Smokey Yunick memorial Best Damn Garage in town

I have the 3 box set. I have also read his other books and learned a lot from reading his works. Anyone into engines should benefit from reading them. He will teach you to think outside the box. His writing is very entertaining.
 
pontiac428 said:
The 7/8ths scale Chevelle was certainly pushing the limits of sportsmanship. Smokey was a pioneering rulebook scheister.
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Yeah he took it to an art form. Bet he drove the inspectors nuts! Was it him who they busted on engine displacement? Front throw on the crankshaft was what they would normally measure. Front throw measured good, but all the way back they'd been massaged either .125" or .250" over stock.
 
I think he used the roll cage as extra fuel storage to get around a fuel cell rule. There was a story that the tech guys figured it out the previous race. Next race, they were all over the car, even pulled the fuel cell clear out - couldn’t find anything and cleared the car to race. Smoky put the cell inside, still not connected to any lines, got in, and drove it back to his pit. Not sure if he ever told where the gas was. Read his articles in Circle Track when it first came out (40 years ago). I adopted his creative interpretation of the rules attitude - if it doesn’t say you can’t, it might be an option.
 
I also remember him having a moving false floor in the intake manifold that was vacuum driven. True innovator, maybe a bit misguided at times but certainly clever.
 
A couple I like are that the inspectors measured the gas tank capacity then smokey blew it up with air, then stuck a floor jack under it at the end of the race. Then rules said the max fuel line diameter was 1" They didn't say you couldn't wrap the line several times around the car. The next race they had a max fuel line length.

Then my favorite is the carburetor restrictor plate. Rules said all air into the engine must pass through the plate. In his mind the plate had 8 holes, not 4. So he drilled through the centers of the carb mounting bolts out to let more air into the engine.

Then next race the eules said all air to the engine must pass through the 4, 15/16" holes only.
 
I came along too late to see any of his work, but as a young engine engineer in 2007 I was able to lean over a security fence and touch the one building that was left on the site. My hope was that some of Smokey's spirit of innovation and reading between the lines of both rules and physics would flow through those shop walls into me. Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. Yunick.
 
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