Here's one that may not be of interest to anyone. Ironically I was debating the merits of high HP Effie drag trucks with Homespun on the forum weekly chat last Saturday. I got off today and snuck down to St Louis for one day of the World Ford Challenge 8. (My consolation prize for being unable to attend the Supernats). An incredible display of awesome Ford drag cars. Including a pair of Effies. A 48 F1 and a 55 F100. Both were fast. Both with stock frame and front suspension. The announcer was claiming the 55 was packing 850HP and capable of sub-10 seconds in the quarter. I don't know about that, but the stroker bigblock was clearly VERY wicked as he came off the line. As he went into second gear, the result was the same I had seen many times before. Effie all over the track and he finally hit the wall about 2/3 track.

I've seen a similar result with several Effie draggers. Squirrely like an old altered wheelbase 60s drag car. Anyone ever seen a stock framed Effie successfully (and consistently) run drags with high HP? As I recall, the 48 pulled off an 11. It was very clean, but I only saw one pass.

A fun day in any event. Hundreds of Fords, way over half of them either blown or on the bottle. I've never seen so many sub 10 second runs (from real production cars and trucks) in all my life.

 

I know what your saying Dwayne. A friend of mine sent a picture of an Effie with the two front wheels in the air taking off from the line. Its awesome!! I would think running 850HP a person would do some serious modification to not only the frame but suspension to handle that torque and sudden acceleration or at least not get out of control 2/3 down the track. I know even with my "girly" engine I can get the frame to tweak a little, OK alot. LOL... I wouldn't mind having my truck hit 10's on the track. Come to think of it, 13's look good right now. Looks like you had a great day. Wish I was there.
Ed

 

I never ran a truck at the drags, but the home built drag machine concept is the same no matter what it is. Build as much horsepower as you can and try to keep it under control.
Before NHRA went to bracket raceing I ran a J Altered, bantam bodied 306CI inline six.
On launch it behaved the same way Wild Willie Bourchs AA Fuel Altered did, every way but straight.

Compare how what you saw to how the Pro Stock Trucks ran, they were built with racing in mide cost tons of money, and still put the rubber side up every once in a while.

 

I would add that this is not a straight axle slam thread at all. To the contrary, I have seen some straight axle draggers that seem to work well. It must be a frame twist and high center of gravity thing. All I know, is I heard that thing fire, looked over and saw a parachute, and thought.... is it time to crawl under these bleachers? It was.

 

OK...he misses the Nats...decides to "stir up sum s**t". Here's my $.02 in no particular order.

I won't say that I'm the next best thing to John Force, but I have a fair amount of track time, the fastest being in an old Pro Gas car in the mid nines, and some Chevelles on the bottle in the high nines. I will say that with very few exceptions, I have not seen many cars that were just evil handling by nature, with no solution.

95% of problems can be traced to the wrong parts/setup/combination; the right parts set up poorly, or just "missing" the track read; or, most commonly, driver error. 5% is beyond driver control. Car setup comes with experience and the ability to listen/watch. The "right" parts and combination come with maturity.

Too many times, I have seen a driver have an accident because he/she A) had more dollars than sense and bought the biggest, baddest engine/car they could afford, and tried to be the track record holder on their first pass. I've also seen fairly experienced drivers go from a 13 second car into a 9 second car, thinking they were an expert, & learning that they are in a whole 'nother ball game. Or, putting a 9 sec. engine into that same 13 sec. chassis.

Maybe the hardest thing to teach a driver is to hold down the throttle when the car is sideways, against their every instinct (with slicks, anyway). The second hardest thing is to teach them to stay out of the throttle on the first several passes.

As far as the Effies are concerned, I see a number of drawbacks. The straight axle isn't an issue as long as it's healthy; I think I mentioned Wes Littrell, whose Effie has a 557 BBF on alcohol, tracks like an arrow, with the original front end.

I think that the drawbacks are 1) high CG; 2) aerodynamics are poor, & lots of surface to catch crosswinds; 3) the fact that the body is "cut" in the middle between cab & bed causes the flex (as compared to a car); 4) relatively short wheelbase. 1 & 3 are fixable to an extent; 2 & 4, not without making it a Pro Modified.

Now, all that being said, I never claimed this was a GOOD idea. As you know I plan to do a fair amount of chassis work, a four link, & IFS. I guarantee I will be making a LOT of half throttle passes & 60 foot pad launches to get the feel of things.

Oh hell 'Fenders, you talked me out of it, I'll just go directly to the Mustang. Now, I need a 302 for the '55......

