My family and friends are quick to remind me that I’ve said these exact words several times before, “this will be my last ever drag car”. OK OK they’re right, guilty as charged, but this time it has to be the last one, if not, l will quit racing. In the beginning of this ‘78 Camaro project, it seemed so simple, pull out the old engine and install my freshly upgraded 360 cid small block V-8 engine, and a higher stall torque converter. Sounds simple enough right? Simple, but projects that I work on, never seem to be SIMPLE, and this Camaro has been anything but simple. My Apache Junction friend Tim is a very experienced mechanic, who has built and raced several drag cars, mud boggers, and other unique vehicles. He did all of the serious work on the Camaro, which fought him at every opportunity, but he solved each issue with patience and experience. Tim had a serious time commitment and had to be fi nished with the car in early February. I drove it home to Sun Lakes in late January, but it still needed some upgrades and fi xes. One big one, was the torque converter he installed, that was supposed to be a 2500 stall name brand converter, but it turned out to be bone stock. The converter box had the company name and said 2500 to 2700 stall. He told me to bring the car back and he’d install a new torque converter that l had purchased. I was right there with Tim as he installed my brand new 2500 stall converter, and AMAZINGLY this new converter would not stall past 1500 RPM. My engine has an aggressive Comp Cams hydraulic flat tappet cam, that requires at least a 2000 stall converter for street driving. By now, Tim was out of time, but he wanted to put new spark plugs in the engine before l drove it home. After the new plugs went in, Tim did a quick test drive and unbelievably the stock floor shifter would not come out of low gear, and no matter how many times he tried, it would not come out of low. Remember that I mentioned that Tim is a very experienced mechanic? We’ll, he said wait, not all is lost, this generation of Camaro came with a floor shifter like mine, and also came with column shifters and they all came with the linkage for both setups from the factory. He simply unhooked the floor shifter linkage and now it had the working column linkage, but no shifter. Tim showed me how to grab the column with two hands right near the dash and spin to the left for Park, then to the right for reverse, neutral, drive, etc. I drove the Camaro home without issue.

The next Team Firebird bracket race was coming up in a few days and l didn’t have time to install a new floor shifter, so I had to fi gure something out so I could race the Camaro. That solution turned out to be one of my best ever Redneck fi xes. Using two hands to shift the car wasn’t going to work. I went to my scrap pile and found a piece of metal that had an L turn on one end, and using a piece of leather to protect the column, I secured my new little shifter with a heavy duty hose clamp, and WALLA l had a working column shifter. I was able to race on Saturday Feb. 15th and made it to the 3rd round, but the carburetor started going crazy and I could barely keep the engine running, causing me to overstage and red light. A few days later, my good friend Ralph Humbrick came to the rescue with an old Holley double pumper carburetor that needed to be rebuilt. The Ramjet’s Speed Shop (602-788-3012) had the exact rebuild kit in stock. While there, I also picked up an Auto-Meter oil pressure and water temperature gauge combo. Ralph, had rebuilt many Holley carbs in his life, but it had been a few years since the last one, but once he got started at my dining room table, he had the carburetor fully rebuilt in a few hours, stretched over 24 hours, because we soaked the parts in lacquer thinner overnight. As it turned out, that carburetor needed a different fuel bowl on the front. We simply rebuilt the one on the other carburetor and it seems to work just fi ne. As of this writing, l have not driven the camaro, but it runs great and doesn’t stall and stumble like before. A used but working B&M shifter and the new gauges will be installed soon.