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

Dang.. That was a HARD month. The Thrash is over, kinda.

The HAL COLE KK2000 went to indy. I finished all my work in time, and the car looked great! ...but, it DID NOT make laps.

I pulled the typical 17 hour days for a couple weeks striaght, and with the help from my ol' man, Jim at Zakira's and a few other good friends we made it happen.

We had issues with the starter trying to crank the Offy, and finally stopped trying, finished the car, and tried PUSH starting it. That's when we discovered something was wrong with the Timing. We tried all the usual tactics, pulled and checked the Mag, firing order, plugs, etc. Finally as dusk fell Monday night (1 day before it had to go to Indy) we started the tear down on the Engine to check Cam timing. That is when we discovered an ODD thing.. The Intake cam was from a Turbo engine and set up for Reverse rotation! A reverse Rotation cam on a 255, 270, etc is not uncommon... but a 220 Turbo is odd. As many of you know, when you set up cam timing on an Offy, you only look at #1.. and with there being NO reverse turbo 220's out there, there is really no reason to look at the rest of the cam. So, in this case.. the fine gentelman that assembled this 220 before we bought it never even dreamed it would be a factor. To his credit, we had NEVER heard of this either. He (Engine builder) felt terrible about it, and I assured ALL involved that "Man, it's just one of those deals.. do this long enough and you'll see EVERYTHING!!
We thought about making a Bonzeye run to get the correct cam and try to get it in and fired but it just wasn't worth it. There were too many other variables that could give us trouble still yet.. so... I focussed on making it pretty, and taking the car to Indy for DISPLAY ONLY.
Plus... I had 3 vintage Dirt cars that had to be at the MILE friday night to run! (Luckily I was able to pawn the work on those cars off on the fella's driving them! Racer5c, Richcraft Mike, and my pops)


But, either way it was a GREAT weekend! Here are some shots of the Thrash, and the Kurtis' return to Indy after 61 years!!!!


Enjoy!

 

Few more, plus shots of the Dirt Sprinters from the Mile.

The one Shot shows ALL 3 cars.. The #49 with my dad in it, #23 With Roy Caruthers (Racer5c) in it, and #10 with Mike Whitney aiming it.

This was Dad's first time driving in a Vintage event. I told him to close the fuel halfway for two pace laps.. then open it up and let her RIP!! He did just that, paced 2 or 3 laps.. open the fuel up, pulled his belts down AND THE THREW THE CHECKARD AND CALLED THE CARS IN!!! Poor guy didn't get to gas it up much, but his time will come!! (Penn. swing)




It was GREAT seeing a few of you in Indy! Had a great time putting faces with names!



Thanks! J Shaw

 

OK back from Indy, so here are a few photos of the offset roadster (Shores?). When at Indy I showed them to Galen Fox and he thought they were his Genesee Beer Wagon, but this car has low mounted front torsion bars, so it's not Galen's. and the search goes on.
Thanks, Glenn

 

Man, thats a sweet piece! Yeah, it doesn't look much like the 'beer wagon' or familiar, to me, either. I'll look through my old books/mags and see if it pops out.

 

Josh....thanks sooooo much for sharing.......

 

Josh, the "Collection" is growing. Looks like Ken is building a stable of vintage race cars. And he runs them, which is more than we can say for some. They all look great. Over restored maybe, but being an old "show dog" I have no problem with that. Hope my, in the process midget, looks as good when completed.

 

Difficult to tell from the photos but this car just might be the one and only roadster built in the shops of Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska in the very late 1960's or early 1970. I can't remember the name of the builder but Bob Mays, who is an astute historian and now works at Speedway Motors, would know in a heartbeat. Reach him at:remays@speedwaymotors.com

 

HI old age but great memory: That roadster is not one Speedy Bill's, his were modifieds not sprinters. I am quite sure his roadsters were spring front. His cars from 1969 on were upright cars. Bill

 

The cage looks very " Shore-ish " but I'm not sure either.

