Drag car or bike.

[firko]

As well as being into old bikes, my mate and I were once fairly serious drag racers. While watching the rugby the other night we came up with the bright idea that it'd be cool to restore an old drag vehicle. As we raced altereds we'd like to find and bring an old altered back to life but we have no limits on the condition or class the car once raced or whether it has an engine or not. We've been searching for our first altered for years and it'd be great to find it but to be honest it's most probably landfill these days. If anyone has a lead on any neglected old drag race car, whether it be a rail, altered, gasser, sedan, bike or anything, in any condition.

                                 

[Ktm181]

As well as being into old bikes, my mate and I were once fairly serious drag racers. While watching the rugby the other night we came up with the bright idea that it'd be cool to restore an old drag vehicle. As we raced altereds we'd like to find and bring an old altered back to life but we have no limits on the condition or class the car once raced or whether it has an engine or not. We've been searching for our first altered for years and it'd be great to find it but to be honest it's most probably landfill these days. If anyone has a lead on any neglected old drag race car, whether it be a rail, altered, gasser, sedan, bike or anything, in any condition.

                                 

Bloody hell, you are old !  Thats from the Ray Reynolds/Joey Hope Castlereagh days Firko!  I remember running my CR390 Husky out there in 1980, did low 14s from memory, not very fast OR maybe that is normal for Huskies! The 60ft times were ok but the top speed occurred about 200ft from the start!

Kt

[firko]

Bloody hell, you are old !

We ran that car in the '72/73 seasons so yeah I am old! I don't recall either of the blokes you mention but seem to remember a bloke named Les Hope...any relative?

 We ran our dirt bikes at Castlereagh in the early 80's. It became a trendy thing to do on a Friday night. I ran my 400 Magnum to high 13s@ around 90mph and later my 490 enduro to mid 12s @95 or so MPH. Geoff Eldridge, Ballard and a shitload of other MXers and enduro riders ran regularly but it was my mate Chris Ellis who was the gun. He regularly ran high 11s @ 106mph on his Husky Imports sponsored Husky XC500. One good thing about the drags was that it was the only times I ever beat Geoff Ballard.

[Ktm181]

Bugger, i only did a couple of dirtbike drag meets early in 1980, i stuck to the dirt after that.  "Les" Hope is "Joey" Hope, you'dhave to ask his mother!

I must ask him what happened to his car, I spoke with him yesterday, his birthday, I'll also ask if he knows of anything for sale.

Dont forget me if you see a TM250l or similar kicking around, i am definately looking if i can find the right bike.  Freakshows one is very interesting, see what happens with that.

Kt

[VMX60]

Firko

Fiat body altered does that bring back some great memories of Castereagh drags

Driving up overnight from Vic riding Top Bike against the NSW VW powered Podjoys Bros 
Photo is the last time at Castereagh riding twin engine mach4 1500cc  about mid 70s
 





Cheers

[firko]

Nice bike. A mate rode a raked and swingarmed Kawa 750 back in the early 80s and got consistent low tens which was pretty good for those days. We built a Z1R modified/pro stock bike in the early 80's for our big comeback to drag racing and before it could fire a note the bastards closed Castlereagh.......The engine ended up in a speedway sidecar, we sold the wheels and forks but we've still got the raked frame long swingarm and body. What ET's did the Kwaka do? What happened to it?

[VMX60]

Firko
Way back then the twin kawa would run flat 10s all day  which was right at the pointy end in the early 70s never run a 9s pass best was 10.002 to win the springnats in Adelaide
One thing I regret is not running a 9s as Peter Allen beat me with that time
If only we knew more about twostroke and good CDI 40 years ago

Cut the back motor in half at over 140mph  r/h rod cut the cases and gearbox output shaft in two
 Parts where sold to the speedway guys in Vic

Next was a blown Honda 4
Look in to the old Drag racing classes now all cars no bikes allowed

GREAT TIMES FIRKO pity its 40 years ago

[rocket]

Them were the days Firko, Rick Pobjoy worked at Westerns M/C in St Marys, he use to rebuild my broken RM s, and Les Hope, spent many hrs in his panel shop at sth penrith, dicking around with cars, shit I am old !