History Stock-S/S-F/X 1959-1966

I believe circa 1978..

Gary

 

Jole,
The '58 "Stone Crusher" was owned by the Rotunda Bros. of Bellville or Newark NJ. I remember that car well.The original "Stone Crusher" was a '62 Impala 409 owned by Frank Mizer of Nutley.

 

That was Frank Mizer you are referring to.It was a white 409 Impala named "Stone Crusher"(the first and original Stone Crusher from the area) A bunch of us got taken in to Bellville Police HQ one night while watching him race a 409 powered 32 Ford owned by a guy named Campanello(he later went on to race funny cars.) There is a long story(too long for this thread) that goes along with this incident. They were going to charge us with inticing a drag race, but settled on issuing tickets for more common infractions.

 

Bob, I knew Frank very well after he moved to Englishtown. He tried to set the MPH record at Indy in '63 by zig-zagging his way down the track, but the officials caught on.

 

I have a shot or two of the Stone Crusher '58 gasser, yes Rotunda's car. The Mizer connection I'd never heard of. Hopefully we can dredge up some images of the car and others. One of these days I'll post one up on the Drag Cars In Motion thread.
Joel

 

Hammer Time,
Any idea whose cars these were originally? Joel

 

Race Artist,
Back when I took these I knew everybody in these classes...But I have been away from the drag scene for a looog time. Hopefully most of these have the names on the car. Most shots are from Bandimere's in Denver. NHRA has sucked most of the fun from stock and super stock. I was building a new car but just sold it. Going back to the street rod world....more fun
Gary

 

Bob37,yeah ,that's the name Frank not Johnny.When I was about 14 years old Mizer took me and a brother of one of Mizer's friends ride in his new 409 car,we almost wet ourselfs with excitment!
My friend's brother hung out with Mizer for awhile.A few times we all went over to a place in Bloomfield right off that little divided highway than ran sorta parallel to the Garden State Parkway, it was called Passiac Ave in Nutley.I believe it was a old barn or house where they worked on cars.I remember a guy named York who had a supposedly fast Pontiac.
I knew a few guys in the Clifton -Patterson area running some nasty cars,can't remeber their names of course.

 

The Brainbeau Olds in tech line at the '67 S/S Nationals Cecil Co., MD.
Joel

 

Super Super Stock. A 406 Ford and a 409 Chevy go at it at Flemington, NJ in the summer of 1962.
Joel

 

I can't recall where this was ... is it Dover Dragway ... don't think so ... ? A typical street car that ran in the lower classes in '61-2-3.
Joel

 

is this 442 the same car???

 

Steve
I found the picture of the Pasadena Dodge that I told you I would post. I guess I can't post it like I thought. The forum says it is too big and no matter how small I make it still wont post.
Send me a private message with your e mail and I will send it to you and maybe you can post it.
Larry



Larry

 

Sorry, I don't know. Anyone?
Joel

 

Pics were taken in the early 70's. Yes, it was originally a 409 car. I have had two small blocks in it (327 w/400 Turbo first, then a 350 with same trans) and eventually did put a 409/4 speed back into it (still there, too). My wife hates that I posted them with her on the trunk, hey, my car, my camera, my wife - LOL. I really wish I'd taken more photos with a better camera. At the time these were taken, it had no engine, trans or even a third member in the rear housing. It had 'Barton's Transmissions' on both quarters, 'Mary Lou' on the roof above each door, and other lettering I don't recall. Apparently I got it just before they put it back on the strip. The white pinstriping was neat. The wife copied all of it on paper, but that was lost in a move. The car also had white 1964 Impala bucket seats and rear seat. It now how has seats from a 67 Impala - bench seat. Even in the 70's these old parts were tough to find. After a few years, photography became a hobby and i took black and white photos as i worked on it. I painted it white along the way.

It was raced in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in the 60's at Forest Hill dragstrip and Kennedale as well. I also drove it to the last Super Chevy held at Green Valley Raceway in Fort Worth.

Anyway, here are more:

 

Forgot to post this one, the "Red Bullet" 1961 Bel Air, purchased locally new in 1961 and raced right from the start at Connecticut Dragway. It is still owned/raced by the same guy and puts out over 700hp beleive it or not. Runs times in the high 11's burning through 3rd gear. Probably one of the best sounding cars I've ever heard.
-Dean

 

Yea I fell for thier line again...several years ago they announced the new SS class, SS/AH. Just the '68 race hemi darts and cudas. Also had 4 or 5 Hemi shootouts at the nationals around the country. Same time. Their was a bunch of interest from some big money.

Also Michael Ogburn (West Coast Hemi fame) had some kind of deal to do even more of the shoot outs on TV. I don't know all of the details of this deal but remember this was when Pinks was just going. This would have been Pinks with class. This would have brought huge money and interest.
I sold a couple of irreplaceable wing cars in anticipation, and bought boat loads of "stuff". As a machine shop owner I really thought that this had the makings of a bunch of new cars and parts (good for me).
But NHRA wouldn't let the deal through Dont know the details but you can bet they wanted all of the money
Gary

 

This was a neat old wagon...needed a little help with the lettering...but cool

 

There isn't any racing done right today, IMO. super stockers are tube chassis car that wouldn't have been legal in pro stock until NHRA looked the other way for Jenkins so a Chevy could win something.
I recently saw something about some outlaw real four speed class like early modified production or pro stock, and it looked real good until I got to the bottom and it said, don't worry , no cubic inch to wieght, it will run off an index! What garbage.
Racing ought to be cubic inch to wieght. Then just limit the overall cfm at the carb (s) and go racing. But what to I know?

 

I'm not sure how they did it but I think those kind of Tempests had a 4 speed transmission but somehow they ran it through the torque converter which was located in the back of the car at the differential. Royal Oaks Pontiac had a couple of them. They were factory engineers, I think, that ran the cars .. Anybody know about this would be interesting .. I'm going off of memory that is 67 years old and nearly 50 years since the event ..

 

No shit Axel ... lol ... all of us "been there done that" .. Got rid of what would be outta sight now .. !! ..

 

Now that's funny. As I remember he was quite a character. Is he still around?

 

I don't recall the guy named York, but I knew a lot of the guys from the area. Frank used to hang out with Joe Alterizo from Clifton. Joe ran a '61 Biscayne 409 called the Little Caboose(I posted a shot of the car awhile back in this thread) and that's how I met him. The night we were taken to police hq with Frank he did a burn-out behind the police car that was taking us in! That really pissed them off!Then he parked the car in front of the entrance to the police station and revved the open piped 409 to break their chops! He was something else that Frank.