History Davis ~ Ingram Jewel "T" AA / Altered ... Lotsa Pics!!!

dlammes (er @slammed),

Sydlexia (er dyslexia) is a terrible disease! ...

As for "working them keyboard's" ... it's not work if you enjoy it! ... and I couldn't have done it without my friend "Google" ... and without the power of the the H.A.M.B., I wouldn't have made contact with the Walraven's or Alan Ingram!

Stay tuned ...

32Hemi (er @HEMI32)

 

Wes remembers,
I was barely 20 when I teamed up with the late Joe Davis one of the nations top 10 drivers at the time with an incredible win record. I was hell-bent on setting national records (we had at least 5) and I always built cars that would also be show stoppers. You could do that in drag racing since the cars only ran 1320 feet per race and the remainder of the time you were in the pits surrounded by race fans. It was a different world, a bit glamorous, cameras, big magazine articles and good looking women. Between races you had to learn to wrench, solve problems and get back to the starting line, sometimes with seconds to spare in spite of all the distraction in the pits.
Wes Ingram


barely 20 and built that gem......geez <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

I wonder where it is today...

Sam

 

Stumbled upon yet another cool pic of the Jewel "T" on Bill Dunlap's "Golden Age of Drag Racing" webpage ... a Steve Reyes B&W photo taken @ the Salinas Drag Strip:

​

 

I've been told by more than one HAMBer that there is some nice color footage of the Jewel "T" somewhere in the middle third of a Jackson Brothers "Altered" video.

Anybody have an idea which Jackson Bros. video? ... I'd like to purchase a new or used copy of the VHS or DVD (if still available).

 

You will find it at the CHRR...there is a guy there that has all the drag DVD's.

 

It's the Jackson Bros video called "Bad Boy Altereds". I have watched my copy probably 500+ times. No lie.

 

@I Drag ... Thanks ... I knew if I kept bumping this thread I'd get the answer:

​

... the power of the H.A.M.B.!

@Royalshifter ... Cya @ the CHRR on Saturday ... can't wait to see the "Tex III" Willys in person ... now get some sleep ... you've got doors to install tomorrow!

 

Thanks for the work. Thanks for sharing and saving some history. I love it.

 

How as the car able to set all the records in what were essentially very different types of cars; BB/gas dragster, AA/comp dragster, and AA-BB/altered? Was it simply adding and talking away weight?

 

Any Jackson Bros. videos are worth watching. The altered vids are amazing as are the gasser files.

 

What a cool post....seeing all sorts of stuff that were forgotten in my memory.....really a special era.
Skot

 

Agreed ... so here's a short video clip (from their "BAD BOY ALTEREDS" video) of the Jewel "T" in
action @ Fremont Raceway:

​

NOTE: Disregard the voice-over stating "let's take a look at some of the famous double-A Altereds of the 1970's" ... this footage was obviously taken in 1967 or 1968.

 

@beatnik posted a total of four pics of the Jewel "T" in the Show us your altereds!!!! thread ... a couple photos from the 1967 Car Craft magazine article … and these two that I have never seen before:

​

 

Kool pic.

 

Beautiful car, too bad the chances of it being found are few and far between...

 

Only my humble opinion, but the ABSOLUTE best drag racing I ever attended was when they had the "Funny Car vs Fuel Altered" show at Irwindale!!! Drag racing today can't hold a candle to the AA/FA shows at lions, Irrwindale, Orange County or anywhere else they were running! Fuel Altered FOREVER!!!!!

Wolf

 

Agreed ... but the Jewel "T" was not a Fuel Altered ... she ran on Gas.

 

I am glad to see some stories about Joe Davis. Joe was the paint supervisor at the Ford San Jose assembly plant and I was an engineer and worked with him. Later Joe moved into quality control. We became good friends and talked a lot about his racing exploits. I drove a Buick powered Willys to work every day and got a lot of static at ford about it. I wanted to buy a new mustang at the ford employee deal but they told me the only thing I could get on discount was a 4 door 6 cyl falcon. The first production run of mustangs were 6 cylinders, Joe was at the Fremont drag strip and someone ran one in about K stock. Everybody stopped to watch it run. Joe said if a car gets that much interest He had to build a race car mustang. Everyday at the factory Quality control would take a welded up body and take it apart with an air chisel to do the weld test. Joe asked if he could have the scrap tin and ford said no way. Joe bought the mustang skin pieces from a local dealer's crash book and put the body together and dropped it on the Fiat. He tried to get ford sponsorship and again NO WAY The Chevy dealer in San Jose had been sponsoring him by giving him a deal on parts. He told the dealer he was running a Mustang body on the Fiat. The dealer asked if he still ran the Chevy engine. Joe said he couldn't afford to build a ford engine for it. The Chevy was still in it. The dealer told him they could have an new set of the latest Chevy racing aluminum heads for free if he would put letters on the side a foot high saying "powered by 327 cu in Chevrolet. They lettered the car with the Chevy sponsorship. Colt 45 was one of the fastest cars off the line. Other drivers would protest that he jumped; switch lanes and the colt would still beat them. The Secret. no I won't have to kill you. Joe was at a track one time and asked the timing light engineer how the system worked and said that he wanted to be able to fix a set of lights if the tech rep was not there. Joe discovered that on the old design system you did NOT get a red light until the electric eye was broken then the beam HIT the elect eye receiver the second time when it passed thru the spokes. Joe’s first step was to run solid wheels or moon disc's so the entire wheel had to go thru the light' not just the tire on a set of spokes. He used wheelie bars to keep the wheels in the lights. Joe's next step was to adjust the front end so one wheel ran thru the light then the other. It looked weird with one wheel out in front of the other. That gave him a couple feet of jump over the spoke wheels everybody else was still running. He said that jump off the line was worth at least 20 feet at the finish line. People would look at the car and say that looks Funny. Joe would reply didn't you see me get upside down. I don't think he ever crashed. The colt didn't get upside down but it was a good story. He would say he didn't have big bucks sponsors, had kids that need braces, and he needed to do a college fund for his kids so he just had to keep screwing with the chassis so it would go straight at 150 miles per hour... the competitors said he was crazy to drive a crashed car that was that far whacked out. A lot of the big name racers used to put their cars back on the trailer when he showed up... they did not want to get beat
...Jewel T as mentioned it was ahead of the competition. Adjustable rear suspension when everyone else was running a solid set up, battery and starter Joe use to coat the castors on the wheelie bars with shoe polish, do a burn off the line and check the shoe polish on the track and adjust the suspension. Most other racers had to be push started. One time his competitor jumped off the line when staging then killed it and had to get a push start. The guy figured Joe would set there with the engine running and overheat. Joe knew what he was doing and backed up and shut down. When the other guy got push started and back to the line Joe used the starter to fire up then jumped across the line and turned it off and motioned for his crew to come out and push him back to the line... they wasted enough time so the other guy overheated. Joe used the starter to fire up and easily won. The other guy’s engine started to detonate. I see in one of the picture they have a disc in one of the front wheels... I thought the lights were redesigned by then. Maybe not all the tracks had the new design lights. Joe sold the T said It was getting too expensive without major sponsorship after it was stolen Joe saw the engine in another car and called the FBI They asked him if it was his and when he said he had sold the car they weren’t interested in following up on it.

