I'm reading now "Best Damn Garage in Town" written by Henry Yunick: as an European I'm not too much accustomed to his "southern style" of writing (or talking) but I'm understanding one thing: not all is as we're sure of. What about "Nascar off the record" (I know, due to Brock Yates) and Big Three off the record Smockey was writing about? In other way: is it all true? Thanks to everyone!
first , welcome to the HAMB . i would think that our racing stories are alot like your F-1 racing stories . alot of truth , but some embellishment . especially as time goes on . they are stories handed down thru the years & get changed just a little . smokey was a legend , but they are so many . probably the oldest would be VIC EDELBROCK SR. but there is Bobby Meeks , craig breedlove , & so many more up to taday . jack rouse , don purdome , kenny burnstien , john force , tony stewart , jeff gordon , dale earnhart sr. , steve kinser & so on & so on . im sure that you have history & heros same as us . probably most all is true , but maybe a little glory added ! ............... steve
I grew up in Daytona, not far from Smokeys garage. He was a cantankerous old SOB, but he was absolutely brilliant when it came to motors. Yeh, he loved screwing with Nascar officials, (like the Chevelle that was like 2/3 normal size! They knew it didn't look quite right, but couldn't figure out what the f*** he did! HIlarious!) Both him and Moody came up with fuel efficient motors and/or carbs during the gas crunch of the 70's, which supposedly the designs got bought up by "somebody" and got buried. Moody had developed a carb that was supposed to make any motor get like 50 mpg. It was in all the papers for a couple of months, then disappeared from the planet. Gotta' wonder? It all sounds crazy, but it's probably 99% true to the word. He was like the Garlits of Nascar, a true pioneer.
Take out the stories about drinking, pussy, and the repeated stories, and that 3-volume set could have been edited down to 1 decent sized book. One of the best ways to learn about Smokey is to go to the Living Legends Museum in Daytona, find one of the old timers standing around (good chance it'll be Ray Fox), and ask about him. You'll find there was a big BS factor involved in his legend. One comment made to me - "Most of the stuff he's known for happened from about '64 on, but his last race win was in '63." Another, from a different living legend - "Smokey always knew someone was screwing him over, he just usually couldn't figure out who." In short - grain of salt.
I'm reading the same book. It appears that he and I would have had very similar views about lots of things! Wish I could have met him. I've read his articles and such since I was a kid, and was always amazed at his talent.
Yessir. He's given credit in his autobiography for winning the 1960 Indy 500 when his involvement was minimal at best. So far, from what I have gathered, he only supervised the pit stops during the race and may have re-fueled the car.
What you're referring to was brilliant but dangerous. He found that by pre-heating the fuel before injecting it into the combustion chamber you increase the efficiency of the engine. He did it to a fiero and got something like 60 mpg (I can't remember exactly), but the thing was a driving bomb waiting to go off. They buried it because it's DANGEROUS, imagine everyone driving around in those things!
Thanks to everyone! What I mean is: GM, Ford and Chrysler are pictured as the "little Three", with internal battles, funny way to go form ground to highest floor plans and so on. Yunick stands a sort of a classification abouf drivers and people he worked with in his life. I'm interested in american cars and racing since 1964, but I never read anything like this and I've, now, some doubt about I believed "before" reading the book.
Yep. Matter of fact, he quit speaking to Joe Scalzo after Scalzo wrote an article about that race, crediting (correctly) Chickie Hirashima as the chief mechanic. Rathmann asked him to be a part of the team because, even in 1960, the NASCAR guys were getting their acts together on pit stops and were far ahead of the Indy guys. Make no mistake - a lot of what Smokey did was incredibly thought provoking, but the execution itself was lacking. For instance, although his 15/16 scale Chevelle (and that's what it really was, not 7/8 or 3/4, I've measured it) got mucho press, it never won a race because it didn't handle worth shit. Smokey absolutely despised Bobby Allison for a while because while Smokey was running that Chevelle, Bobby was winning races with his own '65 Chevelle with a 327. Why? Because Bobby took the time to work with the chassis on the car. In the book, you'll find hardly any reference to his last NASCAR car - a '69 Ford Talladega that actually generated his best result (4th) since that '63 win. Why? Because that car was delivered to his shop complete from Holman/Moody, and Smokey was under orders "not to mess with it." The book really could have used a fact-checker and editor. As it was, it came off as a diatribe against everyone that pissed Smokey off in his life. An accurate retelling of his story would have been incredibly compelling reading.
