A - Pete Tritak/Bill Morgan B - Carmen Rotunda C - Tom Calahan & Sulc - D ? E - Fred Davisson My Guess -- Rotunda???
That does look like Jay, but I was "out of the country" during 1967 & 68 and did not get back home until Nov. 1969. By then Jay had grown some and had gotten into his Hippie stage. Below are photos of Jay in 1970 and 1971. The car in the Kendall ad is the former Brad Watkins, Pizzi prepped G/S '69 Camaro.
OK - heres my stab at this one? Just a deductive guess? A - Manarina ( NOT) B Callahan (NOT) C charlie Hampp (NOT) D - Ken Gunning (YES? my guess) E. Hilbilly Duncan (NOT) F - Jimmy Waible ( maybe?) G - John Thropp (NOT)
two more thoughts on the white tension 57 chev to TMcCrea, i'm 99.9% the first car is history. secondly , the guy who dreamed up the one off tension logo look was a very talented sign painter/graphic artist named jack edwards( AKA smokey tanner!!! ). he did every nice car i ever raced, areally good guy. he grew up in detroit ( his father was a designer for buick motor div. in the 50's ), he moved to omaha in the 60's, then to the dallas/ft. worth area. he now lives in the wilds of arkansas. he was like i brother i never had. i miss him terribly. hope this helps
Rumor was for the last several years that everything in the field where Tension was resting, including Tension, was scrapped. I spoke with the person who saw the car leave the field, and it was infact loaded on a trailer by some kids who were taking it away to "fix it up". So, where or in what state the car currently is is unknown, but from what I have gathered I'm pretty confident it was not junked. -Dean
See how many of the people you can identify in this photo. The Gunning's are a gimmie and four of 'em post on this board.
My first thought was that's a picture of "The Giant". Then I began trying to match the cars with this guy before I realized...... Guess that what 43 years will do.
I think I see Larry Lombardo, The Gunnings,Tim Bishop, Buck Wheatley and possibly Dave Bishop but I'm nowhere certain on this.
Good lookin' bunch! I only recognize Lombardo and the Bishops. Gunnings in their JGG T-shirts! I am hoping to make the York scene this year!! Now if you had put Dom's, Al's, and Dean's cars in for clues?? Then I could have done better!!! Thanks for the pic Tom
I don't know, but, it's a Canadian 150 model that someone has added 210 or BA trim around the windsheild. Probably back then the windsheild was just transplanted from another car to replace a broken one.
don't know much about canadian tri fives. Thought the guy just added the 210 side trim while he was at it. I know the wheelcovers were different that those in the states...not using the four nubs on the rim. Do you know of any Canadian brochures on the net for the 55?
I don't have any brochures. A few of the differences are US cars are painted black under the hood and red oxide painted floor pans while CDN cars are body colour. CDN 150s in 55 have body side trim and US doesn't. CDN 55s that were painted Red are the same colour as a US produced 56 Chev. All CDN Tri Fives came with the delux heater while US cars had the option of heater delete, standard heater, or the delux heater. There are other small things like antenna's, radios, clocks, etc, etc. Back to Jr. Stockers.
This thread has taken on a life of it's own so if this car was posted before I hadn't seen it and was too lazy to go back through 430 something pages.... Anyone know who it is? I don't.
ok, lets try this one more time regarding the" TENSION " 57 chev story. today is sun. jan. 16. i visited with fred anderson at 10:30 this morning and donnie stephenson at 8:15 tonite. there was only one white 57 chev 2dr post 210 sedan, it was run as a 270 horse and 245 horse versions at differrent times with 3sp and 4sp trans depending on the changeing whims of the NHRA at the time. donnie bought/built and raced it from 63' to 65', went to nam' for 66' and 67' at which time fred and wally nissen raced it. it was during this time frame that, get this, the 2dr sedan body was removed and replaced briefly with a very rough sedan delivery body to take advantage again of NHRA rules that allowed for the 270 hr motor with a 4sp hydro trans in comm. bodys!!! anyway, they set 2 natl. records with it and replaced back with the 2dr sedan body!!! after donnie returned from the service, he raced it in 68' and 69' at which time fred and wally built and raced GOOD IN TENSION. a picture exists of the 2 lined up against each other, if i can find it, i will post it. the name originated from a sign in a bar the boys frequented, it read; "sex relives tension"!!! donnie took the white car apart in 70', sold the drive train to a racer in lincoln,ne. the body was sold to some street racers in omaha and disappeared until 6yrs ago when it was found in a farm field in soldier, ia. with numerous other old cars that were all going to be scrapped and crushed. donnie said he returned a year later and every thing was gone. he doubts it still survives. 3 or 4 years ago the GOOD IN TENSION car was in central ne. and for sale. fred and his wife drove the 2 or 3 hr. out to take a look and confirm it was the car. fred said it was fairly complete, but needing a lot of work to bring it back, asking price, 25k. he decided to pass on it. he said it later was auctioned in that condition at the MECUM sale in kansas city for 10k. where is it now? who knows. and now you know the rest of the story from the 2 guys who were there!!!!!! hope this helps, see ya on the line.
