Battle of the Beater’s hitting the pavement around corners

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:18]Ah, one of my most favorite project cars, 69 Dodge Charger race car. It's going to be a Daytona. I'm I know I'm going to get a lot of slack. Hey, Daytonas have wings and giant pointy noses on them. Yes, I know. I just haven't got to that yet. I haven't touched this car in a year. I've been too busy fixing all my other crap.

[00:00:43]But this car is going to be competing at Matts. And if you don't know what Matts is, Matts is like the local car guy, just all around event for just doing car shenanigans, drag racing, autocross, car show, swap meet. I need to get this car in tippy top shape so I can go out there and kick all my buddies asses on the autocross. Let's finish revealing this thing, Derek.

[00:01:11]And by reveal, I mean showing my neglect on the car. It has been neglected. It needs a lot, but I'm only going to get to do so many things before Matt. So, we're just going to do a couple things to it. But, isn't this thing just bitching looking? I like race car.

[00:01:31]Oh, yeah. And this thing is all steel.

[00:01:35]All steel. How does JJ the boss say it?

[00:01:38]All steel. Yep. So, this is Chris Birdong, the boss. All steel, buddy.

[00:01:45]Let's uh pop the hood cuz what I need to do ahead and pop There we go. Can you go ahead and pop that for me, Derek?

[00:01:56]Race car hood supports. Got those from my buddy's old uh Craftsman truck deal.

[00:02:01]Look, we even got original petty kit car exhaust system. Like this thing is full blown racing car. We got the side pipes twice. Twice side pipes.

[00:02:13]Awesomeness.

[00:02:15]Well, part of taking some weight out of this thing is uh removing the iron intake manifold. I've got an aluminum intake manifold I want to want to put on here. And along with taking the intake manifold off and fixing rev limiter issues, that is not a rev limiter distributor. I have an MSD distributor and ignition box I want to put on this thing so I can have a soft touch rev limiter on this car because it uh currently does not have any kind of rev limiting devices besides the valve springs which is ungood. You don't want to do that. And this car here is one of those cars where you just bury the throttle and let the thing eat.

[00:03:00]Yeah, it's full of [ __ ] right now. full of leaves and maybe even some kitty poops. So, who do I have that can take care of cleaning that kind of stuff out?

[00:03:12]Uh, I see Derek is kind of smirking. Are you volunteering for the job, Derek?

[00:03:17]Let's go ahead and fire this thing up one last time with the iron intake manifold on it and give the peoples the noise.

[00:03:25]Race car engage.

[00:03:44]or not.

[00:04:09]Ah, I love how this thing sounds. It just ba It's so freaking earpiercing though, man. It like when you rev it up, it just is like pounding your eardrums.

[00:04:19]It's awesome.

[00:04:30]Ah, always ruining my scene.

[00:04:35]This guy. Freaking Mike.

[00:04:43]Man, these hood supports are pretty nifty, but uh they kind of get in the way all the time.

[00:04:50]I am not going to get rid of them, though.

[00:04:53]I will however get rid of the cap and the wires.

[00:05:01]Use this distributor in something else.

[00:05:03]At least at least I know it works good.

[00:05:19]Guess it's low on water.

[00:05:23]Where did it go?

[00:05:32]Got to break the bond, Derek. Get this iron intake manifold off here.

[00:05:46]Oh, that's heavy. [ __ ] Oh, man. Here, take that.

[00:05:54]That [ __ ] is heavy, ain't it? Oh, yeah.

[00:05:57]Oh, wow.

[00:05:59]We got some circle track trickery going on in here. Sweet.

[00:06:04]So, this engine has dual oil feeds. It's being fed from the bottom and from the top. So, the oil comes in from the remote filter up here back into the back of the block through to the front. And so it looks like it's feeding the lifter galley which also spreads throughout the motor. We've got a splash tray here to prevent oil from falling on top of the cam shaft there and which then splashes all over the the crankshaft. And then this is our oil bypass. So that way instead of uh the oil having to come all the way through, do a loop and then come back in. Well, now the oil can come through here and gooop and feed the backside.

