Nostalgia Comp Eliminator

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

I am Sunday's Milan Dragway Nostalgia Comp Eliminator champ. This year it was a three day event with separate races on Saturday and Sunday. My buddy Dan Snyder (552 ci Ford powered '23T altered) won yesterday's race and me today. In the final round I had to run a FED (8.50 index) on my 10.50 index in the Last Logghe altered. He ran 8.52 to my 10.52 with a m.o.v. of .016. What fun!

This was with the (orange) Logghe vintage race car - not my avatar S/P.

Videos to follow soon

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

Video:

https://youtu.be/lG6tOzJHOdw

[67Straightsix]

Congratulations

[Big64my79Effie]

Outstanding! Enjoy nostalgia drag racing. Go to Beechbend just about every year for the NHRA museum eastern tour. Thanks for the video!

[Does10s]

Congrats Greg!
Nice video!

Will

[bubba22349]

Wow nice run Greg, the "Last Logghe" is very consistent! Congrats on the Win.

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

I ended my 2017 racing season last night in the Last Logghe altered. After my successful outing a couple weeks ago in Nostalgia Comp I decided to enter the monthly Heads Up! night race last night. It was my first time racing at one of these hugely popular Heads Up! series. I entered in the Open Comp class - no electronics, .500 Pro tree, qualify off your reaction time, dial-in assigned for the evening as 1/10 faster than your quickest of two qualifying passes. 71 cars trying for a spot in the 56 car qualified field. On my second pass I had a .007 light, ran a 10.51 (lifting) and that put me in the show at number 12 qualifier with a 10.41 dial-in assigned. Ran dead on 10.41 first round, won a couple of rounds, lost in the third, won back my $50 entry fee. What fun.

I know I took some flak from some by deciding to update the Last Logghe altered to current safety specs and other mods instead of making it a restored, as-purchased original. But in the course of racing it these last few years many folks have thanked me for putting it back on the track and letting them remember what these cars were like. It pleases and surprises me to see how many people remember the names of Ron and Gene Logghe, Chuck Kurzawa, Al Bergler - all craftsmen associated with its construction. Purists love the original inline six.

Post race leak-down and compression checks showed everything good and ready to go next season so it gets winterized and put back in storage 'til spring.

Thanks for following my thread. Stay tuned for more fun next summer.

[drag-200stang]

Good job on the season.
Logghe Brothers Stamping , custom built the coil overs for me , for my turbo six mustang...about 40 years ago!

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

thanks drag-200stang.
The coil overs on the front were custom made at Logghe also. They cut down longer bodies and shortened the stems for a compact unit. They were wizards.

The numbers in your signature are very impressive - great e.t.s

[drag-200stang]

thanks drag-200stang.
The coil overs on the front were custom made at Logghe also. They cut down longer bodies and shortened the stems for a compact unit. They were wizards.

The numbers in your signature are very impressive - great e.t.s

Thanks FTF.
It was ahead of its time, but not so much any more.

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

UPDATE 2018:

We took two cars to the Nostalgia Drags to end our 2018 season. The orange Last Logghe altered qualified #1 both days. Ran 10.50 on our 10.50 index both days. Saturday it would not start for the second round. We found a loose connection in the coil circuit and rectified it for Sunday. Made it to the semifinals where I took a nap on the start and lost.

The white Family Truckster also made it to the semifinals on Sunday with my buddy George at the wheel. It slowed down a tenth on that pass so we have to see if something is amiss before next season. I upgraded the brakes on it from old, problematic Hurst/Airheart units to Wilwoods. It really made the driver feel comfortable and more confident this weekend.

Had FUN. Made friends. Talked with lots of Ford six fans. That's important.

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

UPDATE 2019:

Today was the "Kickin' It Ol' School" nostalgia event at our local strip. They had a Nostalgia Comp Eliminator race. I entered both of our cars - George drove the white truckster once again. I had to race George in the semi-finals and beat him and went on to win the final round in the orange Last Logghe.
Three of the last four cars left were Fords - one SBF FED and our two roadster six bangers.
Tomorrow is a points race so its back in the blue S/Pro car.

Had more FUN. Made more friends. Talked with lots of Ford six fans. That's important.

[bubba22349]

Congrats on winning FTF!

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

Thank you. The weekend was not completely free of problems. The Last Logghe has developed an issue where it randomly stalls. I think some of the electrical components that have been on the car for 40+ years of competition are showing their age. I plan to replace the master cutoff switch (I just did that on my S/P car too) and the ignition toggle switch. Thankfully it ran perfectly in competition, but that's not a good thing for one's feeling of confidence.

George launched hard in Friday's gambler's race only to have the primary coil wire detach itself at a spade connector. Frustrating. But an easy fix.

