A real Mad Genius! He never stopped pushing the envelope. I first heard of him because of his experiments with vacuum bagging compression on wood laminates. He also used a radiator hose manifold thing and water pressure to "clamp" wood glue-ups for sculpting later. He was an amazing wood sculptor and furniture maker. I seem to recall he designed a huge wood turning lathe using a 9 inch rearend and electric motors. I later put the name together with the early streamliners. RIP
Thanks so much for bumping this, Ace. I missed it, too. I had a correspondence going with Jocko. He was very supportive of my work which was huge to me, as he was a hero to me. Never met him in person and maybe that's best... Cole, thanks for posting the letter to Garlits - what a kick in the ass! That's priceless... My hope is that someone will pick up the PoweRRing3 and carry it to fruition on the salt in the last 'liner. If there's anything I can do to help that happen, please contact me. I once asked Jocko if he had an old Jocko's Porting Service decal that he could sign for me. He took a digital photo of the one on his old liner, drove into town and had a color copy made, signed it and mailed it to me. Thanks for all you did for hot rodding, Jocko. And for the decal... Scotty
Met Jocko about 25 years ago at historic races at Leguna Seca. It was incredable what he could do with a sheet of aluminum. I don't think he was appreciated enough. Sorry to here of his passing.
I don't know how I missed this, but I'm sorry to hear it nonetheless. When I visited Garlits' museum last year, I was amazed at the shape and quality of Garlits' Jocko-bult liner. The thing was perfectly styled and beautifully crafted, obviously built by a master. RIP
Never forgot when I first read about him in hotrod a long time ago. I had hoped that one day after reading that mag. that I would soon see his engine invention on the cover of some car magazines but never did. They had a cool photo of rocking chair he designed and it made me think about what kind of stuff I could design. I was in 7th grade. RIP
In the mid-80's, I was working on Micro Machines for Galoob Toys. I thought it would be cool to do a micro version of Jocko's streamliner (1.5" long), so I called him up. I told him there wasn't any real money in it, but I'd be happy to send him a hatful of the finished toys if he'd permit us to do it. He said he liked the idea, but he'd like a few more than a hatful. I agreed to send him 2000 of the finished toys, and he thought that was terrific. I talked to him a few years later, and he said that he had given them all away to little kids to show them what he had done. Neat guy.
That speaks volumes. From the magazine article (late 80's?) and what has been posted here, it is obvious he loved what he was doing, whether carving heads or a rocking chair. 2008 made it very clear that I need to stop wanting to find and meet certain people, and get out there and actually meet them.
The Jalopy Journal
