Modified Race Car Camper
Sale price: US $1.00 Make an Offer
| Used |
| “Now is your opportunity to own a one of a kind unique modified race car trailer! Trailer is registered as a trailer with DMV and has the custom tow bar that's needed to tow it.” |
| Type: | Race Car Camper |
Greenwood, Maine, United States
Vehicle description
NewLiftedTrucks.com has the privilege of assisting the seller of this very unique race car camper. Due to the uniqueness of this item the owner was encouraged to tell the story of how he decided to build this race car camper, and here is his story.
I"ve loved racing my entire life . Grew up watching NASCAR on ABCs Wide World of Sports and going to the local track here in Maine when my uncle would take my brother and I . Warm summer Saturday nights under the lights at Oxford Plains Speedway . It was great . As a young teenager in the late 60"s I wanted to learn more about racing and got a subscription to Circle Track magazine . That"s where I first saw Modifieds . Early Model Modifieds had the 40"s coupe bodies and the Late Model Modifieds had the later Pinto , Vega and other bodies . Those were the coolest race cars I had ever seen and fell in love instantly . Cut down bodies , wide tires all the way around . Then marriage and jobs and kids came along and I watched on TV but very rarely went to the races . Then in the early 2000"s a friend of mine built a late model race car and started racing at the local track and did great . We talked about it often and one day I mentioned the " good old days " way back when they had the modifieds that I loved . He rather looked at me sideways and said " you know , just because you haven"t been paying attention to the modifieds it doesn"t mean they don"t have them anymore ". He told me they were racing at tracks up and down the east coast and went to Stafford CT. a lot . Stafford even had a class that raced every week called SK"s . I looked online and found the Feather lite (as they were called at the time ) Mods and was hooked all over again . I had to go see them . I camped out in the parking lot for their Fall Final Weekend the fall of 2004 . I went back every year and stayed in a tent or just in the back of my pickup . In "08" I had an idea to put my love of modifieds and camping together and maybe build a camper that looked like a modified . I had no clue what so ever of how to do that however . I had been at the phone company for most of my life and although I had built a few projects out of metal I had no idea how to even start to do this . I worked up the courage to talk to a couple of drivers and crews at Stafford in the pits and they encouraged me to go ahead with it saying " it"s just time , money and parts ". They thought it was a great idea . So I started drawing , thinking , planning and designing how I might do this . As an older guy , I know plenty of other guys that can do all kinds of things . So if I don"t know how to do something , they probably will - - - and they have tools ! I asked permission to look at , measure and crawl over , into and underneath a half dozen cars , making detailed drawings and measurements . These mods have an 8 " offset chassis and that was a real challenge to figure out how to offset the chassis but make the body come out right . I printed off the rules for building Feather lite mods from the NASCAR website and those rules are what I went by to build it as accurately as possible . Of course , they tell you what you have to end up with , not how to get there . I designed , redesigned and re-redesigned every part of this camper on paper as I built each part . My driver friend and I went to the Thompson Speedway swap meet in November "09" and he helped me buy a bunch of racing parts for it . I really pulled my hair out at times figuring out how to build this thing but I can honestly say it was about the most fun I have ever had . I found out early on that I suck at welding but I have a cousin that does it as a living so I would get the materials , cut , grind and bend and work up a dozen or so parts . Then give him a call and he"d weld them all up pretty in just an hour . The frame , chassis and suspension took about a year and then it was on to the body and sheet metal . Never done that either but a local car builder had all or the tools and gave me a quick lesson on the ones I would need to use - - - metal brake , roll crimper and such . After that I would get the pieces all trimmed , draw my lines , walk in with them under my arm and use the right machine ( asking for pointers when needed ) and give him a wave as I walked back out . Priceless . In "09" the rules said the roof had to be from an actual approved car . I went to a junk yard with the list of cars and picked out a Pontiac Grand Am because the roof looked like the most likely fit to my chassis . So that was the only part that was from an actual car . Building the body was terrifying . I had never done anything like it and yet if it didn"t come out nice and very convincing the whole idea would fail . I designed the body intentionally to NOT look like another mod . I wanted it to be my own and gave the design a lot of thought to aesthetics . So it isn"t a Pontiac or Ford or Chevy or anything else . Getting everything right was a true headache and I loved every minute . The frame and chassis are built of lighter materials . Thin wall instead of thick wall . Another friend does body work and painted it for me using the VIN # from my truck that I haul it with so they would match . I have possibly 1,500 hrs in this over the two years 2009 - 2011 including all the planning of different versions of parts needed . I can"t imagine how many versions of parts went into the round file . I always had to think months ahead to what was going to be needed later so that what I was building right now would fit those future parts . Now I have taken it to many campsites and to Stafford dozens of times and dozens of car shows but my back is getting to the point that I have trouble using it . The tow bar and light / plate assembly come right off so it just looks like a race car at the camp site . I"ve tweaked a few parts and repaired a few parts over the years but the original design and quality have stood up well . I"m very happy with the whole thing . Honestly , I smile every time I look at the thing because I just think modified are the coolest thing in the world and I"ve got one , sort of.
