Jon Dunchack tipped us off to a great site detailing the history o...<P><P>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
what I loved was Max and his wife would drive to the track. kick some *** then drive it back home again, much like the early lakes cars. I'm sure the trailers came later. I've ridden in a couple cars that had nailheads built by Max and they were killer tire fryers, both bone stock on the outside a 48 Merc and a 55 buick four door hardtop. the smiles come back just thinking about it
i watched a show about him and the car on speed or the history channel....neat car....and a neat guy....brandon
Awesome. I had the chance to meet Ernie Nagamatsu and his wife at the Monterey Historics. He is an incredibly nice guy. Both he and his wife were more than happy to chat and discuss the car. They explained how they are having small things done to bring pieces back to original and were adamant about not "over-restoring" it. He also introduced me to Bill Krause who was driving it some that day. I left the visit feeling that it is in very good hands, won't be ruined and won't become a trailer queen.
Obviously Ol' Yeller has been a successful race car. In spite of that, the front fenders, especially, appear as though they would create a good deal of lift. One can't necessarily tell by looking. I wonder if lift from the fenders of this and other similarly fendered cars is ever a problem, and if so, how is it defeated.
Yes, lift can be a big problem. But most builders of that time didnt know that yet ( or how to solve it ) Jim Hall had some different fronts on his first ( front Engined ) Chapparal's and one of them gave a lot of lift. Once they "cracked the code", everything started to go real quick. And Jim Hall, and then later Colin Chapman ( Lotus ) started to put wings on their racers. The cool thing about these early Wings was that they fed the downforce directly into the unsprung part of the rear suspension. That way the aerodynamic load did not affect the rideheight at speed, and the springrates of the racers did not need to be changed. Really much more elegant than the later, non moving, ch***is mounted wings. But they broke and crashed a lot of cars, so they got outlawed...
Metalshapes posted most of the pictures I had.. in fact the first one is me in the car.. I'll see if I have any more. Might even have some footage of it from that race.
I took my Graham grille to a guy in Venutra off of Ventura Ave. to get repaired, I could not afford his estimate so had to sadly p***. While there he said do you recognize this car, I did not. Buick nail head six jugs, lots of junk yard parts. He told me it was Old Yeller. Pardon my ignorance but I did not know anything about it, but was amazed at use of parts. An ***umption on my part as to being 1 as why would 2 be being rebuilt.
Off Topic; here is a Balchowsky intake I acquired for a hot rod I built 3 years ago powered by a 425 nailhead.... Not the best picture....
in case you wanted to go vintage racing in style or something.... http://www.prewarcar.com/pre1966/show_postwar_car.asp?car_id=9422
I love the white walls. Does it get anymore "I'm an American and don't care who knows it"? Talk about ******* off the teabaggers. -Dave
Hollywood Graham, thanks for the reply. Since you mentioned the Buick and six jugs the car you saw can only be Mk II. Mk I currently is Chevy powered as ran by Eric Hauser. Mk II is as described. Mk III is Buick with a 4bbl, currently. Mk IV was Buick and is destroyed. Mk V was Corvette powered. Mk VI is Pontiac. Mk VII is Chevy. Mk VIII is Chevy. Mk IX was originally Ford, now Buick with Webers.
Bigcheese327, re. Whitewalls. Max ran them as the currently available race tires were too hard. Not many knew or were concerned about tire choice. Max found some reject station wagon tires that could not be sold and tested them with a durameter. The fact they were whitewall only served to increase his legend status a****st the "tea bagger's" he ran up against at the prestigious events he entered his '32 Ford in. This was carried through to his later series of specials known as Ol Yellers.
So they were initially picked up by accident but became his trademark? Interesting, Brock Yates left that first part out of his book on Duffy Livingstone's car. -Dave
farmcal, re. BuFord... This car is long lost since Max started on the Specials known as Ol Yellers. He was constantly badgered about it's history and where-abouts up to his p***ing. If any can remember, Ted was it's best test driver and maybe even more famous than Max.
Bigcheese 327 re. Whitewalls. The whitewalls became a trademark but not by accident. Max was an extremely shrewd and resourceful character that many never took the time to understand. Still, up to this day, this fact is quite overlooked. He was after any advantage and the fact they were available and better then what he could buy only (if in fact he would have paid good money for them) all the better.
fur biscuit, re. "so to pry and be nosey which one are you intimately involved with?" That can't be answered so easily without writing an article about it. In fact there are and will be articles coming. I am intimately involved with all of them. Been so since '95 when I uncovered the last original ch***is left intact and touched by his hand.
Allright...That narrows it down a bit... Do you have any Info that could help me to restore my Morgensen Special?
Hello, you must be A.McK. The only info on that ch***is is what R.C. has sent you. He is extremely knowledgeable about Morgensen. Much more so then me. Max thought the world of Morgensen and never mentioned that there could be another ch***is like the Mk I made by him to me. Not to say there wasn't a chance he built two. I just don't know. RC and I would love to see the car one day if we could.
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