Taking an everyday car down the strip and hoping everything holds together is a familiar headache for anyone who mixes both worlds. The maker runs a 1966 Ranchero as an everyday car, covers over ten miles of twisty mountain roads with it regularly, and still took it drag racing. After driving more than 120 miles to the track, the car staged and launched on an illuminated strip at night, then went straight through the finish traps. The timing board read 14.876 and 94.67.
It is a manual gearbox car wearing dark grey paint and white multi-spoke wheels, with a truetrac out back. The rear sits on 66-67 falcon/fairlane wagon leaf springs, longer than the standard two and four door leaves. In my view that is a neat detail for anyone tracing this platform's rear suspension.
The run itself went worse than expected. Severe wheel hop shook things badly enough that a second pass got skipped. The truetrac does fine street burnouts but has trouble on a prepped track, and those leaves are 60 years old and worn out.
Even after all that shaking, the car made the drive home and went to work the next day. No fix has been chosen yet: caltracs, slapper bars, or a 4 link are all in play, and kits from Heidts made for mustangs and cougars might work with lengthened lower links. Suitable off-the-shelf replacement springs have not turned up, and studying 4 link geometry is still on the to-do list. Whether shocks and slappers would be enough remains an open question.