Nick Arias

[wyrmrider]

Nick Arias Celebration of Life is at NHRA Museum Pomona Fairgrounds CA Saturday Feb 4 at 10AM

[wyrmrider]

Back from the Arias celebration
about 400 there- room was packed
Old timer award goes to Ed Iskenderian at 96 Ed Looks Great but Ed also lost his and Nick's long time Wednesday luncher Big John last year
One speaker noted how Nick liked the sound of Al Teague's blown fuel hemi hitting 4th gear at Bonneville
Al and Jane (Speed-O-Motive) Teague were there.
Not too many from the old El Monte group

DCal was there
as was the In and Out truck
many Arias powered vehicles on display
first class event

[JoePorting]

Sorry I missed it. Sounded like a cool socal event.

[wyrmrider]

Maybe DCal can post something

I'll tell a little story from the Nick Arias memorial
I was talking with Isky about the time he gave us a replacement XM-3 Jag cam after we- OUR FAULT - did not reface the lifters properly-
It was one of those racing tomorrow at Santa Barbara Deals-
next week we collected a bundle of Jag cores and gave them to Him- he's never forgotten it and neither have I

Now with the jag we could advance and retard the cams individually - but if you retarded for the long straights you could not get out of the corner with the granny gear 4 speed in second
and vice versa- advance and run out of gas down the straight
Sometimes we used the XM-2 on the Intake with the XM-3 on the exhaust and later Isky came up with some better lobes
Remember the steel buttons about 1/4 inch thick you had to use to adjust the lash as the base circle was reduced- starting to do them on the V of the bench grinder steady rest with a dowel against the side of the wheel- later got a mag chuck grinder-

So we had Kenny Harmon there in Alhambra (Harmon Collins) make us a Billit intake. It had a stock base circle so we could use the stock Jag adjusters- the larger base circle allowed us to have a better lobe than the regrinds really pretty with the copper color from the hardening
But the Billit came through with lobes about twice as wide as the stock Jag-
and they hit on the Bucket- so we had to mill slots in the buckets- ended up working great- we told NOBODY what we had done
Still used the Isky in the Exhaust which was not very fussy

[engineguyBill]

Was hoping to make it out to Nick, Jr.'s memorial, but had schedule conflicts. Saw Ed Iskenderian at the PRI Show, he is like the Energizer Bunny . . . . . . . Dealt with Isky for many years, both as a customer and supplier and it is truely amazing that he remembers my name each time he sees me.

[wyrmrider]

Amazing that he drove to his birthday party up by lake Isabella- (Teachapi) Kern River area

[wyrmrider]

Donnie Johansen - was walking around in a HOWARDS CAMS T shirt
he has all his Dad's masters and is still grinding cams- he likes antiques - out at Chino Airport
I did not ask him about his brother
WE talked about the Albertson Olds car and How I consider Leonard Harris the best driver ever.
Twin Bears and Chet's dual engine car would go "Match Racing" to avoid Leonard
We talked about Colton dragstrip and the time an oil pump went out on one of the cars and the other car pulled their oil pump from their push Chevy PU. SMokey runs ensued but shut off early due to the bumpy strip and short end and no lights
Tower gives out amazing times- like 170 crowd cheers.
Put the PU back together and go spend the "winnings" on some dinner
Great rivalry
I saw Mickey Brown and Leonard get it at Lions, there was a third about that time but name escapes me.
Then Sorikian experimenting with slipper clutches at OCIR- Garlits was lucky
When Lefty took a tire to the head I quit going to the drags
I would like to see the twin bears run again but no interest in crawling under a PU to R&R oil pumps.

[bigjoe1]

I am 76 years old now-- How old are you ? You have a very good memory, by the way



JOE SHERMAN RACING

[wyrmrider]

Bout same as you Joe
I don't know about the memory
I saw so many people that I knew- or at least looked familiar but hard to come up with names
Isky gets away with "Hi Pal" but then he said my name, he was so good to us- making that .904 master for the Stage II motor
only .904 he had in the catalog for years
Then he just walked up to the front of the line at the In-N Out truck- good for him
I'll have to go down to the burger joint some Wednesday

Saw Ak Millers El Cabaio (sic) car with the olds- I bought one of the flatheads 4 carbs, Lucas ignition put into my 53 business coupe w OD and 4:11s quick car I asked about his home ground cam (rigged up grinder) he said It's got lots of lift (pause) and (pause) lots of duration That's the way I met Navarro- His heads I think it was 308 but can't really remember, I never had to tear it down

[bigjoe1]

VERY COOL ! I know Isky too. He stops by my shop once in a while. He just never seems to get older like the rest of us.


JOE SHERMAN RACING

[DCal]

I was at the celebration and one of my goals was to meet Wyrmrider but I got so caught up in revisiting old friends that it just didn't happen. Like him I saw many people that looked familiar but I wasn't sure, some of them I hadn't seen since 1990. Spent much time with the Arias family who seemed in good spirits which made it easier to talk about old times. Even though I'm the competition ( CP-Carrillo) I've always been welcomed at Arias whenever I was in town and we often ate at Al's Broadway with Isky and numerous others. Nick used to like to say " those Calvert boys used to sweep the floor at my place" Indeed we learned a lot from our friend and boss.
One of my favorite memories was pulling into the parking lot and seeing an OffShore boat, 2 midgets, a Sprint car and two Blown alky hydros, one with an 8.3 Arias Hemi and the other with an Alan Root/Arias and was so pleased for Nick to have been able to live out his dream and for me to be right in the thick of it all.
God Speed Nick-you did do it your way.