Manky Monkey Motors

Andy has suggested some of you might be interested in the ongoing saga of how i ended up getting my rear end in the seat of a comp altered. Not sure how far back to start the tales so will do a little bit of background on me. Been street and drag racing for more years than i will admit to,in my 20s owned 1 of the fastest street bikes out there, once built a pro street pop, got into yanks and it was all down hill from there. Then went real silly and bought a slingshot (twinjynx) dragster, it was built in 1969 by John harrison and originally ran 2 austin 4 pot motors , blown on nitro. I fitted a 429/c6 ford in it and went racing, not long after i was lucky to meet my best mates (now family by choice) Pete & Pet Thomas who owned a steel willys (blown 392 hemi), Pete became my crew chief and me his, then he really went mad and let me drive the willys on the track, as time went on i sold the slingshot and Pete sold the willys, Pete then bought the altered we now run and i was crew chief, saddly Pete had a few heart attacks so we swopped roles ( well it a dirty job but someone has to drive the thing). We started off running the car with a 383 stroker chevy motor, best time 11.1 (i think), but i blew it to bits at the top end at avon, Pete had a 355 ICE engine in the garage, so that got dragged screaming into our sorry tale, this gave great bottom end power but is a street engine not a race engine,we took last year off due to other things happening, but a few months ago decided we need to get off our getting bigger behinds and pull our fingers out, so i now have a 468cu in big block chevy sitting in the garage that was running 9s in a full bodied car, we have a p/glide being built by Al Oconner, a 5000 rpm stall convertor and parts from MSD on there way over from the states, we are hopping to be in the mid/low 9s with this combo, we also have a NOS system sitting looking at me, but want to get used to the car first. Thats it for this installment, more soon. Dave

Hiya Dave, sounds so cool. Can't wait to see some pictures  ;D


Oh and trust me I have not forgotten about the drive in the Charger.   ;D ;D ;D

I'm already hooked!
Have you met my brother Steve yet? (Brock). He runs the Black Pig, small block powered comp' altered with The Wild Bunch.
 

I dont know how to post piccys, but you can see some here
http://community.webshots.com/user/twolanes02

Your photos have to be 128KB or less, (about 600 x 600 pixels), in txt, doc, pdf, jpg or gif format.
When posting a message, at the bottom of the screen is an "Additional Options" box. Click that, then "Browse", find your photo, double click the image then click "Post".
Easy peasy!  ;)

   Blimey this place moves at a lick, turn your back for a couple of days to try and move some stuff forward (spurred on by realising I've spent ten days of my life here) and the place is full of drag racers. Hi Dave, don't think we've ever met (sorry if that's not true but I'm crap at names and faces) The Altered's a fine looking piece of kit, my memorys screaming red and Demag or is it just similar ? just to complete the picture remind me where the Twinjynx went, oh , and here's some you forgot
http://rides.webshots.com/album/557906019VXdZEM
We also run a stroker 383 SBC and have beaten it down to the early nines off of a hand brake with a missmatched converter and way too much rear rubber but recently I've applied all my tuning skills to it and now we are stuck in the 9.9's. Roll on the season, we'll see you there.

                        Steve

and the two days ? , bugger all achieved !

Hi Steve, the altered was bought from Andy hassel?, he ran various engines in it including a keith black hemi, i cant remember seeing it any colour but yellow. You are doing a lot better with your 383 than we did ( still its in that great scrap yard in the sky now ). The piccs of Twinjynx you got are from my mate Steves site, that is his son Dylon sitting in it.Taz might be cruising with Steve and his nova this sunday. I sold Twinjynx on to my mate Turky who has just got married and is doing the house buying thing at the moment ( though he has bought a 460/c6 to go in the car ) so probably wont be back out at least till late in the year. I am looking forward to racing next to it . Im the same as you, terrible with names and faces, but if we havent met yet we will put it right this year for sure (are you in the wild bunch?,i am WB97).no more from the Twolanes top end tales just yet, but There is a vid of the charger here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPzn0S_rxJE
some pics of my old pop can be found here http://www.nsra.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31302&whichpage=2
its the 1 with the front old end from Pinball wizard then in blue ( reg number tkp 585 ) these pics are from the guy i sold it on too.

