TEROL wrote:It's a shame the direction our sport is going in. When I was a kid there was a race car in every driveway. You couldn't visit them all in one evening. Kids now-a-days think a clapped out Honda with a BOOM-BOOM stereo, blacked out windows and a fart can muffler is a fast ride. They will never know the sense of accomplishment in building something and making it work and then refining it. No.......can't get dirt under my nails,or screw up my orange hair,and heaven forbid I get grease on my down around my arse shorts. Nope.....easier to hump up on the couch with my Buds' and have Mommy bring us chips and soda while we play X-Box. This is the bunch that will be running the country in twenty years. Glad I won't be here to see it.
-WOW this pretty much sums it up, kinda wish i said it first...you nailed it!!
I'm 30 y.o and I'm proud of my greased old pants, because they say I work by myself to achive my goals at the strip.
I lost the count the times, late in the weekend nights, I helped my friends with their cars just to see them all togheter drag racing in the next day or week.
I guess this new generation needs to prove things on the virtual world wich is much easier ....
But we need to prove things running on four wheels.
'71 Z28 street strip car
Pump gas All motor SBC 427
3308 lbs-29x10.5 Hoosiers
NEW BEST ET
1.38 60' / 4.05 330' / 6.32@111.25mph
What I've seen as a problem,,has been the expense of getting done,,,what needs to get done.I remember when I was in high school,,Ooo-weee,,that was a long time ago,,all of my friends and I would get together and go to the wrecking yards and scronge for parts,,that was OUR video games and after we got all we needed,,we would make appointments to take the engine to our local machine shop,,and we would then spend a weekend putting it all together,,we would all chip in to pay for the machining and all in all,,we could build a pretty respectful engine for about $150.00 each,,you could figure that the engine would end up costing,,TOTAL,,about 700 bucks,,but NOT NOW,,NOW,,you would have better luck squeezing blood from a turnip,,finding a decent machine shop,,and that really suprises me,,living here in North Ga.Most everyone here goes out of state or purchase online,,whatever engines the need built and that is a cryin' shame,,I don't want someone to build it for me,,I wanted to do it myself.I gave up trying to get kids interested,,even if they want to race,,the don't want to work,,they would rather take the car or truck,,to a shop,,tell 'em what they want done and then,,pic it up and go street racing on Friday night,,and if it breaks,,,tow it back to the shop.I get asked all the time,,"why are you wasting your time on that gen1 small block?",,when you can get an engine built for less than the machine shop will cost ya,,and again,,that's if you can even find a shop.I realize,,that the parameters for building horsepower have drastically changed,,if we would have seen an ls1 engne,,back when I was in high school,,we would have been looking at a high dollar race engine.The local circle track,,"Dixie Speedway",,used to pack 'em in on Sat night,,not anymore,,oh yea,,,Atlanta Dragstrip,,Atlanta Motor Speedway,,even Atlanta Road Course,,will get fairly big crowds,,but they are just FANS,,not motorheads,,my big thing was always to get my hands on a pit pass and even as old as I am,,it still is,,but none of my friends want to go with me.SO,,that is why you have trouble getting help,,the "Technology,,The expense,and just the time involved",,has buried the involvement..It's sad that this American tradition has been put out to pasture.OK,,I'll shut up,,it just saddens me that racing as well as a lot of other things,,will never be a part of society like it was,,but I still get to watch car movies like "Dazed and Confused,,Hollywood Nights and others,,which still gives my fix.
I use to run around the local dirt track where my dad had a car running, when I was about 8 years old with a grease rag sticking out of my back pocket.. I thought I was the man! Grew up going to nascar races and helping daddy in our backyard shop. He'd let me turn the 10 million bolts on a transmission pan with his hand operated speed wrench. Now I have my own race car and have everybody and their brother offering to drive for me. All of em telling me to " Let me know if you need me to help ya!" I couldn't get one of em to help my if my life depended on it. Tell em to come over and help but never see em. I remember going with my dad to work on their car( about 4 of his friends went in together) and there was friends there helping who didn't have anything to do with the car. But not today's kids. I think the computer in the cars now adays and all the sensors and such ran the regular would-be soon to be mechanics away. today you got to have computer knowledge and mechanical talent and so few of them around.
I phone, I pad, I pod, I, me, myself-Help? not the way society is geared now a days. A community of friends is based on followers of a particular facebook account or you tube channel. Everything you want and or need is a click away. No need to ever leave a bedroom. Sad it is. Stationary Engineer by trade (maintain high rise buildings) I get to see many different companys- money management, stock brokers, gaming, law firms, and very rarely will you actually see someones eyes. Its not the ground that has their attention but rather a phone, a device of sort. Somehow they feel connected to something that isnt there. All the while there is this whole world around them and would have no clue if I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead. Actual physical labor and the comradery associated within a group of guys focused on a similar goal and achievement is rare. I may be wrong but from my understanding with talks with my father at car shows, swap meets and drags, is not every guy could afford a rod. Car clubs were groups of guys dedicated to the same thing, cash flow or not. When one guy did get a car( possibly thru another car club member) everyone pitched in with parts, labor morale support, and knowledge from past experience. Money has always been tight for many, money has never been a problem for many. I really do think it comes down to the effort, the TIME. Everything can happen so fast now a days, and unfortunetly I dont think theres an app they can load on to there tablet that jumps out and builds the car.
Hello all, my first post with speedtalk figured this would be a great place to start as opposed to a "what cam" question. Name is Ray, street/strip 55 chevy 210 Ive had since high school. Wanted to be a machinist, engine builder, spent three years knocking on every machine shop door in the bay area to sweep floors, clean equipment whatever. Took block machinig courses, very short stint at SAM (hated Houston) none of which put me thru the door so I jumped in the trades. Thanks to all who are on here, very greatful to be apart of the community.
In the last 3 years my shop have sponsored 3 cars at our local 1/4 mile circle track. We built the motors for the cars and they took care of most other expenses like tires, gas, entry fees etc.... They cannot do it all alone in the pits though so you always had to have at least one guy with to help. The track would charge $35 per person for a pit pass and if you had 2 people helping you out then that really starts to add up quick weekend after weekend. I never understood why your pit crew helpers paid $35 to get in but the spectators only paid $15.
I never understood why your pit crew helpers paid $35 to get in but the spectators only paid $15.
That's because the promoters know that us guys coming into the pits are coming in because it's something we want to do, or feel that we need to do, or can't live without, like breathing. On the other hand, the fans don't always have that compulsion. Many of the fans are just making an entertainment choice, so the promoters have to be careful not to chase them away with a higher price.
I never understood why your pit crew helpers paid $35 to get in but the spectators only paid $15.
That's because the promoters know that us guys coming into the pits are coming in because it's something we want to do, or feel that we need to do, or can't live without, like breathing. On the other hand, the fans don't always have that compulsion. Many of the fans are just making an entertainment choice, so the promoters have to be careful not to chase them away with a higher price.
never heard of pit helpers being charged more than spectators!
-that's just plain WRONG!
I never understood why your pit crew helpers paid $35 to get in but the spectators only paid $15.
That's because the promoters know that us guys coming into the pits are coming in because it's something we want to do, or feel that we need to do, or can't live without, like breathing. On the other hand, the fans don't always have that compulsion. Many of the fans are just making an entertainment choice, so the promoters have to be careful not to chase them away with a higher price.
never heard of pit helpers being charged more than spectators!
-that's just plain WRONG!
Yup Very wrong. The track that was doing that shut down for good last year because of low car counts and not fans in the stands.
this pretty much sums it up, kinda wish i said it first...you nailed it!! 
