In the late '60s/early 70s, my father and Uncle Denson set up and drag raced a 1951 Starlight coupe. The home track was Little River/Academy drag strip just south of Temple, Texas - but they went as far as Victoria, Texas (150 miles south) to race the car. The car was had a 232/3spOD and raced in the stock class. The motor was "built" but every time they were protested, they would pull a head, measurements were made, put the head back on and then beat them again. They finally quit when they kept get putting further up in classes and were eventually racing stock cars with much larger engines.
The looked for every advantage they could. My Uncle crawled under the car with a can of gas and a putty knife and scrapped off a five gallon bucket of under coating. Every other bar on both grills were cut out. Six cylinder brakes were kept on the car with zero drag. And - they even altered the water pump... I was cleaning out the small garage my Uncle used to work in and found it again yesterday. I guess they believed that less drag from the water pump would be an advantage.
The looked for every advantage they could. My Uncle crawled under the car with a can of gas and a putty knife and scrapped off a five gallon bucket of under coating. Every other bar on both grills were cut out. Six cylinder brakes were kept on the car with zero drag. And - they even altered the water pump... I was cleaning out the small garage my Uncle used to work in and found it again yesterday. I guess they believed that less drag from the water pump would be an advantage.
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