#still figure out which era of c!Tom he got drag here

[lythecreatorart]

Curse au concept for me and me only-

As I am an inniter first and Martyn lore enjoyer second

Curse in as if c!Tom join third life and join Dogwarts kind of curse-

I don’t think c!Tubbo, c!Ranboo, or c!Techno will get their appear, but I just want to draw how much ridiculous of height difference is-

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Wonderland Fuzz -- Casting Call! Part 2

Sequel to the original Casting Call! Had a chance to watch the movie again over Thanksgiving (it is awesome please go watch it) and have a think on the characters I couldn't include before because I wasn't sure about who they should be. Here's the rest of this potential AU cast list! Again, under a read-more because I’m talking spoilers.

Sandford Police Service

The Caterpillar (C. T. Pillar) as Bob Walker -- This is one where I'm fitting two people together based mainly on age -- Bob Walker is the oldest member of the Sanford Service, and Caterpillar is portrayed as an older "wise man" in the games. Bob is the least-seen member of the service (he doesn't even participate much in the main climax), and the main joke about his character is that he's incomprehensible until you get used to his accent (there's a great gag in the film where he has to translate for someone whose accent is even THICKER, and Danny translates for him to Nick). Caterpillar's more cryptic bullshit statements, particularly as the Oracle in the first game, I guess match him up decently with that.

Neighborhood Watch Alliance

Elder (Theodor) Gutknecht as Prof. Tom Weaver -- Oh, this one hurt to do a bit, as I like Elder Gutknecht, and I don't particularly like to put him on the side of evil. But, again, the fact that both characters are on the older side matches up, they're both kindly grandpa-types (at least when you first meet them), and Gutknecht stresses the importance of abiding by the rules during the climax of Corpse Bride (not letting the dead go after Barkis until after he's drunk the poison). And he's also okay with people getting "what they deserve," given he's only too happy to let the dead at Barkis once the rules aren't in the way, so. . . All those ravens he has in his tower remind me of all the cameras Weaver has access to as well (perhaps I can blame at least two fanfic authors in the CB section having him use them to gather intel on/for the main characters). And. . .well, Weaver is the only member of the NWA to explicitly die in the end. (Yes, the guy taken out by bear trap to the head AND the guy who impales himself on the replica church tower BOTH LIVE.)

Dr. Harry Wilson as Dr. Hatcher -- No, I'm not doing the long version of his name, screw that. Anyway, this is kind of a "they're both doctors, even if they're not the same kind, so. . ." And it's easy enough to interpret Wilson as a bad guy, given he is a Victorian-era psychiatrist. He'd fit decently into Hatcher's role of unofficial coroner and mild ass. He may be better than Dr. Bumby, but Alice probably wouldn't object to him suffering a few nonlethal injuries.

The Duchess (Amanda Duchess) as Amanda Paver -- one of the more minor NWA members, I decided a character who is known for moralizing in her appearance in the books would do for the headmistress of the local primary school. (Though we never see Amanda at her job, admittedly.) Also, an opening boss I still sometimes have trouble with in AMA seems a decent match for one of only two NWA members to actually HIT Nicholas in the ending firefight. (And besides, the image of her pedaling down the street on a bicycle, guns blazing, is just amusing.)

Pris Witless as Annette Roper -- Another fairly minor role, I figure running a small shop isn't beyond Witless's talents. At the very least, it means Alice keeps giving her money. :p And I enjoy the idea of her being dragged away from sniping at Alice by Charlie and his gang of hoodies.

(James) Mayhew and Hildegarde (Mayhew) as James Reaper and Mum Reaper -- more minor roles in the NWA, Reaper and his mother are basically there to pay off a joke about everyone and their mum packing in the country, and to be the first NWA members taken out by Nicholas when he comes back for the climax. I've got nowhere better to stick Mayhew and Hildegarde -- and the idea of Alice racing at Hildegarde and kicking her in the face before she can reload a shotgun amuses me.

Humpty Dumpty (Humphrey Dumpty) as Mr. Treacher -- An extremely minor NWA member, Treacher's only purpose is to wander around in a suspiciously thick coat for a while, and then reveal a big old gun under said coat for the major firefight. He doesn't even have any lines. Using Humpty, who has little more than a cameo appearance in AMA to point out the loose brick that leads to the Blunderbuss, seems like just the ticket.

