Hi, my name is Mark and I think I have a disease.
I grew up as the son of a street rodder. Dad did most of his own work on his cars (always 33 or 34 Fords), apart from bodywork and engine builds, and I learned to wrench from helping him out. Our family spent a lot of time going to various street rod meets up and down the west coast. While I really appreciate the street rods, my enthusiasm has always been on the motorsport side.
I went to the salt flats for the first time last September for the USFRA event. Spent most of my week on the 1-mile course, running the 130. Had a great experience, even though I threw two rods on my WRX at about 133 -- on my first run. Did manage to spend some time over in the big boys’ pits.
Along the course of the week, I think I picked up some kind of disease, because I am now preparing to devote a big pile of time and money building and running a car that I can expect to drive, at most, 500 miles (if I’m very lucky) in its life.
The 5-year plan is to build an I/ Lakester. Initially normally-aspirated, but put a turbo on it later. Maybe even streamline it, but that’s probably a decade away. This year will be to design, plan and maybe start sourcing parts for the lakester, and head back to the WoS event to get my 130 certificate. I’ll start building the lakester in 2011. Considering what I’ve read here and elsewhere, 5 years might be a tad optimistic to get a well-sorted car, but that’s the goal.
This is an awesome site, btw. A wealth of information and experience. And what seems to be a pretty good crowd.