Thanks again ... you sure 'da man' Bill! Here's another tough one for you ... how about the Ceri Bros. '65 Chevelle wagon? The last time I saw it was in '71 0r '72 @ a Cayuga, Ontario WCS meet. It was sitting, front wheels askew, mortally 'wounded' in the staging lanes ... with a crumpled front end and bleeding coolant and motor oil all over the place. Alas, it seems a misguided premature burnout had gone terribly wrong (motor mount broke??) and it ran into the back of (ALL THINGS!) Paul Mayo's huge Vista Cruiser ('Bruiser') ... oops! Alas, hardly a bruise on the big Olds rear bumper ... never saw the Chevelle again!
that looks like a 315hp F.I. unit. How were they able to run that on wagons and delivery's? Was there some loophole in the rules??
i was sitting with Tommy Howes (he had had a stroke) when we were watching the barrett jackson episode when the Ray Allen chevelle was sold. Brock or one of the other bafoons claimed the car was "undefeated" Tommy was not impressed with that bull story one little bit considering he and Ray were pals and he had smoked the T/K chevelle many times. so........dont believe everything they say on B/J auction. the car was bought by the museum in Winnemucca Nevada. the dude even too it to the track for a few passes in it. good for him.
Thanks for the update Bob ... how's Tommy doing now? Tommy Howes (a 'loong' way from his stocker daze!) @ MIR in '01 * ... you can read about (PDF file) the Winnemucca museum collection here ... http://www.nvtoday.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=282 and SEE some of the cars here ... --> http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_...m_cars/custom-car-museum/americas-car-collec/ BUT, alas ... there's no sign of the T-K Chevelle!
I wonder if this (55 Delivery) was a car of 'note' or simply a street rod? From ... http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/custom-car-museum/americas-car-collec/
1975 AHRA World Record Holder (on the roof of car) D/HR - Like Super Stock, Lbs/Cu In Rules. 355" SB All Steel except hood....... Note front bumper - was removed it was an enduro bumper. Car was bought with a salvage title minus engine and trans "theft recovery", it was a 427 COPO originally.
1967 E/G Camaro Norwalk Raceway - 355 Cu In @ 3300 lbs. Best time was 10.33 @ 133mph with single 4 BBL. Car left at 10,500 RPM with a 50lb flywheel. 1976 Season Street Eliminator Runner Up to Bill Pressly's "Wind it tight Camaro"
Being a newbie here I hope I don't overstep my bounds. As someone else already said, this tread pushed me over the line to finally register on H.A,M,B. Back around 1965 my brother and I wanted to put a junior stocker together. We went to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace>Niagara</st1lace>, our local strip, and got with the tech guys looking for the best combination for a 348 in a '58 Chevy. Turned out that a 250 HP 348 in a '58 Delray tudor sedan put us right at the top of G/Stock, 14.00. Found a body and a '58 348. Put new bearings and stock cam in the engine, got a 4 spd, headers, slicks and <st1:time Hour="16" Minute="56">4:56s</st1:time> for the rear end and went racing. With a nothing engine (not pro-built, balanced, etc) we were competitive and usually won our class if a certain '56 wagon with 2-4s 265 didn't show up. Best time was 14.00 on a 13:56 national record. Had maybe $1,000 in the whole thing. Now every time I see a '58 Delray I want to do it all over again. We ran the car for a 1 1/2 years then uncle called. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o></o> The Bad Banana I thru IV ran at <st1lace>Niagara</st1lace> and #II held all or part of the FF/S record. Another car to beat there was Pete Magel's white M/S '52 Studebaker, The Maggot. Those were some great days. That second year we ran was when NASCAR was the sanctioning body at <st1lace>Niagara</st1lace>. Anybody out there remember the Junior Stock starting line sit-in at one of there big national meets at <st1lace>Niagara</st1lace>. I do. Lee <o></o>
Great post. Can't tell you how many low-budget Junior Stockers I used to enjoy watching in the 60s. Back then, anybody could buy an early-mid 50s Olds and with a little mechanical ability and almost no bucks be competitive locally.
Bill ... was that (SSDI Mag) the late 60s Junior Stock series that did the excellent, mostly 'early Olds,' feature piece, which (I think) was called, with tongue firmly in cheek ... "They May Be Slow, But They Sure Are Ugly!"
