All-Car Rally has perfect weather, good turnout

BELLE FOURCHE - Andy Demos couldn't smile enough about the turnout and the weather for the Center of the Nation All-Car Rally Friday and Saturday June 17 and 18, 2011, in Belle Fourche.

"It was a big jump from the first of this year," he said. "We didn't know if we were going to have a show."

"It was people, just people who worked hard to put it on," he said.

Demos has been with the show now for 24 years and already is involved in planning for next year's 25th annual rally.

He's the only committee member that has been involved from the beginning of the annual event, and stepped in as chairman when last year's leadership moved from the community.

The 120 cars was down from last year, he said, "but last year was an exceptional year."

This year's weather and relaxed atmosphere may help people plan in advance to make the 25th annual show a must-go on their calendars.

This year's committee leadership included vice chairman Doug Kraft, Misty Meyer as secretary and Laurel Turbiville as treasurer.

Demos said volunteers seemed to come from nowhere to help with different aspects of the show, and many didn't have cars on display.

Activities began Friday evening at Scott Peterson Motors where the Peterson crew sponsored a live band and a burnout demonstration.

Scott admitted with a grin that he picked up the skills of burning up tires and turning doughnuts when he was a teenager.

Although Hersruds of Belle Fourche, the second new car dealer in town, didn't seem as up front on the show as Petersons, even the manager had a 1968 Chevy on display that won Cass Heimbaugh a first place trophy.

"Even the police department sent one of its officers to all of our meetings to help make sure things would go smoothly," Demos said. "We just have a lot of people willing just to take care of things, and everybody did their part."

Demos said the crowd also surprised him since there were so many other top quality programs available throughout the Northern Hills. A PRCA rodeo in Sturgis, Wild Bill Days in Deadwood and baseball and softball throughout the area didn't stop an estimated more than 1,000 people from enjoying the activities.

Ladder Bars for 64 impala ss - Impala Tech

Two problems come to mind. First your Impala has coil springs so it moves side to side as it goes up and down causing the ladder bar to bind at it's pivot point. Second issue is a ladder bar even when used with leaf springs that do not move side to side will bind up if you run over a bump with one wheel, or it drops in a pot hole. You already have a three link (or possibly a four link if you have a high performance car) which is the optimal means of mounting your rear axle. The only thing that separates your factory four link from the one found under a Pro Stock race car is the race car four link is mounted solid with no bushings; only steel bearings (yours is mounted in soft spongy rubber), and your factory stock four link is fixed in it's mounting point (under a Pro Stock race car each mounting point has fourteen possible mounting points, instead of just one. That is how they adjust the car to each of the sixteen tracks they race upon). The problem with ladder bars is they add another point of rotation that the rear axle must be able to swing around or the suspension binds up as the ladder bar or the stock suspension gets in a bind (compressing or placing the suspension members in tension). To make a ladder bar work you have to remove the stock suspension members. This is what GM did on their GMC pick-up trucks and that NASCAR uses on all of their race cars. Hot Rod's From Hell sells a truck arm conversion kit for your car if you are serious about it.

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