View the Youtube video at https:/ youtu.be/erilmaaP_TA
I"ve loved racing my entire life . Grew up watching NASCAR on ABCs Wide World of Sports and going to the local track here in Maine when my uncle would take my brother and I . Warm summer Saturday nights under the lights at Oxford Plains Speedway . It was great . As a young teenager in the late 60"s I wanted to learn more about racing and got a subscription to Circle Track magazine . That"s where I first saw Modifieds . Early Model Modifieds had the 40"s coupe bodies and the Late Model Modifieds had the later Pinto , Vega and other bodies . Those were the coolest race cars I had ever seen and fell in love instantly . Cut down bodies , wide tires all the way around . Then marriage and jobs and kids came along and I watched on TV but very rarely went to the races . Then in the early 2000"s a friend of mine built a late model race car and started racing at the local track and did great . We talked about it often and one day I mentioned the " good old days " way back when they had the modifieds that I loved . He rather looked at me sideways and said " you know , just because you haven"t been paying attention to the modifieds it doesn"t mean they don"t have them anymore ". He told me they were racing at tracks up and down the east coast and went to Stafford CT. a lot . Stafford even had a class that raced every week called SK"s . I looked online and found the Feather lite (as they were called at the time ) Mods and was hooked all over again . I had to go see them . I camped out in the parking lot for their Fall Final Weekend the fall of 2004 . I went back every year and stayed in a tent or just in the back of my pickup . In "08" I had an idea to put my love of modifieds and camping together and maybe build a camper that looked like a modified . I had no clue what so ever of how to do that however . I had been at the phone company for most of my life and although I had built a few projects out of metal I had no idea how to even start to do this . I worked up the courage to talk to a couple of drivers and crews at Stafford in the pits and they encouraged me to go ahead with it saying " it"s just time , money and parts ". They thought it was a great idea . So I started drawing , thinking , planning and designing how I might do this . As an older guy , I know plenty of other guys that can do all kinds of things . So if I don"t know how to do something , they probably will - - - and they have tools ! I asked permission to look at , measure and crawl over , into and underneath a half dozen cars , making detailed drawings and measurements . These mods have an 8 " offset chassis and that was a real challenge to figure out how to offset the chassis but make the body come out right . I printed off the rules for building Feather lite mods from the NASCAR website and those rules are what I went by to build it as accurately as possible . Of course , they tell you what you have to end up with , not how to get there . I designed , redesigned and re-redesigned every part of this camper on paper as I built each part . My driver friend and I went to the Thompson Speedway swap meet in November "09" and he helped me buy a bunch of racing parts for it . I really pulled my hair out at times figuring out how to build this thing but I can honestly say it was about the most fun I have ever had . I found out early on that I suck at welding but I have a cousin that does it as a living so I would get the materials , cut , grind and bend and work up a dozen or so parts . Then give him a call and he"d weld them all up pretty in just an hour . The frame , chassis and suspension took about a year and then it was on to the body and sheet metal . Never done that either but a local car builder had all or the tools and gave me a quick lesson on the ones I would need to use - - - metal brake , roll crimper and such . After that I would get the pieces all trimmed , draw my lines , walk in with them under my arm and use the right machine ( asking for pointers when needed ) and give him a wave as I walked back out . Priceless . In "09" the rules said the roof had to be from an actual approved car . I went to a junk yard with the list of cars and picked out a Pontiac Grand Am because the roof looked like the most likely fit to my chassis . So that was the only part that was from an actual car . Building the body was terrifying . I had never done anything like it and yet if it didn"t come out nice and very convincing the whole idea would fail . I designed the body intentionally to NOT look like another mod . I wanted it to be my own and gave the design a lot of thought to aesthetics . So it isn"t a Pontiac or Ford or Chevy or anything else . Getting everything right was a true headache and I loved every minute . The frame and chassis are built of lighter materials . Thin wall instead of thick wall . Another friend does body work and painted it for me using the VIN # from my truck that I haul it with so they would match . I have possibly 1,500 hrs in this over the two years 2009 - 2011 including all the planning of different versions of parts needed . I can"t imagine how many versions of parts went into the round file . I always had to think months ahead to what was going to be needed later so that what I was building right now would fit those future parts . Now I have taken it to many campsites and to Stafford dozens of times and dozens of car shows but my back is getting to the point that I have trouble using it . The tow bar and light / plate assembly come right off so it just looks like a race car at the camp site . I"ve tweaked a few parts and repaired a few parts over the years but the original design and quality have stood up well . I"m very happy with the whole thing . Honestly , I smile every time I look at the thing because I just think modified are the coolest thing in the world and I"ve got one , sort of.
View the Youtube video at https:/ youtu.be/erilmaaP_TA