Hey guys,
FNG here. Thought I would say hello.
I've been a gear head for most of my life, sometimes in the thick of it, sometimes just spectating. I haven't raced anything for quite a while and have the urge to get back into some form of motorsports. My last racing was with boats. My familly raced outboard powered tunnels and modified vee's. Done a lot of local racing as well as national events, mostly enduros and I really miss the atmoshpere.
I've always thought of land speed racing as the ultimate and purest form of motorsports there is. I've been through the Bonneville Salt Flats many times and would often stop just to take it all in. I think of it as almost sacred.
Even though I appreciate the big budget teams (eye candy is always good!), my heart is with the grass-roots garage engineered efforts. I'm a big fan of "run what ya brung" (as long as it's reasonably safe, or course).
In that grass-roots spirit I'm really thinking of putting together one of my cars for a trip to Bonneville speed week, either this year or next depending on funding. The car in question is a 74' Jaguar XJ-6. It's been converted to run a SBC/TH350 and has been mechanically rebuilt (suspension, steering, Brembo brakes, bushings, etc...). The engine is reasonably fresh, but would need some upgrades to be race worthy. Same goes for the transmission. Or course it would also need the requisite safety gear as well. It's not a pretty car, but I think it would be a blast to run the salt with it!
With that, I think I'll sit back and read through some of the great info here and ask questions when I don't understand something.