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Author Topic: Weekend at the boat drags  (Read 690 times)

Offline hblair

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Weekend at the boat drags
« on: July 28, 2003, 01:05:49 PM »
This board seems to more and more gearhead-ish, so maybe a drag boat post will be ok. The 3rd anual IHBA southern thunder nationals came to Gadsden again this past weekend. My son and I spent the whole weekend tooling around looking at the boats. We made some friends in the process. Rafael Caleca from missouri had brought "going for broke" (his boat) and his crew. This boat had a broken throttle pedal, and some other aluminum piece but there was no TIG welder at the drags, so I took the mechanic to our shop here and we TIGed her up, and we got a free dinner out of it, and a signed burnt piston! ;) (anybody need a burnt piston?) Here's the dudes we helped...


Thats my boy in the green cap, other son is in the cockpit lol

Pro mods lined up on the ropes ready to go to staging rope..


Here's something called a nitro-methane firebreather. I think they come in stock new mini's....


230mph top fuel run...


Rafael launching his pro mod boat just before burning a piston..


Yours truly around 1990 with brother on passenger side. man I had big hair. Boat is sold now. :(
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Offline Mini D

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Re: Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2003, 01:16:29 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by hblair
Here's something called a nitro-methane firebreather. I think they come in stock new mini's....


That's bigger than my car.

MiniD
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Offline Mini D

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2003, 01:17:49 PM »
BTW... how's your dad's car coming along?  Or is it still stalled out due to retirement apathy?

MiniD
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Offline Curval

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2003, 01:23:53 PM »
That is one dangerous sport..but awesome.  Hard to really appreciate the speed even when watching it live.  Sitting in the boats is the only place you can fully understand just how fast they can go.

We have a big powerboat community here and once a year they do the "Round the Island" race.  We had one guy killed last year.
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Some will fall in love with life and drink it from a fountain that is pouring like an avalanche coming down the mountain

Offline Ripsnort

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2003, 01:28:18 PM »
Hey, is that GREEN INDOOR/OUTDOOR CARPET  I see where they are working on a motor!?!? :D

I FEEL VINDICATED!
« Last Edit: July 28, 2003, 02:37:35 PM by Ripsnort »
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Offline nopoop

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2003, 01:34:20 PM »
I know for a fact that people that race boats are nugging futs..

U GOT TO B NUTS.
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nopoop

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Offline gofaster

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2003, 02:04:43 PM »
They do offshore powerboat races here every year and I've yet to go to one, but I've seen them on television.  Seems to me like a good way to get yourself killed, other than motorcycle racing.

You sure that pic of you was taken in 1990?  Looks more like 1980.
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Offline lazs2

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2003, 02:25:08 PM »
drag boats scare the crap out of me.
lazs
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Offline Stringer

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2003, 02:30:03 PM »
Yeah, but can it hold the corner going fast on a round-about??
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Offline LePaul

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2003, 02:50:38 PM »
Wow.  You must have some really fast fish if you need a boat that fast to troll for them  :) ;)

Geezus, where ya put a beer cooler on a power surfboat like that?
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Offline Ripsnort

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2003, 02:55:50 PM »
...working on an engine...ON CARPET....yes, thats CARPET! :D
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Offline Stringer

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2003, 03:07:15 PM »
That isn't hblair in that pic....it's Classy Man...the Classiest Classy Man on land or water!
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Offline midnight Target

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2003, 03:13:03 PM »
I read somewhere that the real high powered (read expensive) drag boats are using either f-16 cockpits or a facimile thereof. I'll try to dig up the article.
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Offline Mini D

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2003, 04:46:27 PM »
Cockpits or canopies?  They went with a tub style cockpit (more like a capsule) for the high end stuff... and the canopies are from fighter jets.  Don't know if the tubs are or not (A-10 is only fighter I know with a tub style cockpit).

MiniD
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Offline hblair

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Weekend at the boat drags
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2003, 07:32:01 AM »
miniD, its stalled, he's been hittin the RV.
About 1990 gofaster.
Lazs is skeeeeert.
Rip, that's green concrete. :)

Target, the capsule is made of tubular steel, don't know about the lid. Looks like some super thick plexiglass or something. The driver has an air tank in there with him and I think has the mouthpiece in in case things go awry during the run. The capsule is made to tear away from the hull if the boat peels or whatever.

These boats are much safer than what they used to be. In the alcohol class there are two types of hull, hydro and flat, hydro being a hydroplane, flat, being a traditional hull with a flatbottom.
Well, twenty years ago, before the capsule was around, these guys were racing in hulls like our '77 sanger. If things got bouncy, the driver would come out of the boat and go skipping across the water. I think they had a chute to slow them down, but they were in danger of getting hit by the boat, etc. Also, the "top fuel flat" class was done away with I think in the early eighties. That's the class a lot of people were killed in. Imagine a boat like I'm sitting in with a top fuel engine sitting in it. They were a recipe for disaster.
So anyway, drag boats are much much safer these days.
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