[00:06:44]Got some cool speed secrets.

[00:07:09]Allighty. Well, the race car is now under the shade in my fancy shop. We are having record heats this week. It's going to be over 100° and it's uh spring, I think. Yeah, it uh it is March what is today? 17th. Yeah, >> March 17th. It's going to be 100°.

[00:07:31]So, we don't want to work in the sun.

[00:07:34]We're going to work in the shade. And I've got a list. I made a list on priority things and uh well, one of the big ones was the factory iron intake manifold on this thing weighed 51 12 lb. How much did it weigh, Derek?

[00:07:51]>> 51 and 12.

[00:07:52]>> 51 12 lb. That is like just almost a third of me. And so we're swapping that out for an aluminum one.

[00:08:04]and I ported it and we're going to put it on here. And cuz this was an all iron engine, iron heads, iron block, iron intake manifold, and a zinc carburetor.

[00:08:15]So, I might end up putting an aluminium carburetor to go with my aluminium intake manifold. Next is brake bias, which this is kind of a must. Um, this car would wheel hop pretty bad hard on the brake pedal on corner entry because there's no brake bias in the thing right now. We literally, for people that don't know, we literally cobbled this car together super duper uber fast to go try and make Irwwindell's last race. And we made it there and we made it on the racetrack only for the stupid Taiwanese fuel pump to take a [ __ ] right before the green flag.

[00:08:55]And there's a car that is on track and all I know is that it's number 69.

[00:09:08]No, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:09:13]You got I'm getting pushed off the track faster than I went on it.

[00:09:26]The car is still in the process of being built and once I get moved, I'll be able to devote more time to this car, but we're it needs a few upgrades. So, put a brake bias in it so I can limit the amount of rear brake pressure and hopefully take away the rear rear wheel hop cuz it was pretty bad. MSD distributor and box. Um, so right now there's no rev limiter in this car. It uh just has one of them cheapo ready to run distributor in it which is kind of like an hi and uh we're going to go ahead and yank that thing out and put an actual MSD distributor with an ignition box in it. So I have a rev limiter cuz well you know me I like RPMs.

[00:10:10]Uh rear weight. This thing needs at least Oh, I'm going to try and add like 100 lbs to the rear end. Um it needed a rear weight badly. It is pretty nose heavy. But now that we're getting rid of the aluminum intake man or now that we're getting rid of the iron intake and going aluminum, that's 40 35 lbs off of the nose. So, if we add 100 to the back, kind of factor that as like 135 lbs to the back. Tires. Okay. Last time we ran this car, well, I just threw these tires on here cuz they look cool. These look bitching. NASCAR tires, but they're not legal. Um, we got to put 400 treadware tires on this car for the autocross. And uh well, NASCAR tires aren't legal. So, my tires should hopefully they should have been here yesterday. I'm Where are my tires? I ordered 400 treadware VTOR Galaxy R1 GTS and it says 400 for treadware. So, I went with the minimum windshield. Uh, we got to put some kind of a windshield in here. So, we're going to get rid of our shopping cart. Uh, for those that don't know, yes, this car was super late getting to Irwwindale. We were up 43 and 12 hours. Let's just call it 43. We were up 43 hours straight just trying to button this car up to get it to Irwwindale. And uh well, we got to California and well, we didn't have a windshield. So, in route, we stopped at Home Depot and borrowed uh some shopping cart material and made some kind of windscreen for this thing. These are the main objectives because I don't think we're going to have a whole lot of time to do anything else or we might not even get to all of this.

[00:12:07]Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's the next day, but check it out.

[00:12:12]This intake manifold was a lot of work.

[00:12:16]I even welded up the side because this was a spread boore carburetor or this was a spread bore intake and so I welded up the side here and then ported it back out. But my welder is not that great.

