MoparStyle Racing Update

 

First off, we have a couple of NMC cars for sale and on eBay.

 

 

The first is the 10-second Demon my son Dallas has raced since he was 16 years old. He won the NMC class at Zmax earlier this year. I'll let the eBay ad give the details, or you can find them at www.MoparStyleracing.com

 

 

The other NMC car is a 12.0 car that I built for my daughter -- but she never found the time to dedicate toward the sport. Again, go to the eBay ad or www.moparstyleracing.com for the details.

 

 

 

Next -- is the 60 Plymouth wagon. I visited Texas Thunder on Friday, and Mark has assured me that the car will be ready for the first NMCA race in March -- if we choose to race that series in 2010. It will receive the 580 motor just pulled from Big Red Ram (after it is rebuilt) and an automatic transmission. While the car has yet to be named -- we know it will be "Texas Thunder" red with checkerboards and applicable graphics.

 

 

With the Memphis track being our closest haul, and now it closing -- I'm thinking that I'll need to consider my options. Word is that there will be a 4-5 race NSS series running in the Heartland in 2010 -- but it is a bracket race (write an number on the window), which I'm not a big fan of. I like running the NSS rules with the different classes. I'll wait for the details of that race series, and what track replaces the Memphis track.

 

Speaking of details, as soon as anyone knows the racing dates for NSS and/or NMC ins 2010 -- please post the events at http://nssracing.ning.com/

 

 

I pulled the motor out of the Big Red Ram, and it will receive a set of steel rods, milled zero decked, new cam and springs, rings and bearings -- and go into the Wagon. In the meantime, Diamondback Engines is putting together an aluminum 588CI that should be a good deal more powerful than the one that has been in the car for the last two years. I intend to run that Big Red Ram in non-points races where I can let it all hang out and not worry about points. Right now, the paint is being stripped from under the hood (Big Daddy's sig stays), a coat of primer, 4 coats of color, and 2 coats of clear so it will be nice and pretty when I open the hood next year.

 

 

While it isn't really NSS or NMC related -- we're getting ready to squirt "Texas Thunder" Red on it, and reassemble as a 9-second, all motor, tube chassis true street with a small block.

 

 

 

Finally, on eBay I have a Charger 500 that was cloned (with real parts) into a Daytona back in the 70s. Check it out -- and pass along to your friends if they might be interested. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290364469352&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Has The NMCA Become Regional?

 

I've always known that the NMCA was Eastern half of the US and I was on the outside border of it -- but it appears that they're going to cater to the North-central region now. If you live in IN/IL/MI/TN/KY/OH you have five to six of the tracks within 500 miles. If you're a NSS racer -- that is great because the Classics is also in that area -- as will be a new series.
The closest track to me was Memphis -- and it is 650 miles. The second closest (Bowling Green) is almost 1000 miles. Now that I've lost my closest track I hear all of the people in the 6-state region (most them not making more than two races in 2010) justifying why they should put another track in their stomping grounds (another race in Bowling Green or St. Louis) instead of accommodating others (without a single track within 900 miles) who would start to attend NMCA events if they got to know it. I'm getting the impression that NMCA is listening to the North-Central racers because of a statement they've got a call in to St. Louis.

Well Gateway is nice -- but two weeks prior to the NMCA Nationals is the Monster -- at Gateway. The week before that is the Bush race. Based on how busy they already are in late September and early October, and the reputation that they've gotten with regards to out of control of track rentals -- I would guess that might be a hard track to get for the Nats -- or at least the most expensive track.

I'd asked why they didn't make it easier for the Texas racers here -- especially knowing of all of the NSS and NMC racers. I was told last year that they tried Houston once -- and it didn't get a draw. Well if they're going to compare an one-time half-hearted attempt many years ago against tracks that may have had 15 races in the last 25 years -- then no argument will work. I believe that's where we're at.

While in Memphis -- the worst kept secret was the 4 or 5 race series that features NSS starting next year in the Heartland. While there were 32 pissed off NSS racers waiting for two hours in the staging lanes for a track cleanup after an accident, that after 7 hours since the first round because of bracket races, and add to that dew falling all over the cars making it impossible to see out of the windshields (yet NMCA was obviously going to run us anyway) the number of people claiming they'd run that new series instead of NMCA next year appeared to grow.

Why I've felt welcomed by the NMCA -- those NSS racers who have been racing with the series a lot longer than I say that treatment of they NSS drivers gets worse every year. At one time it was one of the big classes of NMCA -- but now while it is only one of the largest classes of participants, it is not really appreciated for it. Many feel that NMCA could take us or leave us -- and if the class were to go away -- no sweat off their ass. I'm personally wondering if those guys might be right with that opinion.