HI Dave, WB76, 

All that techy stuff's like a different language to me but I guess you two understand it! If it's big n loud I like it!  :)
Had a chat with Dave on the phone last night & Taz, Flap, (remember him? orange Reliant trike. Had computer problems & changed jobs so hasn't been around for a while but promises to be back out on the road for the Spring), & myself will be meeting up with Dave & Steve on Sunday for a drive to the Mitcham Cruise. Drive, as in we get to have a go behind the wheel of his '68 Dodge Charger! Woo hoo! Can't wait!

Dave's Dodge (http://mankymonkeymotors.co.uk/Hotrodpageimages/dodge/charger.html)

the altered

I'm soo looking forward to it  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Just been told the g/box is built and Pete is picking it up this saturday from Al, i will have it here sunday. So saturday will be spent getting eveything ready to fit it and the engine.

Vroom, vroom! Looking forward to a write up on the altered Dave!  ;)

Wont be much for a while mate, once we have fitted everything we are stripping it to the bare chassis to redo some welds and a general tidy up and repaint.

Then a write up on your next successful season's racing eh?

im sure i will be boring everyone sooner than that mate, i have been onto Steve to do a write up on his nova as well.

Great! I was going to nag ask you about that.
Lunatic's Dad, who owns a Firebird, rang me this morning, looking for a car for a mate's wedding. I passed on your number. Maybe you can help?

can certainly try mate.

Has Steve raced the Nova?
Big brother, Brock, asked if he was pitted opposite him at Avon Park? I assume he means the Hotrod Drags back in September.

 Picked up the trans yesterday, 2 speed p/glide with trans brake, super bell bellhousing + full of all the good bits, built by Al Oconner (Als gasser).
not sure if it was Steve, will ask him,you can see pics of his nova here
http://community.webshots.com/user/350nova65?vhost=community
there are some more pics in my lot here
http://community.webshots.com/user/twolanes02
WARNING Andy and Taz DO NOT look, you will be robbing a bank to get the charger lol.

Too late -she looked  :(

How could you say don't look  ::) That's like taking a kid to a candy shop and not buying a sweet. Lots of yummy cars there in that lot.

women a, never do as there told lol.

 :P   ;D

lol

Put the engine,convertor and box together today for the first time, spent ages measuring the convertor clearance in the box only to find it is spot on, then split it down and fitted them into the chassis, and lady luck was right behind me for a change, the prop fitted and the trans mount bolted straight up. Had to cut and shut the centre mounting plate as the ultabell bell housing is thicker than the old 1. Now got to make up a bracket for the shifter cable and front motor plates then pull it all out again to clean up and paint the chassis. Will try and get some piccys tomorrow.

Wehey it's getting there. Looking forward to the pictures.  8)

Dave, is that shifter still up for grabs? Suitable for my Rover auto box?

will let you know, we might end up using it if we can get the right part to use it with a glide.

No problem.  ;)

some piccys

That really is a big ol' motor Dave!

Bet it's going to sound awesome when it starts up  8)

Today we have been mostly making up the engine mounts and removing some of the unused crap on the chassis, picy is a bit dark but the engine is in and sitting on the front mounts, still got to finish the centre mounts and finish the welding, but it started to get to dark.

What are the 2 canisters in front of the front wheels???????

on board fire extinguishers, 1 aimed at the motor, other bottle aimed at me.

Ah. Manky said he thought that's what they were.

looks like fun

it aint big enough :) joking :)

But VB you are not far wrong in a seating kind of way. I felt totaly squashed when I sat inside it. No room for movement at all. But I know you ment engine.

just worked out the engine cc, 7669cc. 

