i'll have to get a weekend planned here before i start up school again this fall. might end up taking a mustang over that i've driven before and been successful with...its fast enough to run in pro so maybe i'll give it a shot. I hear you about only being as good as your competition... I'm one of the few people who will pull up to the #1 in points when everyone else is lined up behind them. you can't be the best unless you beat the best!

I dont know if you know Mike Taylor from up in mason city, but he's won a number of track championships here in No Box before buying a rail and switching over to S/P yrs ago, but before they chipped us in the lanes, i would literally hunt him down to race him every time i had the chance. That's kinda how we got to be buddies since we got very aquainted since i was always right there in his face trying to run him, he'd never been "hunted" before, his purpole firebird was the car guys would form a loooong line behind him just so they did'nt have to pair with the guy LMFAO!!! He was great at the stripe, his car ran the number, but he never once beat me on the tree, so i learned ALOT about dialing, playing finish line games, and how to drive the stripe from him and that year putting myself in harms way i learned ALOT, quickly because i had too...and years later it's helped immensely.

So to me, that's the kind of mentality it takes to be the best....i might not be the best ever, but i'll sure never let myself think i'll never be able to attaintment it, running or dodging a "fight"/hard round might keep you alive a bit longer, but i'm ALOT prouder knowing i knocked down the tracks best racers vs having a cake walk....but mentally i'm not all there anyways, so the smarter money move is to lay low and look for the easy fights/rounds...but there's no pride in that LOL!! but pride can make paying the bills tough sometimes LOL!!

Sucks to hear all the bad news, but sounds like you'll regroup and keep at it. Good luck!

LOL, what else can a guy do?? I'm too dumb and stubborn to give up even when i know i should....i hate losing at ANYTHING LOL!!!

Believe me, I know what you mean. The new car has given us so many "teething" problems it's been unreal. I've been trying to put a mild bracket type motor together and get some shakedown runs, but it just hasn't co-operated. I've been finishing up a very nice 496 this week/coming weekend and I think I'm just gonna hit it with a the big pills right out of the gate. WOT switch to activate a 400 shot and see what happens. - I try to sneak up on it and it gives me crap anyway; time to go out guns a blazing!

I like how you think

EXACTLY, it's either gunna go or blow, it really is that simple!!!! all this break in BS...not for me, drive it like ya stole it, if something breaks, make it better the next time.....Now we'll be using one of Callias top teir crankshafts and there will not be 1 cheap, junk, iffy part in it, but the time and money invested to this point...wow, but like most of us, it's alot easier taking a $4K chunk here, a $4K chunk there vs writing one check for $10-15K at one sitting.

There's a damb good deal for a 377ci turbo/blower built motor over on YB right now. Motown block and heads, all big $ internals, $5k.

I had just wanted to get a base-line on the chassis before I throw a bunch of power at it. I had baselined it when we got it and made a couple hits, but I had nothing to go by since building the front end and lowering the car over 4". It has since hurt bearings 4 times and junked two motors. I have yet to get anything even slightly decent; off the trailer first pass after all the work was a 6.51.....real impressive for 33x10.5w's... So far, it hasn't been back to that yet. I went 7.00 going through backwards on those donut passes....

Now I'm thinking, f* it, it goes straight; throw the power to it. Maybe I'll finally have at least one good pass out of it. lol. - My "break-in" procedure is to bring the oil and water up to temp twice and let it cool. Past that, if it's gonna break, it's gonna break; no amount of being easy on it is going to change that.

Well, got the BIL's old 355 over to the garage tonight and got the valve springs swapped out, now trying to play "mud packer" and find enough junk laying around to get it ready to drop into my car....mainly fasteners and pipe plugs, etc...so hopeing tomorrow to have it on the road and go blister the track with some low 12 second passes LMFAO!!!! I may just finish the year out running that buddies car i did good with last weekend, and then double enter my junker in the sportsman class up here for what should be an easy $200 if i can still kill the tree like the old days footbraking it But we'll see, gotta get it running and everything happy first before i start making too many plans for what and how i'll run it LOL!!

i just had a .004 .008 and then decided i was flirting with the line too close and a .033 off the footbrake getting in a car for the first time in 2 months lol. its like riding a bike