HISTORY OF WAGONS OF STEEL 4
Apr 23, 2013

Mike and I started going to the weekly bracket races together. I drove the Mighty Josephine and he rolled in his '69 Chrysler Newport. We were sporting 40+ feet of American steel, baby! We both got our asses kicked over and over again. There are so many ways to lose a drag race. It's amazing, really. If you aren't a decent sport then this isn't for you! We joked that we were going to have to race against each other to get a round win. We met many interesting people and found all kinds of new resources.

By this time I had discovered that the more weight you can pull out of the car the faster it will go. 100 pounds equals one tenth of a second in the quarter mile. It's like free horsepower! Josephine went on a serious diet. The running joke was that wherever she parked, she left behind a pile of green parts. Anything that didn't make the car go got chucked. Absolutely everything was removed from the interior, most of it was fusty old crap anyways. As shipped, a Chrysler C body station wagon weighs 5500 pounds, give or take. I got her down below 4500 pounds.

I scored an oddball non power front seat from a '76 Imperial. It was a super comfortable fake leather affair but it was shockingly light. With no sound deadening or headliner Josie was seriously loud inside. I could listen to one of the many 8 3/4" differentials expire as I drove. Two ton drag cars eat them up, yum! I frequently carried a spare and everything reeked of gear lube. I remember picking up a hitch hiker one night, he gets in the back door but there isn't any seating of any kind. I hit the gas and he goes all the way to the tail gate with the beer bottles and coffee cups. I really drove it that way every day for a year or so. I even road tripped it over a hundred miles to the Woodburn Dragstrip for the Mopar drags, raced it and drove home!

COP CAR SHOOT OUT ON YOUTUBE
Apr 11, 2013

I went and checked out Hot Rod editor David Freiburger's web show "Roadkill" to see the Ford Crown Vic vs. Chevy Caprice cop car shoot out. It was worth it. The Crown Vic won, of course. Everyone knows that I am a die hard Mopar guy but I love my '03 Ford Crown Vic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVTz2lSePSw