MnJ's Derby history
I suppose a little page to explain what we have done up til now just to ride in the demolition .Well here goes, Our first planned car was a 78 pontiac Gran Prix.Un fortunately the frame was so rotted out that when I went to jack up the rear end with a bumper jack the frame broke on both sides just behind the wheels.But the engine still ran great so later that year when Julie blew up the crappy v-6 in our daily driver, an 83 olds cutlass, I figured we'd swap the engines.well it never took off and I got offered a retired police cruiser for 50$.An 84 4 door chevy caprice.we were going to put the pontiac 350 into it but we didn't get it in in time.So we made a few calls and went to pick up a pre derbied delta88 the morning of the derby.We barely made it to the track on time.I got put in the last spot where there was room.IN THE WAGON HEAT!!My god they wanted to kill me!after about 3 minutes another competitor caught fire and while we were waiting my radiator hose blew off.If I had the time before the derby We would have seen it was dry rotted out below are the before pictures the car looked pretty much the same after
The olds 350 rocket lived on in the Police cruiser.We barely stayed one step ahead of three different code enforcement officers in 3 towns.We quickly pulled the engine and scrapped the 88's corpse,we had 24 hours to get it done ahead of the city's wrecker coming after it.Then we had to move the caprice and scrap the pontiac and the olds cutlass before that city fined us so we brought the engine and car together at my place in the city of Elmira.They watch me like a hawk because I have had so many cars here so many times.We finally shoehorned in the 350 rocket and took it to a demolition in Canaserega NY about 50 miles north.it was a beautiful day so I just wore shorts and a t-shirt we strapped up the car and rolled down the highway.I had to drive because we had no trailer.Well then the Rain started.It stung so much that I had to wear my helmet.Froze half to death but we made it.To make a long story short the wet ride knocked out the car (water in the gas and carb) and we didn't get to run.we took the car halfway back to a friends house and put it up there.his landlord promptly sent it to the scrap yard!Nothing I could do.Below are the only pics I have of her.
The 1998 car was a 1984 Olds Cutlass Supreme 4door I got from my brother in laws uncle for 50$.The v-6 had a little knock at high revs so he wanted to get rid of it.I stripped it out and painted it black in my driveway at an apartment building.Not too much to tell about it.I was first out in my heat.In with wagons again for some damn reason.I started all the way on the left end of the track. As I backed out a hard hit spun me around with my front end facing the inside of the track .I looked up just in time to see the ass of a huge round back caprice estate wagon flying at me with an full track length shot!Well that moved my radiator up to my block and my whole core support with it as well as backed me up to the wooden poles used for boundaries.Of course my radiator completely came apart and got the carb soakin wet .To top everything off my fuel line got kinked too.There were tons of cheers and "wow did you see that guy get hit!"I could not get it started and was the first counted out.Man was I sore the next day!The big hit moved me into the passenger side.Also I didn't know anything about building cars then(have learned much since)We tried to bring her back for the 99 derby .So after we pulled out the radiator core support by chaining it to a tree and backing up and getting the front end somewhat pulled back together we tried to get her engine running a bit better as she was quite a dog after sitting in the field for a year. The carb started spraying gas out the side of the body.Well we were in the middle of the field and no water around so by the time we got the fire out with dirt and rocks the whole top was toast.All the plug wires and the alternator wire and the distributor completely melted.we were thinking of using it one more time but I got the 84 mercury and the 85 Chevy and we decided the Olds had had enough and it will go to the crusher.Of course it will be our rolling metal bin until then.