Then today (Sunday) his truckster went pig-rich at idle and started to load up. He kept the revs up where it ran great and he went three rounds. I surmise that one or two of the power valves blew out. The carbs are C1AEs so that would make the power valves 58 years old. Does anybody know what size PVs it takes? I think I will keep them in there for now. I'll bet the ones in there now are potato-chip-crispy.

On a brighter note I picked up a grungy old 1.21 Motorcraft 2150 carb at the swap meet - for four bucks! It will be paired and matched to a NOS 1.21 I have. The 1.02 carbs are coming off and the 1.21s are going on, raising our total 4V equivalent flow from 350 cfm to 500 cfm. I expect that will drop the e.t. at least a tenth and add at least 3 mph to the trap speed. [ His best e.t./mph this weekend was 11.94 @ 110 - that being with the 2.47:1 RAR in the pumpkin shifting at 5000 - 5200.] I have a 4.56 gear to put in - someday maybe. That should put 'er in the tens.

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

One more tidbit of tech info. In years past I had been having a stumble issue if there was not enough heat in the engine. So for this race I drilled out the front pump shooter nozzle only to a bigger size. That did the trick. My thinking was if the car is accelerating - at one G or so - then the front nozzle will be delivering the fuel rearward so enlarging the rear nozzle outlet may not be needed . Sure enough...

[bubba22349]

What kind of 60 ft times dose the Family Truckster pull with those 2.47 gears? Yes that would be quite the radical change putting in that set of 4.56's next. In your above picture of the last Logghe launching off the line it looks like it's chassis works very well.

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

Bub,
The Family Truckster sixtys in the 1.70 - 1.80 range.
Pitifully slow.

Since the pic of the Logghe car was taken I've adjusted the corner weights to even out the front end rise. It sixtys in the 1.40 - 1.45 range in its current state of [de]tune.

[bubba22349]

On your question on the power valves most of the orginal carb's I have rebuilt over the years had a stock 6.5 power valve in them. How much did you detune the Last Loggie, was this to run in a certain bracket or class?

[DoctorC]

Wow, thanks for keeping up the thread. Its a nice read for a newbie like me =)

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

On your question on the power valves most of the orginal carb's I have rebuilt over the years had a stock 6.5 power valve in them. How much did you detune the Last Loggie, was this to run in a certain bracket or class?

Thanks for the info bubba. I got the rebuild kits for the 1.21s in the mail yesterday. I'm going to check the opening vacuum with a vacuum pump before I install them.
I de-tuned the Logghe car when I rebuilt it after my crash in 2000. At that time it was my front-line race car and running in the 9.70 range. Since then it is now only used for nostalgia / vintage / reunion racing and only gets raced three or four times a year. NHRA mandated a chassis inspection every two years for any car running under 9.99. I did not want to have to pay for that inspection so I slowed it down to run in the tens. It was mostly an economic decision. But also, since some of the racing I do is half-second index racing it fits the 10.50 bracket better. (Psst, just between us girls it'll run quicker than a 10.50 LOL)

[EDIT: I removed the 1.02 carbs off the KFT and discovered that the power valve block-off plugs had loosened (or some dummy had forgotten to tighten them) so that would explain the rich idle condition. I had forgotten I replaced the PVs with plugs, a common modification on competition cars with big cams / low manifold vacuum. I will put the plugs in the 1.21 carbs but I am going to try a little trick of adding a third idle air bleed circuit that can be changed without disassembling the carbs or even removing the scoop. Stay tuned...]

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

UPDATE 9/22/19

I wrapped up the nostalgia portion of the 2019 season with a final round appearance on both yesterday's and today's Nostalgia Comp show. Unfortunately I had to settle for runner-up both days. Saturday the final was at 11:30 PM on a dewy, slippery track and I lost lane choice and got stuck on the slippery side of the track where the car got out of shape and I had to lift to regain traction but couldn't run the number. Today I had to run the same Bantam altered that beat me yesterday. He was dialed 8.00; I was 10.50. I had won a quarter final race earlier running a 10.500 on my 10.50 dial, so I figured I could go under. I knew the other driver would try to take the stripe and not lift. I got off the line clean, picked my spot to lift, but ran 10.443 to his 7.978.

I also had to run my KFT car in the semi-finals both days. Friday we had a few issues to iron out - a leaking core plug on the Logghe altered and idle quality / throttle linkage Gremlins on the KFTruckster. Sorted out in time for Saturdays qualifying runs.

Here's a fun fact. The driver of the quickest car in the field - a BBC seven-second 'T' altered - asked me if my car was the same one that was painted blue many years ago. When I answered 'yes' he recalled watching me run it when as a little tot his dad would take him to the drags.

I feel OLD.
And YOUNG.
At the same time.