Went to the drags races

[tubman]

"JSeery" - you may be sorry you asked. My buddy and I dropped out of college in 1961 and used our tuition refunds to go racing. We bought a somewhat ratty '36 five window body shell and running gear from Carmichiel's auto parts (read : junkyard) in Excelsior, MN for $10. We also got a good running '42 Merc engine for $35 from him. Somewhere along the line, I picked up a Tattersfield hi-rise dual manifold, a couple of '97's, and a set of Offenhauser heads. I also found a set of Ellingson's recap slicks for next to nothing. We put it all together that spring. I picked up an NHRA rule book at the GSTA show earlier that winter, and discovered we needed a roll bar, scattershield, and safety hubs to run. I got the scattershield and safety hubs from J.C. Whitney, and took the whole mess to the local welding shop who put it all together for us, constructing a roll bar from the pipe left over when my dad replaced our well a year or two earlier.

By the middle of the summer, we were ready to go. We flat-towed it to Minnesota Dragways in Coon Rapids. During inspection, they had a couple of minor concerns (I think about how the scattershield was mounted), but allowed us to run that week and gave us until the next week to correct it. The engine was not set back, but since we didn't have any fenders, we ran in "D-Altered" (a class for flatheads, sixes, and other odd ball engines).

I don't remember what we turned the first time out, but we eventually got a best e.t of 16.44. (Good call, "Licensed to Kill"). We were the only car in our class, so we only had to run within 2% of the record (which we had set) to trophy. We collected a bunch of trophies that summer and the beginning of the next until a bunch of guys came down from Fargo with a channeled deuce sedan with a full race 296" Merc with FOUR carburetors set back the allowable 25%. They dropped the record into the high 14's, which put it out of our reach.

In the end we had a lot of fun doing it, and I don't think we had more than three or four hundred dollars in the car. Excuse me for the long, rambling post, but it took me on a trip down memory lane that I hadn't thought about much for over 50 years. Those were the days.

[JSeery]

Good write-up! I also ran an altered. It was a 34 Ford frame with a 33 Ply stripped body. As you posted, the D-altered class also allowed OHV 6I engines and there was a local guy running a highly modified GMC. It would eat a flathead alive! We started running B-Altered with a SBC, ran well and was a lot of fun, mid 11s I think. Then we switched over to a SBF (was never a big SBC fan). Military interrupted the racing and when that was over, drag racing had progressed far beyond what it had been. Still raced, but stayed with the stock classes.

[cas3]

carmichiels junk yard was about 3 miles from home. spent many pleasant days there. its all town houses for big shots now

[tubman]

I was hoping some of you Minnesota guys would have your memories piqued by the detail I provided.

"cas3" - when did you live there? I was a "regular" there from about 1957 to 1964. Bruce Carmichiel passed away a couple of years ago, but I think Jim is still with us. He'd be about 80 by now. I could swap "Carmichael" stories all day. I lived in Plymouth during those years and went to Wayzata High. I imagine you went to Minnetonka. I'll stretch a bit here and ask you if you knew Clare Booth. He was younger that I was, but back in those days he had a Model "A" tudor with a SBC. He hadn't clearanced the firewall enough, so every time he tried to do a "burnout" at "Snuffies" drive in, the engine would move back, the distributor would hit the firewall, and he'd break the rotor and sputter to a stop. That probably only happened once, but it became an urban legend back then.

[flatford8]

I love these stories from the guys who were there.....I was always only a spectator.......Mark

[cas3]

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tubman, you are a few years ahead of me, perhaps if you hadnt wrecked that poor innocent ford coupe, it would have still been there for me to buy a few years later! yeah, thats my home turf. many snuffy burgers, grew up in cottagewood. in the 60's they still had a dump behind the town hall, and i used to get off the school bus there and go shopping on my way home. rode our bicycles into excelsior to hang out at the amusement park 3 mi away, quite often without passing another car. times have changed. i dont recall clare booth, but it reminds me of a fun memory, once on the way home from school, some guy pulled out of a driveway on 101 north of w.lake street in a fenderless A tudor, or maybe 32, i didnt know at the time, but he must have been out on the "test run" with the front wheels so out of alignment the thing was zig zagging all over and tires squealing as he passed our bus, i about broke my neck to watch him go by, it was my first sighting of a jalopy, in 7th grade, and i can still see it today. was it clare???? any way, life around the lake was very different then, mostly blue collar folks, and now no place for a hill billy like me

[Tinker]

Lake in the early 90s. Shared a beer with my dog on the porch watching two guys try to brain each other with snow shovels. Much better area now. "trendy" different, but better.

[cas3]

tinker, you were a lake mtka resident?

[tubman]

"cas3" - You'll be happy to hear that we didn't ruin that "poor innocent Ford coupe". As a matter of fact, we left it in better shape than we found it. The only modifications we made to it were for rust repair. It didn't have any fenders or interior when we got it, so we left that part alone. The guy we sold it too was going to make a street rod out of it. I don't know if he ever did or not. I remember the dump behind the city hall, you wouldn't see that these days. Hell, I even remember when the "Cottagewood Store" was an actual store!

As to the guy in the tudor, it sounds like Clare. I graduated from Wayzata in '60, and I think Clare was about 4 years younger than me. I don't know exactly where "101 north of w.lake street" you refer to is, but Clare lived in Deephaven, behind "Ty Abel's Corner" (County Road 5 and 101).

I hear what you guys are saying about Lake Minnetonka. I had had enough by the eighties, so I moved to Prior Lake, which was like Minnetonka in the old days. About 2005, that area also became "gentrified" and I had to get out again, this time to north of Brainerd. If things get worse there, I'll probably have to move to Backus (inside joke).

In case you're interested, here's a picture of my current race car. For this one, someone did "ruin a poor innocent chevrolet coach", but it wasn't me.