Tunachuckers Can-O'-Blog

In poker, there's something known as "The Slow Play".  Basically, it's the opposite of bluffing: in the slow play, you have a strong hand, a tremendous hand, nigh unbeatable, and you attempt to downplay your hand to keep other players (who presumably have weaker hands than yours, and will lose to you) in the hand, betting, raising, and seeing.  Then you crush them with the awesomenicity of your Royal Flush or 4-of-a-kind or whatnot.  (Tuna Note: I am not, nor have I ever been, a professional gambler, or even a marginal gambler, so if my terminology or description is off a bit, please, bite me.)

Earlier this week, I was accused of slow-playing on the LeMons forum when, within the course of a couple of a few posts, I boasted about the hot 460 Big Block I'd found in a '68 Continental, then bemoaned the knocking noise the engine made when we first fired it up, saying we were going to stick with our lowly 400M engine...and then, magically, announced we'd diagnosed the noise to a simple faulty water pump, and the 460 plan was back on.

As sneaky, underhanded, and conniving as that play-out sounds, it's all true.  This weekend the gang came over and we confirmed that yes, we are going forward with the scheme for excessive displacement.  Here' s an ersatz-timelapse video of Saturday:

I even figured out how to embed video!  Horray!

Next weekend, the engine swap continues.  We'll be roughly doubling the horsepower available to the rear wheels in the LTD Landau, and there's a good chance we'll have, in the process, the most powerful car at the race in March.  Of course, it'll also likely be the worst handling car there, with the worst brakes.  And it'll undoubtedly be the heaviest car there, too.  In short, this is possibly the most profoundly perfect plan ever conceived.