The Jabberwock (Lewis Dragon) as Lurch (Michael Armstrong) -- Okay, this one feels like a pretty big mismatch -- Lurch is a mentally disabled man who we only ever see saying "Yaaarp," while the Jabberwock is a boss who knows how to make words hurt as much as his fire breath. But they're both tough as nails, and take multiple attempts to defeat (the Jabberwock has two boss battles, Nick has to take down Michael twice), so for a lack of better options. . .

Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum (Dennis and Columbus Tweedle) as Skinner's Butcher Brothers -- A minor role, but it calls for a pair of men who look both dangerous and a bit thick, and the Tweedles fit it perfectly. And their neverending supply of cutlery in the final supermarket raid does sort of mirror the neverending supply of little Tweedles they produce in their boss fight in AMA.

Murder Victims

Wilton Radcliffe as George Merchant -- this one's based off the fact that overly-fancy houses are a thing with both of them -- Radcliffe with his townhouse stuffed floor to ceiling with Asian artifacts, Merchant with his out-of-place mansion. Martin Blower was the solicitor in the original movie, but I think I could move it to Radcliffe without a problem (it's a minor detail in what you THINK is the motive behind the murders). Also, there's an interesting bit of irony in the man who thinks Alice had something more to do with the fire in A:MR getting reduced to a fiery crisp in the AU.

The Gnome Elder (George Elder) as Arthur Webley -- the guy who Bob Walker up there had to translate for. He has a stash of illegal weaponry in his barn, the confiscation which provides Nick with the firepower he needs in the end to go up against the NWA. He ends up killed off-screen, although I'm not sure if it's because of his gun stash or because he was cutting Reaper's hedges. Either way, he's such a small role that I feel justified shoving the Gnome Elder in his position based on the fact the Gnome Elder has the right look. And does spew a fair amount of cryptic bullshit, so I guess he is a good fit as the guy Caterpillar has to translate for. . .

The White Rabbit (Robin White) as Peter Cocker -- a shoplifter who leads Nick on a hell of a chase through Sandford -- sounds appropriate for a character built around speed and being chased! Peter also ends up dead for his crime off-screen -- again, appropriate for a character whose major role in both Alice games is to get offed.

Other

Peter Ian Staker and his Swan as themselves -- what do I mean by this? Well, Peter is a gag role built around the fact that Nick mistakes him calling about his swan for a prank call (P. I. Staker = piss-taker). I'd throw someone like the Mock Turtle into this role, but Peter happens to be played by none other than Stephen Merchant.

AKA in this AU, Peter forgives Alice for thinking he was a prank caller and tells her that's why everyone calls him Wheatley. I can't bring myself to recast him, is what I'm saying. XD

As for the swan? . . .It's a swan. What do you want.

[itsworn]

1973 Ford Pinto: Gapp & Roush’s Fast Little Pro Stock Pony

In many respects, the domestic automotive scene in the early- to mid-1970s was a growingly dismal situation. The end of the muscle-car era arrived, compression ratios plummeted, 5-mph bumpers debuted, the oil embargo hit, and subcompact economy cars began to sell in volume. While doom and gloom dominated dealer showrooms, all was not lost in the world of high performance. Production-based race cars were running faster than ever, and those new subcompacts that were so underwhelming in factory form, were solidly embraced in Pro Stock. Pintos, Vegas, Gremlins, and Colts were quickly becoming the standard-bearer in the top door-slammer class, and few found more success in the early 1970s than the Ford team of Wayne Gapp and Jack Roush.

While not sponsored by Ford itself (Ford ended motorsports support at the end of 1970), Gapp and Roush had a long history with the Blue Oval. Both Gapp and Roush were engine engineers for Ford, and Gapp was a longtime drag racer. To say the least, Ford connections ran deep for the duo who first paired up in 1971 with a Pro Stock Boss 429 Maverick, which was soon followed by a Pro Stock Pinto in 1972.

