fairly quickly deduce the reason for the unexpected visit and figure that someone has been talking. Suspicion almost immediately focuses on the Shark. I give the girls a tour of the truck and explain the name change to Melody. Mrs. Jim looks the vehicle over and stands back and proudly states that she recognizes my handy work. "How fast is it"? she asks. "Haven't rung her out yet but she's fast all right". Flames of jealousy and suspicion thus extinguished, we return inside to the table just as old Shark exclaims that he bets even my old lady could beat me in his new souped up truck. "I don't think so Tim" I say. I hear the sound of tires screeching in my brain followed by a horrendous crash that goes on for several moments. What I should have said was 'You're probably right about that but there's no way that YOU can do it behind the wheel'. But no, I just had to say something stupid. Mrs. Jim already has that all knowing smirk on her face. "Would it be safe to assume that we are speaking about a contest between Jimmy's new 55 and Wayne's new and improved truck"? "I would be more than happy to take you down a notch or two", she purrs. 'Oh no' a voice says alarmingly in my brain. "Who built the motor"? asks Mrs. Jim. My head drops down so that my chin is at my chest. "May I offer a suggestion"? I say to Mrs. Jim. "Don't think so" she chimes back. "Didn't think so" I say almost under my breath. She shoots a quick glance at me, eye brows raised. "Now look here" I say seriously. "The girl is good, but I don't want anybody getting hurt" I say. "This aint gonna be no candy run in the park" I add and look right in her eyes. "There is going to be a bunch money on the table and bragging rights for days". "This is going to be a bal-- uh, I mean, an all out, get ALL the way down on it race". "I will not hold back". You WILL get the best of all I've got", I proclaim. "I don't like to lose" I add matter of factly. It's going to take place on the road next to Sharks place on Labor day. It's going to be a best of three runs, car against car, driver against driver, and driver against the clock. "How much money"? asks Mrs. Jim gleefully as she rubs her hands together.

 

[Jimway]

I do redeem myself somewhat by spending some quality time with Mrs. Jim by polishing up some of her driving skills and getting her some seat time in Sharks old truck. Old Shark is a wisp of his former self now, using a cane and barely able to get around. By concentrating on her, I have been able to keep everyone's eyes and ears off of the 55 Chevy. The old Chevy is quick, fast, reliable and consistant, just the ticket to provide a possible payday heh heh. Problem is that old Sharks pickup is in the same category. I am super worried and explain at length to Mrs. Jim that any forays off of the road above 70 mph probably wont be survivable. "Wishful thinking" she quips back and flicks her left hand up and gives me the wave off. I've really pushed how to approach the Christmas tree and reaction time. She was pretty impatient until she saw old Jims reaction times at the start and 60 foot and 330 foot times compared to hers in the same vehicle.