[Coco] Coco FLEX (well, "degenerated" to cars...

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 11 May 2007, farna at att.net wrote:
>On Thursday 10 May 2007, Richard wrote:
>>On Wednesday 09 May 2007 18:33:20 Ron Delvaux wrote:
>>> Frank ...
>>> I am a Coco fan and a Mopar guy...
>>> www.chargeron.com
>>> my uncle had a couple of Marlins ...
>>> where do you live?
>>
>>Hey... do they still race at Watkins Glen? I was there for the 68 Gran
>> Prix. I heard that they don't do that anymore 8-(. BTW, My Ford is better
>> than your Chevy 8-)))).
>
>Yeah, but on a quiet night you can hear both of them rust. Mopars too :)

That's why I have a RAMBLER!! ;>

Chuckle.  I never had a Rambler, but did have a 49 Ambassador for a couple 
years.  Unusual engine design for a 6 cyl.  The usual overhead valves, driven 
by a camshaft that was positively square and probably around 270 degrees 
duration, using mushroom tappets with cam faces about 1.75" in diameter in 
order to handle the square lobes of the cam.  When everything was running 
right, 21 mpg at 115mph (clocked) the length of South Dakota.

But it had serious rust problems by the time it was 10 years old, and by then 
I'd replaced the brakes, wheel cyls, drums and pads 6 or 7 times because they 
weren't any bigger than the Ramblers brakes & you got warped drums everytime 
you had to scrub off more than about 50mph in a hurry.  Dinky little 9" 
drums, 2"wide in front. 1.5" wide in the rear.  Shoulda been on a go kart, my 
130mph C super dynamite burning version needed brakes like that.

The downfall came one night when I got tired of listening to a ford driver 
brag and tossed the title on the counter for a 2 block drag in 1st gear, 
winner takes both titles home.  I had a switch on the gearshift that I could 
use to lock it in overdrive.  When the hand went down, he got a 15 foot jump 
while I was trying to keep from stalling out taking off in low/overdrive, but 
that was as far as he ever got, and 2 blocks later I was watching his 
headlights in the middle mirror.  His flathead ran out of air at about 5 
grand cause he had a set of 11/1 heads on it with no block relief (and I knew 
that), and I broke every ring in that 236" six because a 4 & 3/8" stroke and 
nearly 7 grand equal way too many feet per second in piston speed for the 
rings to survive unbroken.  4000 fps is considered to be the upper limit 
except for dikes pattern rings, which might go to 5000 and survive.  They 
came out a couple of days later in pieces no bigger than 1/2" long.

I let Tom keep his ford, on condition he sthu about it.  I even tried to 
explain why he lost, but he couldn't see past the polish on those 11/1 heads 
to see the real problem.  I built a 49 mercury with 8/1 heads & a couple of 
pounds of missing cast iron in the right places about 6 months later.  It 
could turn 6000 rpm all night long.  And stomped all over Toms ford again...
He was a slow learner at the blackjack table too. :-)

But, that was all 50 years ago now, so I guess I'm showing my age again.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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