[00:12:28]It's only a 180. So it it would do like the top 1/2 inch, but it wouldn't really get down into the manifold. It's just too the aluminum is too thick. So, but I was able to make it to where I could run. Let me show you. Let me grab it.

[00:12:44]my phenolic spacer.

[00:12:47]And even my phenolic spacer I had done port matched to the intake manifold.

[00:12:54]I'll show you what I mean.

[00:12:57]Cuz this intake manifold is not symmetrical.

[00:13:03]See the rear cylinders, the runners are like flush with the wall. The front cylinders, the runners are actually kind of down in there. So, what I had done, see where is that front?

[00:13:17]This is set up to where it's going to work with an intake manifold like that.

[00:13:24]It's going to be most gooders.

[00:13:36]Poof. And like magic, it's dark outside.

[00:13:39]Lot of time has gone by. did some family things and also did some porting things.

[00:13:45]Yeah, I dropped the runners or actually I raised the roof of the runners by about oh almost an 8 in. This is actually I believe to be a 318 manifold uh cuz it's pretty skinny and it wasn't really tall. Now this engine's going to come all back apart uh here in the near future. So, I didn't really want to spend a ton of time porting it. And these intake manifold gaskets was just something I had lying around. It wasn't the proper ones.

[00:14:17]That's why I've been having to trim it.

[00:14:19]I had to raise the roof on all the gasket. So, this is all just temporary, but I didn't want to have like a huge step. So, I raised it up just enough to where it's just a little bit smaller than the actual opening on the roof. and I stuck it on the engine, boroscoped it, and it came out perfect. So, I'm going to go ahead and silicone this thing up, slap it together. Then, we're going to pull the distributor out. And guess what? My tires showed up. These are my Galaxy R1 GTs.

[00:14:57]They're uh 2655015s, which uh is way shorter than the 25560s that was on this car for last year's autocross. But, you know, I have oh 1/2 inch more rubber widthwise and plus with the uh less sidewall flex, it will definitely help with handling. I'm hoping.

[00:15:26]I don't know. I kind of like a tall sidewall. It's just old school looking.

[00:15:39]Out with the old ready to run setup.

[00:15:42]Getting ready to put my MSD Pro billet stuff in here. Well, I thought I had a distributor. It is uh kind of titanicked.

[00:15:52]Moisture has got in there at one point and uh festered.

[00:15:58]Well, I found a replacement.

[00:16:01]It is sitting right here in an engine that I currently don't own anymore. I sold this motor to Mike, but you know, Mike with the super beater, but uh since he's not here, he didn't really have any say as in like no, you can't take that.

[00:16:20]So, I'm taking that.

[00:16:46]I got my MSD ignition all wired up. I even put the coil inside the car, cleaned up the engine bay. So, well, really, I was trying to take a little bit of nose weight off, but that I bet that didn't wouldn't even show a percentage, a decimal of a percentage on the scales. But, uh, it'll stay out of the heat anyway.

[00:17:09]It's getting closer to racing day and things are happening. Me and Derek are plugging away at some things on the car.

[00:17:15]He just put the upper hose on, thermostat housing. I just finished up all the bypass cooling hoses to transfer water from the back of the block to the front.

[00:17:25]We've got our box all done. Coils down there. Everything's all wired up.

[00:17:30]Things is happening. And so, so Dererick's finishing up the cooling system. I'm going to finish up the brake system. We got the hard line removed that went from well, obviously the front to the back. and we're going to split it in the middle and put a brake bias. So, I've got the brake bias over here. I'm going to go ahead and make a tiny little quick bracket and weld that to the frame. Weld that to the roll cage, actually. So, super fancy, I know.

[00:17:58]Rectangle.

[00:18:01]Of course, I'll I'll round the edges.

[00:18:04]Give me a little bit of credit. And then after brake lines are done, oh, here's my lead. probably about 80 lbs. Need to make some weight trays to put under the car in the back so we get some rear weight in this thing. And then uh probably going to have to start making a windshield here soon cuz uh they're not going to let me race. Well, I could race, but I can't take any passengers without some kind of protection. And the car needs a windshield.

