Hi,

Good idea except I know the car has been crushed and I have a new toy to play with and that absorbs all my available funds. Plus I have found the delights of going around left and right corners and that provides enough "scare factor" for an old geezer like me  Maybe one day when I win lotto I can have the best of both worlds and re create the rat!! Glad you like the car , we certainly did !!!

Take care

Mike:

Hi,

Wow , I have not seen the rat for a long time. I recall the build very well. Not much of the van moved except for base engine and a few other odds and sods. New 9" rear end with Zoom gear sets, Muncie "rockcrusher" dog box, tricky pro stock tyres from the US, 1/2 chassis ,  fuel injection on alcohol and 331 cubes combined with lighter weight made for a mid-low 10 sec car in those days.  

Hi,

Great photos of the van, I would like to get hold of these as well as the "son of Big Pink" which was the Torana Gasser we built out of the van parts it was called "Hot Rats" and was one of the quickest non supercharged gassers in the 70's. I would love to get a hold of some photos of this car as well.

Once the van was retired we sold the shell to the guys who had strip tripper and I believe they turned it into a wheelstander, maybe even cut the back off and made it into a ute not sure but I know it was re used somewhere.

funny how we move on I now have a circuit racing PRB Clubman which is alomost the exact opposite to a drag car, only 125 hp but 540Kgs makes for good power to weight ratio and it goes around corners like an open wheel race car should !!!

Anyway once again thanks for the photos and great memory.

Mike:

Hi,

I do have some floating around somewhere, I'll try and dig them out. I failed to point out this photo is a really early one, I can see the final signwriting ( real paint not graphic tape) was not finished. I would guess this is the first meeting for the car, if you look closely there are number plates still attached. If you can get a hold of  DRAGS magazine issue # 6 there is a good photo of the van running at Castleragh, you will see the additional sign writing & effects, the mag wrongly says the car was originally owned by someone else which is incorrect execpt for the PMG and a butcher on the south coast of NSW and I know they did not have a small block in the car !!!. These cars were pretty crude when we look back but they ran hard on small budgets and were a bunch of fun. Hope this is of interest.

P.S. can you recall who owned the "strip tripper"

Hi Guys,

I know this car very well, it was owned and raced by my brother Greg. Started life as an ex PMG panel van red in colour and sported a big grey motor with the usual mad cam and triple SU's. Later the car was painted sky blue and ran the same grey engine. A few engine blow ups convinced us to go the 327 chev route, the engine conversion was completed by Barry Sharp and we ran a three speed chev g'box with a standard FC rear end !!!
Good thing it was a van as we carried a spare in the back (often required). The van was the quickest street car in Sydney for a long time and eventually ended up with fibreglass fenders & hood along with some other basic tricks and a 4 speed saginaw gearbox. The car was painted pink and named after a popular album by the "Band. The car was quite successful and ran mid to low 12's which was not bad for a pretty agricultural car !! The van was sold to the guy who owned a FC wheelstander called "strip tripper" and he used it as a wheelstander for a while. The wheels were custom made by the mag wheel center and were hand pinstriped (I did that) and the comments were correct, we were one of the first to use the big / little wheel combination.  The engine was used in a new torana gasser called "Hot Rats" which was a pioneer car in the gas class and won many events (on a shoe string budget).