1970 Ford Mustang Coupe Hobby Stock / Sportsman

[Brian Conn]

  Started this build in late 2014 and finished it in the Spring of 2015.


  Started off with a '70 Mustang Coupe body from Bandit Resins and a resin cast Ford Intermediate frame ('72 - '79) ...The resin body comes with out front and rear bumpers, a hood or front grill/headlights , so I made resin cast of all of that from the '70 that I already had, scratch built the raised hood section.


  Used the front 2/3rds of the Ford Intermediate frame...."X"ed...rear stub is a late '70s Howe dirt w/ offset copy.


  Cage is a late '70s Howe dirt copy.


  Scratch built 180' solder headers


  Resin cast Dana 60 rear, brake drums....scratch built leaf springs.


Ford F.E wedge head 427...Morgan Automotive Detail pre wired distributor cap, aftermarket resin Holley valve covers, Pro Tech open element oil breathers from Teds Modeling Market Place.  Resin cast Moroso air cleaner, scratch built remote oil filter block adaptor/lines. 


  Did my own decals with MS Paint and MS Works Word Processor 

[Dirtman]

Nice looking Stang!

Rett

[TarheelRick]

Beautiful build Brian.  I am so partial to Mustangs.  Really like that chassis/cage work.

[sentsat71]

Liking this one, Brian......

Sharp looking Mustang!

[Gary Davis]

I really liked the hobby stock class back in the Day. This Stang sure hits the Mark on that class Brian. Good job...

[Hondo]

Great looking Mustang, Brian.
Reminds me of the old "6 cylinder class' back home in the '70s.

[Brian Conn]

   THANK YOU everyone for your responses .... puts a  on my face.

Looks like a Sportsman type we'd have at Peoria back in the day. Nice color combo!

Thanks,  Was talking to Lefturns 75 a while back about cars back in the day ....more or less figured out what he was dealing with in South Western Missouri and North West Arkansas was the same as I was seeing here in the Topeka / Kansas City area....and what I was seeing around here would be the same as what was being run in Eastern Nebraska and all of Iowa as those drivers would venture down here for the big $$$$ dirt races.  Guessing it would be safe to assume that it (class of cars) would pretty much be the same from the Mississippi West to the Rockies.

Beautiful build Brian.  I am so partial to Mustangs.  Really like that chassis/cage work.

Thanks, I have to admit that the chassis and cage work is my favorite part of the build, but putting an interior in has to be one of my least favorite parts of a build....I am going to give what Lefturns75 did a try with using card stock for an interior and see if that works better for me.

I really liked the hobby stock class back in the Day. This Stang sure hits the Mark on that class Brian. Good job...

Thanks, This build represents what would have been raced here locally in 1978 ... I still have the rules sheet and built this one accordingly.  Since the Hobby Stock class was between the Late Models and the Street Stocks, there is a certain amount of a challenge to not make it look too new like a Late Model but not so old as a Street Stock of the day......a '70 Mustang could have plausibly raced in any of the three classes back then.

Great looking Mustang, Brian.
Reminds me of the old "6 cylinder class' back home in the '70s.

Thanks,  We had 6 cylinder Hobby Stocks back then , the last one that I remember locally was a '66 Chevelle in '77 ....the 6's could run an Aluminum intake where as the V-8's had to run cast iron.  There where some tracks from Western Kansas back in the early to mid 70's that had Hobby Stocks that had to run 6's. By the late 70's the 6 was a thing of the past and the big blocks where soon to become regulated into non existence with the rule of the car must weigh at least 7 1/2 pounds per cubic inch of engine size that started appearing locally in 1979.         

     

[Greg Birky]

That sure is a sweet little Mustang, Brian!!!  Great job on the build and I sure like the Howe style cage.  Well done, sir!!!😎👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🤗🏁

[MarkJ]

Mean looking Mustang, Brian. Great job making it really look the part of a Saturday night racer, or any night for that matter.

[sentsat71]

Ah, David.....maybe they had so many different drivers, that they didn't bother to put a driver's name on it.....

