Old Race Car found. HAMB Historians please help...

Man, I hope some good info comes your way on this little weapon! Sure would be nice to see it in action way back then. Glad a guy with a clear vision ended up buying it or it may have become a...dune buggy or worse! These cars are an almost forgotten segment of Hot Rod history that COULD be more fun than just about any other body style IMHO.

An honest to god SPECIAL...not a Modified (Although I love them too!) or a bucket but a hand fabbed backyard, corner burnin' Racecar! WITH licence plates, if you want!
It'd be going on the street if I had it...but SOLO would be almost as good with a little less hassle...
Damn! The MALLOCK...the Roadster...now this?
I think that much fun for one guy should be outlawed you lucky dawg! Hahaha

This is an incredible vehicle for new NOSTALGIC tech articles too.
EG..That chassis, with just a few diagonals added, would have torsional and beam rigidity that a ladder frame could only dream of...yet its made from cheap, easily welded thin wall tube! Best part is you can make them accurately by using a "plywood bulkhead" building form that you cut apart later to remove...and just think of the safety you have sitting down inside that frame compared to a flimsy T bucket body... These are seriously capable vehicles folks!
Gonna watch this REAL close!

Keep us posted Alex.

Bill

 

I know dragging up old posts from the past is frowned upon, but I was wondering if there was a part 2 to this story....

Alex, did you find out any more history?
Has any progress been made in bringing it back to life?

 

I've been wondering the same thing ... Haven't seen much since looking at the Ol' Yeller / Lion's special over lays ...

Love to know what she is ... and how the build is going ....

 

Man, I thought I'd have it on the road by now...

But I keep finding out more about it, and every time I'm happy I havent started yet.

This is the history as far as I can tell ( with the help of Race Car Historians that have really helped me a lot.)


Dick Morgensen built a Plymouth powered Special in 1954.
He later swapped a Nailhead into it, and after Margaret Pritchard crashed it ( She died in the crash ), the car went to Max Balchowski.
That Car became Old Yeller #1.

That is not my car...

My car was also built by Morgensen and Boyd Hough ( a fabricator who was famous for his welding ), and at about the same time.

The car was raced by Tracy Bird ( who later became one of the organisers of the SCCA in the southwest )
He entered the car as a Mercedes, because it had a straight 6 out of a Adenauer Mercedes Benz in it.
The car was two tone Purple & Black.

Later the car showed up in a ad in MotoRacing.


MotoRacing August 23-30, 1957 pg 11
Vol. 2 - No.22
Sacrifice $1350 DM Special ready to race.
Sister to Morgensen's special. Running
Mercedes 300S engine & 4 sp box. Class
winner. Plenty of room for a big V-8.
Lots of spares. Open to offers.
Dave Crane 3302 East Montevista,
Phoenix, Ariz.
BRidge 5-3215

What happened to it after that, I still dont know...

But it did get a V8 at some point because some of the Chassis tubes are modified.

So I plan to restore it with a Nailhead mated to a Jag XK120 gearbox, because that is what the sistercar had ( the '54 Morgensen Spl, which later bacame OY 1)
And the same group of guys also built a Drag race Special ( there was a class for Sportscars back then ) which I'm told, also had a Jag gearbox

I'm still trying to find good pics of the car, and sofar I've only found one ( not good enough quality to post)

If anybody can help me with more Info, I would really appriciate it....


Attached pic is of the Drag Car...

 

Let em frown, I wasn't aware of this post but it's interesting.

Obviously not the same chassis but quite similar, I wonder if this was the inspiration. HRM 11-62

 

Thanks for bringing up this old thread,very interesting.Seeing that it originated in the Boston area,i'll check through some photos my dad has from Watkins Glen opening weekend.You never know?

 

No, it didn't originate there.

It was built in the Phoenix area ( where I found it ).

The guy I bought it from said that it had been in the Boston area.
This may be good info, or maybe its not...

I've tried several times for him to get me in touch with the guy he got it from, but he doesnt seem to be interested.

I even offered to pay him for his time and/or for the info...


Also, I reread my old post...
The Chassis is not Muffler Moly.

Its Chromemoly, Gaswelded together by Boyd Hough...

 

If it was in the Boston area, it must have been brought back later
( maybe by somebody that lived in the Phoenix area earlyer )

If you have a chance to look at old Photo's
it would have looked a lot like the '54 Morgensen Special in its earlyest versions.

Cycle front fenders, bobbed Chevy Truck rear fenders, headlights in the grille ( the mounts for those are still on the Chassis...)

Attached pic is of the '54 Morgensen Special...

 

Man am I jealous !...cool,cool, cool ....

Great that you have found that much history .. Saw you had it on Tam's site..
I 'll keep my eyes open as I cruz all my old mags ...

