Hi, just wanted to say hello to everyone here at MMA

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 11:04 am

DaveB wrote:The Guy who had your 71 cuda was Pete Austin,real nice guy,ran in mod ET.
Think he painted it pink,was always pitted with the Gordon & Alan? Smith
(Duster & barracuda).

By the way,welcome back

Thanks, yes Pete Austin thats it, a gentleman, I was impressed with his times, never got to find out how good a 440 he had in the old car, but 10's was impressive from what I knew of the old car.

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 11:06 am

jerry wrote:Les,
Was the Brown 71 connected to the ambulance at Chelsea

I can't remember how many years ago that was, just rememeber the eeery silence, motor cranking & out of here

AKA Jerry II

Ambulance????

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 11:25 am

DaveBishop wrote:Hi Les why havn't you told them about the Mustang that you used to have. I remember going with you and Steve Rawling to pick up the Cuda from the docks. Steve picked up a super bee if I remember rightly.

Hi Dave, yes just about remember that...Ok, well the 1965 Mustang came about like this.
My first ever Yank was a std Orange 1968 318 Charger, I saw it, beleive it or not in someones front garden while cruising the back streets in Tottenham, paid £800 for it, that must have been around 1977. I had that car for about 6 months and sadly got fed up of it cos it just wasn't fast enough, did a lot cruising to Chelsea in that, called it "Bullitt Proof", for obvious reasons!!??
Anyhow I saw an advert for a Mustang somewhere up in Old Street, so I took the Charger down there. Now I had a reasonable amount of knowledge by then and did a bit reading up on the car and found out that they did a 289Hi-po version of it 271hp etc, anyhow when I got there the first thing I looked at was the front Damper, and low and behold it was the "thick" Damper which WAS the Hi-po version, had all the badges and 4 on the floor with side pipes

guess they were the thing then. Anyhow did a straight swap with the guy and drove it home crapping myself as this thing was a total different ball game, man it went!!..Long story short, went every where in that, took it to work, street raced it, and that car was really the start of my Drag racing career.....why?...well the car had discs but no power and I was bombing along and suddenly the lights changed on a busy cross roads and I nearly didn't stop!, I swore then that that was it for the street...and the rest is history......managed a 14.05 in that all stock.

Cannonball · Post by **Cannonball** » Sat May 14, 11 5:07 pm

Les Szabo wrote:
DaveB wrote:The Guy who had your 71 cuda was Pete Austin,real nice guy,ran in mod ET.
Think he painted it pink,was always pitted with the Gordon & Alan? Smith
(Duster & barracuda).

By the way,welcome back
Thanks, yes Pete Austin thats it, a gentleman, I was impressed with his times, never got to find out how good a 440 he had in the old car, but 10's was impressive from what I knew of the old car.

that engine now resides in a jensen, it runs at york around 12.0 mark
i rebuilt it around 4 yrs ago its actually a very tame engine, not that big on compression stocker rods a 640 roller cam ported 452 heads and ran with a 850 carb, but it runs very crisp and responsive

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 7:56 pm

well thats more spec than my 440 had, I never had a roller, must've been the car then

Jon Connolly · Post by **Jon Connolly** » Sat May 14, 11 8:29 pm

Welcome aboard Les

You`ve had some ace cars over the years

Just out of interest, how do you pronounce your surname ?

Is it " shar bow " ?

See you soon

PaulR · Post by **PaulR** » Sat May 14, 11 8:37 pm

Hi Les ,
It's great to have people from way back when on here.
Did you end up with the ex "Whiffy Smith" green 340 AAR cuda at one time? Used to see it at Chelsea with the reg 340 AAR on it. Could be a case of memory fade as it was 30 years ago!!!!

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 9:04 pm

Jon Connolly wrote:Welcome aboard Les

You`ve had some ace cars over the years

Just out of interest, how do you pronounce your surname ?

Is it " shar bow " ?

See you soon

Hi Jon and thanks, ......the S is silent, pronounced with a Zee
try the 250hp shot for 8's

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 9:07 pm

PaulR wrote:Hi Les ,
It's great to have people from way back when on here.
Did you end up with the ex "Whiffy Smith" green 340 AAR cuda at one time? Used to see it at Chelsea with the reg 340 AAR on it. Could be a case of memory fade as it was 30 years ago!!!!

Thanks, no never had that car, remember it well though, I think Tim Fennel has it now, spoke to him about a week ago, you never know though

Cannonball · Post by **Cannonball** » Sat May 14, 11 9:27 pm

why did you throw the towel in lez on racing and what age were ya,

and yes tim has the green aar needs plenty of work now, doubt he will sell it you though, i reckon tim thinks he is gonna live to be 150.

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 9:42 pm

well I was 37 when I stopped in 1991, a few reasons, I was doing it on my own for the last year, my crew chief had wife problems, I just got married and she was great, came to the track with me and loved it, so not a problem there....still together!!
Main reason was I wanted to run a 9 in that car which came to fruition at that Anglia TV meet, (video posted up earlier), that was my last ever run in the car for the reason that money was a bit tight with trying to buy a flat and that 9.96 really was stretching the standard 6-pack motor at 7600rpm through the traps, I really needed 4.56/4.30 gears opposed to the 4.88's I ran and would've needed to spend a lot more money to go even faster, tin work needed modifying as the tyres were growing too much at 133 and rubbing on the tubs, so I thought well I've had a good 10yrs, enjoyed every minute, done what I wanted time to stop

Oh and I was only joking, I know Tim, I reckon he thinks he'll live to 200+

TYREMAN · Post by **TYREMAN** » Sat May 14, 11 9:45 pm

Hello and welcome

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat May 14, 11 9:46 pm

TYREMAN wrote:Hello and welcome

Thank you....

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Sun May 15, 11 1:41 am

Hi Les, here's a couple more to add to your scrapbook:

The third one, with Jason's Coronet, has a few faces (and backs) you may remember...
(r-l) Jason, Andy, Stu (my other half), you in the black jacket (did you wear anything else?!) talking to Spiro (had, and still has, a yellow 73/74 roadrunner)

I know I have some others, will have to dig out the old prints again....

DaveBishop · Post by **DaveBishop** » Sun May 15, 11 8:36 am

PaulR wrote:
Hi Les ,
It's great to have people from way back when on here.
Did you end up with the ex "Whiffy Smith" green 340 AAR cuda at one time? Used to see it at Chelsea with the reg 340 AAR on it. Could be a case of memory fade as it was 30 years ago!!!!

Al Falkner had the AAR when it was seen at Chelsea with the 340 AAR number plate. Two drunks set the back of the car alight outside his house when he lived in Leytonston East London. As Les said Tim has the car now and I have the engine.