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Redwood Rally Drag-n-Drive · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  John Summers is the motoring historian.
• 0:02
  He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept
• 0:07
  sports bike rider hailing from California.
• 0:10
  He collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and
• 0:12
  fast and not much reliable.
• 0:15
  On his show, he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new
• 0:18
  and old cars driving motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.
• 0:32
  Good day.
• 0:33
  Good morning, good afternoon.
• 0:35
  It is John Summers the motoring historian.
• 0:38
  Today I am gonna review, uh, an event.
• 0:40
  I went and spectated back in September of 2025.
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  It's now December called The Redwood Rally.
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  Dragon Drive.
• 0:50
  So you might not be familiar with what a Dragon Drive.
• 0:52
  Event is, and when I've explained, it'll be obvious, but it, it's
• 0:56
  not immediately obvious to it.
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  It's uh, if you are European, the principle is similar to our kind of stage
• 1:05
  rallies in that what we're saying is this is an event where you might start
• 1:09
  in one city, drive to a local drag strip, compete at the drag strip, and then the
• 1:15
  following day drive to another drag strip.
• 1:19
  Where the same thing takes place.
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  Then the following day, this happens again.
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  So in the case of the event that I went to this, uh, Redwood rally, in the case
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  of the Redwood rally, I think it was five drag strips in six days, but they did
• 1:34
  a loop coming back to the original one.
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  Anyway, I'll put a link in to the website so you can go there
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  and, and have a look at it.
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  But I guess if you haven't already got there.
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  The parallel with rallying is that it is all very well to have a car which can go
• 1:49
  around the muddy rally stage really well, or in this case, get down the quarter mile
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  or even for some of the events, eighth of a mile, get down that really well.
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  But can it then drive a couple of hundred miles to the next.
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  Y event towing all your equipment as well, right?
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  Has to carry all of the equipment as well.
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  So on the face of it, for those of you that, that aren't steeped
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  in the world of motor sport, that might not seem very big deal.
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  But the more attenuated a racing car becomes, the less practical it
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  becomes for everyday kind of stuff.
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  And most dragsters are not street legal, so these cars have to be street legal.
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  We are not in Germany.
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  It's not like they have to be TUV approved and it is out west here
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  and there is a sort of wild west.
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  Remember there's no MOT out west.
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  If you're British, there's no annual vehicle inspection.
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  So what that means is if you drive a car without turn signals, if in
• 2:47
  California, if they pull you over.
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  They can ticket you for it not having indicators.
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  So that would be what they call a fix it ticket, where you have a certain
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  amount of time to fix it and prove to a policeman that your vehicle now has
• 3:00
  indicators on it or whatever else.
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  It's lacking, but you're not gonna have any issue for corrosion.
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  You're not gonna have any issue around, you know, dragging a car
• 3:09
  of the junkyard and, and putting a turbo LS motor under the hood, which.
• 3:14
  Appears to be what a lot of people did, and really this was the
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  takeaway for the event for me was, for me was the really, there were
• 3:24
  some awesome, awesome cars just.
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  Awesome builds in a really grassroots kind of way, and these
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  vehicles are being used, right?
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  So you're not at a show and there's not people, you know, polishing them.
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  No.
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  These cars are being raced down the track and then driven 200 miles
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  and then again and again and again.
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  It has the feeling if you've been to a vintage sports car club meeting
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  in in England or Wales or Scotland, it has that kind of grassroots.
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  The people involved here are really passionate, skillful people, and it's
• 4:05
  really a pleasure to sort of piggyback on on their event in the way that that I did.
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  I'm gonna share one anecdote and I should say, I wanna preface
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  this by saying that the Oregonian.
• 4:18
  Is a breed apart.
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  And I think if you know, as as I've been on the West coast 20 years now, the
• 4:25
  Path West is called the Oregon Trail.
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  You came to Oregon and when we think of Oregon, we think of all of the trees.
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  And this is pretty much what I saw.
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  But driving around on these seven, on these six drag strips or five
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  drag strips or wherever it was, I only went to three or four.
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  But driving around Oregon in the way that I did before, I really got a
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  sense of, of what the state looks like.
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  But that rugged environment breeds a particularly rugged kind of individual,
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  and that particular kind of rugged individual builds a particular
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  kind of hot rod it seems to me.
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  And.
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  That was a pretty awesome thing to behold.
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  Now I have a excuse of a beard.
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  It's sort of halfway between stubble and a beard, but my beard did not
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  pass muster in this world of big bushy beards and Ls swapped Fox Mustangs
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  that still had their original interiors but had no hood, and were getting down
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  the drag stripping under 10 seconds.
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  And then, you know, you see the guy with his wife or girlfriend at
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  the Taco Bell eating dinner with it parked up outside afterwards.
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  I mean, that is what this, this event is all about.
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  Now you don't get that at the BSCC in, in quite the same way.
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  So, so this is all of the.