The car you see here is believed to be the second Pinto campaigned by G&R, this one’s chassis being built by Tom Smith of Wolverine Chassis. It was one of two G&R Pintos the team campaigned for 1973, with the other being destroyed at a race in St. Louis. NHRA Pro Stock rules at the time awarded the season championship to the winner of the World Finals, no matter their performance at the six previous races. Jack Roush offered an interesting 1973 World Finals story to us when we discussed the Pinto with him recently. “We ended up running Bill Jenkins in the final, and ‘Grumpy’ had been running about half a tenth faster than us all weekend. I’d been doing some evaluation of parasitic losses due to lubricating oils and figured we could pick up a bit if we ran less oil. I put the Pinto on jackstands and got under the car with a 5-gallon bucket. We were pitted next to Jenkins, and he just stood there and watched. I drained a third of the engine oil, half the dif oil, and all of the transmission oil out of the car. In the final, Wayne picked up one- to two-tenths, and we won the race.” And with that, Gapp and Roush had secured the 1973 Pro Stock Championship. As an aside, Gapp won two races and was runner-up in two more, a combination that no other Pro Stock driver achieved in 1973.

We can date this photo to 1974; the 1 Pro stickers on the window indicate the prior year’s championship. Here, Wayne Gapp is his typical wheels-up while Jack Roush observes from behind.

G&R debuted their famous Tijuana Taxi four-door Maverick during 1974, at which point the Pinto wasn’t the team’s featured vehicle moving forward. However, it did continue to race through the 1975 season and was then sold in Spring 1976 to privateer Tim Goodner of Minnesota. In an interview with Pro Stock photographer Dan Williams, Goodner explained that he purchased the Pinto for $6,000 sans engine, and Gapp himself gave him one particularly sage tip: “Don’t mess with the suspension.” Goodner proceeded to race the car as “Genesis” in C/G and C/MP with a Boss 302, primarily in Division 5. He eventually concluded that just qualifying for the Pro Stock field was a better payout than winning a Sportsman class outright, so Goodner returned the Pinto to the Pro Stock ranks. In 1978, he updated the car to appear as a ’76, fitting a new grille and bigger bumpers (among other things) to comply with NHRA rules that mandated Pro Stock cars to appear within five years of manufacture. Goodner stopped racing after the 1982 season, as the debut of 500-inch engines effectively ended the competitiveness of his Genesis operation. His best run in the 1981/1982 era is said to have been an 8.89 e.t.

This photo is circa 1978, after second-owner Tim Goodner updated the car to 1976 appearance specs with big bumpers and egg-crate grille. The NHRA required Pro Stock cars to appear within five years of manufacture.

It’s at the end of the Goodner era that the trail of the 1973 Championship Pinto goes a bit cold. Goodner says he sold the car at the end of 1982 to a racer in New Orleans and heard that it was sold again by the late-1980s to someone in Ohio. About the same time, fellow Pinto racer Jim Evanuik was turned on to an ex-G&R Pinto being sold in Kentucky, believed to be the same car, and alerted his friend Bob Sharp. Sharp ended up purchasing the Pinto and enthusiastically bracket-raced it for a decade or so around the Northeast, now lettered as the “Gambler.” Evanuik built a 400M-derived engine for the car and paired it with a Powerglide for “easy 9.40s.”

When Sharp put the Pinto up for sale in National Dragster in 2000, Rob Holzman noticed the G&R lineage and mentioned it to Ford collector Brent Hajek of Ames, Oklahoma. Says Hajek, “Rob and I went out to buy the car, and right away took it to the track to have some fun. We probably made 25 passes one weekend, and I turned it over to Rob for some freshening and a return to its Gapp & Roush appearance.”

Besides a fresh paintjob, Holzman’s main task was to get a period drivetrain back in the car. He did just that by using a former Bob Glidden 351C that Hajek had acquired through former Tasca mechanic John Healy. Holzman also fitted a period-correct Lenco four-speed. You’ll note that much of the interior is well-used, and Rob believes the carpet, seats, door panels, and more are per original G&R days. Other items are not to original spec, but acknowledge several decades of evolution and history. As an example, the mods that make the car appear as a ’76 were actually never seen with Gapp & Roush livery—rather, this was done during the car’s Genesis era.

