Haler1 are you going to Bruce Larsons open house this weekend??? RD490, myself and Jacks son are going. If not I will ask him where you can contact him.
gaspumpchas wrote: Man it's been years, actually about 48, since I was in Langhorne. Went up there once to check out a car with a friend of my father's. Back in those days I believe it was Reedman's Rambler. They seem to have more used cars then anybody. I use to peruse the Philadelphia Enquirer for neat cars. They had regular cars, sports cars (Triumph, MG, Austin, Jags, Ferrari's, etc.) as well as occasionally some hotrods. Cool shit! Damn I miiss being young.
Heywood65, no I am not going to to the open house this weekend. I would be very grateful if would speak to Jacks son about contacting me. Thanks Bob
I knew jack kulp pretty well. Hung out at jack's shop in penndel pa in the mid 50's. He built a sneaky gmc panel truck that was converted to hold a modified olds engine with a tuned hydro trans. we called it the bread truck. Also was around when he built his willys with 6-71 blown, eight carbed olds. i have a photo of the engine compartment somewhere. But i guess my favorite memory was the '54 olds 4-dr sedan that he ran in b-gas. We used to race at lancaster pa, allentown pa and aquasco md each weekend. The last time i saw jack was in 1957 when he and his wife snooky came to my college graduation. I did speak to him via phone many years later but sorry to say we neber got together again. Truly a great guy with an incredible sense of humor. I think about him and those days fondly.
Haler 1 it sounds to me that your dad may have been a guy we all called ".the general". I never did know his last name but i believe hsi first name was ralph. ?????? Drove a really nice '52 olds 2dr. He was from south jersey and i think may have been a fisherman. Not sure!!
I raced 51 Olds at the Langhorne 1/8 mile. My last race was I believe in 1960? I was up against a 55 chevy with four on the floor. My 2-door Olds 88 had a 39 LaSalle floor shift and I could almost make it to the end of the 1/8 mile in first gear. I was ahead of the 55 chevy and could hear him going through the gears, I knew he would catch me as I was maxed out in first gear so I had to shift. Unfortunately when I hit the clutch pedal to shift the flywheel disintergrated blowing off the rear of the motor. The flywheel shield that was required saved me from losing one or both feet. Yep, I lost the race. After that experience I had to replace the motor and I then switched to a heavy duty Hydromatic trans that was built by the Cranston brothers in Trenton. I also have some Jack Kulp stories I will post later.
My cousin used to race at Langhorne- Dutch Hoag. Got a great article in an old Car & Driver where they were testing a bunch of new musclecars on a road course- might have been Bridgehampton- around '68, and they had Dutch, who owned a truck stop and restaurant in Bath, NY, take a few laps around the road course in a new Brockway tractor trailer- and he set some pretty respectable times, considering the truck was loaded around 40K and all. Remember the last scenes in Smokey and the Bandit? Kinda like that
Didn't they have an unlimited race each fall at Langhorne for "run what you brung" NASCAR coupes? Guy in my home town ran a '37 Chev NASCAR coupe at Agawam, MA in the 50s and 60s, Ross Welding. In his shop he had blower setup, injection, etc. Since they only ran carb at Agawam I asked why the heavy duty speed equipment and I think he told me he used it when he went to Langhorne.
Great picture...I believe the 1/8 mile drag strip is shown down the middle of the oval? When you got to the end you had no choice but to brakeand turn hard. We had to be a little crazy?
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