Donks in ‘Natti

Listen listen, playas. Daytona Blue is all about cars galore. We dig the history of auto racing and customization. We dig the new stuff too. But these Donks, well, they seem to have reached a completely new plateau of awesomeness. Ridin’ Dirty indeed. Enjoy more Donktastic insanity while we put together some real stories about real rides.

Sidecar on a Car

What? You never heard of a sidecar on a car?

The Japanese Invasion of NASCAR: Cause for Concern?

One begins to think perhaps not. NASCAR announced today that it is only guaranteeing two spots for Toyota in the season-opener at Daytona. The remaining Toyota entries will have to qualify just like everyone else. And this has some worried.  At Preseason Thunder in Daytona this week, NASCAR.com reports that the Toyotas were posting remarkably lackluster times, proof that the Toyota teams are still far from perfecting the setups on these spanking new machines. Though Daytona is still a month away, one gets the sense that the Toyota teams are concerned about becoming competitive in time. Lee White, senior vice president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development told NASCAR.com that “I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t daunting. I’d be lying if I told you I was confident that those eight cars will even run the race, because only two of them are guaranteed in.” We at Daytona Blue are eager to see TRD fall flat on their face. The primacy of American engineering shall reign supreme!

And a word about the car. It looks like a 1998-vintage Monte Carlo save for the C-pillar!

What do you think about Toyota in NASCAR? Fire away with your comments.

Benny Parsons 1941-2007

Quoting nascar.com:

Benny Parsons who charmed television audiences with his folksy demeanor as much as he impressed fans with his ability as a driver, died Tuesday at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte following complications from lung cancer. He was 65.

Parsons was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994 and named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers in 1998.

Rest in peace, BP!!!

Stuntin’: What you know about dat?

 This is about as cool as those arab dudes street skating off a car, or that Monster Jam driver who used to get out of his truck and stand on the roof as it rolled to a stop. Man, this video shows that true Dirty Dirty South car culture where they just don’t care. Man I bet my car tall, and I bet my mota’ clean!!! Donk it, baby!

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With a Little Help From my Friends

The Cut-dawg session got a shot in the arm as last weekend as ATX posse came into town for an all-out thrash. We got a lot done. In performing a details-oriented renovation up to americanrevolution standards, for all the glamorous stuff readily visible there are tons of smaller, less obvious details that must be attended to. The ATX posse knows how we do it, so their help was much appreciated. Here’s how it went down:

Up to this point, our coverage of the extreme engine makeover has been teardown; now it

time to get some shine on. Using lots of rags and solvent, we cleaned up the engine block from top to bottom in preparation for a coat of shiny gold paint. That’s right, the Olds is gold and thus the driver of the Cut-dawg will be known henceforth as The Man With the Golden Gun. Having already removed most major fixtures from the engine for polishing or painting, we had only to tape off hoses, headers, intake, etc. in order to cover the mighty 455 in gold. Then we put the Cutlass in the air in order to paint the bottom side gold, because we don’t do it halfway.

Next, to finish up on the topside, we repainted
the Edelbrock intake manifold. While we are generally leery of cheap silver paint jobs, our colleague Big Block Ray has had success in this realm (on another 455 no less) by utilization of Dupli-Color’s high heat aluminum aerosol. While many are tempted to leave performance aluminum intake manifolds in the au-natural state in which they arrive, the porous surface becomes stained with petroleum products and dirt in short order. A classy coating of aluminum paint seals the pores and makes it easy to clean for odd Friday night show-and-shine. See the pics for the method and the final result. And that

is just the beginning.

You will notice the valve covers still look a little worse for the wear. Not too worry. We removed them for a redo, and were pleasantly surprised by what lay beneath. Our lead photo tells the story–a couple of nice banks of Competition Cams roller rockers, pushrod guides, and screw-in studs with adjusting nuts. Sweet. After gushing over this new discovery for a bit, we packed up the valve covers for shipment back to ATX with the posse for the treatment. See the results next time.

The crown jewel of the Rocket Olds is the mighty Demon carbueretor. As far as we can tell, its a 760 CFM Speed Demon which was in need of much attention in the asthetic department. Big Block Ray was on the task with a teardown to clean and ensure proper operation, followed by a major polishing session to maximize bling factor. Upon reassembly we set it upon the engine and the look was most astounding. Clearly the Cut-dawg will be a case of a primered menace housing a mountain of style backed with major substance.

So much more awaits. More updates to follow soon. Stay tuned.

TIREd

The absence of tires has certainly dominated the recent updates on Project Cut-dawg. Last time you heard that out tires were on national backorder with no apparent due date. Upon some carefully-applied prodding by americanrevolution to our friendly representative from our tire vendor, it was discovered that we been fed much disinformation and in effect the very tires for which we pined were sitting in a warehouse in the south side of town. Phone calls were made and with much alacrity the aforementioned tires were brought to us. Alas, in the true spirit of our tire debacle, the tires were mounted with the white letters out in spite of our specific intructions to the contrary (americanrevolution feels it unnecessary to advertise the absence of name-brand tires in three-inch white headlines on the sidewalls). Nonetheless, the Cut-Dawg would at last have tires. Special thanks go out to the designers of the trunk of our Civic for creating just enough space to fit two mounted 235/60/15s.

Once installed, we measured a sidewall-to-frame clearance of .375 inches, still outside the comfort zone but considerably more comfortable than the .125 inches we measured with the 255/60/15s. We would love more rubber, but this should be sufficient to create a healthy bit of mayhem on the street along with smothering quantities of white smoke.

With the tire issue put to rest once and for all, we were free to return our focus to the remodeling of the engine bay. Look for a detailed summary of that project in the next update, along with the long-awaited announcement of what color the engine will be.

In parting, we’d like to wish you a belated Chritmas wish that yours was a good as ours (see below).