Speaking of the Genesis era, then-owner Goodner reportedly showed up to try and qualify the Pinto in Pro Stock, perhaps for the first time under his ownership, at the 1977 NHRA Springnationals. During tech, Goodner was disqualified for having a rollcage that was made of “too-thin” material. When he asked how the same ’cage passed when it was being raced by Gapp & Roush, he was told that inspectors figured it had been built in a legal manner since it was done by one of the leading teams. Go figure! The DQ required Goodner to have the ’cage rebuilt, and upon returning to Minnesota, he turned to Don Ness for the necessary work. Clearly, it wasn’t the first modification ever made to this historic Pinto, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last!

Tech Notes Who: Brent Hajek What: 1973 Ford Pinto Pro Stock Where: Ames, OK

Engine: Ford’s 351 Cleveland was beginning to become a favorite powerplant for the Ford camp by 1973, with Gapp & Roush leading the charge. Hajek’s current engine came in a roundabout way after Bob Glidden sold off his Cleveland parts to John Healy when Glidden switched to Boss 429s. The block is a rare furnace-brazed Boss 351 casting with markings that indicate a Roush origin. G&R engines typically used an internally balanced Boss crank, Brooks aluminum rods and pistons, and a General Kinetics valvetrain and roller cam (period article mentions specs of 321/330 degrees duration and 0.721/0.700-inch lift). Much-modified Boss 351 cylinder heads feature raised-exhaust port plates to straighten the exhaust port (again, these heads once being in the Glidden inventory). A modified Edelbrock tunnel-ram mounted twin Holley Dominators. Sounds simple, but the truth was infinitely more complicated!

Exhaust: Custom JR headers.

Transmission: Rob Holzman performed the mechanical restoration of the Pinto in 2000 and reinstalled a Lenco four-speed, per original. Remarked Holzman, “Even though it had a Powerglide in it when Brent bought it, the original mounts and holes for the Lenco were still there and were used when we reinstalled the trans.”

Rearend: Ford 9-inch with 5.68 gears, a spool, and Strange axles.

Chassis/Suspension: Gapp and Roush had Tom Smith’s Wolverine Chassis build the chassis for this car, one of many Pintos Wolverine did in the era. The front suspension was a production-based double A-arm arrangement with Koni coilovers, while the rear suspension featured Koni coilovers, a Watts link, and adjustable ladder bars.

Brakes: Strange 4-wheel discs.

Wheels/Tires: Period photos during the 1973 season generally show the Pinto running Motor Wheel Flys up front and Spyders in the rear. The 1975 images show Flys all around by the end of the G&R era, and that’s the way the Pinto appears today. Appearances can be deceiving, however, because the current wheels were actually custom-made by Bogart to strongly resemble Flys. The 15×3.5/15×12-inch rims are shod with Moroso frontrunners and Firestone 14.5/32.0-15 slicks.

Interior: The interior is pretty much as found in 2000, which is to say that it’s circa 1973 with various revisions through the years. Holzman tells us he believes the carpet, dash, seats, and door panels to be original, and likely other bits and pieces as well.

Exterior: Roush tells us that the G&R Pinto was so fresh when it arrived at the 1973 Winternats in Pomona, that it had yet to be painted: “Pomona ended up getting postponed for a week due to rain, so we took it to a nearby shop and had it painted in the interim.” A period article in Super Stock credited Tom Stratton for that paint job with multi-color accents, which was replicated in 2000. Fiberglass panels were used for the hood, hatch, fenders, and dash.

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[itsworn]

Boss 429 Drag Racing Time Capsule

Ahh, the vaunted Boss 429… What’s not to like about this over-the-top muscle Mustang that ranks as one of the most talked about and desirable ponycars of all time? It’s got that wild semi-hemi NASCAR engine that is wall to wall impressive whenever the hood is opened. It wears the sheetmetal of one of the raciest looking cars of the muscle-era—the ’69-70 SportsRoof. It came equipped as a real musclecar should—but few Fords were —meaning mandatory four-speed, steep rearend gears, limited-slip dif, and big 15-inch wheels and tires. On the cusp of its January 1969 debut, the Boss 429 Mustang appeared to be the musclecar incarnate, and buff books of the day were ablaze in the hype. And then the big Boss hit the streets…