 8) very very  8)

 ;D

nout to do with the weight going on then !!! :)

Tread -& type, very carefully VB! Being in another country won't be enough to save you from the wrath of Taz!  :o

 >:( >:( >:( >:( :'( :'( >:( >:(

i'll just add her to the list then :)

You have been well and truly smited VB oh and the next dead mouse I get I will freeze and save for your sleeping bag the next time you stay over.
 :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P

i hold grudges :)

 :P Anyway. We want more tales Dave. More more more more more more  ;D

Look out for the frozen Mousicles. :o

not a racing 1, but still good. a few years ago me Derek (68 charger) and Steve (65 nova) did a music video, they wanted us to do burn outs etc, so Steve took along a spare set of rims and tyres.After we had finished we decided to leave in 1 BIG cloud of tyre smoke (with all the crew and cast watching) Steve jacked up his nova to put his road wheels/tyres back on, fitted said rims tightened up the nuts and jumped in the car, we all fired up and went to leave, Steve stuck his shifter into drive, gave the car loads of stick but went nowhere (could he have blown his diff?), tried to reselect drive, still nothing, and he was looking real peed off by now ( but me and Derek were killing ourselves laughing), when he got out of his car it was still up on the jack.

ha ha ha brilliant. I bet he felt a right muppet  ;D

Hee hee hee!!  ;D
So what was the vid for Dave? And where's the write up on the Nova? :)

the vid never got released, the group split up, ive been getting on Steves case about the write up

maybe i should start another section of twolanes storys that dont go anywhere else

You've got stories that don't go anywhere? No punchline?

i wont tell you what he said when i showed him this.
latest news on the altered, Steff and Simon came over yesterday and finished welding all the motor mounts in place, aiming to have it finished around end of march (fingers crossed)

Update. got a new crew member, joined us last saturday, (take a bow James), Pete & Pet (the owners) are picking up the fuel tank in the morning (fingers crossed) had to have bigger outlets welded in,should have the wiring finished this weekend,finish painting the chassis,fingers crossed my new (to me) fire suit will arrive in a week or two (bought everything of my mate Dale who used to run an alky pop),waiting to hear back about the zoomie funny car style headers,still got to fit and pipe up the new fuel system (had to change all the fuel system as the old lot was too small, now going to run a Barry grant pump/filter/980 carb etc),then fit the new stickers (the car is now called "scorpion stinger", the team name is PDP racing. Our new crew member has said we can take the car to his works to fire it up and check it over. 

Can't wait to hear it run Dave.  ;D

same here mate.

Well saturday was a bit of a wash out,pushed the car out into the sun,James finished painting the chassis,Stef finished the battery mount,i mounted the MSD 3 step (jeez i work tooooo hard), then it started to rain, so we pushed it back into the garage and ..... the rain stopped  >:( Pete and Pet came over to meet James and brought the modified fuel tank back (bigger outlets fitted) and the fuel pump and regulator. Then we put the kettle on and that was the end of working on the car,so still got loads to do.I finally got to sit in the car with the engine in and complete (air filter fitted) and some bugger has nicked everything in front of me, so its a bit like my old slingshot, i will have to watch the side wall as i cant see a thing in front of me.

Pete is picking up the zoomies this week  :). The embroidery for the team shirts and jackets has been chosen,

I like that. Very cool.  8)

We know a man who can do you a good deal on embroidered gear Dave. ;)

we have got someone who came recomended, but cheers mate, will keep it in mind if we have any more done.

Dave's had problems posting pics on the forum so here's a dozen on his behalf.
Today's job was to adapt & fit a second hand exhaust system. Lookin' good!

.

.

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The team behind The Stinger. Meet them at the Basingstoke Transport Festival, 11th May 08, Basingstoke Memorial Park.

   Hey Dave, not wanting to teach you to suck eggs, but you might want to consider another piece of tape on the lower front of that signage, the slipstream gets hold of that and it'll be gone !
   looking good 'Fella

gonna change it for racers tape, no expence spared here mate  ;D 

Today we went over to Dave's end of Surrey to the Croydon meet and after we went back to Dave's place to see the altered and have a coffee and a natter, (thanks Dave). Wow the altered is looking good and those exhausts don't half stick out and look evil. Can't wait to hear this thing running -it's going to be awesome. Dave very kindly let me sit in it again. If you are tall, or big boned or claustrophobic forget even trying to sit in one of these things. I took off one of my coats as it's very tricky getting in and as the car isn't finished there was even less places to put you feet as stuff was not properly attached. Anyway here are some awful photos of me sitting in it.

