Good stuff Cosley. I agree, we could use a Grump only thread. To bad his cars would break the HAMB age barrier.
I ran my 57 Chev sedan delivery in 1968 and 1969 or till NHRA changed the rules. Very competitive on the WEst Coast. Ran 13.20's with a best of 13.15. Runner-up at 1969 Winternationals in class. Lost to a big Pontiac. Winnest car at Mission Raceways in 1969. Great times in those days. Bob . A little more info on car 283 cu, FI rated at 283 HP. Hydo by my friend Jim Mantle. Ran in I/SA. Was running the original FI unit at the 69 Winternationals , purchased a 62 unit from Bob Lambeck at that time, as I recall $125 . Installed back at home made a big difference. Found another pic. Final round stock eliminator. My delivery against the Wells brothers OLDS. As I recall I won this one. the olds was the ex Keith Berg car , out of LA.I hope my memory is correct on the OLDS. Second pic is a time trail run with my good friend Cec Hardy. His 57 Ford is the X Larry Walker car, he now has restored. The other pic is the final round against the "OLD Goat" ponco.
Welcome to the thread Bob ... can you tell us a bit MORE? Some of us would enjoy some tech info. And ALL of us would enjoy another image or two!
Dave, Nice to hear from you. Enjoyed seeing the picture of your dad and the car. I think about him and the entire family often. Hopefully I will be able to stop by and visit on one of my trips down. Regards Dom
Steve, colsey, Dom, You guys will love this one. Stock Eliminator at the 1968 Springnationals. <object width="425" height="344"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IsWeqfh19DE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
Thanks, Great stuff. I don't have any pics of our old Junior Stocker, as plain jane as it was. Time for an internet seach for old Niagara footage. Lee
I don't know the history of the Thropp / Borcherdt collaberation on John's 57 pontiac. Fred never liked to have much of his own money wrapped up in these cars and seemed to get his biggest thrill out of figuring out how to make something work better, more so than driving. I do vaguely remember Fred working to try to figure out how to get the hydramatic (I think it was a Jetaway?) in this car to shift. This model had a small fluid coupling that had to fill for fourth gear as opposed to a dual range that had clutches / bands for all four gears. I remember that no matter what passages were drill, etc. it still kind of slid into fourth gear. I don't think I have seen a man more angry in my life as when John red lighted at the world finals in Tulsa in the last round of stock eliminator. Thank goodness Fred was never a gun carrying guy!! ha, ha.
Another funny one. I can't remember it was this car or the other 57 of Fred's pictured. One of them had the charge wire for the generator run through the light switch for the glove box door. If the electrical system was really loaded up, I would guess it would smoke the switch, but the idea was that as you were driving back from a run, you would open the glove box door and allow the generator to charge the battery. When you pulled up to the line to run, you closed the door, opening the switch and taking the generator load (other than just running through the bearings) off of the engine. May have been silly, but this is the sort of thing that went on.
No 'Farm,' not 'silly at at all. Most of us had some sort of 'bazaaro' device that temperally shut down the generator/alternator 'figuring' it would be worth maybe .001 or so on a given run. Alas, it's so sad, cause by 'the end of the day' ... it was really ALL in the short block!
There was the time, around 1968, 1969 when we had around 10,000 of the Sharks in stock out in the warehouse....but, jee, I didnt have the forsight to stash away a bunch of these wheels, including the Sharks, Super Sharks, 15X3 1/2 Gyro Front Runners, 15X11 Gyro and 15x4 R/T Front runners....I would be quite wealthy if i would have....but then I would be wealthy if, in 1967, if I woulda put my 1965 A990 Hemi 4 speed or my 1963 426 Ramcharger Aluminum Front End Factory Built ( 1 of 3) Belevede TWO DOOR HARDTOP in the garage until 2009. But....who knew....
Thanx for posting that image again Bill ... don't you just love the way the 303 Cubic Inch/135 HP Oldsmobiles proliferate/dominate the staging lanes!
Wish I had a better shot of that Mustang!! I've been looking for pictures of stocker '65/66 fastbacks... -Dean
My Pal, Paul Baker, During the 1967-1968 season, ran a 56 Chev Sedan Delivery in NHRA O/SA. 210HP, 265 Cubic Inch with a Hydramatic Trans also (not a powerglide). I gotta say one thing....when us guys with the Altered Wheel Base Mopars were merely puttin on Hilborns and loading it up with Nitromethane...You junior stock guys were the real racers...trying every single trick in the book, (rule book) trying to figure out another 1/10 of 1/10 of a second....while we were just gettin out the hydrometer and making 60% load into a 80% load of nitro to see if we could get another 1/2 second....
Another little trick. I can remember on the Rocky's Goat car, Fred had a terrible time handling the car at top end. It had the shocks on the front end that extended quickly, then bled off slowly to have the max weight transfer to the back end and hold it there. The front end geometry was such that at launch when the front end rose up, camber went extremely negative. Since the shocks didn't allow the suspension to relax until after the run, this negative camber condition continued thoughout the fun, making for a tough time handling at 100+ mph even in a straight line. The solution was setting up the car on the alignment machine, with most of the weight of the car taken off of the suspension, then setting the front end to specs. This made for a funny looking situation with lots of postive camber when the car was just sitting.
Well summarized! Toe-in and Caster was also an issue of concern, as it too 'changed' relative to front-end height. Baltimore-based front-end alignment wizard Jack Arnew worked his magic on many Div 1 cars, sometimes actually bending upper and lower control arms in order to minimize geometry changes throughout the suspension travel range.
Oh contraire 'Janet' ... The sole purpose of (upper) ball joint spacers was to allow the front suspension to lift higher (roughly propionate to the width of the spacer) before the upper control arm came in contact with the 'rebound' bumper/'snubber.'
Here is more of Charlie Hampp's home movies from 1968 - 69. The car was partially disassembled in an effort to remove all unnecessary weight over the winter of '68. That translated into wins at the Springnationals then at Pomona and Indy in 1969. colsey will like the scene at Suffolk,VA. Witchcraft is at the head of the line followed by George Cureton, Tim & Dave Bishop's '59 and a rig hauling the Wheatley Brothers, Alex Jarrell and Brad Watkins. <object width="425" height="344"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GVptTjIVoA0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
Awesome footage!!! Thanks.... It's so cool to see actual shots of those awesome machines in action not just standing stil l!!!!!!!!!
The Jalopy Journal
