Eight years ago, Dave Norby stumbled upon his ‘73 Dodge Charger in a huge Chicago car consignment building. From across the room, he knew he wanted that bright yellow Charger, a 400 tunnel ram with two four barrels and an automatic transmission. He rebuilt the first motor twice, wrecked a second motor and then put in a 500 cu.in. motor and a five-speed manual transmission. “It just wasn’t an automatic!” Dave explained.
“Some days I wanted to sell it – for the right money – but the right money would be more than anyone would pay!” Dave declared with a chuckle.
Dave didn’t personally work on his car, preferring to have people who are experts do it. John Holthaus from Fountain who has a shop in Canton fine-tuned the Charger. It had backfiring issues when carbon would build up; Holthaus managed to get rid of the issues for Norby.
When asked what he enjoys most about the Charger, Norby quickly answered, “The power; the adrenaline!”
Dave enters his cars in car shows and goes on cruises and drives occasionally – when he doesn’t have truck pulls. He enjoys visiting with people who are on the same page as he is about cars.
Dave has a dream car that he’d really like to own. His dream car is a 1977 Trans Am with a t-top, four speed 455 with 600 horsepower. It would be black with gold trim. So far he’s not been able to find one yet and he knows he wouldn’t be able to afford it if he did find one!
Norby has sold several of his cars lately. He sold his 1980 Chevy Camaro t-top four-speed to a buyer, and the car ended up in the Twin Cities. He also sold the 1941 Plymouth which Judge Benson had originally owned and sold to Dave. The ‘41 Plymouth with suicide doors was declared “unmolested” by a purchaser from Florida.
For Dave, truck pulls take priority over most other activities. Dave has a 2005 Chevy Colorado; he declared he’d give up his Charger for a bigger motor for his truck. A new motor to keep up with the competition is not in the budget though. Dave had pulled trucks before, but sold his truck in 2010. When his son got the truck pulling passion at the end of last year, Dave got back into truck pulling as well.
Dave’s truck is a super stock 1000 plus horsepower, 530 cubic inch,V8 with a four barrel. When you talk about mileage for the 1000 plus horsepower truck, you’re talking gallons per mile. Dave admitted the truck is not economical! The truck uses two gallons of racing fuel (at $15 per gallon) to travel 300 feet!
Norby belongs to the TriState Truck and Tractor Pullers Club. He often goes to “brush pulls” which are open to anyone, in addition to the pulls he enters through the club. What is the attraction to the sport for Dave? What else – according to Dave, the adrenaline rush is unexplainable!
Dave has other hobbies as well. Riding his Harley, kayaking, and driving his rock bouncer on trails with steep rocky areas. Jordy Graham of Rushford Village built the rock bouncer for Dave from the first pipe to completely finished and ready to drive. Graham has built between 14 and 17 rock bouncers so far. Dave rides on trails in private parks near Kasson, Lake City and Eau Claire.
Dave and his girlfriend Karla Martin also travel to the Ozarks for both kayaking and riding the rock bouncer. There are some parks that are around 1,000 acres there. Karla goes with Dave to all the shows, rides, and truck pulls. She loves the action and has the same interests as Dave.
Dave and Karla are currently building their own cabin in southern Missouri. They are building it almost entirely themselves. Between the two of them they carried the 16-foot logs for the main structure. They did have two or three guys help them when they were working on the main structure; the guys fastened the logs in place while Dave and Karla brought the logs to the cabin.
The cabin will be totally off the grid. Both the refrigerator and the freezer will be solar powered. Since they have been paying for materials as they go, they will have no mortgage when they get their home completed.
While some people slow down and take it easy after retirement, Dave, who recently turned his tree service over to his son, has no plans of slowing down. Once their house in Harmony is sold, Karla and Dave plan to move to their cabin in Missouri. There they will take full advantage of all those adrenaline-inducing sports that Dave’s cars, truck, rock bouncer and kayak will provide in the Ozarks.
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