Hot Rod Todd
Member
By now, I was living in Gisborne & coming to New Plymouth each month to do business stuff. Our maintenance guy here in New Plymouth knew that the dude who did our fire security was into hot rods & put him onto me. Next came an invite to Arthur & Low (local hot rod hangout) and the sad tale of the Mopar bucket came out.
Naturally, they suggested I buy another one, with the large body, a rollcage already fitted, and then fit a big block Chev to it. Amazingly, there was one for sale just down the road. Took Raz bucket for a drive and bought it less motor & box. Simple plan was to fit a very mild 454 and blower and go cruising. But the chassis needed some work and soon a full rebuild was underway. Some time later, I told my wife Rowena I was ready to sell my Mopar bucket. When she asked why, given that I had always planned to keep it till I was 50, I owned up to owning another one already.
A few shiney bits got added to the car and soon I was out of control again.
Took nearly 2 years to get it all done, but this bucket is everything I wanted. I had a go at drag racing, and was amazed how slow I was, and how hard racing was.
Then I thought I might need a C Cab and so advertised for another bucket and found one. Bought that and hinted to Rowena that I might get another bucket oneday and got shot down big time. Quickly sold the bucket to another mate and got out of jail free.
I persisted with racing the bucket and finally the car has started to run some good times. 10.215 at 132mph is pretty cool for a street legal car, but now I think a 9 second street car would be even cooler.
The car was the quickest on the day at the NZ Hot Rod Magazine club champs" this year, with the guy who rebuilt the car for me being the second quickest in his 55 Chev sports coupe at 10.3 .I have found that racing with a bunch of mates is way addictive, and the travelling and camping together are great times.
I have been told that a bucket is a beginners hot rod, so after seven of them, Im a beginner with lots of experience.
Hot Rod Todd
Naturally, they suggested I buy another one, with the large body, a rollcage already fitted, and then fit a big block Chev to it. Amazingly, there was one for sale just down the road. Took Raz bucket for a drive and bought it less motor & box. Simple plan was to fit a very mild 454 and blower and go cruising. But the chassis needed some work and soon a full rebuild was underway. Some time later, I told my wife Rowena I was ready to sell my Mopar bucket. When she asked why, given that I had always planned to keep it till I was 50, I owned up to owning another one already.
A few shiney bits got added to the car and soon I was out of control again.
Took nearly 2 years to get it all done, but this bucket is everything I wanted. I had a go at drag racing, and was amazed how slow I was, and how hard racing was.
Then I thought I might need a C Cab and so advertised for another bucket and found one. Bought that and hinted to Rowena that I might get another bucket oneday and got shot down big time. Quickly sold the bucket to another mate and got out of jail free.
I persisted with racing the bucket and finally the car has started to run some good times. 10.215 at 132mph is pretty cool for a street legal car, but now I think a 9 second street car would be even cooler.
The car was the quickest on the day at the NZ Hot Rod Magazine club champs" this year, with the guy who rebuilt the car for me being the second quickest in his 55 Chev sports coupe at 10.3 .I have found that racing with a bunch of mates is way addictive, and the travelling and camping together are great times.
I have been told that a bucket is a beginners hot rod, so after seven of them, Im a beginner with lots of experience.
Hot Rod Todd
