History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Marty Strode...that is right. It was purchased late in 1968 after KS Pittman sold his fiberglass body chopped 1933 Willys to Harry Hall. The lettering was changed, but it was not repainted until 1969. In the first photo I posted above in post #53814, the car is shown at INDY in 1968 running BB/A because of the radical chop. Funny story, KS wanted to run AA/GS with all the other guys so he switched rides with Harry Hall and drove his old Willys. Harry drove the Austin "Football" and won BB/A.

 

Walker Brothers sedan, flathead powered, photo from the Norm Grudem collection...at Pomona, mid-50s


George Cerney's Chev-powered modified roadster, Lions




Tony Nancy at Bakersfield...take a moment to look at those cars in the background...this was real old-time drag racing.


From the Dave McClellan collection...before the candy red paint...has been perfectly recreated, as the original is still lost.


Red Greth in the Speed Sport car....according to Dean Lowe, Red can still make a Speed Sport scoop (I paid $25 for mine in '62, wish I had it today!!)


Dragmaster Hawaii at Inyokern


Dragmaster at Colorado, looks like Mickey Thompson's Pontiac in it....in the background, Heth and Thompson in the old Ivo car, which they bought from Zeuschel & Prudhomme after they sold it to run the Zeuschel, Fuller & Prudhomme car that won Bakersfield.

 

Does anyone know of any video footage of this 1965 event ? Or pictures of Mike Bambers $ilver Dollar Willys racing in it? Thanks

 

Yes, Red can still make you a Speed Sport scoop, but it will cost considerably more than $25!!!!

 

Dean do you a ballpark of what the scoop would run, sure would like to have one as a token to the Greek & Reds Speed Sport Roadster

Reds roadster & Geans fuel coupe were my all time fav's outside of the dragsters

DND

 

If you want it painted in Speed Sport orange with the white scallop it will run you around $450, and Red will sign it. They are out of the original mold.

 

Hey Dave,
Great capture of this photo of George Cerny's red roadster. It looks way better than the early version in 1959-60 at Lions. The roadster sounded good, looked good, but sputtered out just after the start line. George Cerny had to push the roadster off to the spectator's side to wait for his push truck. With the popularity of the Speed Sport Roadster, this one could have been the West Coast version. Sorry, I did not get another clip of it running.
Junji

 

Hey Don,
Here is a clip of the Speed Sport roadster for you...I took this clip at the 1959 Riverside Raceway "East vs West" meet and at the 1960 Bakersfield Smokers meet. It was the first time we had seen it in person and boy, were we impressed. The looks, the sound, and in motion, it was so impressive. For this young teenager, it could not be better than to get that sound ingrained into your head for those future memories. They even went against the yellow, Herbert Cams Special record holder FED at Riverside in one race. Enjoy...
Thanks,
Junji

 

Wow, another amazing video!...racing Hill Alcala in the old Creighton Hunter red flathead roadster at Bakersfield, then appears to beat Tony Waters blown Desoto.....what footage!..............Dave

 

Dave,
Here is an early, original, candy apple red paint on the Mazmanian Willys coupe at Lions in 1964. For such an old film that I took, I am still amazed that the color is relatively accurate. Big John Mazmanian at an All Gassers event at Lions Dragstrip in 1964. The race against the KS Pittman Willys did not run as the Pittman Willys had some shakes...
Junji

 

Don,
I just found this very short clip in the Riverside Raceway meet film in 1959. The Speed Sport Rroadster lines up against the Chizzler from Chicago. It should have been in the Speed Sport Roadster total clip...Sorry, I did not get the whole race.
Junji

 

Leal's car brand new and straight from Detroit before the orange and white California Flash paint job and Doug's headers.

Roo

 

This one for Ron Johnson's ChiZler recreation.

 

This photo looks as if it is from the US Nats and while the car still had Bones' blown small block under the hood.

Roo

 

Talking about the Speed Sport roadster at Bakersfield in 1960, you guys remember who Red raced in the final for middle eliminator? He lined up against Neil Leffler in the Leffler & Loukas Bantam coupe. Red had Neil covered on ET by bunch, but he snoozed on the line, and Neil got a jump on the flag and went on for the win. Neil's crew on the line got so excited they were jumping and hollering in the push truck so much one of them fell out as the truck took off! A couple years ago I asked Red what happened that day. Did he go to sleep? He said "yeah I used to do that a lot".

 

Dean,
Sorry, I did not film that particular race, but I did film the Leffler Bros Coupe at Bakersfield against Bill Colburn. At Lions and Bakersfield on their West Coast swing during 1959-60, the Leffler Brothers made believers out of all West Coast Comp Coupe fans. It was an impressive coupe to say the least…

Even though, Neil Leffler got a "California Stop" running start against the Colburn Glaze coupe at the 1960 Bakersfield Smokers Meet. Red light …? You be the judge… (The Lefflers moved to So Cal in 1960) Californians are known for their “California Stop” folklore when driving around town, but, this super-fast, record holding, transplanted, visitor, takes the cake…a win is a win?


