Air-cleaner-base PS: Here's one on a single 4-B car (my old Pontiac). That foam-backed cover is just a temporary piece, used to keep the bugs/dirt out of the carb while enroute to the track.
Larrys still around!! He owns the Dave Strickler "OLD RELIABLE" 62 409. Now lives in Hartville, OH. he was a "regular" with us with that 56 wagon at Magnolia Drags. Thanks CB for the pic. Got anymore D-42 or Norwalk pics.
Dave Middleton was from Dayton, Oh area. Pic is probably at Kil-Kare Dragway. Definitely a Jr Stocker. If I remember (fuzzy) the car was 270HP E/S at the time!!(65-66). Keep those pics comin!!! Tweed
Thanks for the update on Larry...I only have a few pics that would "fit" here for jr stock, don't wanna clutter the board or post too much other stuff to piss-off the purists...that pic of Patrick's wagon was taken with my camera, my scanner broke last year. I do have a shot of Paul Williams '61 ventura wagon I/SA (just like lumley & sanders car) i can dig up and try to get on here tho... question for all you old time east coast/west coast runners that seem so common here...how much did you cars SLOW DOWN when you went to tracks away from the ocean back then...say....INDY...??? I saw a "list" here of stockers from the '60's...i have quite a few to add to it if the list is still "active" here...i.e. the wolf & mclelland WIEDNER pontiacs...dave duell....roy dean's HUSLER '62 pontiac and lots lots more...not even mentioning all the columbus area cars...vauble, kronenbitter. nelson, etc. ...most the stuff here seems to be from divisions 1 and 7...a little bit of 2 (has to be with bobby warren's legend)...
there are so many "tricks" in those underhood shots from those jr stock articles it's unreal...the shape of the air cleaner base improved(or hurt) airflow to the venturis, and did give some heat shielding for cooler air to come in...(years later, guys like lingenfelter did alot of on track testing for the ultimate shape for performance from an carb base. one of JL's 1st "econo altered" scoop base designs came from a 71 mustang 351 C air cleaner base) you'll notice most of the cars back then were painted white, even under the hood...for temperature reduction purposes...conversely many painted their blocks and intakes black to retain the temperature (be it cool or hot)...you'll notice, even today, many will paint their intakes silver or flat white for cooler temp reasons...besides, like cal method told me once...if you drop a wrench, etc., it's alot easier to find it with a white engine compartment, day or night...those are just a few example...you could go on and on with all the little "tricks" guys like Stahl and Jenkins and many more brought to the track with their cars every week back then...CB
It's hard to say, partially because there was so much variation in performance locally. It was not unusual for there to be a solid tenth, for example, between Lions' in Long Beach and Irwindale, not to mention the couple of tenths more that were lost by going farther east to Fontana. On my first trip to Indy (1972) with a Super Stocker the loss number for the first run of the event was more than two tenths from Lions' Drag Strip in July, six weeks earlier. (Tack on another .15 to compare the difference from Lion's at a better time of year.) I don't recall the variations in the weather during that week at Indy but we were able to get most of it back between Wednesday and Saturday. That could have been more the result of improving conditions than our thrashing on the car. c
lets see those pics of Paul Williams Poncho wagon! He was another "regular' with us at Magnolia! He later switched to a 66 chevy 220HP 9P wagon. His son, Bobby, took over driving chores when he was old enough. Paul raced his Poncho out of the BUD GRAHAM Speed Shop in Canton, OH,. He changed his I/SA Poncho wagon to a lower HP version 63 model, ala Jack Mullins. Tough competitor - hard to catch!! Keep those pics comin"!!
I know Paul and his sons/nephews real well from running around here since the late 60's...only went it to magnolia twice...won my bracket and got r/u in the "jackpot" to bob frazee's gtx 1st time...they turned off the lights as we pulled out of the lanes for the final....i was getting a big spot and couldn't see sh*t as we got to the traps...oh well, guess i should have "dialed it right" before running...the old magnolia turn off the lights trick....lol...
