Historical Tech - The Filthy Forty of Charlie Hill!

Dave,
Thank you for posting all of this great information. That's a picture of the filthy after being chopped that we hadn't seen. It's still very sad to the both of us that the car is no more. It's a good thing that we know all of you so you can fill us in.
Gasser Girl

 

bttp

 

Did the car have a 427 SOHC "Cammer" in it when Ford powered? I see it says "Hemi Ford" on the fender. That leaves either a cammer or a boss 429.

 

It was running B/Gas so it must've had some inches. Do you have any numbers that it ran?

 

PhotoBucket is your friend ...

Nice to see all of you old farts show up

Chuck

 

troublemaker and OJ

Sorry I don't know track times for the car at that point. I would guess it was a Cammer......I don't think the Boss 429 came out until 1969 and the car was back in Pa. by then.

 

Hey Dave, I found my dads old B/G
'56 a couple years ago and am restoring it also with the intent of racing it
again so I have to add some of the "updated" safety items. I know your restored car (bitchen by the way) has the old style roll bar and such, any
ways, aren't you ever tempted to race that car again like the good ol days, say at the Thompson Reunion or some of the HAMB drags. It always seems to be kind of a shame all these cool old gassers are restored to their former glory, but still "put out to pastor" so to speak. Just wandering and thanks for you and Zart sharing the old stories, remember even if you guys get tired of retelling them we never get tired of hearing them. There is a big revival of old school gassers going on and we all need your input/experiences. Thanks again, Ric.

 

One more photo......York US30 Dragway 1964

The "Pork or Larry" on the door referred to Larry Roberts, the crew chief, who would drive if Pork was unavailable. Pork had just opened up a restaurant in his hometown of Hanover, Pa. and sometimes had to stay home and "tend to business".

 

Well how 'bout that!!! The photo thing worked......

I guess you can teach an old racer a new trick!!!!!

Thanks Chuck and Wanda.....

 

Hi Ric,

I know the feeling "out to pasture"....I am retired now, so I don't mind if my old car is retired too.

Seriously, that is a good question and there were a lot or reasons to go either way. The bottom line is this. Running the car again (and doing it right) would have required major upgrades in many areas, to the point that the car would have been nowhere near what it was originally. Secondly, since it is the only known S&S gasser still in existence from the period, the decision became even more difficult to modify it. And finally, when the car resurfaced in the late 1990's, it was still very much intact. The original steel body, rear fenders, and deck lid was all there as well as the original Hill-Zartman fiberglass, frame, roll bar, floors, firewall, dash, gauges, seats and even the original upolstery was all there and restorable. The decision was made to find exact duplicates of all the running gear pieces that were long gone, and put it back the way it was. It was a very sentimental journey for me but great fun!!

By the way, Ftroop's father, Tom Timoszyk, was the man that found the car and bought it at Carlise, Pa. swap meet in the 90's. He allowed me to buy it from him and he helped find many of the old parts needed for the restoration. A good friend and a great family!! They have more Willys than the law should allow!

Hope that answers your question. Have fun with your Dad's old car.....I have been following the story.

Hey, this is a Filthy Forty thread.....anybody got any more photos or stories??????

 

A perfect and completely understandable answer. I saw the article they did on the Timoszky Family Willys, and your right! They must all carry horseshoes in their back pockets. I know what ya mean by having so many of the original parts that it makes the car even more sentimental. I hope that more guys will build era correct cars to race so we can live and you and the other "old salts" can relive the drags they way they were.

 

cc

 

I seem to remember something about Charlie Hill's first Dirty Thirty was a 4 door....Anybody know ???
Allen Wrench

 

The back cover of Bid Ed's Speed shop 1963 catalog.



Notice the shoe polish B/GS in this picture. We went to York US30 one Friday night and it blew sky high. Massive failure. The next night at Capitol Raceway Park...there it was with the shoe polish class change. They swapped engines over night and went racing. I doubt that this is a picture from that event but it did run different classes.

 

Hey Dave.., will ya unretire your racing helmet for
a recreation of your '55 Chevy?

 

anybody have any pics of the old Fred Hurst Willys

 

Here's one.....1964 NATIONALS at Indy.....Pontiac powered at the time.

 

Back to the Filthy Forty stuff......anybody else??????

 

There was talk back a couple pages about a willys blowing a flywheel.

I believe that was Ron Hassel. I seem to remember his B/G doing that at

Quaker City dragway, it cut the frame and half the body away.

Can't remember the date.

I love the Filthy Forty, I even built a model of it. I seen it run at Dragway 42

in 1963, I believe.

R.E.W.