[00:18:41]four there.

[00:19:09]Bye-bye shopping cart.

[00:19:23]Well, we're definitely going to have to make this windshield much bigger. I wanted to throw an original glass on here to see how much larger I need to make the Lexin piece to fill the gaps cuz I'm going to be eliminating the gasket. There's a giant rubber seal that actually holds the factory glass in place. And without that, it needs to be much larger. I see. Look at the gap on top. There's still a gap on the bottom and the gap on the sides.

[00:19:55]So, I'm going to have to measure it up and see how much larger to cut this thing.

[00:20:19]It's another race car day. Supposed to be a little bit hot today, which I'm kind of looking forward to that. The only reason is I'm trying to press my Lexon windshield. I got it between two original glasses. So hopefully the heat will form my Lexon and put some curvature to it so it will fit the car tighter. Um, I need to make new window channels. So I need to make a raised channel all the way around so that way the glass will sit just below the lip.

[00:20:51]So I want like a flush glass. So when we're doing 200 miles per hour at the autocross, you know, it'll be aerodynamic.

[00:21:01]I've already got the dimensions I need just by getting that right there. So we're going to go over and down. So basically just make an L channel and then form it to fit everywhere. So it's going to be like multiple pieces I'm going to have to weld.

[00:21:27]iron straps supported by a hemlock trestle that caused lack of wax in a crowd.

[00:21:34]later recalled that several homes for the trust collapse where it sits today are two very different things.

[00:21:54]Now to take this L channel that I just made out of sheet metal and make it look like this one. I just finished this side which this is a raised wind windshield channel. So it's has contour at both directions.

[00:22:13]So it's all like 3ded out, bro.

[00:22:17]So this the whole point of that is probably I mentioned it earlier but I forgot cuz I memory is super short is to have a flush windshield all the way around which is going to help out in speed and aerodynamics.

[00:22:36]Okay, now to start forming the other side and then forming a top Heat. Heat.

[00:23:39]Ah, lots of works on this windshield's been happening. It uh is close. I may have cut my sides a little too short. I don't know. We'll find out on the finished product. But uh my window channels came out great. I'll show you that here once I get the windshield back off. And uh it's pretty good. Now, am I going to be am I going to miss the chrome trim, the stainless trim that goes around the windshield? Yes, I'm going to miss that. I may have to somehow find a way to incorporate that back into the car. But, uh it's going to be super lightweight. And I just got all my hardware this morning. So, I've got my riv nuts. These will be riveted into my new window channel. And then I have all my counter sunk hardware which is going to hold my new windshield down.

[00:24:25]And that's where I'm at right now is doing the final fitment getting like you see my Sharpie marker there. My final trimming to get the glass to sink in. So much work on a windshield. But it's going to look cool.

[00:25:14]So far, it's actually not that bad. It's all clecoed in place, and I need to pull it back off. I need to pull all the cleos out. I need to counter sunk the Lexon, and I need to uh drill out and install all the riv nuts and then paint the windshield and bolt her back in. And it's going to look amazing.

[00:25:38]But it just like changed the whole look of the car. It like doesn't look like hillbilly race car too much anymore. Now that the shopping cart is gone, it actually looks like I'm building professional race car.

[00:26:13]finished. Well, almost. I got all my nuterts in my riv nuts. The uh I even put some felt over my windshield brace bar so I won't scratch up my Lexen. Um pain in the ass. But at least now I can finally hopefully for the last time put the windshield on and bolt it down.

[00:26:37]Got the welder all fired up. It's welding day. I've got to finish up a few things on this cuz Mike is going to be here with the super beater. And if you don't know what the Super Beater is, you need to go back and watch the orange superb videos on how we how I revived this thing, got it running and driving and turned it into a fullsize go-kart and ratchet strapped ourselves into the car to drive it. Send them bald eagle flying.