 

@cgaswillys posted this cool "laundry-out" pic of the Jewel "T" in the Show us your altereds!!!! thread:

from the 1970 NHRA North East Division Annual​

 

Found yet another Bob Wenzelburger (@NHRANUT) B&W photo taken in 1968 @ Fremont Raceway:

​

 

Here is a story for you. I was road racing at Sears Point in the early 1990s and you may know him , Rich Goodrich GT-4 Alfa was pitted next to me. I was racing my Opel GT GT-4 car. So Rich introduces me to you Dad, " This is Wes Ingram ", " Nice to meet you, Wes, the only Ingram I know use to drag race a AA/A called Jewel T, any relation " ? ''That was my car " ! WOW, small world ! Tell your Dad Hi-ya

 

Roger (@riceman) ... I have a similar (but different) story ...

In addition to Hot Rods, I also own a 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider.

In 1980, I joined the Alfa Romeo Association of Northern California car club ... and receive the monthly club newsletter entitled "The Overheard Cams".

Starting with the October 1992 issue of "Cams", a gentleman by the name of "Wes Ingram" (from Madera, CA) was listed as the club's Technical Advisor for SPICA FI equipped Alfas ... In July of 1993, Wes moved to Seattle ... but has continued to be the club's SPICA Fuel Injection expert.

So ... as you probably have already guessed ... from October '92 to August '08 (when I started this thread) I never, ever made the connection that "Alfa Romeo Wes Ingram" was the Wes Ingram of Jewel "T" fame

Like you said ... it is a small world!

 

The shot of the Jewel T running against "Cheating" Chico Breschini (spelling?) brings back fond memories. The race was at Salinas, CA and we had just installed a 1/2" stroker (500c.i.) engine. The throws of the crankshaft were hitting the bottoms of the cylinder skirts so we ground them out and managed to grind through to the water jacket. I was working as an engineer in the DoD enviroment and found a "new" metal filled epoxy. We put tape over the holes we made in the bottom of the cylinder skirts , rolled the engine over on an engine stand and poured the metal epoxy in until it plugged the holes.

We had set it up with the track announcer that when Chico pushed off in his A Dragster to start up for our match race I would run out waving my arms, pointing at a silver cylinder on Chico's chassis. The announcer say's Oh, Oh, looks like "Cheating Chico" has been caught "Cheating" again. The crowd roared. They loved it.

Long story short, we blew the doors off Chico that day but we were always the best of friends. I don't recall Chico ever actually cheating at any race but he had a way of Psycin' his competition into making a mistake and beating him, just like he did at the Tulsa Worlds Finals in 1967.

Jim Walraven

PS,
The 500 C.I. engine was sold to a drag boat guy and he put it in a Sangor hull which he set new drag boat world records.

 

@JewelT (Jim) ... glad to see you (finally) posting here! ... Welcome to the H.A.M.B.!

That's a great story about the stroker and about "Cheating" Chico Breschini ... I'm sure the HAMB community would enjoy hearing more Jewel T and/or '60s-'70s Drag Racing stories (I know that I would) ... please keep 'em coming!

 

I agree....thanks!

that is one of my favorite cars and I love reading the old stories.

 

here's a pic that I found in a bunch of old photos I bought.

1939fiat

 

Welcome Alan, and thankyou to all of you here for all the neat pics !!! that vid was the best! I remember as a little kid going to Fremont with my brother and family and seeing the purple fiat. I loved that car. we moved to Ks about 65 so I never saw the "T" run. Good times I will never forget. Lippy

 

Cool story, welcome to the HAMB.

 

These guys always had the best looking cars. The record books prove that a lot of thought went into each project before a wrench was ever turned. Very inspirational to me. Thanks so much for posting!