I was asked by a couple different people if Dallas and I would commit to run this new series -- with promises of bigger purses. I said that we were going to commit to run the entire NMCA series -- as I really have a strong goal for a Championship ring. I did say that we'd run whatever races that weren't a conflict with NMCA.

Now I'm starting to wonder about that decision -- and if I should do it the other way -- where I run the new series and any NMCA race that isn't too far and doesn't conflict. I guess if there isn't a National (or even just an Eastern US) series -- I might as well run a Central-Central series over a North-Central Series.

But it makes me wonder if maybe a few of us ought to get together and plan a true Eastern or maybe a true Southern (Texas to Florida) series for just NSS and NMC -- and contact tracks to piggyback with other events. A couple of smart guys could put together a package to go to PRI this year and present to the big vendors for contingencies -- convincing them that the contingencies would be heavily policed. It would only be for two classes per event -- and we might be able to convince enough of them, if they had proper assurances. With the tracks -- if we could find events needing a little help on the draw at the quarter mile tracks -- we might be able to convince them to have the entire NSS and NMC entry fees to go 100% into the purses.

I know that there are quite a few of us wanting to run a series, but don't have one we feel appreciated at -- or that we can afford to run because of the distances.

Your thoughts?

The 2010 Nostalgia Super Stock Calendar is Ready

 

 

Each year I put together a Nostalgia Super Stock calendar. A few years back, I had the help of Donnie at Photosports allowing me to select 13 of his photos to use. In the last few years, Photosports has not been the photographer at the Monster -- and so I've used a combination of my photos and those sent in. Since I am hopefully racing with the rest of Nostalgia Super Stock -- my only opportunity to photograph the NSS cars is if I'm out (which means others are also out) or broke.

 

This year I only received track photos from Jim Guy and John Grinwald (plus one of my car) -- so I had search through a couple hundred of track photos I took this year to find another 11 that I can use. I try hard select photos that get the wheels up on launches, has a wide selection of makes and colors -- and try to give preference to cars with period graphics. It is pretty hard to get good photos from the stands because of lighting conditions and people/golf carts in the foreground. -- but I feel like I found eleven that I can be proud of. Below are very low resolution version of the high resolution images used for the calendar.

 

 

The 2010 NSS Calendar is ready now, and for the month of October, it is priced $1 less than it was last year. Also available from the above images are coffee cups, refrigerator magnets and note cards. Click here to view the items and order on-line.

 

These Calendars make excellent Christmas presents and the magnets excellent stocking stuffers.

 

If you have a colorful NSS car, and a track photo of it showing a little air at launch -- you have a chance to get it in the next NSS calendar by taking the photo to Kinkos or Office Max -- and have them scan it at the highest resolution they can. Then email the photo's file to me at dave@oldhippie.com and give the particulars.

 

 

Milan Report From The MoparStyle Racing Team

 

We loaded up the coach and trailer on Tuesday 8/25, and my wife Deb, son Dallas, daughter Hope, and three dogs left at 9AM Wednesday towards Milan. The trip was not without incident. In East Texas a pickup truck pulling a 50' travel trailer and two tractor/trailers tangled in the rain and had both sides of 59 closed for over an hour. In Marshall, Texas we had a blowout in the trailer and that took over an hour to change -- and then another hour to get Walmart to mount a new tire on the rim. Again in Arkansas there was an accident that had us sit on I-40 -- and so we didn't pull in to Milan until early afternoon Thursday. Once there -- we had our usual pit at the end of Midway row.

 

Friday was rained out -- although we were able to get the cars teched in.

 

Saturday in the Test & Tune, we sat in the lanes for about 3 hours as water was seeping up in the left lane. A couple of cars would run and get out of shape -- so they'd close and try to dry it some more. I was in the left lane and spun horribly down the track -- before having to finally abort and lift at about the 1100' for a 9.9 at 119. We'd made so many changes to my car (clutch and suspension) that I wasn't sure if it was all the track -- or if my car was also part of the problem. We didn't get another opportunity for a Time Trial -- so I slowed my usual B/FX (9.50) down to C/FX (9.75) as I was unsure what the track conditions would be. The track was actually very good -- after the T&T, and I'm terrible with trimming off too much time. In my first Qualifying, I did a 9.49 lifting at the 1500' -- so it appeared to have been a bad choice of changing my Class. In my second Qualifying I was matched with a 13-second LeMans wagon -- so I couldn't gauge my speed with anyone close to me in class. I short shifted at 6500 and lifted at about the 1400' -- and took too much off, so I qualified poorly. Dallas just barely broke out (10.98 and 10.99 on 11.0 class) both times, and also qualified poorly in NMC.

