We Haven't Had A Good Car Thread In A While...........My '67 Chevelle

ebb said:
Nick told that when they took the car to Detroit to Ramchargers to get the motor. The guys that built the motor wanted to install it. Nick said not to far into the installation one of the wrench twisters broke off a coarse bolt in a hole that had fine threads. Nick found a piece of tail pipe with a cherry bomb muffler on the end and chased the mech. around the shop till Ollie and Pete tackled him. They drug him out to the truck and headed for a strip club. Pete called the shop and told them to have the motor in and running by morning, he didn't care what it cost. Nick said if my head wasn't throbbing I would have found the tailpipe and finish the job, but I was in no condition to do any thing but moan. Latter in the day they arrived at a track and started to set the car up, he said it was worth it cause it was fast.
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Yeah, road trips can be eventful. Sometimes we would travel as a group when going to a big meet in So. Cal. We always stayed in the cheapest place near the track. Some of these places left a little to be desired. Everyone towed in open trailers but we never had any problems with vandalism....maybe we were just lucky. One time I made a comment on how well dressed the ladies were. My best friend Bob, who at that time was a cop, informed me they were hookers.....duh! The next night a pimp who knew why we were there offered us some "go fast". We were all laughing because he didn't know Bob was a cop. He left without ever knowing. We were giving Bob a bad time for not flashing his badge and his response was to moon us.

On another trip that I missed, there was a chalk line in the parking lot that had outlined the victim of a homicide. As a reference to a time and place it was later called "The Chalk Line Motel".
 
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Never saw Ivo's four Buick run in person Jackie, but I've seen pictures. Talk about tire smoke. I did see the car in person however at Garlits' museum. I took a bunch of close-up pictures. I'll post them here once I dig them out.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
My 66 SS 396 and 66 Vet

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Jackie

These are old photos. The Vet is still in the family.....my son has it.

Mort
 
Exhibition Race Cars

I think the earliest drag race exhibition car was Art Arfons "Green Monster".It was powered by an Allison aircraft engine. The dragster is in the photos I posted from Half Moon Bay. He later went to a jet powered car.

Mort
 
High School Hot Rod

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The 33/34 5 window was built with the help of his father. The engine is an early Olds...the inboard pistons shared the same exhaust port.
 
The 55 at Fremont

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My son is pointing to the number 8 on the window. It was the 8th car in D/G to go over the scales that moring...could have been afew more later but don't remember.

You had to weigh in because Altereds, Modified Sports and Coup/sedans were classed on weight per cu. in. These Gas Classes ran from A to F in Coup/sedan. You could run any size engine you wanted but you had to make the required weight. A Big Block could run in my class (D/G) but you would have to weigh two tons or more. A typical size engine for D/G used a 283 or 327. My cleaned up 327 measured 331 cu. in. A good combo was a 327 block with a 283 crank. 301.6 or 302 cu.in. was a real screamer.

Mort
 

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dmort said:
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My son is pointing to the number 8 on the window. It was the 8th car in D/G to go over the scales that moring...could have been afew more later but don't remember.

You had to weigh in because Altereds, Modified Sports and Coup/sedans were classed on weight per cu. in. These Gas Classes ran from A to F in Coup/sedan. You could run any size engine you wanted but you had to make the required weight. A Big Block could run in my class (D/G) but you would have to weigh two tons or more. A typical size engine for D/G used a 283 or 327. My cleaned up 327 measured 331 cu. in. A good combo was a 327 block with a 283 crank. 301.6 or 302 cu.in. was a real screamer.

Mort
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One of my favorite classes of the late 50’s and ‘60’s were the gassers. At the old Houston International RacePark there was a fairly large contingent of them. My favorite was a 55 yellow Chevy all decked out in gasser dress, straight axel, traction bars extending half way to the front, riding high. His engine was like the one you described. A 301 with “fuelie” heads, solid cam, twin four barrels, that thing would rev to 8000 rpm.

The car was named “Lemonade”. Old Hands would sit on the line, rev that thing up like a die grinder, and dump the clutch. Then all heck would break loose.

Those were the days!
 
jackie schmidt said:
...........................Old Hands would sit on the line, rev that thing up like a die grinder, and dump the clutch. Then all heck would break loose.

