Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Time to pull out the popcorn and take a seat. Drama in air racing ain't a bad thing at all - as it happens a lot more often then most care to know about

Looking foward to the next post Larry

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Time to pull out the popcorn and take a seat. Drama in air racing ain't a bad thing at all - as it happens a lot more often then most care to know about

Looking foward to the next post Larry

Heeey Cobra.. GREAT to chat whicht'ys in the new digs tonight!

Oh the drama!! Ain't it great that Larry's got the energy to share here! Some priceless stuff goin down in this thread to be sure!

Keep up the good work BluffMan!!

[Double ugly]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry's an incredible man. He's accomplished more in a lifetime than we could only dream of. We meet for lunch at least once a week. I can never hear enough of his exploits. I bought a formula car from him many, many years ago and we became instant friends, at least in my mind. I always stopped to see him when in AZ. when I was starting a business there. I love the guy and would walk over hot coals for him. A lesser man would given up years ago with the problems he has. One hell of an example for me.
John

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I guess I should explain comments about me being a "stand up guy" and my humor regarding that. My brother tried to post some pictures that would have shed some light on that, but couldn't get it to work. I tried to post it for him on post 96, but the photo was very small and probably not legible. It was a photo of a congragulatory party thrown for me when I "solo'd" for my pilots licence by the Scottsdale Airport manager and others. It was quite a shin-dig. It clearly showed me in my wheelchair. That's where my "humor" comes from. I have been confined to a wheelchair since 1959 from a bout with polio. After serving 5 years in the Air Force, I was discharged in January 1959, and about 4 months later got the polio. After months and months of treatment and rehab I gained use of my body from the waist up. At the Long Beach, California Veterans Hospital I was very fortunate to have been assigned to a wonderful therapist named Jim Ford. He recognised that I was a very determined patient and he worked my ass off to build up my upper body strength. By the time he was done I looked about like Mike Tyson, and had strength to match. The counselers at VA told me that I had two choices, be a clerk typist, or a watchmaker. I told them they were full of you know what, and that I was going to be a race car mechanic. Of course they thought I was nuts. I had been around racing all of my life, my father was killed in 1951 in a racing accident, but the "Brothers Burton" were not diswayed (sp) by that, all 4 of us ended up at the Indianapolis 500 in one way or another. Funny thing, in 1962 Dale and I build a sprint car to race in the California Racing Association, and I had to go to the VA for some corrective surgery, and while there convalescing Dale would pull up to the ward I was in, towing the sprinter on the way to Ascot Speedway and I would "escape" and go racing with him in my "hospital whites", and he would drop me off after the races, usually after having a few beers at the 190 Club near the track. The docs and nurses never caught on. Of course there is a lot more to this story and how I got to Reno with Blind Mans Bluff. It is late and my fingers are getting tired, so I will close this post and continue later assuming there is interest in how I fullfilled my dream.
Larry

[wolfee]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

so I will close this post and continue later assuming there is interest in how I fullfilled my dream.

Assuming there is intrest???

My good man; This one thread has us all captivated!
When I log in every day, this is the first thread I look at. I just have to see if there is another instalment of the BMB story by Bluffman.

Please continue to post! this is good... no... GREAT stuff!

Wolfee

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

assuming there is interest in how I fullfilled my dream.

Are you kidding!! You have us all captivated! Inspired, in awe and on the edges of our seats waiting for the next installment!!

I've GOT to figure a way to work with you to get the photo upload thing working for your brother!

I'm going to PM you with my phone number, maybe I can figure it out that way...

Wayne

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Assuming there is intrest???

My good man; This one thread has us all captivated!
When I log in every day, this is the first thread I look at. I just have to see if there is another instalment of the BMB story by Bluffman.

Please continue to post! this is good... no... GREAT stuff!