 

 

In Sunday's eliminations -- Dallas red lit in the first round. I had a Broke Bye (when a Scotty Jiles Wheel Stand in the second round of Qualifying bent up his car some) and did a 9.74 - so it looked like I figured out how to slow down just enough. I drew a black B/FX Thunderbolt in the second round of Eliminations -- so I left first by a 1/4 second. I left and wrung the car out to the 1/8 and then slowed and waited for the Thunderbolt to catch up as to not break out. I beat him on the ET -- but I apparently slept at the light. I'd cut good lights in Qualifying and thought I had a good light on this run -- but the ticket said .111 against his .060, so I was out. I appear to not be doing well in the last three race chase.

 

At Zmax, I was knocked out in the first round -- the first time in over a year since I'd not gone at least three rounds -- dropping me from third to forth in the points. The Princess was in first but went out in the first round -- so she's now in second. Doug was in second -- but went three rounds -- so he's now in first. Skip was in third and went three rounds -- keeping him in third. Kurt was in 5th, but went four rounds -- so he's now passed me for 4th -- and I'm in 5th. I need to hit a homerun and have everyone fall on their face just to get 3rd after Memphis.

 

 

Silver Crown, who built my coach and trailer. was at the race. I had them look at my trailer because of how exposed the air bag hardware was to road hazards -- and if something happens to the airbags the tires get cut down. Silver Crown admitted that there was a problem -- and said they'd fix it -- despite the trailer being out of warranty. So after the race I drove west for 120 miles to White Pigeon, MI -- which is just above Elkhardt, IN -- and dropped the trailer off at 7PM Sunday. Since we were in the North and had a couple of days to kill -- we drove east 450 miles to Buffalo, New York (arriving at 2AM) so my wife could visit with her family. While there, we went to the Mecca of Chicken Wings -- the Anchor Bar, where Buffalo Wings were invented in 1964.

 

Wednesday evening we headed back to White Pigeon -- as the Amish who do these coaches work from 3AM to 1PM. The trailer had all three axles laser aligned, the wheel wells cut higher and new fenders installed, 6 new 12-ply tires, guards made for all of the air bag hardware, and even fixed a little dent in the front from when I jack-knifed the trailer backing in a Bradenton. Then, even though the coach was also out of warranty, they had four guys spend about 5 hours adjusting the awning, replace a generator switch, replace the rear camera, adjusted some windows to make them close smoother, cabinet latches, and make a few other adjustments. All of this was done at no charge -- long after the warranty expired. While there, I toured their facility where they make the motor homes and trailers. These Amish men are true craftsmen. Needless to say that I'm very happy with the company and I might be upgrading to a newer rig with a slightly different layout -- if I can find someone looking for a slightly used 2009 rig.

 

Back to racing -- the next race is the Monster Mopar Weekend at the end of this month, and then the final NMCA race in Memphis in October.

 

The fiberglass molds for the hood, bumpers, fenders, and tailgate for the 60 Plymouth have been made -- and the parts will be made this week. Mark Artis says he'll be starting on the paint and body as soon as he's received those parts. It should be ready and tested for the start of the 2010 NMCA season.

 

Again, all NSS and NMC have the ability to upload their racing photos and maintain a team blog at http://nssracing.ning.com/ -  along with checking on the future events listed or listing those not yet listed. None of this is rocket science -- you just have to make an investment of a couple of minutes to learn.

• Richard_Petty
• Superbird
• Magnum
• Walter_P._Chrysler
• Virgil_Exner
• Buddy_Arrington
• 600
• Roadrunner
• Diplomat

Looking For Mopar Show & Race Cars for 2010 Calendar

 

Every year I try to do a high quality wall calendar. Last year I did a couple.

 

click above to review calendar

 

This year I'd like to do several different calendars:

• Mopar Show Car Calendar. This would be some of the prettiest Mopars set in pleasing back and foregrounds. Spring has sprung up north -- and there ought to be some excellent settings to use for a photo shoot of your car.

• Mopar Drag Race Calendar. This would be track photos of Mopars having front wheels off the ground.

• Forgotten B-Bodies. I need photos of Chargers, Sport Furies, Magnums, Coronets, and Cordobas/300s on the B-body platform with model years 1975-1979. I might consider adding some nice J and R Bodies if there isn't enough variety of color in the Forgotten Bs, and rename Disco Mopars. Warning -- I'm way too deep in great photos of White Magnums.

