I was turned on to this site by a fellow mopar enthusiast from a mopar site- and I was wondering if there are any other motorhead freaks like myself out there?

It has been a lifelong dream to be a top ranked Motogp or WSB (world super bike) racer, but I am just too big- darn near have to be jockey size these days (at 230lbs, I am at 18% bodyfat, Dani Pedrosa, the amazing midget- is 5' tall and wieghs 100lbs, so, in cycling, I give up more than his bodywieght in ballast on the poor bike!) - so, to be competitive, I have to race the four wheel variety.

Any other racers or mechanic/crew chief types on the board that also dabble in policy wonkishness (see, there, I created a new word! )

Well, I was a motorhead before motorheading was cool. There was no NASCAR, only Saturday night dirttracking and wreckum rodeos. The guys who had the dinero raced stockers that they also drove to work.

These were the days when a piston from a shortblock Chev also fit a Harley. You could time a machine with a continuity tester, and the few special tools included a feeler gauge. Disk brakes were unheard of, but a hemi engine looked like a gall danged hemi. None of this cast aluminum junk.

Heh, well, hemi was always a marketing thing. Still works, apparently.

Putting a big hemi in an old Ford pickup was always a hoot. Sliding around corners on gravel roads and taking flight on whoop-de-doos, grand entertainment. The population was low, gas was cheap, Norma Jean was still alive. Lead was still a consumable product. I sucked up plenty of it while siphoning with a length of garden hose.

The back seats of those 1950-somethings were bedrooms. A pair of chains changed the tank into a snowmobile, which were only ten horses back then. Well, the 440s came out and lots of snockered miners ate tree bark. I raced the Cats and was good at it. Went over the hay bales only once, and it was a glorious tumble with no injuries. There's something magic about snow and youth.

As every old coot, I miss the simplicity of those times. Horsepower and CID were tightly bound, along with barrels in the carb(s). My dream was a Barracuda with a 426 hemi (of course), but my reality was a '55 Chrysler Windsor with a 301 semi-hemi and an indestructible two-speed auto tranny. Up to 60 mph in first, yah gotta love it. Dashboard shifter too. Six-volt starter on a twelve-volt battery, helluva winter rig. Kinda ate up the ring gear. That was a bitch to replace, but did I mention the junk yards?

Oh, the junk yards. We had a bunch of 'em, and a special private one chock full of Mopars. That's where all those hemis came from, a family, Finlanders, who had a big love of the aforementioned old pickup trucks sleeping on dual quad Mopar wide heads. Nothing like a pickup making rail smoke off the main drag stop lights. The cops didn't think it was funny.

Yep, those were the days (in retrospect). Up and down the main drag, Hendrix and Led Zep blasting from a Panasonic 8-track with eight speakers taking 100 watts per channel, Mary Kay sitting close, arm around her, one of those knobs on the 17-inch no-power steering wheel, fighting weight of 165, attitude out to here, illegal six-pack of beer in the trunk. Vietnam draft looking me in the eye along with a crappy economy, Christmas coming up with my vet brother back home, fully junked out.

Yeah, well. They were the best of times and worst of times, eh?

Well, I am from an era about one generation removed- but not too far. My uncle raced for Chrysler in "match racers" and made good money racing a 1964 ram max wedge Savoy. some notoriety as being the first wave of auto racers that could consistantly beat the stick guys due to his innovation of welding a ford cortina little 8inch converter to the snout of the 727 converter, thus making one of the first "stall converters" in the nation. he got paid a fair amount of money for a patent, and promptly but it all up his nose. It was the early 70s and he was a vietnam vet too- and he loved hims some drugs!

I turned 15 in 1980, good time to turn 16 in the muscle car world, 1981. Muscle cars were "old junk" no one wanted, but you could see the horizon of collectability if you were in that particular era. I used my basic training money to start investing in muscle cars, "flipping" them, and buying another. Had a series of rare, expensive iron. I made huge profits by buying cars in Phoenix , and bringing them up here and selling them to the skilled workers during the contruction boom in Anchorage. I used that money to buy a ticket around the world through United airlines and backpacked for 18 months. I have fond memories of that money and those cars and the fun that followed both LOL

Now- the bike boom is on, and there is money to be made building custom bikes. I am going the anti-billet barge you see on TV today, and build low cost customs, a complete bike I can get out of my shop for under7500 bucks, with all the bells and whistles, cheaper if you supply running bike with title. The fuel shortage is being very good to the bike guys now- with an XS 650 averaging about 75mpg, while making you look good while you ride it LOL

I guess if you are a half way decent mechanic and welder, you can get a job anywhere LOL

During my less arthritic 20's I used to collect but now I am focusing most of my time and expenses on a house. Still I have a 71 Demon and my first car a 72 Dart hidden in a dusty garage waiting for the next time I get bit by the car bug.