This week was not a good week, 2 guys quit, the diesel tech who lives 6 hours away whose wife has been ill for some time, and the guy in charge of the lube rack who just needs a change, another guy went down due to dehydration, loads of crap jobs, not a lot of work, etc. one of the apprentices heard that another dealership in our group did one of those “Harlem shuffle” videos. Well; as we are the FORD store, we won’t be out-done!
We did a mini Power-Fest with a “Harlem twist”. The guys in the shop got their cars & trucks washed, we a mini test & tune. We called the cops and the fire dept to inform them of the event and not to panic or respond . We scored a U-Haul van for the video cameras, cleaned the drive, positioned the cars in an arc, had a short meet & greet, had a bunch of dancing fools dressed-up in weird suits & and had a small briefing.
We had a tuned diesel F-250, a really wicked 6.0 liter Vette, 2 Chevy Trucks, one with a pretty stout 350 & the other was an 11 second runner with a built 6.0 liter with a large turbo, a 35th anniversary 4.6 mustang, a beastie little Chevy Caprice, and some old guy had an ugly Fairmont with a 5.0. All the rice burners migrated for some reason. We have some awesome jap-crap, but maybe the briefing scared them off!!
As it was getting late we had to get cracking, as when the sun goes behind the mountain, it gets dark quick. The dude on the water hose must have went to sleep or forgot to water them down because we had 7 cars doing dry burn-outs for well around 40 seconds, maybe longer; the smoke cloud was evident and reported at over a mile away at the Circle K. luckily my wife was not in the cloud, she was smart enough to stay on the down side.
There were smoldering chunks of rubber behind the cars when we were done!!!
We had 3 fatalities; the Vette lost its brand-new clutch, the 6.o liter Chevy truck blew a transmission line apart at the joint, & the Caprice blew a tire, luckily no damage to the bodywork, but it beat the hell out of the wheel well and exhaust. When the tire blew on the caprice, it was so loud i thought my rear end or transmission was taking a dump, but i didn’t feel anything so i kept going!! Needless to say, some people went home late, and the Vette had to do an over-nighter!!
There was a lot of rubber on the ground, and a lot of transmission oil from Davo’s truck, so early today we gotta do a clean-up.
Doing these burnouts on a dry surface for so long is obviously not good on the tires, i was amazed at the Harley truck, as it appeared to chew the outside edges of the tires almost down to the cord.
The buzzards from the parts department were thinking of a “smoking good deal” on tires & parts I’m sure.
I felt like a chump, I had the A/C on to provide positive pressure in the cabin, and i turned off the rear brakes with the proportioning valve. I thought we were supposed to be watered down!!!, but i do wish Michelin would offer a Lavender or vanilla scent to their rubber just for these occasions, i may choose to write them later.
I’m hoping that this event will be the opener for the actual Power-fest, where Trailer Queens are just not welcome.” If it don’t drive-Don’t Arrive” or “if you gears are too low, leave earlier”
We are going to try and incorporate a drag & pull for the trucks also. This may be a “Goodyear” after-all, or it could be a “Firestone”.