Wolfee

Well said - and I couldn't agree more
luvin every minute of this thread

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

You got it Wolfee, more to come. Thanks Wayne, I will contact you soon regarding how to post photos. I am moving this week-end to a new home, and may be off line for a few days. If there is a delay in getting my internet transferred I will have John or Ron post something about that.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, escaping from the VA hospital to go racing. I got out of there, and we kept on racing the old car, and doing pretty well, and having lots of fun. Brother Dale was getting better each race and we started running other tracks like Gardena, El Centro , and probably some others that I don't recall. I was in and out of the VA off and on, but went racing whenever I could. I started being asked by other car owners to build engines and such and Dale started getting offers to drive other cars. He sold the old car and went back east to run with the "big dogs" in USAC, and ran some IMCA races too. I kept busy working on other sprint cars in California, and Dale made a lot of friends back east on the sprint car circuit. I am kind of skipping along here, just hitting some high points or this would become a full fledged book. I became a regular at the sprint races, working mainly on the Bob East Car #56. We had some real good drivers, several who would become Indy 500 drivers. Bob's son would become famous for his "Beast" midgets, sprint cars and champ dirt cars. One night at Ascot Speedway Louie Unser, brother of AL and Bobby, told me I was wasting my time out there in Calif doing the sprint car thing. he said that I should go to Indy, and I said, "Oh sure", they're going to let me in there in a wheelchair? He told me to go and if I had any problems just call him. I will jump ahead to a year or so to 1966. My brother Joe was working on an Indy car team owned by Walt and Joe Michner, Steve Stapp was the chief mechanic, and Joe called me and said they needed an engine man. I said sure, why not? They were working out of Hollywood, and that sounded pretty cool. I go up there and I was confronted with two 4-cam Indy Ford racing motors, completely dismanteled and piled into some shopping carts. I had never seen one of these engines, let alone worked on one.These things sold for $26,000.00 in 1966 dollars! I was hired, and I started separating pieces and laying them out to see what all was there, man, those things had a lot of parts, dozens more than the Chevys I was familiar with! Steve told me that A.J. Foyt had a shop in Long Beach at Reath Automotive, and I should drive down there and talk to him.This car had been bought from A.J.and was driven in the 65 Indy 500 by Al Unser. There was a man named Leroy Neumier (sp) and he had a long talk with me and gave me a small"manual" on these engines "wished me luck" and if I had any real problems, give him a call. To cut to the chase, I put the engines together the way it looked like they should be. Timed the cams like Leroy said they should be, put one in the car, a Lola. We were running late and had to get to Indy, so off we went. We got there and got all unloaded and through Tech inspection, etc. Then it came time to fire up the engine. When they bought the car they never got one with it. The starter was not mounted in the car, it had to be plugged in externally. I went to one of Foyt's garages in Gasoline Alley and asked if I could borrow one. A.J. was there, and he asked me if I had ever fired one of these monsters up. I told him, no, I have never even heard one run before. He said he would come with me and check me out. Man! Here I am at Indy, and A.J. Foyt is offering this "rookie" some personal help. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. He plugged the starter in and spun her over, and I had my hand on the throttle arm, and the other hand on the switch. He kinda nodded his head and I flipped the swith, and all hell broke loose! That thing roared to life, and it was screaming like a banshee, I kept jazzing the throttle to keep it running, and it seemed to want about 1300 RPM to keep going. I was watching the temperature guage and when it started to show a little heat I started reving it up and down, it sure was touchy, no oompa, oompa, like a Chevy, more like a screech, screech, very load, and extremely high pitched. I kept my eye on A.J. as much as I could, and he finally gave a signal to shut her off. I sat there for several seconds trying to digest what I had just done, and then asked Foyt, "is that what it is supposed to sound like?" He looked at me with a little grin and said, "just like that!" and walked away. What an experience! The situation came up about my credentials and pit badge, and all I could think of is that this is not going to be a pleasant experience. They didn't think that I should be there, I might get hurt or something. I told them what Louie Unser had said, and they walked away saying they would get back to me soon. They came back much sooner than I expected, which to me spelled "doom". They had a piece of paper that they said they were going to pass around, and if three qualified people signed it they would give me my licence and "Silver Badge''. I never saw it but I was told that 37 people had signed it! I WAS IN! This was the beginning of a long road that would lead me to have the self confidence and audacity to in later years attempt such a project like Blind Mans Bluff. There are some other incidences more auto racing oriented that may seem out of place on this thread, but trust me, and bear with me and you will see the connection to BMB.
Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

