[robtcorl]

I guess there's a lot of South Dakotians of Norwegian descent

A lot of Germans settled around here because it reminded them of their homeland.
Perhaps for Norwegians, South Dakota was just the miserable place they were looking for.

[Parallax]

Perhaps for Norwegians, South Dakota was just the miserable place they were looking for.

LOL
The really masochistic among them decided SD wasn't extreme enough and moved on to North Dakota and Minnesota, dontchaknow.

[lesmore49]

I think it would be fun to have a class of car racing where the teams receive their car brand new from the showroom on race day morning.

Results will tell people how good the cars coming out of the factory are.

Back in the early 1970's the SCCA...(Sports Car Club of America) used to have showroom stock car races. The cars were in different classes...according to power to weight ratios, sedans, sedans with sporting pretensions and so forth. This is from memory so I'm probably off a bit here or there.

Anyways back in around 1972/73 Car & Driver magazine did some tests (handling, acceleration, braking , top speed, etc.) on showroom stock cars and from those tests made recommendations about which was the best all around candidates for the.... different.... SCCA showroom stock classes. The lowest class was the Econo car class...entry Toyotas, Datsuns, Ford Pintos, Vegas, etc.

The magazine staffers actually ran these cars around a twisty race course to see which cars set the best times around the track...looking at which brakes faded first, which cars handled best, accelerated out of the corners the quickest...etc. Remember showroom stock back then...meant just that, cars that could be bought off the showroom floor of car dealers. Not some hotted up shell of a car that looked from 20 feet like a stock car....but actually was a stock car, that you could buy.

For the econo car class in 1973, I recall the two best cars they recommended were the '73 Datsun (Nissan) 510 sedan and the '73 Toyota Corolla sedan.

They specifically recommended a relatively rare version of the '73 Toyota Corolla...the basic, 2 door post sedan, with no carpeting, just rubber floor coverings, no radio...an absolute stripper. But they also recommended you get one of these bare bones 2 doors with all the delete items as mentioned...with the optional engine, which was a 1600cc, 4 cylinder with a Hemi head, which looked like one (albeit smaller) bank of a first gen 392 Chrysler Hemi V8 of the '50's.

The normal engine was a 1200cc OHC 4 banger and this 1.6 Hemi 4 cylinder put out significantly more power and torque than the normal , smaller 1.2 liter 4 banger Toyota engine.

They also said get the optional bigger wheels/ tires and front disc brakes. These were 13 inch wheels, rather than the normal 12 inch wheels and front drum brakes.

I had just graduated from U. and I started scouring the Toyota dealers for such a car. Most of the dealers said they didn't have such a delete option , stripper with a big engine and O/S wheels, disc brakes and why would they...who would want it. It's an economy car, people don't want a little hot rod, they want a small engine, fuel sipper with carpeting and a radio, even better an am/fm with a 8 track cassette player and a rear speaker.

But I did...a stripper, delete all, big tired, disc braked, Hemi engine Corolla and finally found what I wanted in a back lot of a city Toyota dealer. I bought it. Think they were glad to unload this car as it had been there for too long.

Didn't race it. But it was all that C&D magazine said it was...insofar as performance went. Nope, it wasn't a Corvette with a L88 engine, but for a small econo car it had surprising performance. .

I do recall that it would handily blow the doors off of Toyota's much more expensive Sportscar...the Celica of the time. No surprise really...goability is all about power to weight and good gearing.

So yep, there was real deal showroom stock road racing at one time, but it only lasted for a short time and that was close to 50 years ago. Too bad. Probably safety and liability concerns shut it down, but I'm just guessing.

[Racer X 69]

Hooked up with an old friend yesterday. We took his latest project out for a ride.

You Tube

You Tube

Pay no mind to the mindless banter.

You Tube

You Tube

Why do I need a K3? I got an iPod for that stuff . . . . and it does video.

[lesmore49]

LOL
The really masochistic among them decided SD wasn't extreme enough and moved on to North Dakota and Minnesota, dontchaknow.

When I was a kid, spent a lot of time in North Dakota and northern Minnesota. You could always tell someone who had Norwegian antecedents...by the number of oofda's that peppered their speech.

[Parallax]

by the number of oofda's that peppered their speech.

Oh, sure youbetcha.

[lesmore49]

Hooked up with an old friend yesterday. We took his latest project out for a ride.

Dart GT Warmup - YouTube


Pay no mind to the mindless banter.

Covid 19 Colby Cruise - YouTube





















Why do I need a K3? I got an iPod for that stuff . . . . and it does video.

Nice Dart...what does he have...a 273 or a 318 ? Or...a 340 ? Saw part of it, couldn't hear the conversation, maybe his engine displacement was mentioned and I didn't catch it.

[robtcorl]

It's a good thing Mark's cameras have SR.

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes New Zealand near Wellington

[Racer X 69]

...by the number of oofda's that peppered their speech.

Neither my friend nor I have any Norwegian in us, but by listening to our conversation in the Colby cruise video you'd think we were by all the oof das that peppered our talk.

To be even more Norwegian like, I humbly apologize for our potty mouths.

[Racer X 69]

It's a good thing Mark's cameras have SR.

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes New Zealand near Wellington

About 28 miles, 45 klicks.

Pretty close, especially living on an island.

An island formed by volcanic activity.

[Parallax]

I grew up (okay, okay, was born and raised in California; AKA earthquake central, so I was used to them. In the mid 80s I was assigned to March Air Force Base in southern CA.
Mrs. P is from the Midwest which almost never experiences earthquakes.
We hadn't been in SoCal long and, one particular night I had gone to bed and was sleeping soundly when I was awakened by "Jim, Jim, JIM!
I woke up to see my lovely wife braced in the bedroom doorway excitedly saying "Can't you feel that?????"
I said "Yeah, it's an earthquake"; rolled over and went back to sleep.
Wrong move.

[Racer X 69]

Nice Dart...what does he have...a 273 or a 318 ? Or...a 340 ? Saw part of it, couldn't hear the conversation, maybe his engine displacement was mentioned and I didn't catch it.

At about 60 seconds into the warmup video I get to the engine bay and linger there until about 1:45. At 1:34 I lean in and get a great shot of the air cleaner, which has CHARGER 273 on it.

So one would think it is a 273, and checking the VIN would confirm it is a 273 car. Bu the 273, 318 and 340 all looked alike and were not easy to distinguish.

This car actually has a .030 over 318 in it.

He bought the car in near similar condition as the red 67 Dart GTS 383 he has, although this car was considerably more complete (the red car was tthe body shell, on a rear axle, nothing else), it was in boxes. The engine had been rebuilt, but not assembled. The carburetor was missing. Al lot of stuff was replaced with NOS parts, wiring switches and such.



I'm partial to the GTS he has though.









By the way, these pictures were made with my K-1, further proof I don't need a K-3.

[MarkJerling]

It's a good thing Mark's cameras have SR.

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes New Zealand near Wellington

It was a pretty decent shake this morning. I was standing in the Kitchen having breakfast when things got a bit wobbly. We're pretty close to Levin as the crow flies. As a plus, my grandmother's clock which has been tempramental of late started working and is still going now, so the shake seems to have been good for it.

GeoNet: Quakes - Weak and above

GeoNet: Quakes - Moderate and above

Lots of activity this morning.

[MarkJerling]

About 28 miles, 45 klicks.

Pretty close, especially living on an island.

An island formed by volcanic activity.

I'm happy to report that my new pizza oven foundation seems fine. But then, it is completely over engineered.

[MarkJerling]

Pancake weather.