Ok I'll bite on this one. But is this first car or first hot rodded engine?
First car was a 49 Nash at the tender age of 13 couldn't drive on the street
but there was the driveway and surrounding block though the street it was
pretty quiet. 1 clutch later it was a 54 Chevy unfortunately the old
'dipper' rods were not up to my demands.. First real car with a drivers
license was a 1960 Pontiac Safari wagon with a 389 and 4 speed auto air,
power seats, power windows the works for that era even had the 8 lug wheels.
paid 75 bucks And was second owner in 1968. Later had 3 carbs and then a
broken transmission. Do you know there are 1256 parts in that thing.. never
did get it fixed but did buy a lot of atf trying.. From there a 56 Chevy
with a 265 and a glide then a 55 Nomad with a 327 and a 3 speed stick
actually a lot of 3 speed trannies went through that car first gear was like
it was made out of peanut butter.. At the same time helped a buddy race a
C/gas dragster was around 350 inches if I remember right and went a whopping
9.50 at 140 or so with hilborns and 2.02 heads vertex mag and all that
stuff. the only electric thing I never got to work right was a Judson flame
thrower ignition. Weird looking distributor with 2 flat caps and a lot of
stuff going on inside. Now for first hot rodded engine picture this. I was
working at a Gulf station at the time and it made them crazy when I went
next door to fill up on Sunoco 260 as the 327 had it's fair share of
compression.
At the tender age of twelve it is my job to mow the lawn. We have a Jacobson
2 stroke lawn mower that is pretty sluggish.. So with a hand file I open the
port windows both wider and deeper convince my neighbor hot rod buddy to
weld me up an expansion chamber and regear the wheel drive for a little more
rpm it was only v-drive pullies and drive belts...
So here I am much to dads dismay cutting the grass at 8500 or so no tach so
who cares as fast as I can run behind it with open exhaust and he thought
the 49 Nash would slow me down LOL.. Same neighbor showed me how to weld
with a torch and build a split exhaust for it using a oxy-acetylene torch
and coat hangers for a rod. And that was more than the trans would take ..
Before and during that I was passing wrenches to my neighbors crew working
on a old coupe running at Stafford Springs with a 301 Chevy and 3 carbs.
Carl 'Buggsy Stevens ' drove it. If I had only known at the time who he was
and what that was all about but at 6 or 7 who would have guessed? Built a
few engines later in life for him when he was 'somebody'..
Dave
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