Publicity for the Forum

[Gerry]

As you may have seen on recent posts we have managed to get a mention in the UKs NSRA bi monthly magazine. I have been 'talking to' the editor and suggested that I could write a short article on the TBucketeers Forum, He has accepted so here we go.

I did mention in my emails that we have some 'big names' from the world of Rodding and drag racing and that I would do some research for background stuff. (I might of mnetioned Ted, Mike, Screaming Metal etc etc ... ooops).
OK so heres the thing.

I need you all to suggest who should be mentioned and what their input has done to help the up and coming Bucketeers. This is only a small run magazine (probably around 2500 issues per run) but as the UK NSRA is affiliated with the European guys it will be seen by a lot more people than that.

Come on guys, help me out here.. dont be shy and let me know/give me you bios to base the article around.

Gerry

Mike and Ted. You cant get out of this so start writing

 

[deckofficer]

Gerry,

You probably have this info on Ted, but in case not, a little copy and paste.......

Friday, January 2, 2009
Ted Brown: T-Bucket Chassis Designer Extraordinaire

Ted Brown was a young hot rodder from Minnesota who heeded the advice to "go west young man" to seek fame and fortune. Man, was he ever successful!

After arriving in Southern California, Ted had the opportunity to see Norm Grabowski's "Kookie" T-bucket at the famous Bob's Big Boy in Toluca Lake and "was totally blown away". "That car is what got me wanting to build those types of rods," Ted said recently. But first Ted went into partnership with another legendary chassis builder, Chuck Finders, and contributed to the success of many of the nationally successful A/Gas Supercharged cars of the day, including Stone Woods & Cook, K.S. Pittman, Jr. Thompson, Hamberis & Mitchell and, my personal favorite, the MGM-C & O Hydro AG/S Austin pickup.

About 10 years ago, I bought a set of the California Custom Roadsters (CCR) T-bucket chassis plans and blogged about them last year. I was particularly taken with the CCR logo image with its rakish lines and sleek top.


Not too long ago, I was looking at an old Rod & Custom from the early 70s and noticed an uncanny resemblence to the CCR image in a Ted Brown Chassis ad.


After researching my old magazines a bit more, I then made the connection. The first ads for the CCR plans, which ran in 1973, referred to "Plans & Data for building the famous Ted Brown/Bill Keifer Chassis." I then learned that Ted established CCR in 1971 with Bill Keifer as his partner; the CCR plans were Ted's unique, original design; and Ted was eventually eased out and no longer given credit for his unique frame design which was built by CCR into thousands of T-buckets and by plan set purchasers into many more thousands (estimated at 4000 T-buckets in 1977). Net result, Ted Brown is perhaps the most influential, yet totally unrecognized, T-bucket chassis designer of all time.

Today, Ted is "retired" in Bakersfield, CA and still driving his T-bucket which has racked up over 200,000 miles and has been home to a variety of engines, including Buick nailhead as well as big block and small block Chevys.
Posted by John at 7:40 PM

 

[one finger john]

Hmmmmm ...... I'd like to hear about that Oklahoma man of mystery, Screaming Metal. Who is he?

 

[RPM]

One that comes to mind that visits here some is Fluid Floyd aka George Cathey. George does all kinds of R&D for GM on the road racing Vette programs. George is also given credit for coming up with the Star Wars fabbed 9" Ford rear end housings we see in Pro Mods and Pro Stocks of today. Google his name and see what all this man has done for Drag Racing suspensions and as usual it trickles over to our hot rods.

George Cathey

 

[Ted Brown]

Hmmmmm ...... I'd like to hear about that Oklahoma man of mystery, Screaming Metal. Who is he?

Me too.. hehe come on now; someone must know the man himself... A fella can't talk about himself, well some did and/or do, and some can't, I reckon...

 

[Old Rotor Flap]

Gerry,

I would think rodders all over* UK and Europe will be thoroughly impressed with your accomplishments - certainly enough to fill one or more of their monthly offerings.
I'd wager you can get a byline writing articles on your car alone.

Knowing we have a diverse group, they will be impressed with the credentials of any number of our members. Hell, I'm impressed with our group.


* I omited the preposition "the" preceeding UK, etc., - spot on hip huh?

 

[Gerry]

very kind but, this is about the forum so I need info on that. That being the people who made it, stayed with it and use it.

so here's a kick of

Mike Ermel, a well know name in drag racing, has many accomplishments to his name including xxxxxxxx, I could go on but there are far too many to list here. Mike decided to start a dedicated T Bucket forum in xxxx to concentrate the knowledge, skills, expertise and adventures from builders and drivers of these outrageous machines, in one place that had access for all. , Initially attracting only a small number of members the TBucketeers has now grown and includes people from all over the world and from every type of background, all of who are T Bucket fanatics. etc etc etc


Gerry

 

[Youngster]

I found the site through tfeverfred while looking at another site. Fred built his car using a Total chassis to which he add various parts and assemblies from other sources. There should be a build thread on here with all the info yet. Rick, RPM, Yogi, VegasBruce amoung others, where here already when I joined. My first post was "I've found a gold mine!!!!"