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  Mechanical skill and compromise that it takes to keep a rally car going,
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  but in this amazing wild West Vista and its Camaros and Mustangs and
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  the paint's bad and nobody cares.
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  Oh, it is.
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  Bloody awesome.
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  And I just wanna say at this point, these drag and drive events, they're
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  generally creditors being invented by Dave Fryberger at Hot Rod Magazine.
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  And I have to say, I happen to love the guy.
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  I know that not everybody does, but the.
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  Reality is the bloke invented something, made up a concept, which
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  really gives people a reason to build a certain really cool kind of car.
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  And just sticking on the theme of these awesome Oregonian folk apart, on the
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  last day at Medford Drag Strip, I parked up facing the track and I, I was tired
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  because I'd been on the road and I'd done a lot of driving before I did like.
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  1700 miles in four days, including a couple of days where
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  I was just at the drag strip.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, sure it's in a tundra with heated seats and and so on.
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  But I walked all around.
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  I, I'd got hot, I'd eaten the crap food.
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  I was just sat in the truck maced, watching the cars roll
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  down the strip on the last day.
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  And, uh, I was looking to the right of me.
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  There was a, uh, G body, black one that had an LS swap and pizza cutters and,
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  you know, mini tubbed and, uh, parachute.
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  And I'd watched them swap the transmission on one day at the side
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  of the track on a portable lift.
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  And I'd watched that same car go like 9 74 at like 141 miles an hour or something.
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  Ridiculous.
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  Right.
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  And I'm sat there.
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  And I basically, I watched the guy, big beard check lumberjack shirt, pull
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  his Silverado forward, get it hooked up onto two axle flatbed trailer,
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  and uh, he puts the ramps down.
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  And then I'm.
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  Looking at him off the left hand side of the truck and the regal, I think
• 7:49
  it's a Buick Regal, but whatever his little G body with the turbo Ls
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  in it, I hear it fire up and I look over and it's his lad sat in it.
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  And this lad can't have been older than Ollie.
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  And his lad puts it in reverse and I watch him back it up around the back of the
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  tundra and then I watch him line it up.
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  I'm thinking to myself, oh, his dad's gonna hot pin now and
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  drive it onto the back ramp.
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  No, his dad is stood in the middle of the trailer backing
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  him on, and I'm just like, wow.
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  Firstly the build on the car.
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  Secondly.
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  The fact that you've taught the kid to drive it.
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  But thirdly, the fact that you are stood right in front of him.
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  So this, if this kid unleashes this nine second monster, it's just
• 8:31
  gonna pin you against the trailer.
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  But no, you trust and have schooled the kid.
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  Well enough to be able to do that.
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  So that was a little bit of the blast of the world West and, and this, this
• 8:43
  is taking place against the Vista of Medford drag strip, which is a
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  downhill, and then the runoff is uphill and it's just the Oregonian forest.
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  And that's like, you know, just like the black forest is just.
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  Endless cheese as, as, as far as, uh, as far as you can see.
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  And it was all right in September when I was there, but my God, you
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  would not, I would not want to be there in, uh, in wintertime.
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  The other really standout image for me, there was a brownish.
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  I mean 68 69 Chevelle Body style.
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  But I think it was, um, that Canadian one called it the, do they call it a Beaumont?
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  Is that the name?
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  I'm not really sure.
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  But it has like a center split in the grill, but it's
• 9:28
  basically a 68 69 Chevelle.
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  And one of the most memorable images for me was as the sun was going down and
• 9:34
  you're rolling across this like Oregonian.
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  Endless forest kind of, uh, kind of landscape with the case.
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  Had the crew set about 65 or or 70, and this, uh, Beaumont
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  Chevelle affair in the center line.
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  Headlights on, came on by and it's uh, a guy and his wife were
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  doing it with their granddaughter.
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  'cause I heard the grandmother and the granddaughter.
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  Talking one time when the car did a pass, I'll include pictures of the car.
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  The car was an awesome car.
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  And that whole nature of doing the event that, you know, you got like the picnic
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  basket and the child's seat on the back seat of this like LS swapped, you
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  know, I guess this, this Chavelle was doing, if I remember correctly, like,
• 10:20
  you know, elevens that kind of, uh.
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  That kind of time.
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  It's hard an interior.
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  So other cars of note ice blue LS swap.
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  Nissan two 40, like S four D. Not a drift car really.
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  And that was one of the faster cars.
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  I believe I saw that car do an 8 95.
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  I'll include a couple of pictures in it with all of this stuff.
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  You see the car make the pass and then you're like, wow,
• 10:49
  I really need to dig deeper.
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  But because it's like a dude and his mates, you feel guilty like going up and
• 10:56
  standing close and leaning too close.
• 10:58
  And to be honest, the whole thing reminded me of I went to, um.