Blimey, first you try nicking my charger now looks like i lose my position as race car driver.  ;D

Heres the names to go with the team photo, from left, Hailey, me,
Pete,Pet (car owners), James and Stef.

hey two lanes
do you know stormin norm wheeldon

 ;D

While we were at the Croydon Cruise with Dave last night, a lad & his Mum got chatting to Dave about the Charger. They loved it & Dave invited him to jump in for a ride back to his place to see the altered. His Mum followed in their car, convinced her boy had been kidnapped by some mad Charger driving pshyco! Actually, that's not far wrong! I really thought Dave was going to lose it at one point, sliding the big black beastie sideways on the wet tarmac. Same way Taz & I first met Dave, when Taz jumped into the Charger for a spin around the carpark at Avon Park. Dave's a great ambassador for the rodding & racing scenes -more than happy to let people sit in his car & ask as many questions as they want.
Anyway, Matt & his Mum, Lin chatted in Dave's garage for a while & left with an invite for Matt to help out on Team Stinger.
Well done Dave & welcome Matt & Lin if you read this.
Lin took these snaps of Taz trying the altered for size now it's got it's new engine & huge zoomie exhausts.

God I realy was in stoopid face mode yesterday  :-[

i would love to build a comp altered for myself but time / money and space are required

now thats scarey

almost right mate, you need time/ money/money/money/money, did i say money and space.  :)

   and space is really an option

picking up my fire suit, boots,gloves etc this friday. see our wanted add as well.

Yes did see it but don't know of anything going sorry.

Are the fire suits made to fit or do they just come in the normal choice of sizes? I take it everything will be Black and Yellow.

They come in all the usual sizes, or if you have loads of money you can have them made to measure.We are skint/tight i bought mine second hand from my mate Dale who used to run an allky blown pop. Its black so will match the car.

....which is yellow.  :P

there is always 1 smarty pants, the chassis and lettering are black. nah nah. lol

 ;D lol  ;D

picked up the new to us bus today, got it in hartfield.Set of home and it was going like a train, got half way through the hatfield tunnel when it went all snaky on me, at 70 mph,pulled over to the hard shoulder  and found the centre wheel on the drivers side had locked up and put a HUGE flat spot on the tyre. Waited a while for it to cool down and set of again, it was like driving a roller coaster home, but got it here. Needs a few jobs doing but its all there and runs good (looks a bloody mess though)

That'll do the job mate! If you need a hand any evening doing anything on it give me a shout  ;D

quote from page 4 "not a racing 1, but still good. a few years ago me Derek (68 charger) and Steve (65 nova) did a music video, they wanted us to do burn outs etc, so Steve took along a spare set of rims and tyres.After we had finished we decided to leave in 1 BIG cloud of tyre smoke (with all the crew and cast watching) Steve jacked up his nova to put his road wheels/tyres back on, fitted said rims tightened up the nuts and jumped in the car, we all fired up and went to leave, Steve stuck his shifter into drive, gave the car loads of stick but went nowhere (could he have blown his diff?), tried to reselect drive, still nothing, and he was looking real peed off by now ( but me and Derek were killing ourselves laughing), when he got out of his car it was still up on the jack"

hmmm very embarrasing  lmao

thats chevy owners for you.... hold on i own 1 now!!,  ::)

lmao yea...chevy owners!!  8)

yea CHEVY OWNERS rule, not like those mopar owners...... hold on......lol

I told you not to stop taking that medicine!! :-\

Nice bus, almost looks ready to pull off the Italian Job. Good luck with what ever you need to do to it.

yeah tidy, purpose built for the job

That was my first thought too Zippy -"this is a self preservation society".
Maybe you should commission Lunatic to respray it for you Dave.

James (crew member) is letting us spray it at his works, but might have to tart it up here as not got much time before shakey

What's your first outing Dave?

doh, basingstoke,  ;D
Gary picnic at shakey end of may.

latest update. All the fuel system parts are in and bolted down. The body work is nearly ready for the paint to be touched up and the graphics can then be put on. The engine oil and filter are done. The headers are sprayed up.Steff has got 1 more bracket to make for the g/box dip stick. Still got to plumb the fuel and cooling systems, fill the g/box and a few more wires to fit, then its off to James,s work,s the day before basingstoke to fire it up and check it over. Also welcome to Matt, who came onboard last saturday.

