Grand National Brake Job (and now rear gear change)

[Aero426]

... Reminds me of the "Piston Cup" trophies in the movie "Cars".. 

He did what in his cup?   

[moparstuart]

that trophy would look good on your mantle   

[CornDogsCharger]

The owner of this trophy who was not present himself, sent it to the show to be displayed with the Superbird for the day.   Ramo won an ARCA race at Talladega in April of 1970 in the Superbird.    This is the actual trophy he was holding in the victory lane photo.   Ramo had a couple of auctions and sales in the 80's and 90's as he got out of the racing business.   Quite a few of his trophies are out there in different collections.  

How adjustable is the car's rear suspension?  Look how much lower the car appears to be sitting in the vintage picture.  Or has the quarter panel been trimmed more since then?


Justin
"CornDog"

[Aero426]

How adjustable is the car's rear suspension?  Look how much lower the car appears to be sitting in the vintage picture.  Or has the quarter panel been trimmed more since then?

Justin, the rear wheel arches were opened up towards the end of the 1971 USAC season.    Secondly, by the part number on them, the car has super speedway rear springs.  We were discussing this at the shop on Saturday.   It is now sitting as low as it can go without lowering blocks, or different springs.   These are the springs that were on the car when it left Keokuk in 1988.    It is possible that springs and torsion bars were swapped around when it went into storage after 1972.

[Aero426]

Banner created by the local racers reunion folks shown below. Some big names on the banner.

[Aero426]

Meet "Barney", the 1930 Dodge coupe owned by Lance Stott.  It has a long family history dating back to 1955,  when Ramo bought it out of a junkyard in Illinois to use as a race car.  Before he could tear into it, he decided all the wood in the body wouldn't work out so well for racing.  But for some reason he kept the car.  It was stored on the family farm in Missouri from 1955 until 1980, and then in Keokuk until about five years ago when Lance bought it and started on the restoration. Ramo built the six cylinder mill under the hood.   The car was restored entirely at home by the family.  Corrie Stott sprayed the paint. 

[Aero426]

Now this was cool.    I asked Corrie Stott what happened to the trailer that the Superbird used to ride on.   He told me his dad still had it over at the house.    Well, that was almost correct.   Turns out Lance had it at his house and uses it to move the '30 Dodge around.   When Lance pulled up with it at the end of the day on Sunday, I couldn't believe it was still around.    Lance says the railing on the top was removed and it had a tire rack on it at one time.   The fenders were widened when Lance used it to haul his first race car.   That old trailer has been to Daytona and back umpteen times.   Lance would like to fix it up and put a new deck on it.   

[70Sbird]

Now That Is COOL!
The trailer that moved the #7 around still exists and is still in use by the family!
Doug, you should offer them a nice featherlite flat trailer in exchange for the original trailer!

[Aero426]

Scott, here is another shot of the trailer with a '69 RR on it.  Check out the spare Hemi on the front.  Now there is some tongue weight!  Ramo was one of the first drivers to show up at the track with a motor home.  

[Aero426]

His earlier open trailer was built from a discarded lube rack.  

[70Sbird]

His earlier open trailer was built from a discarded lube rack.  

Doug, your old picture collecion must be amazing!

[Aero426]

Doug, your old picture collecion must be amazing!

What is tantalizing is the amount of undiscovered material that must be hiding out there.   

[Aero426]

Sunday morning we met up with the racers reunion gang to load the Superbird on their parade float.

Only a couple of tense moments!


Making the swing over to the float.


Needed some boards for the front spoiler to clear.


Made it.

[Aero426]

Ramo has always been a man of high style.    This is his mid 70's crew outfit when he was sponsored by Jack Housby's Mack truck dealership. 

[nitrometal]

This was a great story Doug and like you said "something to check off your bucket list".  The Stott's are obviously great people and proved it right here.

Now....if I could just sweet talk Richard into helping me with my car like that!!!   

I have a question because I'm clueless about differentials.  On a full floating axle you can remove it without taking the wheel off?  How is that held in place? Some sort of internal c-clip?

[Aero426]

On a full floating axle you can remove it without taking the wheel off?  How is that held in place? Some sort of internal c-clip?

No c-clips.   The axle is splined on both ends.  There is a hub cap that bolts to the outer hub assembly. 

[Mopurr]

"Now....if I could just sweet talk Richard into helping me with my car like that!!! " 


Just don't see Richard working on a clone......


Now Ramo rolling up his sleeves to work on his old race car.....yep, I can see that, he is such a cool fun guy.

[pettybird]

I have a question because I'm clueless about differentials.  On a full floating axle you can remove it without taking the wheel off?  How is that held in place? Some sort of internal c-clip?

a "full floater" means that the hubs are self-supporting, rather than tied to the axles.  If you take an axle out of your car, you have no place to bolt the wheel.  Doug does--he can take the axles out and  the car would roll just fine. 

[Aero426]

Ramo easily fits the definition of a "character". Unlike most of us, he is also fortunate to be able to fit into his old duds. He does his yard work in this jacket. OK, well, not really, but he could. This is a 1966-67 era Plymouth jacket, from before the Road Runner came out. The yellow caution tape around his waist is another story we'll get to. See the part above about being a character. But isn't that a cool jacket?

[Aero426]

I have a question because I'm clueless about differentials.  On a full floating axle you can remove it without taking the wheel off?  How is that held in place? Some sort of internal c-clip?

a "full floater" means that the hubs are self-supporting, rather than tied to the axles.  If you take an axle out of your car, you have no place to bolt the wheel.  Doug does--he can take the axles out and  the car would roll just fine. 

Here is an illustration of an aftermarket Frankland full floating rear end from their 1969 catalog.  It's similar in concept to the typical Grand National rear axle setup.

[Aero426]

Another view.

[pettybird]

Do your hubs have any camber built into them like current cup cars?  when did they start that?

[tan top]

On a full floating axle you can remove it without taking the wheel off?  How is that held in place? Some sort of internal c-clip?

No c-clips.   The axle is splined on both ends.  There is a hub cap that bolts to the outer hub assembly. 

I have a question because I'm clueless about differentials.  On a full floating axle you can remove it without taking the wheel off?  How is that held in place? Some sort of internal c-clip?

a "full floater" means that the hubs are self-supporting, rather than tied to the axles.  If you take an axle out of your car, you have no place to bolt the wheel.  Doug does--he can take the axles out and  the car would roll just fine. 

Here is an illustration of an aftermarket Frankland full floating rear end from their 1969 catalog.  It's similar in concept to the typical Grand National rear axle setup.

good info !!

always wondered about them , why did they go to floating axles ??  safty incase the axle shaft broke ??

[held1823]

just a guess, but it could allow for a quicker axle swap on pit road, if the shaft gets broken? that seems to happen with some regularity even today, at tracks with concrete pit stalls.

[Aero426]

always wondered about them , why did they go to floating axles ??  safty incase the axle shaft broke ??

Yes, it is a safety feature.  If you break an axle, the wheel and tire do not go flying.