I loved those early Oldmobiles, and I hadn't seen some of those images before. Thanks Bill and 'Goober.' If 'Truth be told,' if I had it to do all over again, I would have built a '50-53 Olds! Please try to pardon my end-of-year 'introspection, but Its really funny how things 'develop.' I had crafted two very-nice 'lead sleds' and one notable *'Street Rod' (*before that 'term' came into usage) from '56-to-61. And, by '62 this passion made its 'normal' transion/progression to a keener interest in drag racing, so I 'dabbled' a bit Junior Stock racing. Having been 'mostly' a Super Stock and AA Fueler fan, I came away from my life-altering trip to the '66 Springnationals @ Bristol really impressed with Junior stockers. And specifically ... Ed Byer's 56 Pontiac I/SA. A few months later ... 'fate' struck! The Ford dealer where I worked traded in a not-too-shabby '56 Pontiac 2-dr Hardtop. I knew it (a 'hardtop,' not a 'post' car) was 138 lbs heavy (16.21 on a 15.60- to-16.99 weight break) but I built it just the same. From the outset, I really 'related' to the early Olds' guys ... virtually no one made aftermarket part for 'our' cars (the 4.30 rear cogs were out of ancient 3-speed 6-cyl Olds wagons) ... no 'superseded heads, etc., so we called ourselves 'the junkyards for lunch bunch.' BUT, here was 'our' 'edge' ... the factory-installed four-speed Hydro. Big advantage ... right? Well, it was ... for about fifteen minutes! Then, as Neil Young laments in one of his early songs ... 'Seee-dan Dee-liv-ery' ... and things 'changed.'
While we are talking Studebakers , lets not forget the Bob Dwyer built. Dempsy Hardy driven Crocagator. I sure got tired of looking at the rear end of that car but finally got him. Wish I had a picture but I dont. They are both gone now
Thanks for the welcome. If you raced Junior Stock there you knew Pete. Cause if you made it into Junior Stock Eliminator you most likely got to see his taillights along the way. Between him and Ted Hartman, we were content to get our class win and go a round or two in eliminations. I know Pete was from Clarence, NY outside Buflo. I could rattle off a few more names of the Junior Stock guys there but unless you raced Niagara it wouldn't mean much. Lee
I had actually forgotten about that car. Believe it was Gary Westfall and a partner. I seem to remember them having a '55 wagon too but not sure on that one. The car that would beat us in G/Stock when they showed up was a red '56 Chevy Wagon called the "Barn Job." 2 fours equipped 265. Our 348 '58 Delray had all kinds of torque off the line, great hole shots, but was lacking on the top end, couldn't put out the revs like the small blocks. Plus our 348 hadn't been tricked out by one of the area engine builders like Jan-Cen Automotive. Like I said earlier it got a new stock cam and new bearings and let's go racing. Boy those were fun days. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> Lee
Thanks Mark! Ah, 'Terry Cook,' in a piece for the 'How To Build The Ultimate Jr Stock' series -- I guess. I had all of those, along with most of Hot Rod and Super Stock magazine's Junior-Stock-related articles in a binder. Gave it all to Lee Sherman 30 years ago ... Linda may still have it. It had great (humorous) lead-page art work as I recall. I think a 'representative' early Olds (Keith Berg?) was depicted, with a behemoth dinosaur breathing fire and looming menacingly in the background -- pretty witty! "They May Be Slow, But They Sure Are Ugly!" Was that the way the title of the piece was worded? I wasn't sure.
Yea Lee ... they were nice cars! Here's my heavvvy daily-driver '58 (Impala) drive-to-the-track I/SA at Capitol in 1962. Open (shorty) 'lakes plugs,' Atlas Bucrons ... fifteen eightys.
One thing I remember is the number of times the lower class cars, like the M/S '52 Studebaker I talked about, would win on red lights. The guys with the upper class cars like say a B/S GTO would go nuts sitting at the tree with that stude nearly half way down the track and leave to soon. I think that's another reason the lower class cars did so well. I know the crowds loved seeing the new big HP factory muscle cars having to run down the old dinosaurs. Lee
Or, at a small 1/8 mi. track in western KY with no tree, the Stude would "start" half way down the track using the car length handicap system.
The Jalopy Journal