It's getting late, and bedtime, but I feel compelled to add another experience that added more to getting my self confidence to the degree that would be needed later. The 1966 Indy caper was a one race deal, so I went back to California and started doing some more sprint car stuff. Don Edmonds, who had been in the indy 500, had started building sprint cars, and a guy came to me and wanted me to do some repair work on one of these cars. I needed some chassis parts, so I went to Edmonds shop to get some. As I was going towards the back of the shop to find Don, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye, and I froze on the spot. There sat a Mc Claren Can- Am or also called a Group 7 sports car. It was basically like an Indy car with a beautiful streamlined body, open cockpit. It was Pearl White with candy red and candy blue stripes running lengthwise. I was just sitting there stunned by the flowing lines, and beauty of this magnificent vehicle. Suddenly a deep voice behind me said, "Do you like what you see?" All I could respond with was"I love it!" He said that he had heard of me, and told me that his chief mechanic had just quit, and would I like to work for him? I was quite stunned, I had never seen one of these road races, and this would be quite a challenge. He asked if I was up to the challenge, and I said "why not?" He said we would need to get the car to Chicago and get it ready for the "Road America 500", at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. So, off I went again not having a clue what I had got myself into. In Chicago the race shop was at "Nickey Chevrolet, a large Chevy dealership connected with Dan Blocker (Hoss/Bonanza). I needed some help so I called brother Joe in Indy, and he told me that a kid that I knew was available, he was working for an Indy team and was being paid almost nothing. This kid was John Redican, I also knew his dad, Ski Redican a racer, mostly midgets. I called John, and asked him how much he was making, and I won't disclose it here, but it was absurd! I told him I was in Chicago, and if he could be here the next day I would pay him $200 a week and all expenses. He wanted to know what he would be doing, and I told him he would find out when he got to Chi-Town. He was there by noon the next day, and when he saw the car he was dunb-founded. Said it sure is pretty, what is it? We took the car all apart, magnafluxed the suspension parts, etc. I almost forgot, the owner/ driver was Charlie Hayes. He told me to call and order two TRACO Chevy race engines. John and I were coming along fine with the chassis, and were anxious to get the engines. In a couple of days the secretary for Nickey brought me some mail. It was dyno sheets for the two engines. I waited for 3 or 4 days, and the engines had not arrived, so I called TRACO (the premium engine builders at that time) I was informed that the engines were not done yet, and my response was "then why do I have dyno sheets? IT had hit the fan, as they say! In a couple of days two engines showed up, and I smelled a rat. Supposedly when these engines arrived they were "race ready" just drop them in and go racing. We put them on engine stands and took the completely apart. They were just factory short blocks with crummy heads, etc. We didn't have time to mess with those guys, I built them like they were supposed to have been, and added a few touches of my own. Fortunately Nickey was the factory race parts source, so we had lots of pieces to choose from. We needed 16 connecting rods, 8 for each engine, so we drew 20 rods from stock, and picked out 2 sets of 8. I had the