That's interesting about Tension! I never knew the car saw so much use in so many variations. Regarding Good In-Tension, it sold for I think 25K (I know it was in the 20's) and was actually in amazing condition. A friend of mine drove the car before it was sold. It had been restored and put away. The problem was, the car had been restored as a stock Bel Air, and aside from the ladder bars there was really no way to prove it was even the car (I'm confident it was, but nothing was similar to the way it looked in the late 60's). -Dean P.S. Is there anyway I could get in touch with Donnie to speak with him about the In-Bomber?
Here is a photo borrowed and cropped from the Thunderbolt site on HAMB. The car is a '64 4dr Fairlane powered by a 289/271 running D/S back when it was new.
you guys need to come to the hot rod reunion here in the ia./ne. area this aug. go on mid-americamotorplex.com for more info. theres a ton of racers and race cars that show up here from back in the day, also, a lot of these guys , and i'm one of them that never use or don't know how, or don't want to learn how to use a computer are there. right or wrong good or bad, its just the way it is. i can't change it, and you can't change it. let me work on donnies ph. # for you. see ya
The New Breed Car Club from Norwich, Connecticut ran this 57 Chevy at Connecticut Dragway. From 1965.
After seeing the recent photo of the Zorro car, I got to thinking and putting together some history with a lot of help from Mr. Wildfire himself, Ronnie Evans. This will tie 3 “different” cars into one car and follow it to its end. fficeffice" /><O></O> Ronnie Evans began racing this 409 ’62 in ’62. It was his first “Wildfire”. He raced it until ’65 when he was drafted. Upon his (safe) release and return to home in Sept ’67 he continued to race it for the rest of the ’67 season then in ’68 he put it back on the street with the same race motor in it. At the same time, Ed Showalter was racing the Zorro 409 car and blew the motor in ’68. Through Roger Sinistri and a fellow who worked at the Grove, they bought the Wildfire car from Ronnie “presumably” for the driveline to repair the Zorro. Ed ended up with the car. Ronnie later noticed it sitting alongside a gas station with the hood off and high in the front. He recognized it as his old Wildfire and kicks himself to this day for not getting it back. Supposedly, it went to NY. Never heard of again. Ed continued racing the Zorro until he quit in ’69 and sold the car to a kid (name unknown) who painted it white with black stripes on the roof and named it Ka-Boom-EE. It was raced briefly, then sold to another kid (name unknown) who also raced it briefly without much success. Roger contacted Ronnie in ’69 and asked him if he’d be interested in buying the old Zorro car (currently the Ka-Boom-EE). A deal was made and Ronnie completely gutted the car and started from scratch, using his own “creative” talents. Repainted red, white & blue, this became the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> Wildfire car which he ran for 2 years. He sold the ’62 to his (soon to be son-in-law) in ’71 for street use after changing the motor and repainting it. At a traffic light one day, a jeep plowed into the back of it and crushed it up to the doors. The car was totaled. Meanwhile, in ‘71 Ronnie was wrenching, tuning and driving the Watchamacallit ’55 of Rich Lairson and Paul Knowl, (sp) which held the record and he won the Q/S class at Indy with it for them. (Ronnie’s name never appeared on the car or in the stats!). So that’s the story of the beginning and end of 3 cars in one. (and a little more trivia) <O></O> Verne All photos from Ronnie Evans' private collection.
Ronnie Evans '62 is one sweet car! Ronnie is amazing behind the wheel as well! A true drag racer over the decades for sure!
Colesy -- Why sure!! Just ask and 'Ye shall receive"!! Jack Bridenthal drove the car, hence the "jack the Giant Killer" on rear of car. I raced against the car on a weekly basis in 1965. Greensburg,Oh was about 15 miles from our local strip, Magnolia - Will also toss i a pic of their T-bolts too for good measure. I may even have some pics of both "before" and "after" restoration. both T-bolts are now in posession of Don Snyder(Snyder's Antique Auto Parts, New Springfield, OH) in his private museum!! Enjoy - Tweed
The Jalopy Journal
