Historical Tech - The Filthy Forty of Charlie Hill!

Charlie Hill’s Filthy Forty may be arguably the most famous unblown 40 Willys g***er in history. Charlie Hill was the owner, Pork Zartman was the driver, and Larry Roberts was the crew chief. C/G was the cl*** of choice and the famous S&S Parts Co. was the sponsor.



In 1961 Hill found the car in McSherrytown, PA and paid the princely sum of $400, then drove it home. The engine was a SBC 283 equiped with JE Pistons and Crane Engineering heads and Isky cam resulting in a 14:1 compression ratio! The fuel was squirted by Hilborn port fuel injection and a Vertex magneto supplied the spark. The ****** was a 58 Borg-Warner 4speed hooked to a Halibrang quick-change sporting 6.58 gears. This setup was turning 9500rpms in the traps!




The interior was gutted and replaced with aluminum panels and floor boards with a pair of fibergl*** bucket seats. The paint was just a few coats of dark grey primer as Charlie could care less about its appearance as long as it ran like a ****d ape!!!



A combination of superior performance, remarkably ugly and dirty appearance, and the constant presence of numerous characters in the large group, made this car legendary.




The car was NHRA National Record Holder in 1962, 1963, and 1964 as well as Eastern Drag News record holder in 1964. It was the holder of Low E.T and Top Speed for C/G in 1962 (12.57) - and 1963 (11.95) at the NHRA Nationals. Pork Zartman drove the Willys to the C/G win at the NHRA Nationals in 1963 after a devastating loss in 1962 due to a radiator cap falling off and flooding the engine.



The car was sold to some racers from Wisconsin in 1965. Unfortunatly, it is reported that Charlie Hills filthy forty Willys was destroyed in race related incidents. If anyone has any additional info or pictures please feel free to add to this post.

 

i love that car. been a fan ever since i got g***er wars. good post...

 

I saw it run several times at Capitol raceway park and York US 30. It was always one of my favorites. The claim was if you can beat it...I'll wash it. It didn't get washed much. I liked the racing stripe. The sum***** would come out of the hole!!

 

Tommy, or anyone else, I think I remember a story about the '40 loosing it's flywheel at York. Came off at the starting line, bounced off the track and went through the roof of the timing shack. Can you confirm? Wish I had wayback machine!

 

It is one of my favorites as well - I wish I could have seen her run.

An unblown 283 SBC running in the low 12's to high 11's...Amazing!

 

I understand that it was never washed when Charlie Hill had it. Might just be legend though.

$400 was a lot of money for a Willys in 1961 though I would happily pay that today.

9500 at the top end? Crazy! I would like to hear that. Those starters and photographers in the first picture were taking a chance weren't they? Too bad such a great car met such a sad end.

 

I too am a fan of this car and it's history. Thanks for posting and sharing.

Wish we had a audio file to enjoy-- hearing that SBC lighten em up at 9500 rpm!!

-scott noteboom

 

You can find a full feature on Charlie's car in the March '64 Hot Rod Magazine. Best time to date of the feature was 11.67 @ 116.50. With a 283....and his claim was that he would PAINT the car if it began losing. It was never painted by him.

Mutt

 

I, too have fond memories of seeing this car at York.
I also remember someone had a either this car or one of it's iterations on the streets of Gettysburg one summer. It had a locker in it and they could barely park the thing. The local cops weren't too fond of it so it didn't stay long.

And yes, they did wind it up!

 

I have a pic that my dad took around 62. Door was taken off the car. Kinda looks to be on display at a show. It's indoors. I know there were a few shows held at the Gurnsey Barn in Pa. Could be from there.

 

That's a metal front end too.

 

There's another C/Gas Willys coupe worth mentioning. It belonged to Al Tschida from the Twin Cities and won the cl*** at the '64 Indy Nationals. The car survives just a few miles from here.

 

God, I love those green pages! Anyone with owl's eyes, can you read the tag on the dash to the left of the steering column?

 

I've never heard that story but I'd be very skeptical. The flywheels that I've heard of failing exploded into smaller pieces. One piece came up through the floor bending the 56 Chevy dash board up into a hump. In the other case pieces came out through the side of a 62 Corvette.

 

Yes Tingler that article does say rear disc brakes!!

Imagine that...

Obviously he didn't lose very often from the lack of wash jobs.

 

40 years later and those numbers are still impressive!

Pork is still attending most g***er reunion events these days.

 

and maybe someday moooony will get that willys back to its original (drag mode) condition.

dave even got to meet Al tschida about 1 year ago and talked about the car, Al is building a clone to it i hear.

jeff

 

I wouldn't bet on Mooney doing anything.... He gets off on collecting the stuff.

 

I can get you any info you want. A friend does lunch with Pork just about every day. They get lunch every weekday at a small bar close by. Been there a couple of times. Bugged them about what happened to the car. They confirmed it's long gone.

I'd love to recreate the car.
Clark

 

disc brakes were around just expensive.you could spend 250-300 bucks and no one thought they were better than drums. same thing when radial tires came out in the early 60's no one wanted them. heard all kinds of stories about shredding them at 120mph

 

Hi: Pork Zartman here.The pic your Dad has was taken at the Guernsey Pavillion in Lancaster. Bill Holtz of the Lancaster Car Club (Cam Jammers I think) had car shows there and we were participants........The girls in the car (if you have that picture) is Jerry Gilbert of the Lancaster area

 

Zartie
Welcome to the H.A.M.B.
Fill free to tell all your racing stories and post all your old pictures (I know, you were too busy to take pictures, Been there wish I had.)

****

 

Welcome to the HAMB Zartie. It's good to have you here. Any stories you would like to tell would be greatly appreciated. IGOR please post the picture with the girls!!

 

WELCOME! Now I know how my 65 reacts with its 14 to 1 289. but it doesn't have a stick yet and only 4.11's....WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO DRIVE THAT THING???

 

DAMN!!!!

Willys G***er Legends!!!!!

Welcome zartie!!!!!

I feel privilaged to have seen that car run

 

I was a friend, neighbor and helper on Al Tschida's C/Gas Chevy & Willys and remember very well that the Hill & Zartman Willys was the baddest C/G***er at the Nationals. I believe someone from the Larry Teeter family has been on the HAMB. Always liked his Vicky g***er. Two of my all time favorite Midwest g***ers were Mike Marinoff's blown '55 Chevy 4 speed car and Palmer Lazerus. If any of you Milwaukee/Chicago HAMB guys have good pics or stories about them, it would be cool to start a thread.
Al Tschida is working on his clone Willys and it is coming along nicely. I can tell you it won't be a C/Gas car; more cubes and way more HP!
Sorry to cut in on the Hill & Zartman discussion, but you Ohio G***er guys ruled back then and I thought I'd get a good word in for some of the other boys.

 

I wore my Filthy Forty shirt yesterday! I hear they used to park it deep in the middle of the mud so other racers wouldn't peek under the hood and steal secrets! It also kept away those annoying fans from asking too many questions...ha ha ha..

Spike

 

Zartie, welcome to the HAMB. Isn't the filthy forty the car that lost it's flywheel at the starting line and sent it into the timing tower at York?

 

here she is at Vargo Dragway, love those wheels up shots!
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