[Coco] CoCo crew old car reference

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 02 June 2017 19:56:15 Ron Klein wrote:

> Hi Gene,
>
> You just keep getting better with age, sir.  Love the fact you dig
> cars!
>
> Can we get a Coco for cars mail list?  :)
>
> Thanks for sharing!
>
> -Ron
>
Thanks Ron. A decade later, married to a good woman, I got into go-karts, 
class C super at the time, so I've put some time in one of those things.  
Curious to see what it top speed might have been while burning gas (I 
used quite a bit of castor oil and booze at the tracks) I had a friend 
with a big olds he was pretty proud of give me a tow to get started one 
Sunday afternoon when I was living near Rapid City, and once It was 
running, I dropped the tow rope & waved him on. While the olds was 
laying a thin cloud of black smoke, I pulled out to see what was coming, 
nailed it and blew the doors off that olds.  Ran off and got lost, then 
about 6 miles on up the canyon a motor mount came loose so I had to 
coast to a stop just before an old abandoned school.  He came over the 
hill behind me with that olds singing soprano, but got stopped just past 
me. I picked the master link in the drive chain and he towed me back to 
the house with what was left of the tow rope.  I asked what he was 
topping at once we were home and he said about 135 on one straight about 
a mile after I'd passed, and never under 85.  I'd never lifted my foot, 
taking those corners with lots a rear end hanging out.  I learned more 
about handling corners on the ragged edge than I ever learned in a std 
sized car. Bending up the grocery getter is bad form.

To this day, if you really want to learn how to drive, put in 4 or 5 
years in the seat of a 20+ horsepower, 120+ mph go-kart.  That 
experience stood me in very good stead a few times on motorcycles.  I am 
here today because I knew what to do when things get "interesting" 
during about 250,000 miles on 2 wheels.  But as I went past 60 yo, I had 
sense enough to know my reflexes weren't up to the ragged edge stuff 
anymore, so I sold my last ride before it did me in.  Like Clint said in 
one of his movies, a man has got to know his limits.