• Nostalgia Super Stock. I'm looking for great launch photos of NSS car -- regardless of the make.

• Smokey Burnouts. I'm looking for both street and race Mopars doing Smokey burnouts.

• Superbirds, Daytonas, CHarger 500s, Mr. Norms, and other ultra low production Muscle Mopars.

This is the important part. Photos must meet all of these specifications for me to be able to use:

• Must be digital photos.

• They must be untouched (not cropped, color adjusted, brightness & contrast...) direct from the memory card of your digital camera 5MP or better. I have to have 300DPI 11.5"X9" photos after I have cropped them to fit. They cannot have been loaded up and resaved -- as the compression from resaving as a JPG kills the hi-res of the photo and make colors (especially reds) bleed.

• The cars and scenery have to be looking their very best. Clean, no glares, and no huge shadows.

Tips:

• Plan your location in advance. Know what time of the day the sun will be at your back.

• Overcast days help reduce glare, long shadows on the ground, and dark shadows on the lower parts of the car. Evenings and mornings have less glare -- but longer shadows. High noon -- and when the sun is high and bright is the worst time -- unless you have good cloud cover or a building at your back shades the entire frame of the photo.

• Takes dozens of photos and have a helper there to help move (rotate) the car so you get all angles.

• Turn the wheels slightly in the direction to see the wheels -- not the tire tread.

• Light cars need colorful or dark backgrounds. Dark cars need light backgrounds. Thumb through some magazines at the one the pros take.

• Shoot some photos standing, and some crouching for different effects. Bring a ladder or look for a higher location to shoot down on to the car.

• Tire in the grass most often don't work.

• Look at the entire location. Foreground, background, ground where the tires are. I can make telephone wires disappear, but not knocked over garbage cans, dead grass, a dog licking its boyz, a tree growing out of the roof, or other subtle problems that ruin photos. Look through the camera -- and move the car and objects that you can around the car.

• The format size of your camera and the format size of the calendar page will be different -- so I'll have to crop. As such you need to make sure to leave me room to crop left, right, top, bottom. Don't fill the whole photo with car -- but center the car to use 2/3 of the photo.

• Slight angles are typically better than head on or side views.

• Give me a big selection. Take 50-100 photos of your car and send to me on a CD.

• Include your contact information and a little about the car -- so I can correctly get your name, city/state, and the car yr/make/model the proper credit.

• Look for unusual backgrounds. Factories, flowering hedges, amusement park, grain mills, concrete pipe yards, mansions, statues, ......

• No people -- unless topless hard bellies  for my personal collection.

• Rotate the car for photos at least twice to try to catch better lighting conditions. Glare and shadows make or break.

If you have a CD full of photos -- you stand a better chance of having your car featured because of the great selection of angles and lighting. Send the CD to:

 

MoparStyle Racing

7723 FM 723

Richmond, TX 77406

 

On the other hand you only have one or two hi-res photos that meet the above criteria, and you're certain that they'll be a slam dunk -- email to me (they better be well over 1MB) as a file attachment at: dave@oldhippie.com and have the subject say 2010 Calendar.

 

I will only do a Top Shelf Calendar -- so I can't use anything less than top shelf photos.

 

The weather, sunlight, and flora is just right tight now -- why not make this a project for this weekend. You could use the photos of your car anyway.

Important - Report Spammers

Like everywhere else, we're not immune to asshole spammers. Report them if you are spammed -- and I'll ban them and delete their posts.

This is a brand new Internet site for those who either drag race Mopars, or are fans of Mopar Drag Racing. Membership is free and without strings. There is absolutely no affiliation with any one club -- all are welcome.

Members can upload their photos of Mopar drag racing, Mopar Drag Racing videos and upcoming Drag Racing Events that Mopar will be participating in -- and are encouraged to do so. We are mainly here for the photos, videos, and event updates -- and will leave the forums to the other sites.

If you like the concept of this site, I ask you to please invite at least five of your Mopar Drag Racing friends, and to tell others of the address. Oh -- and be sure to bookmark the address so you can return often to see the updated photos and videos.

Please, only upload good photos and Videos of Mopars in action at the track. We're really not looking for photos of cars in garages, photos of an unfinished car -- but photos worthy of being framed and hung on the wall. Feel free to add as many of your photos meeting this standard that you wish.

To maintain the quality of the slide show -- those photos not meeting the criteria will be removed. Don't not upload any photo which you do not have the permission to upload from the owner of the photo.

If you control a web site, check out the badges link at the bottom of the page for the code to have the photo slide show appear on your web site.