Page 17 - NCDS May_Aug Bulletin_Neat

Member Spotlight

ran (eventually years later, when the Impala had logged muffler, the gas tank, fuel lines, the larger carburetor and
well over 100,000 miles and needed a new camshaft and intake manifold, and set about trying to fit them in place
lifters, it was the car I drove to college after replacing the of the smaller engines components. The bewildered man
worn parts). At the same time, I had a cousin Dennis who at the auto parts store was helpful in cobbling up enough
lived about halfway between our home near the Garden pipes, hoses and hose clamps to make it all fit, and by
City border and West Hempstead High School. He was that afternoon I had built, what my mom would always call
a “Wild Child.” He had a Harley Davidson Chopper like them from then on, a Frankenstein. What I didn’t know
the one in Easy Rider and a trailered racecar, a 1964 was the safety mechanism called a “governor” would not
Chevrolet Malibu SS that was fast, loud, and rowdy. One fit the new carburetor, so I left it disconnected. It started
day “Dennis the Menace”, as it said on the side of his car, and as I slowly opened the throttle, soared to engine
asked if I wanted a ride home in the racecar. He unloaded speeds I didn’t think it could...and then BANG! The little
the car from the trailer, I got in and held on to the roll cage connecting rod, the part that transfers the linear motion of
tubing, sitting as best I could on the floor since there was the piston to the rotational motion of the crankshaft had
only one seat. And then grinning like a maniac, he looked broken and part of it exited the side of the engine, never
over at me and fired that sucker up! Every hair on my to be found again. Astonished, I rode to see Dennis who
arms is standing up as I write this account. No mufflers, said that I’d learned a lot today: how to make an engine
no interior, a purpose-built race engine, and slicks for rear go faster and how to blow one up.
tires. The car had a spool-locked rear end to force both
tires to grip the road with equal traction, not positraction One day my brother bought his first car, a beautiful
for all of you My Cousin Vinny fans out there. Every time 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS. It was blue with white
he entered a turn, the slicks would chirp and squeal in racing stripes, a white interior, a white vinyl roof, and
protest, as one or the other would have to skid to allow factory “mag” wheels. That night he went out for a drive
the car to turn. Once the car was pointed straight again and happened to pull up next to our town’s local bad-
he’d floor it again, his hand a blur directing the shifter ass, Kenny in his white 1957 Chevrolet Belair which
through the gears. It was the most adrenaline per half- had a 4:11 rear axle ratio, a four-speed transmission
mile drive I have ever experienced and certainly hooked and a Corvette 283 cubic inch engine with 2 four-barrel
me on hot rods. I would show up at his garage like “the carburetors. Anthony had a 350 but it had a tiny two-
sorcerer’s apprentice” and learn everything I could from barrel carburetor, an automatic transmission and his
him. His first lesson was that an engine is pretty much car was much heavier. I was working on my car with
an air pump, more in / more out, more power. And my friend Paul in my parent’s garage when Anthony
then there was “More’s Law”: If a little’s good, more’s returned with a long face and the disappointing story of
better. The next day I went to the Garden City sanitation the impromptu speed contest. I asked him if he wanted to
yard and found a discarded lawnmower with a bigger beat Kenny and, in a few minutes, we had my car back
five-horsepower engine. I rode my bicycle back with some in front of the house and my brother’s coming apart. After
tools in my old Newsday delivery bag and stripped off the a sweaty hour or so we had replaced the heavy original
cast iron intake manifold with an aluminum Edelbrock

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Nassau County Dental Society • (516) 227-1112 | 17