{QUOTE] On my first trip to Indy (1972) with a Super Stocker the loss number for the first run of the event was more than two tenths from Lions' Drag Strip in July, six weeks earlier. (Tack on another .15 to compare the difference from Lion's at a better time of year.) c[/QUOTE] Hey Chuck...longtime fan since the late 60's...i recall many of your camaros/chevelle wagon etc. combos thru the years..Norton/Salcido/Rossi cars et al. It was the reverse for us when went to sea level tracks from our northern ohio @ 900 ft tracks...we usually picked up 2-3 tenths (probably showed we were running our combos too "rich" back home'' lol)...that, and traction was probably better at those tracks too...we knew high barometer and lower humidity made a big difference from week-to-week performance at home back then... i was fortunate to run at norwalk on a regular basis thru the late 60's as a spectator, and the 70's and beyond racing...watching it evolve from a "cow pasture" to one of the "super tracks" today...on some nights, especially at the beginning or end of the year, you'd go just as fast as you would anywhere, with the starting line "prepped"...Bill Bader was a HUGE reason for its revival, he would always spend ALOT of time with his racers picking our brains for ways to improve the facility and make the racing even/fair and square for all competitors...1st thing I mentioned to him was getting the roll-out the same from lane-to-lane...week-to-week...I drew him a diagram one saturday night of the @ 26" wooden "rollout wheel" nhra used at the time for measuring rollout...next week he built one and kept both sides even ever since...lol...CB
Tweed isn't Tweed Vorhees is it ???...used to have a SS/RA 66 bel-air, among others, back in the day...CB
[ Poncho out of the BUD GRAHAM Speed Shop in Canton, OH, I/SA Poncho wagon [/QUOTE] Here's a crappy pic of a pic of it, he's running against Ken Dearborn's SS/GA in this pic, I focused in on Paul's wagon for showing here... also included are a few shots of the 1st car I ever went down a dragstrip in, Jim Wheeler's REMLINGER Olds F/S Cutlass F-85 out of Massilon, Ohio...and one of Roy Dean's D/S super duty...Ray Faro Pontiac out of Elyria's E/SA entry...and an unknown 57 2 dr wagon, THE INDEPENDANT 1...sorry about the poor quality...better 'n nuthin' tho...lol...CB
that's pretty wild...I talked to him one day at D-42 @ 1972, when he had the SS/RA 4 door...the 1st year of the "new" SS rules...small internet huh ???...LOL...CB
Hey CB -Indeed -- It is "I" -- in the "flesh" --( and still probably the only guy you ever heard named "Tweed"(lol) - alive and well and still living in Dover -- I think this is what you might be recalling-- eh? (It was all black without lettering when you saw it running a D-42) -- but certainly is the same car -- still own it today!! Small world -- eh??
In regards to the difference from the local strips in southern California, as far as tuning went my Olds ran within a 10th of a second, Lions, Irwindale, Orange County, Carlsbad and Pomona. Riverside would be the slowest of the tracks. I was able to run 2 cycle spark plugs, and lean mixture with the damp air and cool temps most of the year. The quickest track was Half Moon Bay on the coast about 2 tenths quicker than any other track even Lions both being close to sea level. Sacramento wasn't to bad even with it's temps, it was also at sea level. The farther East I went the more I had to go up in jet size, install hotter spark plugs and add about 4 degrees to the total timing to get the Olds to run. Ivars Smeltnicks[?] from Racing Head Service helped me straighten both the 50 and 52 out. The 55 R/S that Dilcher and I ran was fast from the git go and even though it won the World Finals was not a fun car and no challenge as far as tuning. The SS/PA 56 was just a fun car from the start, thanks to Val Hedworth in the carburetor dept. Those 265's do turn some RPM when you compare it to a 1950 Olds. Chuck and I had some fun with the 64 Chevy 4 Dr. in M/S. Heavy Chevy.
yepper...that's the one...must've been 1973...I recall you at the '76 race now that you mention it...Pittman and that '59 wagon had that pro-tree and deep staging figured out back then... I brought your name up a year or so ago on another stock/ss site...to which the thread was met with silence...LOL...too hardcore for those rookies I suppose...lol...you musta known Benny Bare and the other stick shift SS guys from that part of Ohio...
Here is a picture of the 1964 4 door Chevy that Keith Berg mentioned. The location was Fremont in April 1980. The final of stock eliminator at the first points meet of 1980. I was lucky enough to win the race, the last NHRA race I won. Fremont was the only strip the Chevy ran under the 13.16 M/SA index.
Paul and I ran the 50 Olds together for a while he was starting the 55 and I joined in as a partner until after the world finals. Paul moved back east and I bought a 56 150 with a 225 HP engine from Paul Baker. Fun car It is in the Indianapolis area as of a couple months ago, don't know who owns it.
Speaking of Vauble, I had to take this photo of Mary Lou Hampp giving the boys a piece of her mind when she saw the Witchcraft lettered on the car. She was a feisty lady and was upset they copied the car name. I don't think the cars ever had a heads up meeting. This was at the 1969 Nationals.
Also, for weight reduction purposes. I forget in which 1960's magazine I read it, but it was an article on Bill Jenkins, and he said white paint weighed the least per gallon because there were no pigments added for color. Simple, huh? Just like many other things when you know the answer or trick. But who would've thought of doing that (weigh a gallon of paint) outside the likes of the Grump, Smokey, and others of their caliber, in an effort to gain that last bit of an advantage? Pete
GREAT stuff TM !!!...I'd forgotten vauble's car had the same name...she probably put some B-24 rhetoric on 'em huh ?...lol... just to save a post, I'l ask the question here... I wanted to ask the 50's/60's era Jr Stock racers what they used for ignition back then....mostly dual-point with a good coil ???...much use of CD boxes back then ???...was point bounce a big problem for the RPM those cars ???...didn't the "corvette" distributors have a "rounder", less point "peak" on the cam that opened & closed the points ???...to help with "point-bounce" at high RPM....Thanks a million in advance for any reply...I'm like a kid in a candy store with all the legends here !!!
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