Chickie Hirashima, something makes me think that he is ex-Miller, ex-Offenhauser. The reason Smokey's Chevelle never handled was due to the rear suspension: it was a parrallel 4 bar (like what is commonly seen on drag cars today), no matter how hard you try, it is never going to go around a corner.
Whether his stories were BS or embellished truths, I loved hearing tell them! When he was closing his shop and had a sale, one of my employees and a friend attended. They were looking at a 9" Ford rear axle assy. to which Smokey had attached a 12 bolt Chevy rear cover to meet a rules requirement. When asked how much he wanted for it, Smokey said that it was in a car that won.... "Stop, stop" said my friend, "I want to race the son of a bitch, not put it in a museum." I don't think Smokey wanted to sell it to him after that. Here is a photo of me trying to chat with the deaf SOB at a PRI show.
I'm not sure how preheat (fuel or air) gets you anything on a gasoline engine, since you're forced to run excess fuel to keep the flame temperature down, anyway. Seems like you're adding heat and giving away potential heat at the same time. Seems to me you could get the same result by leaning the motor out. Hafta give that one some thought.
Here is a good article on Smokey's "Hot Vapor Engine", which was more about running at higher operating temperatures than preheated fuel/air. http://legendarycollectorcars.com/?page_id=901
From what I've seen-- To understand Smokey Yunick involves listening to what he's written, what others have written about him, and check the actual results when you can. Then paste your own life experience to what you've seen about him and then you'll have a murky view of who he really was. On the '60 Indy 500. It took both Chickie and Smokey to get Rathmann there along with Rathmanns driving ability, Ken and Pauls deep pockets and a team that wanted to beat Watson so bad after losing to his car the year before. All this while Chickie built engines equally for both teams! Ward could have won maybe had he detuned his chassis down after catching Rathmann, but instead he forgot and wore out his front tire before it was too late. Also, Ward had a brain freeze for a moment during a pit stop and stalled his car. That cost him some time too. In the end, based on Wards account, had Chickie put a new magneto in Rathmanns car like he planned to(turned out to be faulty later), Ward would have won the 500, the Hoosier 100, and the National Championship! The story of the 1960 500 is one of the best Indy 500 stories I've studied.
I have been around all kinds of racing for over 50 years and Smokey Yunick is one of the most intriguing characters I have ever met. The first time I ever talked to him was at his shop auctions almost 20 years ago. Anyone who was there will never forget it. The so called "secret rooms" were not closed those weekends. Everything was out in the open and for sale. There was "stuff" that covered his entire career. There was a Hudson Hornet racing engine complete with two carbs that came out of Herb Thomas's car back in the Fifties. There was a small block Chevy engine with porcupine heads just like a big block. Experimental I guess. There was a Ford V-8 with experimental heads too. There was also not one but two Chevrolet '427' Mystery motors up for auction. Floyd Garrett was there to try to buy one. I overheard a young guy tell someone he was there to buy one of them and was going to pay whatever it took to buy one. I said yeah, right. He was right. He never slowed down raising his hand until he bought it. For about 20 grand I believe. Turns out he had one of the two '63 Corvette Sporty Car racers that ran the Mystery Motor that year. The original engine was long gone and this would be his only opportunity to make the restoration correct. I wonder how much that car is worth today? There was a lot of special stuff there and I feel fortunate to have been there. Did I buy anything? Yes. It was a weird looking 6 foot long piece if 1/2 inch aluminum tubing with a flat piece of aluminum attached to the end with a three inch hole in the center. Smokey said it was the very first water cup holder ever built...used he said to hand water to Herb Thomas from behind the wall. The guy who bought the Hudson Engine wanted it bad and made me pay for it. When the bidding was over Smokey said "damn, I should have built them instead of race cars" Cracked everybody up. I will probably loan it to the NASCAR Museum opening in Charlotte next year. I had the opportunity to see Smokey several times afterwards, mostly at trade shows where he was giving seminars. I found his lectures very interesting, informative and especially entertaining. No matter what you think of Smokey most will agree there will never be another.