I found my "starter" Special .. 55' ish Victress C-3 roadster on a 120 Jag chassis ... Don't have any history, other than it was "suppose " to have had track time ?? .. even still, I can't wait to get her on the tarmac .... shooting for next year...

 

Very cool

When you do get started dont forget to keep us posted.

 

Absolutely...

When I start working on it, I'll post all the progress.


Here is a link to Tams Old Racecar site.

Its on the mystery car page...

http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/AlexMorgSpecial1.html

 

A Nailhead is all very well, but how cool and unique would it be to find an old 300 Benz motor and box and tweak it up a bit...


There were over 12,000 of the W186, W188 and W189 cars built between 1951 and 1952, so maybe finding one wouldn't be as hard as you might think.
[Bracing myself for a flaming!]

 

yeah, I have thought about doing that...

But it would be a much more expensive engine to race ( 'cause this car needs to get back on the Track... )
From what I've heard about it, it was heavy and down on power.

The Nailhead seems like a good choice, because thats what was in the Sistercar ( before that one was converted to a SBC...)

 

That would be slick to run the MB ... but the Buick could be spendie enough ..

I had thought of something more "interesting" .. but Dollar to HP/weight I think I'll stick with the small block that's in her .. for now ...

 

I put a mock up SBC engine in it before I knew what it was.

I have a Nailhead for it now...
And a 6 deuce intake ( six 97's are going to be pretty expensive...),
and a Cook Adaptor to mount a Chevy tranny ( I will probably have to modify that for a Jag Tranny.)
I got a radiator out of a early '50s Chevy and its a perfect fit ,
a nice old 4 spoke steering wheel,
King Bee headlights, the same taillights as Morgensen used on the '54,
Chevy Truck rear fenders,etc...

A lot of HAMBers have helped me with parts already...

 

I just found this thread........... wow! What a find, and digging thru all that history is, for me, quite fascinating!
I certainly don't have any info on this chassis, but looking forward to your progress!

Maybe see you at Wild West March 3rd for the open house deal? I'll be dropping the '50 off to get painted that afternoon. ( There's food involved, you know I'm there! )

 

You know, chalk this up to pure ignornance on my part, but looking at the old pics, I can't help but wonder if this car may have raced with Jim Hall's Chapparals years ago?

 

Man that will be a great combo ... should run like hell ...
Since I don't have a firm history ... I'm going to run in that 55' ta 60' era .. think thats were mine was run ...
283 w/ Hilborn and a mag, T-10, Jag rear end and hunt a quick change down the road ....

 

Cool...

Lets get these cars on the track, and we'll race...


BTW, I hope you'll post about your build on the HAMB as well...

 

These cars were called "Specials" in their day. There is a Trend or Fawcett one-shot which is all about Specials from all over the country.

 

Alex, do you have Vintage Motorsport magazine #5 1992? It has a two page spread on the Morgensen Special, with 3 good pics.

 

No, I dont have that one.

But I have the Road Racing Specials book by Vintage Motorsport.

Might be the same, but I'll go look for that issue to be sure...

Thanks for the info.

 

It might be the same thing, if VM released it. This was a special, run over several issues called Road Racing Specials, and written by Dean Batchelor. Covered all the low volume specials from the '50s through to the Cobra Daytona's, including Ol' Yellers, Cunninghams, Ken Miles specials, Scarabs etc etc, and all the lesser knowns. My scanner has dropped dead on me, but I'll purchase another one soon, so can scan it for you if needed.

 

man those cars look fun!

 

Those fifties specials, along with the English Lotus Seven provided a lot of my inspiration.

I second finding a Benz engine, but a near visual duplicate is the Datsun 240-260-280Z inline six. I think the Datsun engineers must have dissected more than a few Mercedes powerplants.

 

I think there is a vintage branch of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) some of the "historians" there may be of help. I'll throw the name Allard into the guessing pot.

 

These threads are the type that make this forum great. Have you checked the Vintage sports car drivers association web site and links page?http://www.vscda.org/links.html . I've hung out at some events and the knowledge of the history exists within these people.
Did you ever make contact with Economacki or Yates? Best of luck on your project.

 

If you're still using the 9" I sold you in this car, I think that means I
get the first burnout..

 

I think that it is a build it yourself frame too, the alot of Devin sports cars were on this type of frame. A guy in Deleware made a car called the D-Mar and its frame is very much like this - except narrowed. It runs a 57 or 58 Corvette mill in it, a totally awsome car.

I know they used to sell a car body like this to drag with too, I think there were some pics in RJ a couple issues ago (I'd know which one but I don't have them at work).

Good luck with it! I'm jealous too. You could also do something like the old Kurtis cars that could be cool.

Best.

 

Managed to miss a page of info (again). Sorry if my post didn't add anything. I am glad someone started adding to this thread again though, cause it is a cool car.