[Brian Conn]

  Like every other build so far this started out as a vision or idea of what I thought I wanted to build and what it should look like....in the case of this one , I wanted to use a '70 Mustang coupe with those colors and number combination.  I wanted to pay homage to the local parts house/machine shop that was the mecca of the local racing scene back in the '70's ,Jones Automotive.
  This build is representative of what a local Hobby Stock would have looked like in 1978.  I built this using a copy of the Hobby Stock class rules for 1978 at the Shawnee Co. Fairgrounds Topeka, Ks.

  I never gave any thought to a drivers name......after all its not a replica build or anything like that....I suppose we could go with "The Racer".....a fictional character I created for a previous build with a story behind it....
 
  Anyone for "The Saga Continues"          

[sentsat71]

Go for it, Brian.....!

[Brian Conn]

  THE SAGA CONTINUES....
   Since his inaugural 1969 racing season, the racer has seen plenty changes on the local front.  As the cars get smaller it seems like the cost to race gets ever increasingly bigger....at least the winning purse isn't a case of Turtle Wax and a steak dinner from Topeka Steak House like it was a few years ago.
  The racer has been content running the Hobby Stock class...sure some day he would like to be piloting a Late Model, but with the cost just North of 15 Thousand for a competitive ride these days, he just cant see it.  This is the second year for his current ride....he was runner up in points for 1977 at the Fairgrounds track in Topeka and finished in the top 5 for points at Lakeside Speedway, The 1/2 dirt track in Kansas City.   Like last year, he is having a great season , so far.  The 1978 racing season has already proved a couple of wins already....Friday nights at Lakeside,Saturday nights at the Fairgrounds track and sometimes Sunday nights at Topeka Raceway, the little 1/4 dirt bull ring just East of Topeka where he runs the car in the Late Model class.  The racer still builds his own cars, but more and more professionally built cars, particularly in the Late Model class have started to show up and take home the goods.  There are a few cars that he competes against that he knows where Late Models from 2 or 3 years ago.  This years crop of Hobby Stocks look more like Late Models than they ever did....the racers car could easily be mistaken for a Late Model as it sports an 8 year old body with a nice, decent paint job and has been professionally lettered.  The racer wonders if someday soon if the Late Models will simply engulf the Hobby Stocks as there is becoming very little difference in the two classes.  There has been talk about next years rules having a weight to cubic inch rule which would put the racer as well as quite a few others at a disadvantage since they have been running big blocks for ever.  For now the 445 cubic inch power plant, a punched out 427, has been plenty of motor for the big 1/2 mile dirt tracks at Topeka and Kansas City.
  Seems like fewer and fewer parts and pieces are coming from the salvage yard with more and more trips to the parts house....or a freight truck showing up at the house.....pretty soon it will pretty much be the catalogs and the Master Card the racer thinks to him self.  The racer has discussed with his fellow competitors about how if the cost of racing doesn't stop rising that he will dig the old '59 Galaxie that he still has from the '69 season out of the weeds and run the Street Stock class....wouldn't take much to resurrect it from the dead, but it would be much bigger and heavier than the present day offerings in the Street Stock class which would be a disadvantage.
  The racer has thought that there needs to be some sort of a new class...an economy class with an engine claim...a class where the parts can be sourced from a local salvage yard, maybe use these older Late Model frames and chassis that have now fallen out of favor since the manufactured Late Model chassis is taking the country by storm....maybe use a smaller body like a Pinto or Vega and make it look like the modifieds that he has seen in Stock Car Racing magazine.   He thinks that this could be a fun class to run, particularly if several tracks ran them with the same set of rules and the rules didn't change from year to year.
  The racer pauses for a moment and realizes that next year, 1979, he will have been at it racing 10 years.....what will next years Hobby Stocks be like with rule changes, what will the rapidly approaching 1980's be like for dirt track racing....one has to wonder.
  For now, he gives the car a once over twice before loading it up for another Saturday night at the fairgrounds. 
         
         

[sentsat71]

Great story, Brian....