 

"Drag Effies"...

made me think of an F100 in a skirt. But I get the drift now.

I'm going to the drags tomorrow. Maybe I won't run mine afterall.

 

Well I plan to run my truck at the drags. They've built a nice little 1/8th miler about 5 miles from my house just so I can race my HAMB buddy with the '54 Chevy mordoor.

I'm looking at the low to medium 18's. I don't think I'll need much help against his wimpy six, but if you guys get this effie drag thing settled I'll be listening.

lightheartedly, himmelberg

 

I probably should add that Dwayne was a little dubious about my plan to drop a 520 BBF into my '55. A mild 650 hp on the engine, & 850-900 bottle-fed. I'm not sure I mentioned the minor things like the chassis mods, IFS, & four link.

 

Homespun

I'll be there when you're ready for Effie lift off. You can count on that. I never really meant to imply an Effie can't be dragged. I just haven't seen it done correctly yet. I'm far from the authority on this subject. I don't have a lot of runs under my belt. I distinctly remember how much fun it is though. I'm dragging Mamma's stang first.

Himmelberg,

Here's hoping your truck will run bettter than 18 seconds in the 1/8th.

 

Actually, what I figured you were getting at (if I understood correctly) was not that an Effie can't be dragged, it's just that there are better choices out there, or at least choices that are better starting points. As it happens I think you're right.

I'm kind of on a nostalgia trip lately, I think. I'd like to do something like an old Altered, or better yet an AA/GS like the Stone, Woods, & Cook Swindler ******. Since that's out of my $$$ range, I'm looking at the '55. I may decide to start with a milder engine to sort things out. I actually considered dropping my old bracket BBC in, but thought I'd possibly be lynched. It's a moot point right now since my time's going towards the house restoration, but I'm still hoping for 2006. I don't want to do the chassis work yet since I still have fading hopes of driving the truck this summer.

Of course, I do have a junkyard special 460 right now iffen ya want to drop it in that Mustang!

 

Darn, wish I'd known about that event...

 

Finals are Sunday. It's an annual event. To my knowledge it's always in St Louis. My first trip to Gateway International Speedway. You have a top shelf track in your hometown Jeff. Looks to me like you could host most any major drag event. The place is incredible. Kinda place I'd expect in CA. We don't have many in the Midwest, besides Brainerd, MN perhaps. It's primarily a Mustang and Lightning event, but there were plenty of VERY fast older Ford trucks and cars.

Homespun

You pretty much understand me correctly. What I guess I want to know, is can you make a fast Effie (say low 12s or better), that is not a deathride, and short of a full custom drag chassis? We all know you could build a 10 sec Winnebago if you scratch build it, and have deep pockets.

Other neat Ford truck stuff I saw. Nine second Lightning (that has run 8s recently) with a basically factory chassis (some mods of course). Full-weight, stock appearing Superduty Diesel in the elevens came up from Houston (turbo and nitrous). Smokin like a John Deere, and just screamin!

I like the cars and trucks that still look like a production ride. You know I love a rod that is modded from one end to the other. But a fiberglass body on a custom chassis with a $80,000 nitro-methane motor just doesn't do it for me. I want to see a real Ford race a real Dodge or Chevy. I don't want to see Duponts advertising budget race Miller Brewing's.

 

Homespun91, you nailed it man... you have to sneak up on power...

Me and a couple buddies built a Ford drag truck. It has a sprung solid front axle, solid mounted rear end... hauls hiney, and will hit 150 in the quarter pretty soon with our new motor.

My experience says you can make ANYTHING go fast with enough horsepower... and with attention to detail, and chassis tuning expereince comes nice, true, straight runs... fun? No. Straight? Yes.

Sam.

 

fatfenders.

Low 12's isn't a problem... make sure the front end is tight... enough power... and plenty of caster, and you can be plenty safe at 115ish and low 12's. Heck, there is no reason why you couldn't build a 10 second ride with stock front suspension with enough caster and the right rear suspension.

Sneak up on it though...

Sam.

 

"My experience says you can make ANYTHING go fast with enough horsepower... and with attention to detail, and chassis tuning expereince comes nice, true, straight runs... fun? No. Straight? Yes.

Sam."

I'm in complete agreement the stock rear suspension is inadequate for a five-fold or more increase in power. Perhaps that is the entire problem with the trucks I've seen. And BTW, I have no intentions of personally pursuing times like that in an Effie. I'm fascinated by the old drag trucks, but my truck is almost useful in it's current configuration.