I remember reading about Smokey's work on that in the early 80's (?). Some magazine I had interviewed him about one of the cars and even took it for a test drive. They were skeptical that the engine worked exactly as he described it did. One thing in particular I remember was that they said the car had a rattling muffler which Smokey brushed off as "oh yea, I need to fix that". They said that was an old used car sales trick to hide a noise they didn't want you to hear and they figured he was covering up the sound of spark knock or something similar. From what the blog says, people are STILL debating if this cycle works or not. Wish I had that Herb Thomas engine to go in my Hornet!
Quote: <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Racewriter ) Chickie Hirashima as the chief mechanic. Make no mistake - a lot of what Smokey did was incredibly thought provoking, but the execution itself was lacking. For instance, although his 15/16 scale Chevelle (and that's what it really was, not 7/8 or 3/4, I've measured it) got mucho press, it never won a race because it didn't handle worth shit. Smokey absolutely despised Bobby Allison for a while because while Smokey was running that Chevelle, Bobby was winning races with his own '65 Chevelle with a 327. Why? Because Bobby took the time to work with the chassis on the car. . </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Chickie Hirashima, something makes me think that he is ex-Miller, ex-Offenhauser. The reason Smokey's Chevelle never handled was due to the rear suspension: it was a parrallel 4 bar (like what is commonly seen on drag cars today), no matter how hard you try, it is never going to go around a corner............. Racewriter I have to dissaggree with you. While it might not have been the best handleing car around it wasnt that bad. Daytona is a handleing track and it did sit on pole there. You are correct about the 15/16 deal my uncle Junior Robbin's did all the body and fab work on that car.Furbiscuit as far as the four bar deal I think your wrong . Smokey was ahead of the curve on that . Most asphalt late model's run four bar's /link's or three link's or at least they did the last time I looked.Four bar's go around corner's quite nice thank you.Smokey does in fact admit that he's no expert on handleing. Another point is that at that time none of the chevrolet's where setting the world on fire. Fact is it was a ford and chrysler show for the most part. <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
If Chickie worked for either, it had to be Offenhauser since Chickie would have been too young for Miller's time. Chickie spent time in one of those WWII internment camps in the desert before serving the US in the war. That leaves Chickie either working for Offenhauser or Drake-Meyer. He built strong consistent engines that lasted the distance. He was at the top of his field in this sense, as Bignotti was known for favoring horsepower just a tad more. Chickies record goes right along what he was trying to ---His engines finished 1st and 2nd in 1960 and 1962. I'm sure he had other stellar days too.
Sliderule, ya might want to check out this link to see how preheating air and/or fuel might make more power. Look at page 8 http://www.zzw30.com/HondaRA168EEngine.pdf
I read the books ,and talked to the man.Asked some dumb questions and got real ansers. Now my question is this If you were to write your own book would it be a boring P.O.S. or something we would read. Smokey did things out of the box ,and that pissed off a bunch of people and he ived long enough to tell us about it. Now lets see your book. rtp
In all fairness, Smokey was his own PR person at times! Yet at the same time he was a genius. Hard work leads to good PR work which leads to oppurtunity which leads to more hard work which leads to more PR etc. A few of the right wins over the years would have made these "Smokey" arguments a lot quieter. He was a different cat, that is for sure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally, I think Junior Johnson bent the rules a whole lot more than Smokey is known for. Smokey being a popular target took a lot of pressure off of his competitors. Anybody remember the "Bananna" car? Smokey would never have gotten away with this one!
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