Old drag racer

[daryle]

Just putting this here in the hope someone may get a laugh or find it interesting.
Going back to the mid seventies i purchased a 351 4 speed xy. Went for a drive in a very good friends phase 3 and was simply blown away. I worked at fords and i could have purchased an exec driven phase 3 for $4200 but i just could not extend my father's credit to that limit so the falcon 500 351 4 speed for $2600 with 28k miles on the clock was mine (well actually the bank's). I managed to find an ex racing long motor and did a swap for my motor plus $500.
The race motor had no inlet manifold/carby/exhaust. 4 dot heads were slightly modified with shortened valve stems and a little tickling of the ports but not very much as you all probably know these heads were best left unmodified. Rods were polished and the block inside had been cleaned up. Cam was an American circuit track ford DIZZ i forget. Dizzy was twin point phase 3 6250 cutoff. Got engine into car with an edelbrock torker and a holley 850 with a set of HM headers. Car ran well but seemed to run out of puff just when it was really getting going and was getting slightly sick of the 6250 dizzy cutoff.
Forked out a heap of cash for an accell BEI and boy what a difference that made. It actually smoothed out the really rough cam idle and it revved like there was no tomorrow. Suffice to say that 1 day later i put a "leg outa bed" and was up for a new conrod and a sleeve. If memory works i think a mass over rev with a missed 1st to 2nd change was the cause. Engine rebuilt and off to calder raceway. Part of the fun was driving there and with a 3.00-1 diff it was no problems. Got to calder, dropped the exhaust, fitted formula 500 rims and tyres (13 inch? maybe 14?) which gave me good traction and dropped my ratio to around 4.00-1. Unfortunately calder was only sanctioned for 1000 yards at that time but i ran a healthy 10.89/107. 1 memorable run was against a serious drag racer from Sydney, white 351 XA with those seriously big flat slicks. I beat him and he wanted to punch me and called me a cheat etc, all very funny. For well over 12 months i was never beaten off the track. Went all over victoria winning $50 drags against some of the most unusual cars you could imagine. 351W in a tc, 440 dodge challenger (no limited slip diff, biggest cloud of smoke i have ever seen lol.) EH holden 6 gave me a hell of a scare, 750 hondas,even the 812 (?) kitted versions were easy meat. 900 kawasakis were unbeatable, they just jumped off the start and i could never catch them. Had a few police chases and finally got caught when i blew up the engine for the last time while doing a runner. I admit i am an old "hoon" but i would do it all again. I live in Geelong and if someone remembers who i am then please respond.