 

The car was indeed destroyed. The car was rolled at maple grove in a finish line accident. The car was taken to charlie hills garage and stripped. Pork himself can verify this as he is the one that told us. It's too bad that such a piece of history was lost.
Gasser Girl

 

Hey Zartie, last night I was drooling in my "Gasser Wars" book by Larry Davis that you loaned many pics to. I
noticed that many of the ones you shared were from Bakersfield in the
early to mid 60's. I was wandering if you have any of this car which ran
there from '62-'66 or '67. We runner-upped to Fred Tiexierra's Willys in
B/G at the '65 or '66 race. Thanks Ric.

 

no we never lost a flywheel although we had quite a time keeping clutch/pp/disc asemblies together for any lklength of time. We eventually used a 60lb wheel and cluth/pp from E&R from Chicago (Ithink) and that worked. Prior to that, for example we ran the first winternationals in Maimi in 62 and went thru assenblies every day, same when we went to Daytona following the NHRA Winternationals (we won class and little elim there I might add).we had to replace the assembly every day for that nights racing..5 assemblies in 5 days............(also won there asll 5 nights)........Axels were a problem until Ohio George made un a set....Never a problem after that. Yes and we had disc brakes all around in 1962............

I did blow a crank right out of the engine at York running a blown 339............a little expensive so we went back to the SBC.....But not before we set the speed records for BGS at 128....

pork

 

Nope..Charlie ran a 40-41 Ford with a SBC and Kenny Mable drove it...The only other 4 dr car we had was a 33 4 dr Willys Model 77 which Charlie setup for a chevy and then sold before it hit the track...........

Pork Zartman.......

 

I don't recall hearing about a '33 4-door before. What class was that going to be in and did you take any pictures of it? Mike

 

Not trying to hi-jack this thread but I noted the 61 Pontiac rag-top in the top left picture ..I'm sure that is Nick McCauly in the "Pony Express". Is that Mousy Brown he's running? He ran out of John Thayer's Sinclair in Annandale,Va. John could work magic on a Pontiac. I worked part time there and raced John's old 58 Pontiac !! I now race a clone of Gene Calhoun's 60 Pontiac/Ventura known as the "Arapaho" in NSS. Car in my Avatar. I also own the original car but it is definitly toast..
Boy does that bring back memories.. Nick later bought and raced a 63 Plymouth stage III 426 SS/A which was the old Mr. Button's car. When Nick ran it it was called the "Town Cryer" as Fairfax Chrysler/Plymouth was a major sponsor. I also remember "BIG" Ed Slooper and his speed shop. Seems that his competion (besides S&S) was The Coleman Bros. Speed Shop in Arlandria(LOL) and their ride was a Flat-head powered rail !!
When the "S&S" boyz showed up it was a good show/race.

 

Hey Dave.....fancy seeing you on here!! I participated in the first couple of the York US-30 Musclecar Madness shows at the York Expo Center. I didn't realize Charlie's original car was gone! Then the "Filthy 40" in the show was a clone for sure. It was great seeing the S&S guys/cars. I've saw Fred Bear and his new toy out a few times. He sure looks like Joe Jacono's brother... I talked to you at Henderson,NC Drag News Re-union. Nice seeing you & car. I wouldn't chop it up either. The Jolly Doly was there (York) to and had the same problem as your car,for racing.
I was at the Old Dominion Speedway/Manassas re-union deal this year and saw Gene Altizer drive his "restored" Anglia down the track....Good for him...!! I also ran into Gene Calhoun the previous Arapaho owner...he hasn't changed a bit...just aged a little. Like me. I'll try to post pic...Calhoun will be the taller dude..LOL
Note: I still attend/race at the York US-30 Nostalgia National's race at Beaver Springs on Sunday following the show at Expo Ctr.
Not trying to hi-jack this thread but trying to talk you or someone elaborating on ALL the "S&S boyz" some more !!!
Troy

 

Troy? Is that you old buddy? I never made the 'Arapaho' connection. In the above post you mentioned Ed Slooper, is he any relation to Butch?

 

Here's a shot of one of the Big Ed's Speed Shop sponsored cars that I crewed on. Steel body, blown small block BB/GS Willys. Check out the air conditioning! Those were great days. That's Carl standing in front. Photo by Bob Plumer Apologies to the S&S guys for the hi-jack. Mike

 

Yep...it's me OJ. Stumbled in here a while back and visit once in a while.
Not sure who Butch Slooper is. I remember hearing the name Slooper connected to "Big Ed's" Speed Shop which I think was in Alexandria then..
I was sorry I missed Eddie North at Manassas...and Judi Cassedy. I was partners with her husband Jack(Hoppy) Cassedy back then..Judi worked in the tower at OD for years ..

Any more Filthy Forty or S&S pics out there...??