blocks line bored, had my choice of pistons shipped in and ordered some camshafts like I thought would be best for road racing. You get the picture, I was doing it my way... again! We got the engines done, and I had ordered two sets of sprint car tuned exhaust header kits, and had a friend make me some "short convergent" megaphones to my specs. The usual sporty car headers ran through the engine bay and out the back like a speedboat. We built the headers upside down, running then out the top of the engine cover, and back along the top of the body with those bad- ass megaphones on the end. I had learned this formula from an old- timer motorcycle racer from Germany back in 56 when I was in the Air Force. I better get with the program, it's getting real late. We got to Elkhart and sort of looked the place over. It was a 3.7 mile course with some interesting corners, some elevation changes, and a long straight away that came down a hill that was lined with trees. They called it "Thunder Pass", with the noise bouncing off the trees or something."They ain't heard nothing yet!" The first time Charlie came roaring through there with those megaphones blasting away was something to behold. I made my best guess on what springs, shocks, and gear ratios would work. (we had a 5 speed constant mesh Hewland transaxle.) (this was a rear engine car) Charlie went out for the practice session and said everything felt pretty good, but wanted a different ratio gear in third. It was time to qualify, and Charlie put something that rain wouldn't wash off on them. A new track record by 2 1/2 seconds and 2 seconds faster than second place qualifier. I kind of pulled a fast one for refueling during the race. Their rules were not very specific. The other cars would come in for fuel and they would have to unlatch the rear body and swing it up and they had some big funnels that they would pour gas from jerry cans into the tanks. I had had the guys cut the tops off 2 55gallon drums, and weld a fitting on the bottom for a hose. The pits had a roof over them, and once the race started we toted them out and put them up on these roof things and I had brought some aircraft fueling hoses, like in a gas station only bigger. We cut holes in the side of the body that we could reach in and refuel without raising the body. After the race started the boys toted gas cans up and filled those 55 gallon drums. (I hadn't found any rules against that) Made the firemen crazy, but so what? We were able to make 38 to 40 second pit stops, while some of the others were 2 to 3 minutes. as the race went on we were 5 laps ahead of second place. With about 40 miles to go the water temp started going up, and I could see vapor coming out of the left exhaust.We had developed a crack in an exhaust port. This was common with the high performance head castings in those days, due to core shift. Charlie started babying it as much as possible, but some cars were unlapping us. He came by with one lap to go, and the motor was struggling bad. Coming off the last turn for the checkered flag he was still leading, but the track went uphill slightly to the finish line, and he and Chuck Parsons had a photo finish. We thought we had won, but the photo and clocks said we lost by 1/100 of a second. I have the story and records in my scrapbook. Close, but no cigar! But the point of this is that I went to a track I had never seen, built engines, and set up a chassis to do something I had never done (road racing) but it was another step in building confidence that I could analyze a project and have reasonable success. Another step towards BMB.

