Grumpy Jenkins

that's a wicked cool pic! M.I.R too

 

ed hendrick behind the wheel

 

get well soon grumpy

 

What was the deal with different parking lights on the 70 Camaro ? Did they just change the front end for weight savings ? Steel to glass ? There was also a show car aswell as the racer.




This must be the show car


Any help out there ?

In 74 I saw the car like this.

 

I grew up about 15 minutes from the Grumps shop in PA, and lived there when I drew this.
I posted this already in the 'ART' section, so if you saw it, sorry for redundancy, but it might bear reposting over here ?

These pictures are a blast from the past ! I raced my 70 Cougar bracket car at Cecil land the 'Grove where some of these Grump pics are shot.
Cecil county was slightly downhill and possibly shorter(?) than some other tracks in the area so they were the time slips you'd show your friends in the parking lot of Micky D's

 

There were 2 1970 Camaros. The car on the cover of Hot Rod was toy #7,and was only a show car and never raced. The pic was taken outside Jenkins' shop with the car up on jackstands and the stands were edited out. This was standard practice for all magizine writeup wheelie pics even on actual race cars unless of course they were at the track. The show car was supposedly a pre production car which was one of the first 30 or so cars built in November and December of 69 while Fisher body plant was trying to figure out their tooling problems. The 454 powered test car that was given to Smokey Yunick was also one of these car(although it has a 6 cylinder VIN in it) as well as the ZL1 powered car that was built and driven by GM stylist Bill Mitchell . Toy #7 had a special LT1 type hood on it which Jenkins mended a scoop to,but got thrown out of competition for it because pro stockers could only had 1 scoop not 2 on the hood. The hood survived and is in the hands of a guy who frequents a few Camaro forums. Jenkins doesnt remember exactly what happened to Toy#7 other then that he gave it back to GM.

Toy# 8 had a full fiberglass nose,fiberglass dashboard,and a steering shaft in place of the factory column. The car had the inner roof structure and other parts cut out of it to bring the weight down. I supposedly never had the tin cover over the firewall that Toy#7 had. On an interesting note,Jenkins got most of his cars from Ammon Smith Chevrolet which was ownded by Dave Strickers father in law. When Jenkins and Strick parted ways Strick built a Camaro for the 71 season. In photos the car can be seen wearing a tin cover over the top of the cowl,and at least a few of the fasteners for it are in the EXACT same spot as on Toy#7. Who knows,maybe it was just dumb luck.

Toy #8 was leased to Bruce Larson and was mini tubbed on slapper bars for the 72 season while Jenkins still owned it. It was then sold to Richie Zul,and had a backhalf job with 3 link done by SRD. It then had a tube front half chassis put in it also by SRD,and somewhere along the way the 3 link was converted to ladder bars. The nose was replaced with a 74 style,but contrary to a lot of rumors,the car never got full 1/4 panels installed. The 70 rear marker and tail lights were buried behind the 74 style lights,and the early back window stayed an early back window the entire time Zul owned the car,and the entire time Dennis Ferrara owned the car wich is who Zul sold the car to. The car supposedly has been restored using A LOT of donor metal,but there was also a lot of confusion about the autheticity of the car because it was verified by Jenkins who made mistakes in documenting work that was done after he owned the car because he didnt know much about it after he sold it.

So now you know.

 

It was common practice in the day to replace the full length bumper on non Ralley Sport cars with the split bumpers for weight savings.

 

For a more accurate look at Toy 7 and 8, along with all the other Toys, I would suggest picking up a copy of the book "Grumpys Toys".
Doug

 

I will be buying that book. BTW,both cars with the standard front end were the show car #7 the split bumper is the race car.

 

Did not see this posted before, so here is what happened to Bill

Jenkins recovering from subdural hematoma procedure
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
<TABLE style="MARGIN: 2px 0px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>A subdural hematoma is a collection of blood on the surface of the brain.
Polly we all hope Bill get's well soon.
I met Bill many times when working for Tom Smith at Wolverine Chassis.
<TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
by John Jodauga, National DRAGSTER Associate Editor

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width=250 align=right border=1><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Legendary drag racer Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, is currently recovering from a subdural hematoma procedure that took place Sept.9.
Jenkins' wife, Polly, said, “Bill’s blood pressure and other vital signs are good at this point, he is bright and alert, and we are currently weaning him off of various other medications. I would like to point out that contrary to unauthorized information that has been posted on the internet, Bill did not suffer a stroke. We want to thank Bill’s many fans for their well wishes.”
Jenkins, who was voted No. 8 on the list of NHRA’s Top 50 Drivers during the NHRA 50th Anniversary celebration in 2001, is renowned as one of the most influential figures in drag racing’s doorslammer categories, including Stock, Super Stock, and Pro Stock eliminators.
After initially gaining fame as an engine builder for many of the East Coast’s top Jr. Stock entries, Jenkins began driving and won his first event with a Stock eliminator triumph at the 1965 Winternationals, followed by a Super Stock win at the 1967 U.S. Nationals. When the Pro Stock category was introduced in 1970, Jenkins won the first national event for the new eliminator at the 1970 Winternationals.
He enjoyed his greatest season in 1972, when he drove his small block Chevy-powered Vega to six victories in eight national events that year. Jenkins remained active in the development of Pro Stock engines, and it was one of his powerplants that was used by Dave Connolly to record his first career Pro Stock victory at Brainerd in 2004. The “Grump” most recently appeared at the 50th Annual NHRA Winternationals, where he joined many other drag racing legends to talk and sign autographs for the fans.


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it is indeed toy #8 on the hot rod cover
check the "grumpys toy" script on the door, the #7 show car script is smaller.
#8 has the higher rear spoiler, #7 the short version
RS front fiberglass was probably not yet available? also note the frt side marker lamps on the cover car, probably has a steel fenders, etc.

 

from the same hot rod issue....

 

shot of the restored toy #8....

 

stricklers '71 car....

 

The crash box was a term for THe Mopar with the syncyros redone for full throtle no clutch shifting.
About 15 years back we were next to him at a nastalga event in Ohio when he wans't busey ne the end of the day Maverick said "George arent you going to ask Grump for an autograph"? I said sure does he have any pic of when he ran a MOPAR ? He did sorta laugh and said I supose back at the shop stop in. I just never got around to doing that.

 

I thought it was #8 because #7 had the smaller Grumpy's Toy and Super Crew lettering on the door. The #7 lettering is also higher on the door.

But then again, what do I know ?

Bob

 

more, '68 camaro SS/D

 

indy '70, #2 qualifer....

 

I'd love to build a 1/12 scale model of that one.... Someone on ebay has the decals for it......

 

I wonder how many seconds JJ had to give BIll. Cause TA/FC's dont play well with Pro Stock cars...lol