Those were the days!
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That's a nice turn of phrase there Jackie. Reads like a Pratchett line....
 
I was never a racer but here is where used to go to watch the races back in the 60's. Opened in 1950 by a policeman to get the kids off the street and to have a safe place to race. Re-opened in 2006 to honor some of the old folks who used to race there and it is still open today.

https://youtu.be/Wn3Jd3aO7OU
 
jackie schmidt said:
One of my favorite classes of the late 50’s and ‘60’s were the gassers. At the old Houston International RacePark there was a fairly large contingent of them. My favorite was a 55 yellow Chevy all decked out in gasser dress, straight axel, traction bars extending half way to the front, riding high. His engine was like the one you described. A 301 with “fuelie” heads, solid cam, twin four barrels, that thing would rev to 8000 rpm.

The car was named “Lemonade”. Old Hands would sit on the line, rev that thing up like a die grinder, and dump the clutch. Then all heck would break loose.

Those were the days!
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s
There are meets today that reflect drag racing in the sixties. The best is from the (Southeast Gassers) and can be found on YouTube.

The rules are from the NHRA rule book from the mid-sixties. No new speed equipment that wasn't available then, no electronics and stick shift only.

It is the only one I bother watching. Check it out...some good drivers.

Mort
 
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Louis.J said:
I was never a racer but here is where used to go to watch the races back in the 60's. Opened in 1950 by a policeman to get the kids off the street and to have a safe place to race. Re-opened in 2006 to honor some of the old folks who used to race there and it is still open today.

https://youtu.be/Wn3Jd3aO7OU
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Nice video Louis.
Half Moon use to have a flag starter. It can be a risky job.

Track prep was minimal (sweep and kitty litter for oil) and no burn box. You can walk on a prepared track today and it will suck your shoes off. We would have been faster with todays track conditions, but we would just break more parts which was already an issue.

Didn't know you liked racing....Good to hear from you.

Mort
 
High School Racing

Nice program they have going...didn't know some schools were dropping auto shop. What a shame.

Panella Trucking used to run a gasser. An Anglia I think.

Mort
 
Sadly allot of our junior and high school metal, wood and auto shops were converted into computer labs just as soon as each of the existing shop teachers retired. I worked for our local school district for a bit over fifteen years and some of those shop class rooms were ones that I remodeled into becoming nee computer labs. Kids just don't have the same opportunity to enjoy those shop classes anymore out my way. When in high school we used to create and pour metal sand castings in metal shop and I think it safe to say that furnace all though still there has not been turned on in well over 30 plus years. I have been retired now for a bit over nine years I just recently heard our last machine shop was closed and all of the machines headed are headed to auctioned off. What's really sad before I left I had to approve two new CNC Mills a couple of the shop teachers wanted to purchase and I don't believe either one was ever used. I know where one of those Mills went that metal shop was turned into a little black box theater and all of the shop equipment was removed. That was well within it just being a bit over a year when that new CNC Mill was delivered, wired for use and then shortly after being auctioned off.
 
39 Plymouth

A friend found this old Plymouth. Runs great. Running boards aren't even rusted out.
 

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39 Plymouth

Nice find...like the old rims with original paint. My 40 Ford has wooden floorboards but are easy to replace.


Mort
 
My Old Gasser

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My Gasser at Bakersfield. It was owned by Shawn Steele who went with a 350 small block and replaced the Olds/Pontiac rear with a 9 inch Ford. The slower gassers were dead and many moved to Bracket Racing to keep going.

Shawn ran a 10:90 index which was heads up and did it with my often rebuilt 4 speed. I ran into Shawn at Sacramento Raceway a few years later and he had sold the car.

The photo was taken by Steve Reys who also took pictures at Fremont Dragstrip. I would never spend the $25. for the picture and here the car ends up on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine....you just never know.

Mort
 
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Old Cars Wood Parts

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The firewall on the 40 is gloss black and some areas are picking up reflected light from the floor. It looks a little strange but you can still see the wooden floorboards....these are just plywood.

No I'm not sleeping....working on the steering.

Mort
 
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