Perri Nelson's Website 

A perfect end to a great weekend

Pain and Beauty

Sometimes things just don't go right when you're getting ready to make a pass down the track. It's usually best if those things happen when you're only running time trials. If they happen during eliminations your day can be over in a hurry.

This beautiful hot rod had that problem yesterday. It was a member of the first pair to head for the line during the second pro-bracket time trial. As you watch the video you'll notice a car being pushed across the screen. That car broke down on the starting line during sportsman time trials.

The hot-rod pulled up to the water box to do a burnout and waited. Race engines don't usually idle very well. They make their power and torque higher up in the RPM band than street cars, and some of the design considerations make it hard for them to keep running at only 6 or 700 rpm.

The car stalled, just as they were getting ready to spin the wheels. They couldn't get it started, and so it had to be pushed back.

After a few minutes they fixed the problem, got it started and were back in the water box. When things go right, it can be a thing of beauty. Now that the car was running again it made a 10 second pass down the strip.

Indy Pace Car

I watched a 1978 Corvette Indy Pace car make a pass down the track yesterday. It's really sad that from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s Corvette performance was so dismal. This car appears mostly stock, and runs a mostly stock E.T. for that era, solidly in the 15 second range for the quarter mile.

While I was at the track I was thinking that every 1978 Corvette could be turned into a pace car replica by buying the decal and stripe kit, but I think I was wrong. There WAS a year where that was the case, but I don't think it was 1978 now... I'll have to do some more research I guess.

Here's some detail on the 1978 Corvette Indy Pace Car from The Tail Gunner's Spot. I think The Tail Gunner wants a lot more than it's worth though, even if it's a numbers matching car.