In a message dated 5/7/2003 6:55:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, jlance2@msn.com
writes:
> ( somebody on the list
> used to run a straight 8 Buick in early drag races ?), I'd like to hear
> from
> you.
>
Lance,
Mel Tull, from Atascadero, CA (central Calif lower Salinas Valley) showed
up at the Salt during the late 80's or early 90's with a Buick Straight 8
powered XXO/STR and proceeded to run something like 174 one way for an
average of about 169. It had a stock head that was wildly ported. What put
him into the XXO class instead of XO class was the 350 ci or so displacement
of the engine.
Mel was an old-time Buick drag racer from the 50's in LA and decided to
give Bonneville a try.
He was also working on a future project that involved taking a Buick
Straight 8 block, cutting off the old deck and replacing it with a steel one
that would accept 2 2000cc Toyota cammer heads. He got as far as making a
billet crank and finishing the deck replacement when he sold the roadster to
someone in the Northwest as I recall.
It's kind of a moot point now since the cammer heads in X & XX classes
have been declared ineligible.
Mel is a welder by trade and worked at the Diablo Canyon power plant near
Morro Bay, CA.
One time when he was visiting me he mentioned that years ago he'd taken a
1930's Buick column shift tranny (inspection plate on the top), adapted a
1939 Ford floor box shifter to it, and had a real slick floor tranny for his
driver.
I mentioned that I had a similar tranny in my stash that I bought from
veteran Bonneville/El Mirage racer Bud Morrill. We dug it out of my barn and
lo-and-behold it was the same one.
If you're interested in contacting Mel let me know off-list and I'll put
you on to him.........Ardun Doug King
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