Looks to me like a slight difference. Close tho`. The car in the bottom pic seems to be lacking the vanes in the cove. Different year maybe? Thanks for posting the pics Baron, I was looking for a Maz` pic but I was a little slower. LOL
You could have a point Baron. The rollbar throws me a curve as well. I thought like Tn Trash that the cutouts could be a bit different in height but not sure on that either. It is a head scratcher.
The difference in the wheel cutouts could be because of different size wheels maybe 16x10 versus 15x10 and could also be a difference in tire height. I believe that some of those roll bars were bolted in and even if it wasn't it could have been cut out. Tn. Trash brings up a good point about the veins in the coves, is that a difference between the 1961 and 1962 Corvettes? Also are there any other ways to distinguish the two years by these pictures? Also can anyone see what the lettering on the car says? One more interesting side note is that the Mazmanian Willys was painted a similar red color before being painted the Candy Persimmon color that he was known for. We can see the red color in this picture taken in 1963.
Doug the 61 had bars on the side whereas the 62 only had crossed flags (unless it was a fuelie and then it had one bar under the crossed flags that said fuel injection). Jason I believe both cars in the pics appear to be 61s and I believe the spears are in the cove. If not they are easily removed. The headlight rings are chrome which was on the 58-60s but not 61s or 62s which were body color. If they are not the same car they look very similar. You could be right on the roll bar. Here is a pic with a different shade-closer to persimmon I believe than the later color (although it could be the photograph and distortion of color). I like the black 62 in the pic with 6 tail lights.
That is very early for 6 tail lights and the Mazmanian car appears to have 6 too. I have been digging around and found some talk about the black car but you already know about it. Some people thought that it was the Mike Lenke car but people in the know said that it belonged to Bob Mandel. I am just repeating what I read and unfortunately have no first hand knowledge. The black car is definitely a looker.
Jason the second pic (blown) is the Carol Yenter Corvette (I believe 1959 model). I am pretty sure it had several different engines and drivetrains and ran in Modified Sports and early FC. In this pic which is around 67 it had a blown Chrysler, I believe. The earlier pic with the 62 that ran in Modified sports I am not sure. I have corresponded with Bert Brown who owns a 61 that competed at that time (and whose VIN is only 1# away from Mazmanian's 61) and he was quite sure that the Lenke car ran in the stock class (sports as opposed to modified sports). Somewhere I may have a picture of the Lenke car as per Bert (see below). Bert's 61 fuelie was the 62 Winternats winner in B/Sp (Grassman Osterman, Nicholson Wade entry-tuned by Nicholson/Wade). The cool thing about the 62 Winternats was that after class winners ran in street eliminator (heads up) there were Mazmanian's 61, the Grassman Osterman 61 and Earl Wade in Lenke's Corvette and street eliminator was won by Wade. Would be cool to go back and watch those cars run heads up, including Hayden Proffitt in his A/FX 62 tempest with a 421,that I believe lost to the Grassman/ Osterman 61 earlier in the street eliminator rounds. Here is the Grassman Osterman car with Proffitt in the 62 Tempest. This is Earl Wade in front of Nelson's entry that he tuned for the 62 Winternats, This is Lenke I believe racing Bill Shimzer's 58 Chevy in the finals for street eliminator which was won by Lenke (with Earl Wade driving) . Then here is Mazmanians 61 prior to cutting the wheelwells.
Jason, I believe the black 62 in the pits with the Mazmanian picture above may be Lenke's 62, later in the year after they cut the wheelwells of course. You are correct that Mazmanians car had 6 tail lights.
I believe that is the Yenter Corvette, in most pictures that I have seen it is missing the front emblem. It was an amazing time and I would have loved to have seen these historic cars race. All excuses and speculation was negated by heads up racing.
Do you have any idea who this is? This one has been posted before but it's a great looking car from the same time frame.
Jason, the top photo I thought I made a note on that car but cannot think clearly on the history. The second car is Skip Hess's 1962 called Wildabeast. I wish I could have seen these guys race as well. Just a few years before my time and a few miles away. What I think is cool is that the 61 you posted above and Mazmanian's 61 came down the line together and both became successful drag cars.