• 11:03
  Cadwell Park in England, which is a British club circuit to watch some
• 11:07
  motorcycle racing and it, its plumbers using their works van, you know, having
• 11:12
  taken all the plumbing equipment out and put the old, you know, TZ two 50
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  in it, had that same kind of feel.
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  I compared it with the VS CC earlier.
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  The paddock has that same kind of.
• 11:24
  Have you seen that innovation?
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  I've never seen anything like that before.
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  I never thought that engine would fit.
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  What on earth is it?
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  I'm even looking at it has that kind of of thing, but with, as I say, with this
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  sort of Oregonian kind of of bent to it.
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  So yes, the LSS 14 is a hell of a car and I also, I mean, I'll include
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  a link to this car a a Catfish era.
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  2002 Camaro with a cow induction hood and a whole shit ton of LAC appeal and well
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  drag wheels on it and it just look the business, I mean, you just look at the
• 11:58
  car and you're like, I want that car and I want to do this event a really clean.
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  Red Fox Mustang got a photo of that car on on the trailer.
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  It had a proper interior in it.
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  The G Body car had a proper interior in it.
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  The car was black, it was burgundy, crushed interior.
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  It just makes you smile.
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  And these are cheap cars.
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  But my word, the ingenuity, the skill, the hours that's gone into it.
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  And I'll tell you, when you're there in the paddock, you're not
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  just looking at the racing cars.
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  I mean, I only just took pictures of the racing cars, but the camping setup, these
• 12:32
  guys have got, I'll tell you what as well.
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  I mean, how many Cummins Rams worth my word?
• 12:40
  That was fun.
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  In fact, when I was watching on the final day at Madrass, I got talking
• 12:45
  to a guy who had been to the COOs Bay event and had told me that only
• 12:51
  a few cars made a pass because the diesel Chevelle, yes, that's right.
• 12:56
  Diesel.
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  Chevelle 69 Chevelle with a Cummins turbo diesel motor in it that had
• 13:04
  basically dumped a load of oil.
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  It had like blown up oil line, had dumped a load of oil, and the COOs Bays
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  guys just didn't have the resources to like clear up the track and dry
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  it off in time for, so the COOs Bay Day was lost, so I was no longer
• 13:18
  disappointed that I missed that day.
• 13:20
  Madras drag strip, it is worth going out of your way to go to that venue.
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  Literally there is beautiful clean air like Montana, big
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  sky, super nice little town.
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  You come through the nice little town, outskirts of the town, nice facility,
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  lots of space, no resources whatsoever.
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  You have to like bring all your like food and water and all of that.
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  But then you stood there and in the background there's a mountain.
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  It's like a drag strip in the Alps.
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  It is, it's, it's like almost like.
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  Am I in Grant Ismo?
• 13:52
  And then you're like, no, because there's no way in Grant Ismo, you
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  know, people would be running the kind of beater cast that there are here
• 13:59
  with the kind of awesome engineering that there is to make them get down
• 14:03
  the drag strip in a decent time.
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  I did get some video of the drag racing.
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  I'm not really gonna bother attaching that.
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  I mean, the main thing is, is just the sheer violence of it.
• 14:12
  You know, that's the thing, isn't it?
• 14:14
  And the fact that the.
• 14:15
  Burnout where they warm up the tires, where they spin the tires
• 14:18
  on purpose to warm them up.
• 14:20
  That's actually watching a old muscle car with a full interior and no roll cage,
• 14:26
  but like a 600 horsepower big block gets sideways in the box that, oh my word.
• 14:33
  It, it's, uh, it's a spectacle.
• 14:36
  It is really a spectacle.
• 14:38
  Just like Sumer Wrestling is a spectacle.
• 14:42
  This is a spectacle.
• 14:43
  So a lot of Chaves and Novas and I'll, I'll include pictures of them.
• 14:47
  There's one lovely little blue nova that, um, Chavelle rather that I
• 14:52
  really should use as the thumbnail, but I'll probably use the G Body.
• 14:56
  Probably use the G body and so we'll see what I'll share both with the
• 14:58
  producer and we'll both be surprised by what shows up as the thumb.
• 15:02
  There was a square body, like a short bed, square body Chevy
• 15:08
  truck with four slick tires on it.
• 15:11
  Now, when I showed my son the picture, he was like, that's the coolest thing.
• 15:15
  But disappointingly, I never really saw it hook up.
• 15:18
  So great idea, but didn't actually, uh, really see it Transl.
• 15:23
  And the last image I'm just gonna include in the yellow slideshow
• 15:27
  here is a truck that I saw for sale at the side of the road.
• 15:30
  I'll include the sign as well 'cause I dare say it's still there, so who knows?
• 15:33
  You can call it and buy the Ford Big job.
• 15:37
  What a great name for a truck.
• 15:40
  The Ford Big job.
• 15:42
  I'll attach pictures.
• 15:44
  Thank you.
• 15:44
  Drive through.
• 15:55
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• 15:58
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• 16:00
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