A question of Class

[Ember]

I just know this is going to sound dumb to you boys, but I'm really curious how you define a 'jalopy' from a 'modified' or a 'banger' from a 'high boy'? You Americans talk funny.

[Abarth Mike]

Not sure about the USA but in the UK a banger is an old production car saved from the scrapyard that is "raced" usually on a figure of eight track. The object of the race is last car moving wins. I guess called a banger because the object of the competition is to crash or bang into and immobilize the other competitors.

As opposed to, say, stock cars which are anything but stock and while yes they do "bang" into each other, the object of the race is to cross the finish line first.

[Ember]

Similar here Mike, a banger is just any old PoS. But watching what the guys are building I figure there must be intricate nuances between the differently named classes/styles that I'm not aware of.

[HomeRacingWorld]

A "Jalopy" is usually a car from 20's-early 30's and has had a hard life. Driven to nothing and parked/junked to be forgotten. Yet, somebody somewhere decided they could be raced. They looked rough, ran rough, and the action was intense to say the least.


Jalopy Action

You might notice mostly skinny stock tires, with original frames/suspension. Some people can refer to them as "Highboys". That is just another term really, means almost the same. Basically the bodies are on the original frames (unchanneled/altered) and fenderless. Meaning running boards ripped away. Combined with the tall tires, they look like they are riding high. Some feel the term stops at 33 or 34? I could be very wroong on that little nit pick.

EDIT - I used this term on this forum for the cars Dave and Bob built. It really is used mostly in street rod culture. I just called them that because I am bad about using slang to describe a car. They are building Jalopy style cars with the skinny wheels and tires. And straight or stock appearing frame rail. I am building a Modified. I said that we could have 2 classes: "Highboy" and Modified". I suppose I should have just said "Jalopy".



The term "Modified" was used for them as they evolved and were in fact VERY modified. Some people will refer to them as Jalopy/Mods depending on who you ask.

When I say "Modified" it means later model cars that were basically shells and everything else was hand or race built.



Big tires, special built frames, race suspension, etc. These were common in the later 60's and were raced into the 80's in some parts of he country.



Modifieds could be more modern, or run older bodies. It depended on the track/rules about the class.



A banger??? Ummm, sounds like "Bomber". Meaning an old full fendered pile of junk you made race legal and raced it.

I am SURE you will get different answers. Just my quick take, and tried to make it easy.

[Ember]

Thanks kids. That's a big help. Sorry if you went through this a little earlier while I was paying attention to other things. :)

[RazorJon]

And just to add my 2 cents, the names changed from dif. parts of the States, what Harry called Sportsman class we called bomber class, so really no matter how you build it, its right for some race track or other :twocents-mytwocents:

Now for a personal note some real @$$ bag caused a wreck tonight and me and a Chevy Truck played tag, the car that caused it left the scene, my Van now has a Jalopy front fender and that new Truck needs a fender door and bed, we are all ok but if someone sees a post of a Van and Truck in a crash on facebook let me know, yes the little jerk had his camera flashing

[Ember]

Glad to hear you're OK Jon hon. Too many idiots out there on the roads.

So, let me see if I've got it right. Those 80s sedans that you guys build with the super fat wheels on the rear and hogged out wheel arches would be Mods or even Bombers. The middle aged sedans could also classify as bombers.

See.. if they were small old sedans on road width tyres they would qualify as bucket racing here. The more modern ones with highly tuned V8 tend to fall into the super sedan class. Then it just gets confusing.

[RichD]

There is a thin gray line between "Modified" and "Jalopy" type cars. Back in the '60 I attended 1:1 stock car races at three tracks in Connecticut. Of the three, if I recall correctly, only Waterford had a novice class and those were called "Bombers". Most of the bombers looked like modifieds from the '50s, but some bombers had newer full bodies, like '55 Chevys. During much of the decade bombers ran on street tires, while modifieds raced on dedicated racing tires, except possibly on the inside front of the car. As time went by the bombers started to run on racing tires and the rules on motors were eased to allow multiple carburators, so by the late sixties bombers lookes like modifieds from the early sixties. Waterford was slower to allow overhead valve V8s than the other tracks.
Because they were raced by novice drivers bombers were much more likely to be rusty or banged up, but a few cars were kept in prime shape.
HOCOC has classes for both types of cars. The Jalopy class is restricted to big diameter narrow tires, some builders like to have their cars in primer or with dents so they look more like novice cars.