Ignorant young racers...is there any hope?

[Krooser]

A couple weeks ago I was in the pits at the local dirt track and one of the young drivers was getting ready to load his car because it wouldn't start.

I asked him what broke and he told me the starter died. He didn't carry a spare.

I asked him if it would start with a push (SBC with a Bert two speed trans) he looked at me like I had three eyes!

I got his three young buddies together, he strapped in, and with a few grunts off he went.

Kinda reminded me of a few years ago when I bought some used suspension parts from an up and coming 20-somthing pavement racer financing his operation with his grandma's $$$.

When I was leaving with the parts I asked him what engine he was running in his car...concept? Crate? Open?

His reply...I THINK it's a Chevy!

Oh boy...we are doomed.

[ProPower engines]

Yes I agree. the concept of bump starting a car has not been taught in driver's ed. for maybe 35+ years because
it seems that the younger population are not smart enough to drive a stick!! And that's from a local driver's ed. instructor.
He tells students to start out with an auto trans to learn how to steer the car. After much learning and practice then
move to a stick when you can drive the car. He says the other issue is making kids today understand there is a big difference
between just steering a car in a safe road condition and driving the car on a windy back road some where

[Kevin Johnson]

My rear engined Renaults came with a special crankshaft pulley bolt and hole in the rear panel. This was so you could engage the jack handle and rotate the MOTEUR in neutral to get it started (ala Model T). If you were out in the wilds of Wisconsin or Alberta that could be a life saver. The bolt had a curved ramp so it would disengage when the MOTEUR started thus avoiding breaking your arm.

Closer to the modern age, drivers with sketchy batteries or starters would learn to park at the top of hills.

[makin chips]

Yes I agree. the concept of bump starting a car has not been taught in driver's ed. for maybe 35+ years because
it seems that the younger population are not smart enough to drive a stick!! And that's from a local driver's ed. instructor.
He tells students to start out with an auto trans to learn how to steer the car. After much learning and practice then
move to a stick when you can drive the car. He says the other issue is making kids today understand there is a big difference
between just steering a car in a safe road condition and driving the car on a windy back road some where

Pretty sure that's the opposite of the way most of us learned to drive. I had to be able to drive stick before they let me touch an automatic. They wanted to be sure I had full control of the vehicle, I assume. No better way to be sure a youngin' can handle an auto than to make em learn to drive on a stick.

Funny story, I got in big trouble one night for being late coming home because we were at a friend's lake house and his battery died in his 5 spd Ford Ranger. Being 15/16 and all of us new drivers, we didn't know about push starting so we sat there 3 hours until somebody finally showed us what to do. I never forgot that lesson lol. Boy were my parents pissed. There were no cell phones on every person back then. Only pagers/beepers...and mine blew up ALL night.

[chevyfreak]

Not just young racers. Seen my fair share on them as well but younger mechanics as well. I work on the bigger forklifts and the container handling machines. So a general knowledge of hydraulics, Electrical and transmission is needed as well.
Our team apprentice is quite eager to learn and tries his own thing as well with building a older car as a hobby.
A couple of months back he helped another team out for 2 weeks that works on site with mainly warehouse forklifts. Biggest is like a 2ton machine.
Their team has 2 mechanics and 4 apprentices. And one mechanic were on leave so extra help needed.
Now the best part, our apprentice showed him and fixed a unit that the brake master cyl failed.
Its a single piston design that splits to the 2 front wheels. As basic as can come. He striped the cyl and seals are worn, he tells the "mechanic" to get new seals and then he can fix it, the guy ordered a new cyl as he was scared in replacing the seals. The guy is in his early thirties and been a mechanic for close to 10 years and a 2nd year apprentice is actually teaching him how to fix a brake master cyl that only has 3 seals in it.
To me they are just parts replacers, cause a mechanic would fix the problem. To most of them its just a job, so no passion for what they do.

Chevyfreak.

[gunt]

just parts replacers the term is fitter

on another note of drivers , but a genuine very nice personable guy , but the down fall and why i now deal with none of them ,
did a section of his car , was a bit late finishing ,[ but of all it was the most outlay he would have had to fork out ] he won our national won the UK won the European all in that year , car got flown to the states paid for by energy drinks , he got a professional drive out of it . and all along after not charging him by way of help for a sticker on the car he got my logo completely wrong which been GT could have meant absolutely anything . to make matters worse the car came back 5yrs later and was still hugely competitive ending up on podiums , which speed hunters picked the story up again , where it got new ecu and set up and operator claimed it was the highest output he had seen on they dyno form a stock engine , but once again i'm and name is left out , all from getting it wrong from the beginning ,
but at least the first article in speedhunters gets it right so those with brains can put it together

[prairiehotrodder]

you gotta start somewhere. I have a good list of dumb things i've done.

