The night a Super Bee scared hell out of me (Ed Story alert...)

[moparedtn]

Thanks for sharing great story and very cool bee.

Wonderful story sir, thanks! Some think a car has a soul, but I think some cars can feel your soul. That's what I think happened that morning and I would think that you couldn't have recreated that situation if you wanted to. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Thanks guys, I appreciate that.
Yes, I do think inanimate objects have personalities, albeit mechanical ones of course - typically reflective of
whoever is their steward at the time naturally - and that 'Bee was certainly repping me in those days.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

Enjoyed the story Ed
I have been around cars where the air was incredible and ran better then they ever had before. Often, not ever replicated. Many of those times it was in the middle of the night!
That was seriously buzzing w 3.91s!

 

[#41]

140 mph with 3.91 gears is achieved at about 8700 rpm without overdrive, so something was/is amiss.

It's very common for 3.23 cars to get upgraded with 3.91's and the speedo gear is not changed. In this case, 6100 rpm would have a speedometer reading of 140, but actual speed is around 115. Or perhaps there was some kind of speedo malfunction, you read the speedo wrong in the excitement, etc...... who knows?

It is however, a great story and brings back lots of memories about similar instances for me. It sure was fun to be young and invincible.

 

[MCODECUDA]

Good story Ed. Were you a NeHOA member or your buddy? I join in 82, went to a Syracuse meet between 85 and 92. My work schedule was tough to get holiday weekends off, no seniority.

I’m originally from Syracuse and joined the NeHOA in ‘85 and had a ‘68 Roadrunner at that time. In ‘92 I helped host the event and had a ‘69 GTX.

 

[dadsbee]

140 mph with 3.91 gears is achieved at about 8700 rpm without overdrive, so something was/is amiss.

It's very common for 3.23 cars to get upgraded with 3.91's and the speedo gear is not changed. In this case, 6100 rpm would have a speedometer reading of 140, but actual speed is around 115. Or perhaps there was some kind of speedo malfunction, you read the speedo wrong in the excitement, etc...... who knows?

It is however, a great story and brings back lots of memories about similar instances for me. It sure was fun to be young and invincible.

Someone always has to throw a wrench into a story with facts! LOL. Why I ran, and still do, 2:94's in my Bee !

 

[1STMP]

Great story, Ed!
No idea what happened
to wake that 440 up.

 

[#41]

Someone always has to throw a wrench into a story with facts! LOL. Why I ran, and still do, 2:94's in my Bee !

Racing has seared gear ratios, rpm, and terminal velocity into my brain.

 

[moparedtn]

140 mph with 3.91 gears is achieved at about 8700 rpm without overdrive, so something was/is amiss.
It is however, a great story and brings back lots of memories about similar instances for me. It sure was fun to be young and invincible.

Your math be off a tad. With a 28" tall tire and 3.91's, 140 is around 6500 rpm.
Thanks for the compliment though.

 

[moparedtn]

I’m originally from Syracuse and joined the NeHOA in ‘85 and had a ‘68 Roadrunner at that time. In ‘92 I helped host the event and had a ‘69 GTX.

Are you still with them? Do you remember "the Virginia Boys" as the other members used to call us?

 

[moparedtn]

Someone always has to throw a wrench into a story with facts! LOL. Why I ran, and still do, 2:94's in my Bee !

Except it wasn't a "fact"....

 

[moparedtn]

From the Jegs calculator:

 

[Ray70Chrg]

Ed, great story, reminds me of the movie Sea Biscuit where the horse had to see the competitor getting ahead and then Sea Biscuit would shift into a whole "nother" gear. Sometimes things just can't be explained.

 

[moparedtn]

Ed, great story, reminds me of the movie Sea Biscuit where the horse had to see the competitor getting ahead and then Sea Biscuit would shift into a whole "nother" gear. Sometimes things just can't be explained.

Thanks! Yeah, I don't buy that 440 hitting 6500 either, nor 140. No doubt, some error in both gauges occured -
but my friends' T/A, being stone stock short of some cam and valve work, was a pretty well known quantity.
Casting no aspersions on that 340, there's no way my 440 had any business walking him at that speed, especially
given his 3.55's versus the 3.91's in the Bee.
Yet....it did.

 

[PlymCrazy]

Heck Ed, you probably just blew the cob webs out of her at 115mph and she found another lung. And away she went to 130+…
Way to go man

 

[MCODECUDA]

Are you still with them? Do you remember "the Virginia Boys" as the other members used to call us?

I stopped being a member in about 2000 when we moved to Charlotte North Carolina.

 

[HawkRod]

Thanks! Yeah, I don't buy that 440 hitting 6500 either, nor 140. No doubt, some error in both gauges occured -
but my friends' T/A, being stone stock short of some cam and valve work, was a pretty well known quantity.
Casting no aspersions on that 340, there's no way my 440 had any business walking him at that speed, especially
given his 3.55's versus the 3.91's in the Bee.
Yet....it did.

In my mind there are two possibilities that seem more likely to me:
1) Maybe there was something slightly binding in the accelerator linkage so Ed wasn't regularly getting full throttle. When he really stomped the accelerator, he undid the "hitch" and it went full throttle.

and perhaps the more likely (?)
2) The secondaries were being held back for some reason - maybe slightly sticking or gummed up. During that race, they finally became unstuck and gave Ed all four barrels where previously he was only effectively running with 2 barrels.

Regardless, it is fun to speculate on what might have happened. Regardless of what did, it made for a good story!

 

[moparedtn]

In my mind there are two possibilities that seem more likely to me:
1) Maybe there was something slightly binding in the accelerator linkage so Ed wasn't regularly getting full throttle. When he really stomped the accelerator, he undid the "hitch" and it went full throttle.

and perhaps the more likely (?)
2) The secondaries were being held back for some reason - maybe slightly sticking or gummed up. During that race, they finally became unstuck and gave Ed all four barrels where previously he was only effectively running with 2 barrels.

Regardless, it is fun to speculate on what might have happened. Regardless of what did, it made for a good story!

Well, it was a Holley 3310 750 vac sec, so yeah....that's entirely possible.

 

[Encswsm]

He was first; I followed shortly thereafter by joining after a meet.
I really need to fetch one of those photo scanner devices - I have tons of pics of several meets in the 80's!

you can scan Photos with most modern Cell Phones.

 

[moparedtn]

you can scan Photos with most modern Cell Phones.

I can scan them with all sorts of things like my all-in-one printer....
I want a photo scanner so that I can do the job faster, since there's so many of them.
Some of those self-feed so you can stack a bunch on it and let 'er rip.

 

[Speedbird]

You drove it under 3000 RPM too often in a forward gesr and had carbon on the valves.