19 replies to this topic

[Bob Beck]

I'm new to this site. This is my first post and am amazed at the cars you build and race. I however am a little warped and have built something a bit different from what you see here normally.

It started with an H&R chassis and a Johan model car body... This is where the normal stuff stops.

The body was not a NASCAR or other normal body that you would see in racing, but the plan is still to show up some night at BP raceway and run it.

1959 Rambler Wagon



The view I hope to show the some racers:



Wave to the cute Carrera pit babes on their way to the beach:



And here is the working side. H&R chassis as delivered.



Hope this causes a few giggles...

[slotcarone]

Nice - especially the babes!!!

[havlicek]

Boy... that sure does bring back memories.

We had a Rambler station wagon when I was a kid and we piled the family in it and went cross country to Montana to visit my dad's family. Five kids, seven people with luggage and all... and no video games, unbelieveable! :-)

Nice car!

[flea]

Now that is just too cool! All you need is a boat and trailer to pull behind it...

[Tim Neja]

Bring it to the convention and run it, Bob!!!
Oh yeah - a little club silver slipstream trailer would look great behind it.

Tim

[don.siegel]

Great car, Bob! And who'd ever thought that a Rambler could look cool??!!! The beach girls have nothing to do with it, really, nothing at all...

Excellent idea all around - Encore!

Don

[JEngland]

I just about flipped my wig when I saw that car.

Our family had a white 1959 Rambler Ambasador wagon. My older brother got into trouble for taking it to the local drag strip. It had a powerful V8 and a three-speed on the column and could smoke the tires.

I remember riding into town one morning with my brother and he "punched it" and laughed. He said, "This car eats GTOs for breakfast"! LOL

[idare2bdul]

... he said "this car eats GTOs for breakfast"!

Can I admit to thinking your brother was living in a dream world?

A friend of mine owned both a junk yard and a decrepit-looking old Hudson truck with a 300+ cubic inch six-cylinder motor. The motor had been treated to a twin two-barrel set-up and a higher-performance cam, ported heads, and a few other speed tricks including a very aggressive gear ratio which got the truck into the mid to high 14s. If he got a good jump on a GTO, Z28, or the like, chances are they wouldn't catch him from one street light to the next.

[Cheater]

Ah, the famous Twin H-Power Hudson.

Those big six-cylinders were the scourge of NASCAR in the early years and it took the V8 cars a few years to start out-running 'em.

In the early '50s, six-cylinder cars were very successful in drag racing because such motors generally have very good low-end torque numbers.

[Bob Beck]

Thanks, guys. I was not sure how it would be received here.

[Cheater]

No worries, Bob. We have every kind of nutcase in this particular asylum...

[Tim Neja]

Are you kidding, Bob? All the nutcases are here as well!!!

T

[Bob Beck]

OK, I guess I shudda known this as we race with the same club...

[mcseitz]

I can't speak for Rambler wagons but I can personally attest that the observed top speed of a 1962 Chevy Nova Wagon with stock 6 cylinder and auto transmission is 96 MPH - downhill.

And while I'm reminiscing, I pause... Dear Lord, please give my boys more sense than I had at 16.

Very nice build. But I can't ever recall seeing women looking like that in a Rambler. Some figure dressed more like my mom would likely be more accurate.

Wish I had a Nova wagon to race ya'.

[Pablo]

I like the bubblegum-colored bra top of the shotgun rider, but the car is really cool as well.

Ramblers RULE!

[Big Durl]

Bob,

I don't know who you are, but you have the refined sensibilities of someone I'd like to know.

If ONLY seven other guys could put together a grid of Nash Metropolitans, Studebaker Hawks, and Ramblers such as yours, THAT, my friend, would be the kind of slot car race I could get into. Forget D3, IRRA, Thingees, USRA, and everything else. Perverted Retro Scale racing is where it is now officially at.

Marry me, you beautiful bastard!

Durl

[idare2bdul]

I've got a Rambler Scrambler Resin body. It's headed for being a drag car though.

[MarcusPHagen]

Since Big Durl is into Perverted Retro, I bet he'd your Rambler "Drag Queen", Mike!

I grew up in Kenosha, so I probably saw more Ramblers and other AMC cars from 1959-1971 than most of you will see in your entire life. My favorite of them all was the Metropolitan. One of the guys on my paper route (the route that helped me buy my priceless "Cukras" Muras) had a Metropolitan, and bragged about how he could take it from a standing start in 4th gear. One day I'll have to build one with a 36D (maybe a Champion 707?) to give it the proper level of torque!



Don't know who would build the Airstream, though. I understand that racing with travel trailers is popular in some of the UK clubs, so maybe I could get one through them.

[Bob Beck]

Marry me, you beautiful bastard!

Best offer I've had all day... ...

[MarcusPHagen]

Here's a sample of UK "caravan racing".



I assume there's some sort of handicapping involved, or else the car on yellow has lost its trailer and is running away from the other racer!



These blokes even race semi-trailers pulled by Fly racing trucks. Talk about nerfing!



More can be found HERE.

They have some rather interesting club racing rules. One of them, the "white lane" rule, allows the person rotated into white lane to determine the racing class for that round. Sort of like "dealer's choice" poker!