I am crazy about the Wildabeast. It is interesting that those cars are only 2 serial numbers apart and we're both such strong runners. Do you have any information or pictures of the 1957 corvette that was owned by Ernie Porter and was said to have run 130 mph in the late 50s. That is amazing especially that early on.
Jason , I made some corrections to my above post on Lenke's Corvette. I posted that after working on my project last night and did not consult my notes which apparently I should do. Trying to get to sleep last night I started thinking the post was wrong. I have in my notes that Bert Brown said Wade drove Lenke's black 62 in the finals and won in street eliminator and Bert felt the above picture with the 58 Chevy was the finals, and shows Wade in the 62 with the jump. He felt the picture of Wade with the trophy was a promotional shot and that Wade tuned that car (59?) but did not drive it. Sorry for the errors. As to Porter I may have a picture and not know it as I have a few pics. One pic that MAY be the Porter car is below. That car was tuned by Wade but may have been owned by Porter. Not sure on that and have ?? marks in my notes, so going out on a limb there. Also Wildabeast in one of my favorites and when I did my avatar car I thought of going with the similar scoop (as my air cleaner sticks through the hood now-I have a BBC and the carb is really close to the hood) but decided against it. I have people ask me at local events if I copied Mazmanian's car (as my car is candy apple red) and I say maybe a little but maybe a little like Wildabeast and they look at me sideways. How could one not like Wildabeast as pictured below (which I have posted before but please forgive me as it is one of my favorite pics) Here is the 57 tuned by Wade, not sure if this is Porter's car-possibly. Skip Hess in Wildabeast
No problem on the corrections Jim. I am glad to get the information and there aren't many people that can fill in the blanks. I wonder if Skip Hess is the one involved in the Shores and Hess Anglia later on. If so I think that a friend of mine might know him. I wonder if there are any vintage racing magazines from that time that have a little more information and more pictures of these cars and races. Here is another picture from that time frame with the same names on the 57 and the other car looks like the Wildabeast or early Mazmanian I also have to post a picture of the Grassman Osterman Nickleson and Wade Corvette today after its restoration today. It is an outstanding car. The owner is a Hamb member and posted about it. This and the Mazmanian car are the early drag vettes that have survived and are about like they were. It makes sense that these cars were both factory fuelies because they were both bought to race. I like the Magnesium Lemans wheels on the Grassman Osterman car.
Here is a picture from 1961, this seems pretty early for a blown corvette and it looks they took the windshield off to save weight. Someone that I know was running a 57 corvette in the sports modified class and they bumped him to another class because he removed the windshield to save weight, so he came back the next week with a little plexiglas windshield. They didn't like it much but he ran in the Sports Modified class again.
Jason the picture you posted of the 57 in the right lane with Maz in the left lane in Dick Taylor, who Bert believed was a dentist in Pasadena, a hotbed where much of this good stuff was occurring. Bert also related that Mazmanian bought his car from Ernie Porter Chevrolet in Pasadena and drove it straight to Service Chevrolet where Nicholson and Wade worked at the time and had them "make it go faster". According to Bert who occasionally posts here, the picture of Wade holding the trophy was a Champion Spark Plug ad photo op in front of Reggie Nelson's C/Sp Corvette, You will note below H. Nelson as the C/Sp winner, so Reggie may have been his go to name-a guess. Bert said that Earl was most proud of beating KS Pittman in his C/GS Willys in the street eliminator racing. According to the stats below you can see that Pittman was a bit faster (12.10) than Wade (12.44) for their class wins but in the eliminator rounds Earl apparently caught Pittman napping. A "stock" (A/SP) 62 Vette (327/360 fuelie) running 12.44 at 112.07 is pretty decent for its day or not bad even today in the same form. With Wade's driving and ability to most likely cut a good light it was flat out cool that a stock car went through that level of competition heads up for the win. Bert says the handicap starts came some time after this time. Note also that Dean Lowe ran some good numbers himself in B/SR. No wonder he would like to have that car back. 62 Winternats results
Man I love getting all this history from people that were there to see it, or at least most of it. A big thank you to everybody for sharing the stuff the happend before I was brought into this world.
Got any pictures? I pretty much grew up at the stardust raceway in the late sixties till closing.so sad. Anyway I'm sure I saw it,cant remember it off the top of my head but sounds cool. yruhot,Doug
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