> On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 5:59 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> 
wrote:
> > On Friday 02 June 2017 17:29:11 farna at amc-mag.com wrote:
> > > I've had an AMC Rambler since 1979! A few might remember the 91-96
> > > or so CoCoFest years when I usually drove my green 63 American
> > > from Warner-Robins, GA, to Elgin. One night Allen Huffman, Linda
> > > Podraza, and someone else (can't recall now!) went into Chicago to
> > > eat at the Hardrock. Taxi slammed on brakes in front of me in town
> > > on the way home. I caught his back bumper on a front headlight.
> > > The headlights on the old Rambler are at least 2' off the
> > > ground... that's how hard that idiot stood on his brakes! Luckily
> > > I rode a motorcycle a lot -- as soon as I saw he was going to stop
> > > I looked for a way out -- knew I couldn't stop fast enough, even
> > > though I wasn't going fast or following close. He started to go
> > > through a yellow light... gunned it then changed his mind (no
> > > traffic, back road!) abruptly and stood on the brake with both
> > > feet!! Well, at least he got out and looked at my car, then his.
> > > Only bent the back bumper a bit on his late 80s LTD... so he said
> > > no need to call the cops (might have been drinking...). Jeez...
> > > well, thanks for that anyway! Fender was crushed into tire. I had
> > > a tow strap in the trunk. Hooked it to lip of fender and a
> > > convenient light pole, backed up and pulled fender out. Holed the
> > > radiator, but I had a gallon water jug too! Filled radiator, drove
> > > 30 minutes or so, stopped, refilled, repeat twice more. Finally
> > > got in about 4 AM IIRC!! Tony was a little worried...   What an
> > > adventure!! I ended up staying at Tony and Linda's a couple days
> > > while a local shop fixed the radiator, beat the fender into enough
> > > submission to drive home. Got a LOT more comments at gas stations
> > > and such with the crunched fender... lots of condolences!!
> > >
> > > Sold that car in late 1999 when I found my current 63 Classic
> > > wagon. Built myself, everything but paint (and I did spray the
> > > interior paint and primer on outside!).
> > > Jeep 4.0L EFI engine, slightly modified, Jeep AW4 four speed (OD)
> > > auto trans with custom manual shift controller, late 80s T-bird
> > > rack and pinion steering, late 80s Jaguar independent rear
> > > suspension. Only four wheel independent suspension/disc brake
> > > Rambler on the road! Also has a cobbled together AC system with
> > > the original 63 inside unit, Jeep 4.0L Sanden compressor, late 90s
> > > Chrylser LS parallel flow condensor, universal dryer. Seats are
> > > from an early 90s Eagle Premier... power buckets in front, along
> > > with the console from the same. It's a mild hot-rod with the
> > > hopped up six. Still gets 22-24 mpg on the highway, averages
> > > around 20 mpg combined. Built it to drive -- was my daily driver
> > > while I was in the USAF, from late 99 (well, basically 2000)
> > > through 2008 or so. Retired in 2007, got a J-10 for work around
> > > the house, later replaced with a Ranger. Wanted to rebuild the
> > > J-10, just ran out of time/money... well, mostly patience as the
> > > build was going too slow and I needed a truck! So sold the parts
> > > off and got the Ranger. Worst thing I ever did!! Still have the 63
> > > wagon, doing some slight upgrade work on it now. Will be driving
> > > it up to Kenosha, WI, in late July for an AMC Homecoming show,
> > > happens every three years.
> >
> > Backup another 30 some years to when it said Nash on it, 49
> > Ambassador, 4 door. The main thing it lacked was enough brakes to
> > haul it in from around 120 mph without cooking the drums a 1/2" out
> > of round.
> >
> > That big tall stroker of a 6 cylinder with teeny pistons running a 4
> > inch stroke was a blast.  I needed to snug up the conrods and reseat
> > the valves shortly after I'd bought it, but in those days Motors had
> > the cam timing figures right in their big blue book. Amazingly the
> > timing was quite early, possibly to help the low end torque, but
> > after doing a port and polish on the intake manifold, and finding a
> > bigger throated Carter single barrel that I bought a bag of assorted
> > jets and needles for, I lagged the cam timing a tooth on the chain. 
> > It bucked the starter too, so I had to rig an ignition retarder,
> > then pulled the timing back up for best idle.  By 2500 revs I could
> > hear a light ping, so half the weights in the distributor left, then
> > there were none on the next reassembly.
> >
> > That head, combined with flat topped pistons made a squish area that
> > got more violent as the revs went up. That counteracted the lack of
> > any spark advance over and above the 30 some degrees it idled best
> > at.  The tappets were mushroom shaped faces, 2" in diameter, and the
> > cam lobes were as square as any I've ever seen.  That engine could
> > take a deep breath and mean it. It was full race then purposely
> > detuned.
> >
> > But when the light turned green, and low gear had made it to around
> > 2500, from there on it was Katy bar the door. This was circa late
> > '55, and there was only one vehicle in Iowa City that could dust it,
> > a 55 chevy with the 270 horse Duntov engine in it.
> >
> > Still single, I could throw a suitcase of dirty clothes in it, hit
> > old US 6 for a run to the folks place in Redfield & use mothers old
> > Easy Spindryer, about 30 miles west of Des Moines, running 90 to 125
> > indicated all the way and getting at least 19 mpg.  Iowa had a speed
> > limit on the open road in those days of "reasonable and proper".
> > That was the funnest vehicle I ever had. Few factory cars could
> > touch it. For the lean angles it gave in the corners, it still stuck
> > like superglue. Some of those long sweepers on that old road I'd set
> > it into the corner, straighten the wheel and steer with the
> > throttle.  Highly enjoyable times, those.
> >
> > Back to your regularly scheduled programming now.
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > --
> > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> >  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>