[Earl Junior]

I had a derby car that I purchased from an insurance company after a fire gutted the engine compartment. 1978 Mercury Monarch with a 250 slant six.

The engine itself was ok, and after we rebuilt the carb (a stuck float bowl allowed gas to leak all over everywhere), and replaced the important wires (plug, alternator, coil, starter) we had a runnning machine. The up side of having a fire was that it (a) cleaned all the grease and grime off the front end, and (b) stripped the paint off the hood for us.

The front end just kept crumpling around the motor, and formed a kind of protective cage. I finally got put out when the distributor cap split in half and the rotor could no longer send spark down the wires.

Ended up taking second place against the full size cars. First place was a 71 Chrysler Imperial with a big block. Talk about a tank!