What we all know now, is that the Boss 429 was a bit of a performance dud when it was released to the public. In reality it’s not that it didn’t perform well—magazine tests finding very low 14s in stock configuration. Rather it’s that the Boss ‘9 didn’t make good on the killer performance that was anticipated. For example, FoMoCo brethren with the 428CJ usually turned out to be quicker, while the competition had multiple offerings that were equal or better performers at lower cost. But our mission here isn’t to dis on the Boss 429, rather it’s to set the stage for its modified potential.

The wall to wall Boss 429 engine looks even nastier than most thanks to dual quad Holleys. The NASCAR cylinder heads are rumored to have once been part of the Wood Brothers team inventory, and feature fully hemispherical combustion chambers.

While Ford wasted the opportunity to maximize the Boss 429 in street form, the package certainly accomplished its primary mission—legalizing the Boss 429 engine for NASCAR racing. And when green-lighted in March of 1969, the new engine simply dominated that realm, running away with the 1969 NASCAR Grand National championship. But what about Boss 429 Mustangs that weren’t left stock; were they competitive on the streets and strips of Anytown USA? At least a handful of Ford dealers spent considerable time working the Boss for all it was worth, including Tasca Ford, Foulger Ford, Tom Larkin Ford, and the dealer who campaigned our particular feature car, Nelson Ekdahl Ford in Minneapolis.

According to Pete Peterson, the original driver of the Nelson Ekdahl Boss 429, the car was received by the dealer in May of 1969, and underwent immediate prep for drag strip use. Peterson was a dealership mechanic at the time, and was thus knee deep in the work to get the car ready. “We thought we were going to get some parts support from Ford, but it didn’t turn out that way. In the end, we had to go through the learning process of what worked on our own. The first time out at Minnesota Dragways, the NHRA officials didn’t know what class to put us in, as they had never seen a Boss 429. The first two weeks we ran in A/Modified Production, then we were re-classified and ran the rest of the season in Super Stock/F. Equipped with 7-inch slicks, 5.14 gears, custom headers, and a NASCAR cam sourced by our parts manager, we never lost a race in that class (SS/F).” Peterson says he recalls ETs being in the 11.80s at 118mph, and yet the effort with the big Boss lasted for just a single season. Nelson Ekdahl sold the car in November 1969 for $5,500, with Peterson explaining “with a young family on the way and on my mechanic’s pay, I didn’t have enough money at the time to buy it myself, but sure wish I had.”

1969 Boss 429 Mustangs were some of the most well-appointed musclecars of the era, all coming with the Interior Décor Group, high back bucket seats, floor console, rim-blow steering wheel, tachometer, and clock.

The interior of Leenstra’s Boss is mostly original, down to the quartet of Stewart Warner gauges that Peterson installed in the dash pad all those years ago. The Hurst shifter is also akin to what Peterson used to bang through the gears, though sans T-handle and line-loc.

From that point forward, the trail on this Boss goes quiet until around 2006, when a customer of Boss 302 enthusiast Randy Ream bought the car and brought it to Ream for restoration. “It was an odd duck when it arrived at my shop, wearing old and incorrect Grabber Blue paint and powered by a 428CJ. From the condition of the fuel in the tank, I’d guess it hadn’t been run in 15-20 years.”

While the customer acquired the parts, Ream dug in and stripped the car to the bone. “It was pretty clean at its core, and so the body and paint were straightforward. I had a local shop near me in Pennsylvania spray it in the factory Wimbledon White using PPG base/clear. Pete Peterson supplied us with some period photos and we duplicated the way they painted the hood in matte black—much like a Mach 1 or Boss 302 would’ve been.”

