Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

What's with the "camel hump" behind the headrest? Think it covers a small roll hoop? Never seen anything like that before. Kinda ugly, IMHO. I guess if it's original it should stay, but if it's not as Trevis built it & it were my car (wishful thinking), it'd be gone.

(NOTE: For some reason [operator error?] these downloaded as "attached images", not thumbnails, so you can't open them in a pop-up. Don't know what I did different. Anyway, what I'm talking about is the burlap-bag-looking bulge protruding from behind the top of the seat; didn't know old racecars got "dowager's hump")

 

Could it be a filler cap?

 

Tommy Dickson's Trevis was Lou Blaneys #10, one of the first 4 bar space frame that Floyd built. I was after Tommy to restore the car for 15 yrs. Now that he is gone his son is going to restore it.

 

just a little update of my cageless early sprintcar modell in 1:3,5 scale: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ford-1932-3-Windows-Hotrod-135-scale-RC-Project/128373623894141

 

Now that I got a better capture off of the ebay posting, you can see it better. Does look like there may be a filler under that hump in this view. Never seen a filler cap with a cover quite like that. But then again Trevis-craft sprinters have always looked more, um, "utilitarian" to me than, say, a Hillegas or a Kurtis.

 

"Utilitarian?" Are you nuts? I tear up wheneven I see an old Trevis car. They're beautiful. Ok, maybe it's personal to me and I over reacted, but my dad never drove a Hillegas or a Kurtis. God bless Floyd Trevis and all the cars he built.

 

One night very late in Marietta, we gave Tommy a ride to the bus station in his Army uniform. (Maybe it was National Guard?) Anyway, I remember crying because I thought he was going to Viet Nam and we wouldn't see him again. We saw Larry make it big and leave. We saw Paul get hurt. And, now Tommy was leaving?

 

jjones752 - You know I still love ya.

 

Easter... I am with you. Taking my Trevis out for a spin tonight with EMMR.

 

Joe: Alittle more left rear and she wont want to "Spin"!...

 

Back it in once for the old guys.

 

I thouht I've seen this car before ,it was in the june 2009 Hemmings,

 

This is an early Bill Thomas sprint. It was the former Deb Snyder hillegass #3. Deb won over 50 races with it in 1953. Blaney and sveral others ran it for Thomas. I have a big Offy for it and will restore it as Debs car

 

Do you know where this picture was taken?

 

I have the run down in my files, I`ll check but my files look worse Than my shop. I want to post pics of the different grills but I cannot find my camera.

 

Hi Stan! How've you been?

 

I was at a body shop in Beverly NJ and the owner had purchased this TQ from Roland Willis. I don't know anything about it and was wondering if anybody knew anything about the car. It was kind of updated with Carrera Shocks and Simpson belts, but notice the drivers names listed on the side. The shop is not really into racing - just purchased it about 5 years ago. Very nice car.

Update on the above-referenced TQ post: I bumped into Ben trimble today and told him about this car. It is NOT the Savona roadster, but a Midwestern car built by Charlie Peck, according to Benny. At some point Benny bought it without the engine. He also said that Bruce from the Konstant Hot racing team owned the car, ar at least had it painted in the Konstant Hot color scheme. I'm going to send Benny an email with the photos of the car that are on this site and with the site's web address. Ben says he has a lot of photos of the car also. Ben gave me hhis email address in case you want to communicate with him directly: bennytee@comcast.net. I hope Benny can get you where you need to be! He's still a psycho after all these years, and still flys airplanes!
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Bob,
sure does look like a Konstant Hot paint job, 1962/1963 time frame. I believe Bruce homeyer and his wife (Lori B) were killed in an airplane crash in 1963. Most of his stuff was bought by Tassi Vatis.

 

The former driver,Ralph Quarterson,Jr.,told me last night that that car was "special"because it was one of the few "reverse tube" cars that Mr. Floyd Trevis built. It was originally intended for a foray into USAC ,but the deal never materialized. John S.

 

Tommy

 

I think this photo may have been taken at the old Clinton (Greater Pittsburgh) Speedway south of Pittsburgh. I remember seeing this car there and the lightbulbs hanging in the background look familiar.

 

Bruce Craig, Lynn Paxton and I were at Tommy`s home in Oley the day this interview was shot.
I have over 10 hours of tape recordings of time I spent with Tommy. His wife Betty would make me hand her my recorder , I kept another in my pocket turned on. Later she told me that she knew I had the one in my pocket.
I sure do miss the time we spent with Tommy. He was at every movie party till he passed away. I was proud to be a pall bearer at his funeral where we all released blue and yellow butterfly`s.

 

I`m probably wrong putting a post with a sort of a wing midget on this thread but the driver looks familiar.
Bob Ciconi who is the driver with all that hair? The car is the former Strapoli #66. Got this one in the barn.

 

I feel that Tommy has been overlooked in the last 20 years when it comes to looking back at the Greatest of all time. I still have a hard time saying Kinser is the greatest, when I look at Hinnershitz's record, and the likelihood of even surviving the era.

 

Awww, shucks.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Being an ex-California kid might have somethin to do with my taste for Kurtis, Watson & Edmunds creations, although I also think the East coast stretched midgets had a long, lean look to them that I always liked. Maybe "utilitarian" was too strong. Handsome? More of a husky-voiced, Kathleen Turner type?

 

I always liked Kathleen Turner, and now perhaps even more. Sliding down into a Trevis cockpit.........well, you see where I'm going with this. Speaking of "Beauty", how about the other end? Here's a picture from 1964 (sent to me by Curt Grogan - thanks) of my dad Luke in the homemade box and one of the first sprint cars I ever saw, Jim Fizer at Ohio Valley in Parkersburg, WV. Jim's sprint, Larry Dickson in the Long Bros car, Paul or Dave Reed driving the white Mouse (I think it was a stretched midget), Frank Burriss in Buzzy Dill's Deuce, and Gus Linder's bad black #69: yep, those were the first Sprint Cars I ever saw on a track. I saw one in Dean Mast's garage in Ohio, but it was just setting there looking pretty. In '65 or '66, I saw my first USAC sprint race at Eldora. Quite a change.



Check out Jim's trick uniform and those header pipes were a little loud. I also think he did some of his own "groove" work on that left rear. By the way, racing was always this close at Ohio Valley.

 

Actually, Tommy may or may not have been the greatest sprint car driver ever, but the only thing that Steve Kinser can claim to be is the greatest "wing" dirt track super modified driver of all time.
Around 1970, USAC turned all of the sprint cars into super modifieds when they mandated roll cages.

Contrary to popular belief, there is absolutely "zero" relationship between pre 1970 and post 1970 "sprint" car racing.

Thanks to Josh for attempting to keep this great thread about pre 1970 cars.

 

"zero" relationship? Did they not just add roll cages to cars that previously ran without them? I'm confused by that statement.

 

Actually, the confusion started in the mid 60s when the modified people could disguise their flat, square cars with the new cheap fiberglass sprint car noses and tails that were becoming available.

 

Almost all the cars I saw at the IMCA race in Tampa in Feb. 1970, were the same cars I saw at the IMCA race in Topeka in Aug. 1969, but they had bolted on cages.