[00:27:03]Yeah.

[00:27:06]Oh [ __ ] he was on two wheels.

[00:27:19]and then proceeded to turning it into the autocross beast that it is. It's pretty cool car, but knowing Mike, it needs a lot of work. So, I need to hurry up and get this thing out of the way. I I had plans to modify the control arms, which I'm probably not going to get to that. fix the axle seal, but we did do the intake swap, brake bias, MSD, tires, windshield, and we're working on the rear weight. I present exhibit a secret weapon. Bam. This is a 3/16 plate that I had a buddy of mine bend a 45°ree lip in and then put a bunch of random holes in it for bolt locations on lead weight.

[00:28:04]Because I was looking under this car and I'm like, man, there's like just hardly anywhere to mount lead to like safely, securely, and legal like for circle track. And I'm like, it'd be nice if there was just, you know, like a giant tray under the car so I could just bolt lead to. And then the tray itself would be weight as well. And I was like, wait, duh. Why don't I just make a tray that spreads from rear frame rail to rear frame rail? So then I can mount lead to and it'll be ballast as low as you can get and that will now be led just as low as the frame rail and I can place the lead where I want. So it's going to be mucho beneficials.

[00:28:51]All right, the weight ballast tray is in.

[00:29:07]Now I can add lead anytime I want to and lowest to the ground possible. I I raised my shock mount, which is nice about having an adjustable height shock mount. So that way the drive line won't hit my weight tray.

[00:29:26]Thinking ahead I was. Well, my main objectives, let's check out my list.

[00:29:32]Rear weight, yes. Tires, nope. And windshield. So, we didn't get the axle seal or the upper control arms done, but those are not musts. Those will just actually help the car handle better. So, uh, I say the car is still not fully finished. But, uh, at least it will be better now when we take it out this time.

[00:29:54]Well, Mike has showed up with the super beater. So, I need to hurry up and get this thing on the ground. Get it all wailed wailed, weighed, scaled, and done so we can get it out of the way. Oh, I got to set the timing, too. Set the timing real quick and put a passenger seat in it. Got to have passenger seat.

[00:30:16]And here comes the rain. Thunder rolls down the river lanes. Calling storm again.

[00:30:26]Here's a fuzz box hurricane. Tear the sky into swamp wind screaming. Nothing left to do. Riding that lightning drown in the pain in a Start burning fire like the devil's soul.

[00:31:08]Heaven knows the flame ever been insane.

[00:31:12]He's right in the search. Can't hold the chain.

[00:31:16]Speak a shake like a runaway train. Get lost in the sound of figure it out. We've only got one day hurricane and two swarm wind screaming. Nothing left TO DO.

[00:32:07]THAT LIGHT IS DROWNING.

[00:32:24]You don't see songs world.

[00:32:35]Oh my god.

[00:33:27]Heat up here.

[00:33:31]Oh, heat, heat. Oh, >> the points are the Are you going to swing out wide on it?

[00:34:58]Are you going to cut Turn left.

[00:35:06]>> Are you going to keep facing before you turn in? Are you going to work your way into the getting under the water.

[00:35:38]Look at Chris running some of his best times right now. No headlights. That that is his best run so far challenges.

[00:35:55]All right, I am back after my first day of fun at the autocross during Matts here in Las Vegas. And uh well, I no secret I am a terrible YouTuber. You know, when I go to a racing event with all my buddies and everything, it's just you forget that hey, we're supposed to record this stuff and you just want to have fun and be in the moment and with your friends and hanging out. You don't want to be like, "Derek, what just happened in that moment? What were you thinking?"

[00:36:25]>> Oh, >> see, we don't want to be those guys. We just We want to have fun out there. But having fun, I also I wouldn't say I got my ass kicked. I lost by 8 hundths of a second. 8 hundths of a second to the Super Beater. But the Super Beater is not really beater anymore. That's That car is pretty damn good. We lighten the nose up, put a locker in it. It the car is good, but I know I need looser shocks. The shocks that are on my car right now are super tied downs. And uh I know, check it out. I've got some original Mopar auto cushions.

