Craigslist ChumpCar Mustang

2011-05-05 14:38:55

Team Fast Guys Rich Guys and Idiots

Birth of a Racecar

It was a fast round trip to Battleground, on a dark Saturday evening, carrying hundred-dollar bills to my friend and partner Ronnie Swyers the fast guy and his brother John, waiting on the corner of 138^th and Mill Plain. We’d scored a ’92 Mustang LX, 302 engine with a 5-speed, dark racing green, smashed rear fender on the left side where there had been some rubbing, and a Darlington stripe on the passenger door. Talked two Mexican guys down from what they were asking, plus we give them back the air conditioner to sell on Craigslist, Ronnie’s chopping all that stuff anyhow. They were from Brownsville, bordertown, been there. We did the deal in the rain in the parking lot of their apartment complex. Car was titled in some girl’s name, but it was signed, so it’s mine now. Ronnie began building our racecar out of the Mustang, we’re after 300 horsepower. I ain't sayin how much the Mustang cost, it's a ChumpCar after all. We got rules to follow, and this is racing, where there is never ever any cheating hidden in the car, that simply would not do.

I made the quick edgy run to Battleground in a Ford Edge. Tuxedo Black Metallic, wide profile, 22-inch wheels, black and aluminum. Six-speed, paddle shifter. Tinted glass, rich black leather, voice command, spaceship information glowing red, blue and gold from the dash. Springsteen from 12 speakers, satellite radio, all Bruce all the time.

In the old days it would have been a V8 in that Edge, now it’s a 305-hp V6 that blows the old V8 away. Ford engines leading the way, you betcha. It don’t rumble like our Mustang, but gawd it’s fast. The Columbia River Gorge at night is something, narrow twisty climbing diving on I-84. Dark as moonshiners ever run. I ran 80 mph, racing to get back. Left three boy teenagers alone in the house, fear of shambles. Ronnie and John drove the Mustang back to John's garage, to strip it and weld in the rollcage.

Sam Moses

Previous Blogs:

Shootout at the Mazda Grand Prix

2008-08-05 08:17:01

Author Sam Moses, whose memoir Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots was recently named one of the five best books ever written about motorsports by the Wall Street Journal Book...

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Playboy MX-5 Cup Photo Gallery

2008-07-31 19:05:32

(L) Eric Foss, Team MER driving coach, started 10th, finished 3rd, and leads the series. (R) The three MER shoes, signing autographs and looking cool in shades: Rob Huffmaster, Eric Foss and Ryan Schimsk. ...

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Fact 1, Fiction 0

2008-07-28 18:45:17

I’ll be doing a couple more blogs from the Mazda Grand Prix of Portland, including a photo gallery as soon as I get the pics, but I should get this blog out of the way first. The Dueling Authors thing, with Garth Stein. I won....

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Pre-race thoughts, Playboy MX-5 Cup

2008-07-27 06:57:28

I’m writing this at 6 a.m. on the Sunday morning of the race, I think in order to clear my mind. In the grand scheme of things, whatever happens today will be insignificant. People will be entertained for a...

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Day One: The Crash

2008-07-24 09:20:49

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Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots: The Underdog

2008-07-17 04:21:34

If you haven't read the previous blog, here's the setup: Garth Stein, author of the bestselling "The Art of Racing in the Rain," is shooting off his fertile imagination, saying he'll blow me into the weeds at the upcoming race on...

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Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots Big Story!

2008-07-15 13:57:08

FACT VS FICTION ON THE RACE TRACK - It will be Novelist vs Motorsports Writer at the Portland Mazda MX-5 Cup Race - July 14, 2008 (Irvine, Calif.) – The...

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Running 190

2007-10-20 13:32:43

I first drove the RTG Motorsports BMW MCoupe for 20 minutes one hot day last summer, at Pacific Raceways. It was about the sweetest racecar I’ve ever driven—there have been a few faster and some sexier, but none so sweet. It felt born...

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First and Last Time as an Idiot

2007-10-10 12:50:41

University of Nebraska Press Blog October 1, 2007 Once, when I was doing a book signing for the original “Fast Guys, Rich Guys and Idiots” some 20 years ago, a young woman asked me if the book was about her...

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Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots Take Off

2007-09-10 12:01:19

Getting a head start on the September 7 paperback publication of his classic racing memoir, Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots, Sam Moses raced to 5th overall in a field of 40 powerful sports cars at the SCCA regional event at...

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