TOTM April 2016- When is enough enough?

I think the "revving it up once in a while" actually means to get it out on the road and open it up once in a while. Helps keep the exhaust pipes clean. I used to live in a county that required tail-pipe emissions tests yearly...and one of their recommendations before testing was to take it out on the interstate and open er up.

 

In my toy cars, I built my engines to run. Mid 10s in the quarter. To launch the engine is spinning up with no load.

 

Sounds as if you met some over the top people and common sense said time to beat feet and wisely, you did. Creepy is a polite way of putting it.

Just where did they plan to sneak around with babies?

Insurrectionists; well at least, until they find the 2 way range or it finds them.

 

There is always a risk. Turn the key and take a Sunday drive and there is a risk.

No, actually I am launching where Sassy has traction. When a street car has serious power; launch RPM is less than all it has. Anymore it puts up a smoke screen the Navy would be proud of; any less and it's in the 11s. In street cars, unless one wishes to destroy the drivetrain; launch RPM is not max.
I can build an engine and drivetrain that would take it; however, I'd have to do the tubs to fit tires that could hook up and go.

I'm not sure what popping revs means.

This is a quick hit merging onto the interstate:



We call it whoosh and blur.

 

My best wishes to you both.

As GOG knows, along with a number of others here, my wife of 30+ years died 19 months ago this Saturday (but who's counting, right?) and I am still very much finding my way into a new life...in many ways, a whole new world. As both GOG and Gray Wolf intimated, it called into doubt our 30 years of prepping at first. With the loss of the first and most important motivation for my prepping, it obviously made me wonder if it was worth it...until the kids and grandkids reminded me (to quote an old Eagles song) that it wasn't all just wasted time. That is why I turned the decision making (and the property...with all that it contains) over to my son and remain only as an advisor...or "sage", as he puts it. I am finding a new purpose, but it comes slowly and not as a linear progression. Grief is a strange thing.

Getting back to the original question at hand here, I have pretty much always preached a balance. As preppers, it is so easy to concentrate on preparing for pure survival in any future except a continuation of this society in which we live. I decided early on (admittedly, partly at the prodding of my wife) that, besides preparing for my family to survive if CAWKI ended, we would also prepare for living well in it if it survived. Our BOL was also our retirement home...as well as where we spent our vacations before retirement. Most of our early preps served as much to make our life easier when we got old as to making it livable in society's collapse. Our house was made with "non-obvious" storage, with defense in mind and the potential to live off grid if necessary. Neither of us enjoyed gardening but kept a small vegetable garden for some years just to assure we knew how...then the large area we had cleared for a garden if it were ever needed became a field of wildflowers that we both loved as part of the view with our morning coffee on the deck. Whenever possible, "prepping" features had other advantages in our day to day lives. As it turned out, even though she went far sooner than either of us would have wanted, my health dictated that we had more years than we would have of that happy retirement...since I was both able and forced to retire almost 20 years before she died at 66.

Personally, I don't think there is ever a real "enough". We have the reserves of food and other items needed for survival that have long been in "maintenance mode"...rotating food, restocking paper goods, making sure fuel tanks stay full and all of the physical repairs on aging equipment. However, there are always things being invented/discovered that are likely to be useful if/when the time comes...and I am always thinking of that when I see something new. I think the best way I can put it is that, when the basic preps are in place I switched to what my wife called the "wheels always turning" mode. I lost that for a while, but it is coming back. I am very happy with the system, the things and the lessons that I have left my family, but I will still try to see the potential uses when I come across something interesting.

 

What is this "warning shot" of which you speak...? It's a concept unfamiliar to me.

OPSEC...when I am talking with someone about "being ready", I tend to downplay my own level of readiness and/or be very vague about where I live. Being honest and being entirely transparent are two different things IMO. Responding with something like "I'm trying to get there" when people ask about your preparedness is not a lie and generally doesn't result in dreaded "I'm coming to your house when...", especially if you only try to help people you think will be an asset when the time comes. There is no reason to encourage your liberal neighbors to prep.

 

When I was a kid your 10s and 11s were called Sunday drives.

 

@chimo
None got over 30 MPG.

I ran a 10 flat 427 back in the day; I had thousands of 1969-1970 dollars in it. Basically, I was a street racer and it wasn't for fun. Street racing was simple, eat the spot, win by a nose plus, and collect the money.
Very few street cars back then ran in the 10s. At the strip was a different subject so I towed it there. Closed and open pipe setups are different.

In the 70s, I built a 388"-350 as a daily driver. As it set, it ran mid 11s and was very hard to beat on the street. At the strip, low 11s. However, as bored and stroked built 388"; it was in a class where it couldn't win.

As there isn't an AA for street racers my wonderful wife has one rule; I can build them but no money racing.

BTW, street racers lie. If one says a mid 11 car; you can bet money it's quicker. In their defense, they are truthful about cars they sold.

 

@ghrit
I was more the follow me to where there are no cops type.

A high lift long duration cam sound through headers is more than enough for kid's in Ramblers. Most of them will do their best simply to see it go.

 

Well around 1979 or so we did have a Pinto that was our first sub-9 Pro-Stock ride...it got 30 mpg...before we got our hands on it.

I had to give up street racing and stick to the track when I was 16. I was on the line (Quigley rd in Cleveland in a 67 Chevy) when a couple of cops pulled up behind us and put their lights on. The flagman panicked and of course dropped his hanky...so rather than shut down, I let er rip. Cop chased me for a good 5 minutes before I got myself trapped on a danged cul-de-sac...so I stopped, got out of the car and assumed the position with my FOP courtesy card in my hand. Next thing I know I'm on the ground seeing stars...as the stars clear I see the bright smiling face of the guy I got the FOP card from looking down on me...my Dad.

 

@chimo
Cool ride. What was in it?

LOL, never run away. I was fortunate as computers and reciprocal didn't exist back then.

One night I was out and my father answered the phone. It was a State Trooper; my father said oh God what has he down now?
The State trooper said Sir I don't know what he has done; I'm selling tickets for charity, Mom told me after my father passed away.

 

I can't count how many kids I used to know who would have chrome wheels, 60s tires and air shocks on the rear, and either pull a plug wire or throw the timing off to make it sound like they had a hot rod when they would go cruisin for chicks...and avoiding any actual racing at all costs.

 

350hp 327 (in my chevy). I got the car from the junkyard for 50 bucks when I was 14, the engine for 100 bucks from another junked car. Took me two years to rebuild it and get it on the road....more because that's how long it took me to pay for everything. Working at a gas station since I was 13 through enlistment was great...my paychecks were like 10 cents, after they withheld all the cash draws I used to buy parts and stuff.

The Pinto had a 351 Cleveland...we were trying to duplicate Glidden's Pinto with the Boss 351.

 

Oh man...where were you guys when I was young? I could have gotten in so much more trouble... with me it was motorcycles. I seem to Remember a few lights in my rear view mirror.....(though I don't remember any helicopters in use then for cops)

 

My buddy got nailed when we both went airborne over railroad tracks. Cop was waiting in the dark on the back side of the rise. He lit up as we launched, and he got nailed and I caught up with him later just like with REAL bears (I just have to outrun you)