The glamour of the road recently brought Clunkbucket to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion at Beech Bend Raceway Park. A slow walk around the swap meet netted a deal on a ultra rare Tiger in the near 100 percent humidity. According to legend, Tiger mufflers occasionally appeared from a parked semi trailer somewhere near Celina, Ohio. Every once in a while the … [Read more...]
1934 MG Jacobsen Special
From the bungee cord suspension modification division of the Morris Garages department comes this 1934 MG Magnette, owned and driven by Michael Jacobsen. The car originally came to American shores with a serviceman on his way back from World War II. The bungeee cord front suspension upgrade had already been completed. Michael's Dad Lars raced, wrecked, and rebuilt the car with … [Read more...]
Enduring Mini-Stock Corolla
The drivers and associated crew of this Toyota Corolla had no idea what model year it was originally. Reading the number of dents and layers of paint like tree rings might set the car's age at hundreds of years old, but they estimated a more realistic late-seventies vintage. These guys bought and brought their Corolla to race after hearing the Friday night mayhem from work next … [Read more...]
Air Pollution Patrol
Dateline 1973. The Bay Area Air Pollution Control District announces the formation of their Vehicle Patrol section in San Francisco. Fourteen agents would patrol California roads, and issue citations to smoke-spewing scofflaws. The agents completed California Highway Patrol defensive driving courses and were trained in patrol driving techniques. Their fleet? Fourteen … [Read more...]
Compression Test
The way Clunkbucket learned about how and why to run a compression test on an engine came only after bolting almost every conceivable replacement part onto a 318 V-8 in a 500-dollar '67 Plymouth Barracuda. Only after a compression test was it determined that the engine was closer to a V-5 than a V-8. As Foghorn Leghorn often trumpeted, there's a right way – and there's a wrong … [Read more...]