Shop Talk - Building Cars and Raising a Daughter

Building cars and raising a daughter; all I ever wanted was to be a dad.

Story and Photos: JT

Hello once again my fellow gearheads. Every month for the past six years I have shared my passion for motorsports, tools, and the technical side of many of my projects. I have even shared my opinion and philosophy on many different topics. This month please allow me to get serious and share what’s in my heart about being a gearhead and being a dad.

I have aspired to become many things in my 54 years of life and also dreamt of accomplishing many things. I never really knew how bad I wanted to be a father, until I found out we were blessed to be having a baby girl fifteen years ago. That day my life changed overnight, and I became obsessed with becoming the best dad possible.

Ever since my daughter was born, we’ve been inseparable. I was the

My daughter is actually 100% responsible for us building this car.

only one who could calm her down when she was a baby. I was the one who comforted her when she was sick or injured. Now don’t get me wrong, I have an amazing wife who is an amazing mom, but my daughter and I just had a thing from birth.

I never wanted to force her into learning how to wrench or being handy in general, but the first time she asked if she could help me, I was all over it. I made learning fun. Besides working on projects with me, we had a weekly “shop class” where I taught her everything from A to Z. I remember our first series of classes was all about fasteners. Yes fasteners! I made sure she knew the

Vasylyy Lukivskyy on his GSXR 1000 based grudge bike.

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difference between a bolt, screw, nut, washer, cotter pin, c-clip, keyway, set screw, and the list goes on. She even knew how to tell what grade a bolt was. As you would have guessed, she even knew the corresponding tool that each unique piece of hardware needed to install and remove it.

She also knew and was tested where every one of these tools and pieces of hardware lived in our shop.

There it is, “OUR SHOP!” For the loyal readers of this magazine you may even remember that she was responsible for us building our latest race car. I have some amazing memories teaching her how to make our own custom wiring harness. To

At this point she is a seasoned passenger in Big Red. My wife told her to hold on as we prepared to do a burnout. The look says it all. “Mom, I got this! Relax!”

This is the first time we took Big Red for ice cream. I made my wife follow us just in case something happened along the way. The people in that ice cream shop got a non-dairy treat as we left that parking lot at 5000 rpm off the trans brake. www.rpmmag.com

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make learning fun for her, I had her make a multi-colored necklace that day out of wire and shrink tube. She soldered every wire together with perfect joints and protected them with another colored shrink tube. I also have fond memories of her welding on the chassis, build the rear, the 4-link, making all of our brake lines, and even all of the AN fittings on the fuel system. I remember how excited she was when I explained to her that we were in the final assembly stage of the build.

I remember when she was around nine years old, we were waiting in line at a speed shop, and there was a group of guys behind us debating over which power adder is the best.

They were talking about turbochargers verse superchargers, alcohol or fuel, nitrous versus naturally aspirated. I enjoyed listening to them as it made the waiting time entertaining. Without any prompting from me, my little nine-year old gearhead girl jumped into that conversation with attitude and swagger. “My dad and I believe that turbos will become the thing of the future, but right now the boost is way too hard to manage.” She also went on to lecture

Besides her 4 wheeler, this was by far her favorite toy. I told her that if anything ever broke on it that she would have to fix it. Here she is doing a pre-ride checklist and changing the oil.

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This is an old picture of Big Red in its first stage. My buddy’s daughter (right) had a sleepover at our house and the girls wanted to pretend they were hard at work getting the car ready for a race.

She loves fast cars and is impressed if a woman drives it. She freaked out over this Pro Mod when she saw a woman not only wrenching on it in the pits, but driving it as well.

I taught her how to change a tire on this Chevrolet Equinox which is also the first car she ever drove by herself.

them about the benefits of nitrous. Something like, “with the right tune, the power is much more manageable. The first 60 foot is all that matters in our books.” My initial reaction was to apologize and silence her for eavesdropping and chiming in, but I was so damn proud of her for speaking up and educating those boys that I let her do her thing. They were so cool that they kept her involved in that conversation for the entire time we were in that store.

She was so proud the first time we took Big Red for the first test hit on the street.

I strapped her into the 5-point safety harness, put a helmet on her, and told her to get ready. She said, “ready for what Dad?” My reply was, “your life will never be the same!” (1000 horsepower has a way of doing that) I released the trans brake at a mild 3000 RPM and hammered the throttle through a squirrely and smokey launch.

Big Red pulled extremely hard into a 2nd gear shift from our Rossler Turbo 400. Before I lifted off of the throttle, my daughter was midway through her best Bo Duke Yee-haw yell. That moment was priceless.

I was so proud of my little princess. I was proud of her helping me build what we call her “big sister” and was proud that she was proud of that. I extended our first test hit to a five-mile ice cream run that probably cost me one hundred bucks in 112 octane!

The look on everyone’s faces in that parking lot when my daughter powered down all of the switches and climbed out of the www.rpmmag.com

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She had a great time talking with NHRA world champion Megan Meyer about racing, hunting, cheerleading, and how to deal with dads. Megan is a great role model for young aspiring racers.

roll cage was another awesome moment. My daughter saw how people reacted to our car that day and she liked it!

Of course I set a bad example and launched Big Red really hard as we exited the ice cream shop. This time I was smart enough to turn the data logger on and record the fun. She asked me why it felt more intense that time.

I told her that she passed the big girl test and needed to experience the converter flash in all of its glory. When we got back home to our shop, and I was confident we weren’t leaking anything, I told her that we needed to name her big sister. Without any hesitation she said, “well Dad, she has a big block, big tires, and is red. I say we call her Big Red!” From that day on Big Red was more than just something I built from the ground up at home. It was something we built! It was our family race car that helped make memories with my daughter that I will cherish forever.

My daughter is now a stunning, beautiful, brilliant 15-year old teenager. Many things have changed since 82

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Getting to meet the one and only Shirley Muldowney was a high point in her racing life. Shirley was extremely gracious and shared many stories and lessons with her that day.

we finished building Big Red. She now chooses to spend the day with my wife at the mall over time in the shop or getting muddy on the 4 wheelers. She may even prefer to have my wife comfort her when she is sick or injured. But when we show up at a race or an event with Big Red, she becomes my little crew chief again and gets right back into business getting her fingers greasy.

The other day we were at an event and there was a huge crowd gathered around our pit getting a closer look. I watched my daughter grab our duster and give the car a thorough cleaning just so she could let everyone know that this was her car. She is great with the people and answers all of the questions they fire at her. I love seeing how proud she is when she talks about the car.

I have to admit that I miss not having a “little girl” anymore who goes everywhere with me, but I am proud and blessed of the strong and independent young woman she has matured into.

Besides being a teenage girl, excelling in high school, and crushing cheer, she still enjoys the race car and hunting and fishing with me. She may not like me intimidating the boys that come around, but I think deep down inside she appreciates the love and knowing that no matter how old she gets, she will always be my little greasy fingered princess. Friends, cherish your children, they grow up way too fast.

There is no doubt that one day soon she will take the helm of this beast and cut a way better light than me. Only time will tell if she keeps the interest for horsepower after a long stretch at school.

One thing is for certain – Racing will not be the same without her.

Until Next Time Keep Wrenching,

www.rpmmag.com

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