STILL RACING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Jun 4, 2013

I've gone racing a couple of times this month at my local track, Bremerton Raceway, the way I used to in 1994--in a 1972 Chrysler Town & Country street car. Running in the mid fifteen second zone at ninety miles per hour, "Goldie" is almost five seconds and 35 mph slower than my stocker. She is a real bear to handle on the starting line. I figure she takes .180 second longer than my usual ride to spool up and leave. It's like pushing a boat away from the dock. She weighs 5000 pounds and her suspension components aren't really tweaked for the strip. We know a lot about how to make these big boats hook up but we also know that traction can equal destruction to the stock original transmission and rear end. Let's just say I haven't won yet but I've driven home to tell the tales!

Last weekend Dr. Big Block drove the Mighty Josephine II at the Box/No Box Nationals and won a round. The big beast ran mid elevens at 115 mph all day. We still have a lot of ideas for her. Stay tuned.

HISTORY OF WAGONS OF STEEL 4
Apr 23, 2013

Mike and I started going to the weekly bracket races together. I drove the Mighty Josephine and he rolled in his '69 Chrysler Newport. We were sporting 40+ feet of American steel, baby! We both got our asses kicked over and over again. There are so many ways to lose a drag race. It's amazing, really. If you aren't a decent sport then this isn't for you! We joked that we were going to have to race against each other to get a round win. We met many interesting people and found all kinds of new resources.

By this time I had discovered that the more weight you can pull out of the car the faster it will go. 100 pounds equals one tenth of a second in the quarter mile. It's like free horsepower! Josephine went on a serious diet. The running joke was that wherever she parked, she left behind a pile of green parts. Anything that didn't make the car go got chucked. Absolutely everything was removed from the interior, most of it was fusty old crap anyways. As shipped, a Chrysler C body station wagon weighs 5500 pounds, give or take. I got her down below 4500 pounds.

I scored an oddball non power front seat from a '76 Imperial. It was a super comfortable fake leather affair but it was shockingly light. With no sound deadening or headliner Josie was seriously loud inside. I could listen to one of the many 8 3/4" differentials expire as I drove. Two ton drag cars eat them up, yum! I frequently carried a spare and everything reeked of gear lube. I remember picking up a hitch hiker one night, he gets in the back door but there isn't any seating of any kind. I hit the gas and he goes all the way to the tail gate with the beer bottles and coffee cups. I really drove it that way every day for a year or so. I even road tripped it over a hundred miles to the Woodburn Dragstrip for the Mopar drags, raced it and drove home!