Stewart is still in Great Falls his number is 406-788-6479. He still has Nitemare and is still racing. I spoke with him this morning and he may be giving you a call as well. It is funny that Ruffo is now in Montana. I look forward to seeing that old girl again. haven;t it seen it run since Bowling-Green many years agao! Jody
Jody,good to see i'm not the only one here running a stock eliminator car here,Except Zane'350 Apollo.Last time I raced stock was 85.My new car is 2 years in the works and 50% complete.Motor should be going to the dyno late March I hope!I didn't know Manly had nhra legal rods for the buick.I'm using TA/Crower rods,any reason?or personal choice for using the Manley rods? What size header & collector are you using?
Jody, very interesting project. I always admire the stock and super stock guys. Was intersted in the anti roll bar you made for the rear of your stocker. I have a Chassis Engineering on my NSS car and it has worked fine, but this is a true 4 link car. I'm wanting to come up with one for the 83 Regal that still has stock suspension. I have run this car once and it twist up awful. Left wheel 2 feet in the air and the right one still on the track. Hope to get it back to the track this year with the wife and daughter driving and don't want them to have to fight it. Thanks, JIM N.
Jim N. I have seen first hand back-to-back runs with the addition of an HR rear bar on a 10sec 67 GS. The difference was nothing short of phenomenal. (Jim Shiels, The GSX on the board) Jim Rodgers has also had great results on his blue car with one. I'm sure it either also works on a G-body, or they make a bar for one.
RE Jim's Question: "Jody, very interesting project. I always admire the stock and super stock guys. Was intersted in the anti roll bar you made for the rear of your stocker. I have a Chassis Engineering on my NSS car and it has worked fine, but this is a true 4 link car. I'm wanting to come up with one for the 83 Regal that still has stock suspension. I have run this car once and it twist up awful. Left wheel 2 feet in the air and the right one still on the track. Hope to get it back to the track this year with the wife and daughter driving and don't want them to have to fight it. Thanks, JIM N." The anti-roll bar I fabricated was a bit challenging as the NHRA rules state that all traction devices must be bolt-on. Some racers take liberty with this by drilling extra holes here and there to mount brackets etc., but since the car is so original I did not want to cut, hack or even drill any additional holes in the frame. Basically I hand fabricated two box sections that in effect wrap around the rear shock supports and utilize the two shock bolts and two holes that already exist in frame towards the rear of the car on each side. Once these sections were bolted in place on the frame, I welded a stiff DOM tube 2" diameter X .25" thick between these two sections to each box section. This ends up being the bolt in support structure for the antirollbar. ( If you do not need a bolt in support structure you could weld the tube directly between the frame rails - better)I then went through an iteration or two adapting an after market rollbar to my support tube with limited success - most of the aftermarket "universal" anti-roll bars are not universal and look great in the packaging but do not work. So I designed my own anti-roll bar pieces went to my local Metal Supply house and had them plasma cut sections and welded them up utilizing only the greasable bearings and Heim adjustable drop links from the aftermarket kit. To mount the drop links to the rearend housing I built a set of clam shell type clamps with anti-rotation features that are bolted to each side of the Pumpkin. (remember NHRA says bolt on traction devices only) You would probably be able to weld the drop link mounts directly to the rear end axle tubes. (better) The anti-roll bar alone will greatly help a stock suspension car by reducing the chassis twist and getting more power into the ground but it alone is not the total solution. If the rear-end suspension geometry in the car is not correct and not sufficiently stiff the car will launch level but you will still be spinning the tires. The real ticket is getting the correct springs, stiff suspension links and correct geometry in addition to the anti-roll bar. The rear suspension is a system just like the motor which is only as good as the weakest link. The performance advantage you will see with an anti-roll bar will depend on the rest of the system surrounding it. The real advantage is the consistency in the launch as you are removing yet one more variable in the physics of the launch - chassis twist. If you would like some more detail just email me at m900rider@hotmail.com.