Ream emphasized using as many of the original parts of the Boss as possible, and with 20-some thousand miles showing on the odometer, many of the original parts were indeed salvageable. Of course that doesn’t hold true for the engine, since it was long gone for who knows how long? The current mill isn’t quite true to the car’s early Super Stock configuration, rather it’s a rowdier piece that was sourced from a NASCAR stash, including the block and heads—the latter with full hemispherical combustion chambers. Since dual quads weren’t available on a factory built Boss 429 Mustang, they weren’t allowed for Stock or SS class racing either, and yet the setup here seems a natural for a full boogie Hemi powerplant. Dawson Racing headers channel the spent fumes rearward, while forward motion is put in play with a proper big in/out Toploader and a 9-inch N-case rear featuring 4.30 gears.

Of course we’re used to seeing the blackout hood/cowl treatment on ’69 Mach 1s and Boss 302s, but Boss 429s weren’t privy to the same treatment originally. However vintage pictures show that the Nelson Ekdahl team added the blackout prior to going racing, and so it was duplicated during restoration.

Boss 429 enthusiast Bob Leenstra bought this car at auction in 2010, largely because of its unique and preserved racing provenance. Leenstra already owns a 135-series ’68 428CJ Mustang drag car, and figured the Boss would make for a great straight-line pairing. With the hard restoration work done, Leenstra put his own stamp on the effort by replacing the white lettered street rubber with a set of wheels and tires inspired by the original racing rolling stock. To that end, he opted for new American Racing TTOs, 15×5-inch up front and 15×7-inch in back. The rubber is likewise new but vintage in appearance, featuring 7.10-15 BFG Silvertowns and M&H 9.0/28.0-15 slicks. As they say, if looks could kill…

In an age when we don’t typically see Boss 429s restored to anything other than stock condition, the Nelson Ekdahl drag car is a rare and interesting sight. While it wasn’t a national level competitor, its history is clearly worth preserving and promoting, and we dig seeing it in its near-competition configuration. Like any street or strip warrior of the era, the factory delivered a combination which was just a starting point in the quest for going faster. Modifications could liberate untapped potential, and it’s here—rather than in stock form, that the Boss 429 Mustang began to be the animal it was predicted to be.

This is the way the Nelson Ekdahl Boss 429 appeared when it arrived for restoration at Randy Ream’s shop in 2006.

Driver/mechanic Pete Peterson launches at Minnesota Dragways against one of many 396 Camaros he competed against.

Sitting in the Nelson Ekdahl garage circa 1969, surrounded by Torinos.

The Boss 429 in NHRA Competition

We explained in the main text how a smattering of Ford dealers around the country tried their hand at developing the Boss 429 for hot street and strip use, with one of the more detailed efforts as follows. Hi-Performance CARS magazine ran an enlightening story in their 11/69 issue, reporting on a stock class Boss ‘9 campaigned out of Tom Larkin Ford in Flat Rock, Michigan. The story diagnosed some of the Boss ‘9s maladies, reporting sloppy blueprint specs, the mismatched S-motor juice cam, and a poorly functioning hoodscoop that actually hindered performance. In addition to common drag modifications such as spring and shock alterations, the Larkin Boss was fitted with 4.71 gears, JR headers, a full engine blueprint, and the T-motor solid lifter cam. These mods helped the Boss, running in B/Stock, to 12.09 at 118.21 on slicks, with more development still to come. The magazine mentioned the current B/S class record of 11.85 at 119 held by a ’67 427 Fairlane, so the effort seemed to be on a good track.

Interestingly, this same article explained the B/Stock classification was due to a NHRA 435 horsepower refactoring for Boss 429s with the T-motor solid cam, while at the same time dropping S-motor hydraulic cam cars to 370 horsepower (5 less than advertised) and a C/Stock assignment—where 428CJ cars were fierce competitors. CARS reported that the Larkin Boss picked up nearly half a second of ET by ditching the factory air cleaner assembly, the stock ram-air system proving so ineffective that it actually starved the engine for air. This was a real handicap in that NHRA rules didn’t allow for aftermarket designs, while other cars in class had effective scoops, not to mention more compression and carburetion, which was limited by class rules as well. In the end, it appears the Boss 429 Mustang fell victim to what it was: a hasty homologation effort to get the engine legalized for NASCAR racing. Had Ford devoted the time and effort to develop the Boss as a street or NHRA Stock and Super Stock competitor, there’s no telling what its credo could’ve been. Clearly the basis for a monster performer was in place—the supporting hardware sadly failed it.

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