Ron

 

[Mike]

very kind but, this is about the forum so I need info on that. That being the people who made it, stayed with it and use it.

so here's a kick of

Mike Ermel, a well know name in drag racing, has many accomplishments to his name including xxxxxxxx, I could go on but there are far too many to list here. Mike decided to start a dedicated T Bucket forum in xxxx to concentrate the knowledge, skills, expertise and adventures from builders and drivers of these outrageous machines, in one place that had access for all. , Initially attracting only a small number of members the TBucketeers has now grown and includes people from all over the world and from every type of background, all of who are T Bucket fanatics. etc etc etc

Truth be known, I rather enjoyed flying below the radar. There were people at the track who knew me, but I really had zero ego about making others know who I was. I am the quintessential lone wolf. I was always amazed at how I would hear people chuckling because they had to run Brian in the next round. We never tried running any faster than we had to, so some people made the mistake of thinking we were ducks. So the fact of the matter is that my name is not so well-known and I like it that way. I was only doing my job, the best way I knew to do it.

As for the forum, I really didn't do anything, other than give people a place to play. If I had to name some key forum members, people like Thomas (who is no longer around after selling his T) and Rick were here at the beginning and they stuck it out. Tfeverfred is one of the best cheerleaders the T-Bucket hobby has ever had. B.C. has probably told me 20 times to stop worrying about the site, that it would keep growing. Both he and Ron Pope took a chance, very early on, by setting aside some of their advertising dollars for this site. Ron is one of those fellows I look forward to meeting. He's been another one to shore up my morale when things weren't doing as well as I had hoped. Look at all the auctions Ron has run on RPM products, donating the proceeds to the forum. Yogi and Youngster were sharing their expertise with others, long before many of you ever knew the site even existed.

But the pitfall in all that is if I try to pick out one or two names, I'm leaving out a cast of hundreds. Here are some great examples - Bruce has been amazing help, since we made him a moderator. He quietly does what needs to be done. There are times when issues have cropped up and I have no idea what has happened, because Bruce has already cleaned up the mess. Jim and Todd both agreed to try to help out around here and that meant a lot to me.

The site is a success because of the collective membership, not because of anything I have done around here. I'm just the guy they send the bills to, and if we didn't have a small core of members who support the site through their generosity, I wouldn't be able to pay those bills. So how could I possibly not name those 98 members?

We've always been somewhat lucky, in that the bad eggs usually showed their backsides early in the game and we could get rid of them before they grew into bigger problems. That has left a great bunch of T-Bucket enthusiasts around here, and all of you are important to the site's continued growth.

 

[Rick]

Truth be known, I rather enjoyed flying below the radar. There were people at the track who knew me, but I really had zero ego about making others know who I was. I am the quintessential lone wolf. I was always amazed at how I would hear people chuckling because they had to run Brian in the next round. We never tried running any faster than we had to, so some people made the mistake of thinking we were ducks. So the fact of the matter is that my name is not so well-known and I like it that way. I was only doing my job, the best way I knew to do it.

As for the forum, I really didn't do anything, other than give people a place to play. If I had to name some key forum members, people like Thomas (who is no longer around after selling his T) and Rick were here at the beginning and they stuck it out. Tfeverfred is one of the best cheerleaders the T-Bucket hobby has ever had. B.C. has probably told me 20 times to stop worrying about the site, that it would keep growing. Both he and Ron Pope took a chance, very early on, by setting aside some of their advertising dollars for this site. Ron is one of those fellows I look forward to meeting. He's been another one to shore up my morale when things weren't doing as well as I had hoped. Look at all the auctions Ron has run on RPM products, donating the proceeds to the forum. Yogi and Youngster were sharing their expertise with others, long before many of you ever knew the site even existed.

But the pitfall in all that is if I try to pick out one or two names, I'm leaving out a cast of hundreds. Here are some great examples - Bruce has been amazing help, since we made him a moderator. He quietly does what needs to be done. There are times when issues have cropped up and I have no idea what has happened, because Bruce has already cleaned up the mess. Jim and Todd both agreed to try to help out around here and that meant a lot to me.

The site is a success because of the collective membership, not because of anything I have done around here. I'm just the guy they send the bills to, and if we didn't have a small core of members who support the site through their generosity, I wouldn't be able to pay those bills. So how could I possibly not name those 98 members?

We've always been somewhat lucky, in that the bad eggs usually showed their backsides early in the game and we could get rid of them before they grew into bigger problems. That has left a great bunch of T-Bucket enthusiasts around here, and all of you are important to the site's continued growth.

I've stuck around because where can you get such a diverse bunch of guys together and talk cars?We all agree to disagree at some point but that is a good thing as people get to see different views on a subject and pick there poison so to speak.Thomas is a great guy and just lives a few miles from my house and he's been to my house as i have been to his.I met Butch there also.

 

[Mike]

Rick, will you please tell Thomas I said howdy, when next you speak with him?

 

[Gerry]

I've stuck around because where can you get such a diverse bunch of guys together and talk cars?We all agree to disagree at some point but that is a good thing as people get to see different views on a subject and pick there poison so to speak.Thomas is a great guy and just lives a few miles from my house and he's been to my house as i have been to his.I met Butch there also.

Mike
I know you are a 'background' guy and even though I have T and worked in sales and marketing I left my ego behind at puberty. Now I appreciated everything have said but it still remains YOU started this forum, so take credit where credit is due.
As a newish member I am all too aware of the guys that have put in so much time from day one to keep it going. The sponsors are amazing and thats shown by the referrals they constantly get from member after member. I cant thank them enough for their support.

And so on to a bit of publicity...

I just want to get some exposure with the hope we can gain members. Its so very difficult in a short piece to decide the people to mention and today being today it seems well know names do the trick. I am not trying to promote any one individual just the collective of Buckteers. With that in mind i threw out the question of background so that the guys here could decide for me.
So come on you lot tell me who to write about

Gerry