[Orr89rocz]

On the flip side, alot of my friends in their younger 30’s with 7-9 sec 1/4 mile efi turbo street cars get dumbfounded looks from old guys when we tell them how fast and how much hp we make on pump gas/e85 and can drive better than their old carbed bracket cars that go 11’s.

[makin chips]

Not just young racers. Seen my fair share on them as well but younger mechanics as well. I work on the bigger forklifts and the container handling machines. So a general knowledge of hydraulics, Electrical and transmission is needed as well.
Our team apprentice is quite eager to learn and tries his own thing as well with building a older car as a hobby.
A couple of months back he helped another team out for 2 weeks that works on site with mainly warehouse forklifts. Biggest is like a 2ton machine.
Their team has 2 mechanics and 4 apprentices. And one mechanic were on leave so extra help needed.
Now the best part, our apprentice showed him and fixed a unit that the brake master cyl failed.
Its a single piston design that splits to the 2 front wheels. As basic as can come. He striped the cyl and seals are worn, he tells the "mechanic" to get new seals and then he can fix it, the guy ordered a new cyl as he was scared in replacing the seals. The guy is in his early thirties and been a mechanic for close to 10 years and a 2nd year apprentice is actually teaching him how to fix a brake master cyl that only has 3 seals in it.
To me they are just parts replacers, cause a mechanic would fix the problem. To most of them its just a job, so no passion for what they do.

Chevyfreak.

I understand that. Ive always been passionate about cars. Especially while I was doing service & repair work. I take pride in fixing shit myself. I take pride in knowing how to troubleshoot and being able to actually figure out what's wro g instead of just parts changing. Not sure I could 'be' any other way. That's just the way I was raised.


That's also why I aced 3 semesters at tech school by fixing issues with the professors cars that had been looked at by multiple years' of classes and no one figured them out. I had em all done in under an hour each. One needed a pcm, one needed a new low pressure AC switch that had a short that no one could identify(they all thought it needed a compressor), and one needed the ABS plug under the drivers kick panel unplugged and plugged back in 3 times.

[Dave Koehler]

On the flip side, alot of my friends in their younger 30’s with 7-9 sec 1/4 mile efi turbo street cars get dumbfounded looks from old guys when we tell them how fast and how much hp we make on pump gas/e85 and can drive better than their old carbed bracket cars that go 11’s.

Do any of those 7-9 sec car owners have a ET slip from the track that can verify that?
Those of us that have been at it a while take statements like that with a can of uh huh, show me.
Get off my lawn.

[Truckedup]

Our grandson is 25...Him and his friends do mud truck racing and truck pulls, hillbillys with good jobs and money..They seem pretty sharp at doing on the spot fixes...This comes from running junk early on that breaks down...

[Orr89rocz]

On the flip side, alot of my friends in their younger 30’s with 7-9 sec 1/4 mile efi turbo street cars get dumbfounded looks from old guys when we tell them how fast and how much hp we make on pump gas/e85 and can drive better than their old carbed bracket cars that go 11’s.

Do any of those 7-9 sec car owners have a ET slip from the track that can verify that?
Those of us that have been at it a while take statements like that with a can of uh huh, show me.
Get off my lawn.

Lmao how many you want to see? Always disbelievers

[ClassAct]

On the flip side, alot of my friends in their younger 30’s with 7-9 sec 1/4 mile efi turbo street cars get dumbfounded looks from old guys when we tell them how fast and how much hp we make on pump gas/e85 and can drive better than their old carbed bracket cars that go 11’s.

Do any of those 7-9 sec car owners have a ET slip from the track that can verify that?
Those of us that have been at it a while take statements like that with a can of uh huh, show me.
Get off my lawn.

Lmao how many you want to see? Always disbelievers

I see very few 7-8 second street driven cars when I go to the track. I see a lot of blown up junk shit trying.

[JDR Performance]

I've personally seen efi cars that don't drive as well on the street as a well tuned car with a carburetor. I've also seen people at the track looking for help because the car won't start, shuts down at 300', or some other frustrating electrical issue that takes the fun right out of it. It just depends on what you're familiar with.

[Kevin Johnson]

Yes I agree. the concept of bump starting a car has not been taught in driver's ed. for maybe 35+ years because
it seems that the younger population are not smart enough to drive a stick!! ...

It is my understanding that Driver's Ed was dropped from HS curriculum around 2003 in Michigan. Here in Florida the exam can be taken with any electronic device and off-site, i.e. not at the DMV. I cannot imagine that this would invite cheating. Here in Florida a licensed adult can certify the number of driver training hours. This ensures that any skill or lack thereof is faithfully transmitted to the student.

My Father told me that in Michigan back in the 1950s (he lived in Romulus) Drivers Ed for him also included how to make emergency stops by throwing the auto into park -- destroying it, of course. They must have had an agreement with OEMs for replacement trannies. As a teenager I offered to replicate this training with our cars but he declined.