If the Leffler Bros made the same kind of fast start against the Speed Sport Roadster, that would not have been good. Despite a…”sleeping on the line” statement by Red Greth. That little red roadster always made a fabulous run...despite the odds.

Junji

 

One thing about Neil's coupe that was all time cool he had a sign painted on the hinged roof panel

After the turnaround he would stop to let her warn up and open the roof panel

And it had on it ' Starter Not Ready ' then lower it and pull to the line and raise a little hell

Oh boy those were the day's of cool stuff !!!!!!!!!

DND

 

Roo, you're right, it's running BG/S with the blown Chevy...

 

Junji, I don't think that is Bill Coburn's coupe. The nose isn't right. Maybe Slim Sumner & Bert Mews? What do you think Dave?

 

It's Jerry Card, after he pulled the skirts off the wheel openings, you can tell also by the pointed nose...Bill Coburn had a grill in his nose.


Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Looking at the back of the fiat body, I see you are correct Dave. The pointed nose looks a lot like Paul Sutherland's coupe, but the rear of Paul's coupe had the full Simca "bubble butt".

 

Here is Jerry Card's coupe, and Bill Coburn's coupe... View attachment 3411717
You can see the pointed nose here

Here are a couple of pictures of Jerry Card's coupe, one after silver paint showing the pointed nose, and the other in primer, as in the video....also photo of Bill Coburn's coupe showing the grille in the nose:

 

Dave,
from the story that I wrote for Traditional Rod and Kulture a while back after some previously unpublished photos of the Maz Willys surfaced.

"With the change in format for this feature we start by profiling one of the most famous car/ owner/driver combinations in drag racing, the Big John Mazmanian Willys gasser. Prior to building the Willys, Maz had run a B/MSP '61 Corvette (the 93rd built that year) with an injected small block that was driven by his nephew Rich Siroonian. When Siroonian went into the army in 1963 Big John needed a driver and a way to beat his primary opposition, the Nick Marshall 58 Corvette driven by Robert “Bones” Balogh. The solution was to purchase Balogh's engine from the Marshall car and have him drive the candy Corvette. Mazmanian's car was a four speed up to that point and Bones was more comfortable with his B & M Hydro transmission so that went into the Vette as well. In late1962 with the /GS class cars' popularity at an all time high the duo put the motor out of the Corvette into a Willys and raced it through 1963, including a trip to Indy for the US Nationals . At the time the car was bright+ red and ran in B/GS with the Chevy.

Bones then convinced Big John that a Chrysler hemi would be the best motor to use to step up to A/GS despite the fact that the class leaders, primarily the Stone, Woods, Cook team, were running Oldsmobile engines. The small block (which Maz had paid Bones $500 for was sold to Bob Panella (for $2500) and Balogh proceeded to put together a stroker 392 for the car availing himself of good friend Ed Iskenderian's facility. The fact that S-W-C ran Jack Engle's cams may have also been a factor in Isky's support as this era marked the beginning of the legendary “cam wars” where the rival companies ran ads in Drag News and National Dragster every week boasting the latest accomplishments of the cars that they backed.

The motor that Balogh assembled checked in at 467 cubic inches via a Reath 5/8” stroker crank on which swung Don's boxed rods and Venolia pistons. A Milodon girdle kept everything in place and the short block was topped with Joe Mondello ported heads with Donovan valves as well as Donovan valve covers with the tall breathers and dragster style Donovan water filler necks. Isky supplied the hydraulic cam and the drive for the Van Luven 6-71 blower which was topped with a four port Hilborn injector fed from a Moon tank mounted ahead of the radiator. The Champion spark plugs were fired by a Vertex magneto while Don Long fabricated the headers and on Isky's dyno the motor cranked out 824 hp in that form.

A B&M hydrostick transmission passed the power to a Pontiac rear end with 4.30 gears. B&M's fabrication shop also installed the quarter elliptic springs that supported the rear. Up front was a Don Long fabricated tube axle on semi elliptic springs and Airheart disc brakes were fitted all around. Cal Automotive supplied the lightweight fiberglass components for the body and the finished product weighed in at 2865 lbs.

Initially the car ran polished Halibrand “kidney bean” wheels on the front and big windows at the rear as seen here but at various times it had wider unpolished rears and Cragar s/s fronts. The car made its debut in the original bright red but was soon repainted in the now well known candy red, although initially the lettering was in a crème/yellow and not the better known gold leaf that followed."

Roo

 

Roo,
"hydraulic cam"?