[wyhdah]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry, I'm loving this thread including the auto racing stuff. I think I speak for us all when I tell you to take the thread where ever you like. This is great reading for us gearheads. Keep it coming.

[ebutner]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry,
This is amazing stuff here. You have us riveted. I got hooked on are racing while CM was still racing and it was always a favorite of mine and my sons. Thank you so very much for sharing with us. I am showing these to my 13 year old son and he is also excited to read them.

Eric

[Double ugly]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Keep em coming, Larry. Do we get you moved on Friday? If anyone wants to come to Phoenix to help Larry move I'll pick you up at the Sky Harbor and put you up.
John

[wolfee]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Keep em coming, Larry. Do we get you moved on Friday? If anyone wants to come to Phoenix to help Larry move I'll pick you up at the Sky Harbor and put you up.
John

DON'T tempt me!

[Double ugly]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

DON'T tempt me!

Too late, I already did.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I'm in the middle of moving, but will try to get another episode or two posted before I have to move my computer to my new place and get it set up. They said they would have me set up there on the 18th, but you know how those "cable guys" are. I left off after the Elkhart race which was sanctioned by USSRC. I think that was United States Sports Racing Club. I continued the season with Charlie, but now we were running with the big guys, factory teams, etc in the "Can-Am Series". Canadian- American Challenge Cup, Bruce McClaren, Dennis Hulm, John Surtees, and others including Parnelli Jones, and other notable drivers, one of which was Jim Hall and his Chapparels. This was like the Silver guys running the Gold race at Reno. We were running "small block" Chevs, because nothing bigger would fit our chassis, mostly 333 cubic inch, and once and a while we would try a 364 cu. in. The 333 (a 327 with .040 over bore.) was actually quicker at most tracks. Some of the competition was running big block stuff, 427's, and some cases 454's. We ran Montreal, St. Jovite Canada, Watkins Glen, NY, Riverside, Calif, and several others. Charlie held his own with some good finishes. At Watkins Glen he set a new track record, and then Jim Hall went out to qualify and he went damned near 10 seconds faster than Charlie! He was running his new "Chapparell" with a 454, and it was in his new car that had a big rear wing that must have been all of 6 feet high, and was mounted to the rear uprights (hub carriers) and put all of the downforce directly on the tires, not on the rear springs. The downforce had no effect on the rear springs and the chassis set- up. It worked pretty good, but was troublesome, the structure to mount this wing would bend, break and do all kinds of strange things. On one occasion he had I think it was Surtees driving his team car, and he came off the corner and down the pit straight, and the link that controlled the angle of the wing broke and the wing started flapping up and down, and since it was hooked directly to the rear tires the rear of the car started jumping up and down, an it looked like a frog leaping down the track. This all happened while running probably 150 MPH, so you can imagine how it must have felt in the car! One other humorous moment that comes to mind also involves Surtees. I think it was at Laguna Seca, Surtees was driving a Lola, and Parnelli Jones was also in a Lola, but with one of those 4 cam Indy Ford motors, supercharged. They went out for a practice session and P.J. caught up to Surtees, and he kept blocking him so he couldn't pass him. Well, Parnelli, an old midget, sprint car, and Indy driver was not someone who put up with this kind of crap, and Parnelli punted Surtees off into the dirt and that didn't set well with Surtees, and after the session was over he made the mistake of confronting P.J. about this and promply got punched in the nose. To move on, we went to Las Vegas for a race, and Charlie had a hell of a crash, up in the air flipping end over end and bouncing off the ground now and then. The car was absolutely, completely destroyed. He was unhurt, but his Can-Am racing was over. The team was disbanded, but we had another McClaren that was pretty much outdated and I had put it together as a "Show car". As I was clearing out the mess, disposing of assets, etc. I got a call from a young racer named Brett Lunger. I recalled seeing him run and he was pretty good. Unfortunately he had crashed his Lola, and needed a car for the upcoming race on one of those Carribean Islands, and it was a big deal . Funny, I can't think of the name, I'm sure I will have a hell of a time getting to sleep tonight thinking about that. Anyway, I told Brett that all I had was the show car. He asked if there was any way possible that I could put something together for him because he really wanted to run this race. He had tried everything to find a car and had no luck. I told him to let me think about it, give me his phone number and I would call him back but I could sense the despair in his voice and I got that old feeling "I can do this!" and I said, O.K. I will put something together for you, how much time have I got? He said two weeks. What have I gotten myself into this time? Charlie had given me two of the engines we had been running to settle up wages, so I took the two and made as good an engine as I could. Most of the parts on the show car were stuff we had pretty well used up. Brakes, transaxle, steering rack, and about anything else you can imagine. This was going to be tough, I had no helpers, just me. I went through everything as best as I could, mainly concerned that I wan't going to give him something that could get him hurt. Somehow I got things together in the time allotted, and he came and picked it up. He was so happy when he saw it that he got tears in his eyes. You'd a thought I had just saved his life or something! I waved goodby and wished him luck, and away he went. A few days later I got a phone call from Brett. He had finished second in the race to Hap Sharp who was driving one of Jim Halls winged Chapparrels. He was one happy camper, and asked if I would consider going to work for him, at least building engines because he had never had that kind of horsepower before. All I could think was, little did he know that I had put that engine together from a bunch of used parts. "Sometimes things turn out right" I declined the offer of working with him gracefully, because I wanted to do the Indy 500 again. The name of that place will come to me, probably in the middle of the night. When it does I will post it. All for now, bed time, more moving to do tomorrow.