PROJECT CAR STORY

Everybody's got one. This is Mark Young's.

Story by: Ro McGonegal
Photos by: John Parsons

           The Story. It isn’t just one episode. Nor is it short. It absolutely chronicles your life during that comically protracted event called the Project Car Period. Some people, indeed entire families, could well be towing the project car barge for most of their lives. What you begin sowing today won’t mature until many years hence.

            This is a battle that you will have to wage personally, and in this battle, you will need all the allies you can muster. Of course, the closer they are to you, the hairier it gets. As a car builder on a budget, you must also become a diplomat, a huckster, a hot rodder, a scrounger, a good father, and you must never, ever forget those important birthdays or anniversaries. If momma’s happy, then the world’s got nothing to worry about, right?

            You’d also do well to seek the council and advice of a senior tinker (or two) sotted in the hot rodding/high performance game. His experience, his talent, and the silent movies running in his head are priceless information that isn’t in books or folders or bulletins. He’s lived it. He’s eaten it. But he doesn’t want to die with it. He needs to tell you things. He needs to show you things.

            Your true friends will out. They are indispensable and without these warm creatures, your ride is liable to be very late. They back you up. They encourage you. They lend you money. You buy them beer. They work all night. They leave their blood and sweat on the car. They tell you to calm the eff down even though you’re ready to wing a hammer through the garage door. They can do cool stuff that you weren’t even aware of. We’re not sure if this is exactly how Mark Young did it, but the script is viable.

            Friend Gary Neff, familiar to the Pro Touring and drag racing enclaves, smiled on Mark, told him the why and how of engine building, in this case a classic small-block. In the process, Mark met east Tennessee sage 82-year old Herman Heaton at the Blount Machine Shop in Alcoa. Herman could well be the east coast’s equal of west coast crankshaft grinding legend Gene Ohly.