I'd like to take a minute or two from my pre-WoS thrash to 1) thank Lynda for her wise counsel and 2) mention that pretty darned soon we're gonna get a chance to see (those of us who can make it to the Mojave Mile) it run. (And add a few words about my own race car.)
Without regard to anyone's past accomplishments (as a rider, driver, builder or visionary), it would be a wonderful thing to see this beautiful piece of art and craftsmanship come to life and move under its own power. Period. Frankly, I'm having a hard time being patient until that time comes, even though I'll have my own racing to do before that happens.
Maybe that's a little bit of what's going on here. From looking at the Target 550 website statistics, I can tell that there are a lot more people looking in on this project since it was on display at Speed Week. Freud and I have been pretty close to it for the last few years and of course Marlo and Hume and Les for quite a while longer. But that's coming to a conclusion. The building phase is just about over. And if other folks are as anxious to see it run in person as I am or see photos of it (there will be more than one camera pointed at it, that's for sure) and its trial runs...well, that might just explain a little bit of the jitters. I know I'm jittery.
As far as asking questions, I don't see that as wrong at all. I'll be happy to answer things when and if I can. I know Freud's done a masterful job of creating the images and the descriptive text that has accompanied them. And when questions have come up, he's gone to the source to get the answers. We really do try our best to answer any questions put before us. Sometimes the answer might be, "that hasn't been announced yet," but it's still an answer.
Name-calling and other forms of unpleasantness are probably best kept to a minimum. Yeah, I know. SSS is the moderator, but I'm saying it, anyway.
I'm gonna change the subject for a second and mention that I've been thrashing to get my race car, which
was a 130 Club car and is now to be a 150 Club car rebuilt after a psycho driveshaft from h*ll destroyed everything between the rear axle and the engine block. Just yesterday we got it on the rebuilt trailer which now has a much improved ramp mounting system and we broke down and bought a winch to draw the car onto the trailer. I have to admit that I'm not the best at driving onto a trailer that's at most 18" wider than the car, especially when I can't see where the car's going. The winch was something we should have done in the first place...but apparently we had to learn the hard way.
So today I took the car to have a roll cage (or at least a 150-Club-legal B-pillar hoop and bracing) installed only to find that the guy who was gonna do it was 3 weeks behind in other stuff and couldn't do it. So I had to make a buncha phone calls, call in a favor or two and I should have a Jeg's 12-point kit here by Saturday and then have, if nothing else, the 150 Club-required portion of it installed Tuesday morning. I sure hope it works out that way, because I leave for the salt the following day to get set up and do photo coverage for this site. As the old joke goes, "Go ahead! Give it a turn! I work better under pressure!"
Seems to be a normal pre-meet thrash. If ya wanna see what I've been rambling about, the coverage of the salt racing with my car (85 Monte Carlo SS, 406 smallblock) is here:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/85monte/85monte28.html There are about 9 pages and photos of my own build diary there...at least the parts going back to 2011 and our minor difficulties. (Minor, my Asston-Martin.)
Now I'm gonna go out to the garage and try to do some of the stuff I can at the moment. And I'll try to be patient while waiting for the Target 550 liner to run at Mojave. Ohh...and if I don't break the car this year, maybe I can run it at Mojave, too.
Back to your normally scheduled discussion of that marvelous streamliner and all that relates to it.