Can't wait to hear it run Dave.

Me neither.  8) Glad Matt came along. How was his first day?

all the crew are with you both on that. Matt was cool,he got stuck in and we  got him doing a few bits. First day is allways a bit strange. Made James,s week, he isnt the new boy now. ;D

That's great.  ;D

Todays update.. New boy Matt was a no show. Stef made and fitted the last bracket (g/box dipstick).The g/box cooler is piped up. The fuel system is plumbed.The radiator is fitted, but not plumbed. Estimate about 3 hours work left to finish everything.The rest of the crew cleaned and worked on the bus, made and fitted new rear brake pipes and inspected all the brakes, need to get new h/brake cables made,Our mate Chris tried to hand paint the front but it just got loads of bits of tree stuck to it.Will be back on it monday.

So still on track for Basingstoke next Sunday then? When you're done with that, nip round to Si's & sort the electrics out on his Roadrunner eh.  ;) ;D

deffo looking good for next week. Simon will do anything to get out of a race  ;D. its bad news about his car it really is a good looking car (unlike its owner)  ::)

Yeah, nice machine. Hope he manages to sort it in time. We're praying the weather will improve now. The show was cancelled a couple of years ago after weeks of constant rain made the ground too soft for the heavier vehicles. Keep your fingers crossed guys.

Latest news, WE ARE READY, finished all the jobs on the altered today. Tested the electrics,water pump (works), rad fan (works), fuel pump (works),starter motor (works), etc etc, not tested ignition and trans brake yet. Its now ready to get it over to James,s place on saturday to fire up and test the g/box.Roll on next weekend.

fingers crossed for ya hope all goes well

cheers mate.

Fingers in ears, ready for the inaugural fire up then Dave. Can't wait to hear it.  :)

Should know if the car fires up by mid afternoon tomorrow,might even have a chance to do a few practice launches. If all is good bring ear defenders on sunday. ;)

Please, please, please get it running! Can't wait to see people's reactions when you fire it up in the middle of the local park!  ;D

   First time practice launches are fun, we didn't really have the room to do that when ours was first built, but if we pushed it right to the back of the shed, and I managed to find first gear, we could run the first 30 foot indoors, between the columns, out the door and hard on the brakes, or into the trees if not. Do try it at home.
   Good luck Dave, see you Sunday

Steve, you bringing the sprint bike with you? If so, email us a spec sheet on it please.
Really looking forward to seeing you 2 guys running side by side. Seeing the cars running will be fun too.

Good luck starting the Altered Dave, hope all goes well!!(but then again it is a chevy...no worries) ;D ;D

Well as all of you who made it to Basingstoke show know the altered runs. Got a petrol leak from the fuel pump so need to order a new 1. And we think it sounds fantastic.

YEA! sounds great dave..looks the part too
Those two Altereds are certainly crowd pullers when started  ;D
Great to finally see it running

Yup, I'm really chuffed that Dave & Brock managed to get both their drag cars fired up for us.
Even from the other side of the park you could see a surge in the crowd towards the MMMotors pitch every time the altereds burst into life. They both earnt a small ripple of applause as they shut them off!
Well done chaps.  :)

  sorry it wasn't behaving better, neither it nor I do well in the heat, if we were treating it seriously we'd have had ice packs on the tank and the carb wrapped up. We had the ice in the van just didn't get as far as putting it on, luckily Dave was there to bolster us a bit, sounding good 'fella.

Cheers mate,it was good firing both up. probably going to "borrow" the whole fuel system from Petes sons camaro. see "Petes son" thread.

Yes they both sounded fantastic and was great that Dave managed to fire his up without blowing himself and everyone around him up.

Brock WHY DID YOU NOT TELL US YOU HAD ICE. You could have made a fortune selling it in the heat today.

Still running well enough to scare small children & puppy dogs.  ;D You almost blew one kid clean off his feet. I know I'm biased, but I think our pitch rocked! Other clubs just had a boring line-up of standard vehicles -we had all the interesting stuff!  ;D

.

The pitch rocked more than Alice cooper.deffo the best selection of any pitch there.

I totaly agree with you there Dave  8)