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Bracket Talk Bracket Talk Forum General Discussion - by FTI where do old "retired" race cars goGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| where do old "retired" race cars go | Login/Join |
| DRR Trophy |
one thing I have always wondered is where do old "retired" race cars go? I've never seen many in junkyards. do they get chopped up when no longer raced? I have heard of some people hang them (or pieces of them) in their shop even some on their house. J.K. Hodges | ||
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| DRR Pro |
My bet goes towards thousands of them sitting in shops, getting waxed and tinkered with to this day. Some old racers just don't have the "energy or the health" to get a trailer ready, a tow truck ready, the race car prepared for a long hot day at the track. Add to that the sport in general, for purpose built "old school style drag cars" has passed them by. I am 71 and still lucky enough to have the health and support of my wife to continue doing this. Just built a S10 from frame up (pretty sure this is the last one tho ;-) and this year we are looking at making racing 24 events in Iowa, none paying less that $5000 to win. Once in a while, like at the local Night of Fire, we see some cars come out that I haven't seen since the late 80s. They are there, just getting waxed and a nice car cover. I don't see younger racers buying them as they are pretty "old school" in todays electronic world. It is usually the son or daughter who brings them out eventually. | |||
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| DRR Sportsman |
I thought they wound up as dragstrip signs in North Carolina. | |||
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DRR Pro |
I buy every one I can find  In the camaro world one piece floors and trunks are cheap and easy to install, they sell all the metal to convert them back to original. People are getting silly with prices these days though so its getting tough. I recently threw out 6 main hoops from cars i've brought back over the last few years, some of them were nice tigged moly ............... | |||
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DRR Pro |
There's a guy near me that has about 40 race cars in a barn, not for sale....  "Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular." Dave Cook N375 | |||
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| DRR Trophy |
I spend a lot of time tracking old race cars and their current whereabouts. Many cars get restored to stock if they were something special when new. Some just keep getting modified over and over to the point where they are unrecognizable of their past self. I have 5 old race cars (pre-1982). One of them (ex-Stocker) is a street car now. The other four are still race cars, with two of them having been since new, and two since they were just a few years old. One truthfully hasn't been down the track since 1984. Two of the other three were raced in the past two years, the other has been sitting a little longer. | |||
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DRR Top Comp |
Well, the Nova I built with my father in 1985 is still running or was 5 years ago. If had cash I would go make an offer to buy it back.. Why should old race cars be retired? America home of free. Brought to you by 2nd amendment. | |||
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| DRR Sportsman |
Agreed. Just cut the "old" out and you'll have a new car again. If someone did it right the first time, you will have minimal work to do or at the very least have a template. | |||
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| DRR Top Comp |
I have owned some old race cars. Had a Don Ness pro stock car raced by Larry Mprgan, had an original 70 Camaro that was one of the original Pro Stock cars and if any one remembers I had the original Mega Ford. Sold all of those 3 years ago and have never seen or heard of them since. I also know where one of those 50 original factory 426 Hemi cars is. Many years ago someone broke in there and stole the fender data off of it and I have since seen a car claiming to be that car at prominate car shows. The family that has it won't sell it and having passed through 3 generations of non racers that building will fall down and it will get junked. | |||
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DRR Pro |
Eventually they end up in the hands of somebody who "is gonna restore it one day." Mike | |||
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| DRR Elite |
by the time you cut all the old out of a stocker or super stocker type car built in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, you'll have built a new car with an old rusted/rotted body that cost you more to rebuild than it would cost you to build a car from a street car. | |||
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| DRR Sportsman |
Hopefully, some retired race cars end up in a museum. That would be the perfect spot for Dan Fletcher's Checkmate Camaro. https://www.holley.com/blog/po..._nhra_national_wins/ | |||
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| DRR Elite |
I'm sure there will be a Fletcher driving that car for a long time after Dan retires. | |||
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| DRR Pro |
The other place old race cars sit is the "I'm not gonna sell it for less than it's worth, I'll just let it rot" camp of people. Of course, if it were for sale at an actual realistic market price (i.e. what it's really worth) it would sell, so...they rot. Mike | |||
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| DRR Trophy |
I remember an National Dragster article, that Dan Fletcher wrote himself, about his stocker Camaro. He wrote about having it converted from a backhalf bracket car to a stock floorpan 'Stocker' similar to HS Professor's story about street cars. I thought that article detailing that was so cool when I was younger. | |||
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DRR Sportsman |
One of the old Raymond Beadle Funny Cars sits on top of Bebo's Cafe in Pilot Point, TX. Dan "Jim" Moore Much too young to feel this damn old!! | |||
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| DRR Sportsman |
Is there an archive that we can search to find that article? | |||
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DRR Top Comp |
I think this is dead on, Jok. We see some cars come out for big events, like Night of Fire, but especially for KRP's nostalgia weekend. I think health is part of it, and the other is the level of competition has really gone up as new products help cars get more and more consistent, and help drivers improve reaction times. I think part of it too is the switch to 1/8th mile for a good number of tracks. I hear it a lot from old timers, they prefer 1/4 mile, and some choose to leave it parked rather than what they call half track. Keystone is trying to bring some of those cars and drivers back out, with a footbrake only 1/4 mile class for cars 1978 and older. '81 Cutlass, KX05, Keystone Raceway Park Millerstown Pic-A-Part, Tarentum, PA Wholesale Transmission, New Kensington, PA Thinking of Nikki and Mark - forever 53 | |||
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| DRR Trophy |
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| DRR Sportsman |
So if you had an option of the following stock or super stock cars, which one would you choose from top to bottom and why? 69 Camaro Stocker 427 69 Camaro Super Stocker 427 69 Corvette Super Stocker 427 98 Firebird Super Stocker LT1 350 Cobalt Super Stocker SB2 GrandAm Super Stocker LT1 350 | |||
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Bracket Talk Bracket Talk Forum General Discussion - by FTI where do old "retired" race cars go
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