[00:37:06]These as well. I was going to put these on my 70 four-speed charger. This is actually a lot of original parts that was on my car. these Mopar auto cushions and these are like loosey goosey non gas charged shocks. So, uh, check it out.

[00:37:23]What is the date on this thing? These things are old, but they're going to be most gooders.

[00:37:36]1975 right there. So, we're going to put some NOS 1975 Mopar auto cushion shocks on my car to help with forward drive because the tie- down shocks is not allowing the assend to transfer or not allowing weight to transfer to the back so I can hammer down and give it the beans.

[00:37:56]Another thing, and you will remember this car. So, yeah, the white 69 Charger that we pulled out of my buddy's yard in Utah. Well, my car needs a sway bar. I never had a chance to put a sway bar on.

[00:38:11]I never had really never really had a chance to do a lot with my 69 Charger race car, but it's so loose entry middle that uh it needs a sway bar. And all I have right now is a stock sway bar. But you know what? A stock sway bar is better than no sway bar. So, we're going to steal the sway bar off of my 69 Charger and put it on my race car.

[00:38:52]Okay, with my new racing sway bar and my new race car shocks, this thing should be way more better.

[00:39:02]Now, I'm going go ahead and set these right by the gate so that way I don't forget them in the morning. We're going to have to uh install all this stuff at the track and get it race ready.

[00:39:13]What do you think, Bolt? Is it going to be faster, Bolt? Huh?

[00:39:20]Bolt, do these sh these shocks pass the sniff test? No. Oh, man. Bolt turned his back to these. This might not be any good.

[00:39:31]A Too soon, Julia.

[00:40:04]This car feels kind of slow to me.

[00:40:10]>> No balls. No balls.

[00:40:22]No boss. No boss.

[00:40:34]You want to see balls?

[00:41:03]Heat up here.

[00:41:21]I'm dropping the hammer.

[00:41:51]Heat.

[00:42:00]Heat.

[00:42:29]Just use the lap belt. Just use the shoulders if possible.

[00:42:33]>> Yeah. [ __ ] Well, he has these belts set up for kids.

[00:42:38]>> Oh, I got you. Okay, >> I'm not trying to get friendly with you.

[00:42:42]>> That's all right. I got it.

[00:42:44]>> I totally understand.

[00:42:46]>> If it jumps out and bites you, it's not my fault.

[00:42:48]>> It should have been reasonably adjusted.

[00:42:49]There were a couple other people.

[00:42:51]>> Is the throttle still sticking or >> It's not sticking. It's just uh brakes.

[00:42:57]>> Oh, yeah. [ __ ] The brakes. We need to fix that. Oh, >> yeah.

[00:43:00]>> No, seriously. All right. Off.

[00:43:37]Heat. Heat.

[00:44:07]Nice job, man.

[00:44:12]You got to pick up four >> T in here. Slow it down.

[00:44:37]Heat.

[00:44:53]Heat.

[00:45:20]I AM THE SMARTEST MAN ALIVE.

[00:45:30]I wonder if Chris ran any quicker.

[00:45:33]>> Well, he ran into some tires.

[00:45:37]>> Thanks, man.

[00:45:39]>> That wasn't the best ride.

[00:45:41]>> No, that's awesome.

[00:45:46]Yeah. Makes me want to find one that's in a field, drag it out, and start doing some [ __ ] to it.

[00:45:55]WELCOME TO THE DROP ZONE, BABY.

[00:46:05]Step off the ship. Who's in the dirt?

[00:46:08]>> Now comes the part where we throw our heads back and laugh. Ready?

[00:46:12]>> READY.

[00:46:18]>> On fire. Feels like it'll hurt. Smoke in your lungs, BUGS IN THE SAND. SAY your prayers, better make a stand.

[00:46:30]You wanted war, you wanted fame. Well, every bullet's got your name.