It's definitely not a Grant King car, his roadsters had the cage configuration that was his trademark.

 

I was wondering if any of you guys heard of a snubber bolt that is on the left side bell cover on my halibrand champ 301 q/c. What was it for and how far are you to thread it in? I also wondered if anyone has ever put a site glass on a q/c so you can make sure there is the right amount of fluid. I had to take apart my q/c on my watson indy roadster. So I thought now would be the time to make this addition. It is hard to take on and off the tail piece. Does anyone know the right amount of fluid to put this q/c? There seems to be some discussion about this.

 

Thanks sramoa. Anyone have any more?

 

WOW what a thread, didn't realize it was over 900 pages long. Unpublished photos to post but they're kinda crappy scans of B&W negatives, circles are for copy protection, not part of negative. If you want the 6 negatives they're for sale with 5X7 prints of each, maybe you can make better prints. The shakeys are part of the film. These are from what I can tell Pomona Raceway 1950. Pros please chime in for clarification.

 

On that roadster,didnt Steve Chassey drive one something like that, Jet Engineering #10?


And Josh,That for keeping us posted on your activities with the new car,etc ! Another beauty!

 

Just got my copy of Vintage Motorsport......and while I was flicking through the pages waiting to pay my newsagent ,I came across the Vintage Shops article on Zakira's.........I got so excited when I saw Josh's photo I shouted out to my wife to come see......it ended up that all the shop wanted to see.......so proud to call you a friend.The last shot of Josh testing the 122 Miller ended the story so well.....Nice one mate.......

 

Thanks for the clarification Bill Chadbourne. I was thinking that the purple roadster sprint car 4x driven by Lloyd Beckman with Speedway Motors signage on the hood was built in house. I continue to be absolutely amazed at the knowledge of you folks on this board and thanks for letting me eavesdrop and learn.

 

The Dowker built #10 Jet Eng. roadster lives in the Don Smith collection theses days. It's similar but the rollcage and front body work is way different.

 

Hi: The only roadster sprint car that had Speedway signage that i know of was Joe Saldana's roadster that he and Don Brown built. I don't think Beckman ever drove it, it is now in Speedy Bill's collection. Backman did drive Speedy's roadster modified. Bill

 

Thanks again Bill, maybe I should make a new name and have 'old age but poor memory' Having said that I remember Beckman in a purple 4x offset roadster that he ran with Speedway Motors signage at Spencer and Denison in Iowa with IMCA and the Cheaters Day race in Sioux Falls. I agree that Lloyd never drove the Saldana/Brown car and I also remember the Speedway Motors signage on that particular car. The day he ran in Sioux Falls he spun off the track and down a steep incline and in typical Beckman verbage said later "that sonofabitchin thing handles like a pogo stick" I recall Beckman driving a variety of Speedy Bills modifieds the most successful was a black cut down '32 Ford tudor sedan also numbered 4x that he used to lap the entire field one year at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa. "Ain't this fun"

 

Lil' Joe in his pre-rollcage 'rabbit.' Speedy Bill sponsored him but I don't think it ever carried the #4x though.

 

My father (Kenneth J. Gypson) and I (Josh K. Gypson) still own this car. It was my grandfather's (Kenneth F. Gypson). It is well preserved and we still bring it to shows with ACOT. I was so excited to see a picture of my grandfathers car on the HAMB. We also have another early sprinter with an overhead valve Alexander conversion that is more of a home built car. We also have an "extra" B-block with a 4 port Riley setup. Just thought I would let the HAMB'ers know this car is still around and in good hands.

 

Here are some photos of Indy. Wed. morning I had breakfast with Eldon Rasmussen with my friend Len Ashburn. Community day was great. Thursday was the vintage Indy cars. In years past they got about three laps at 60mph behind the pace car. This year there were two groups 1964 above and below and 20 min each. The pace car moved right along. On Sat morning some went out again! The 500 was great.

 

More

 

And one more

 

Steve. Thanks for posting the pictures. Wow, I bet it was neat being there.

 

We must've just about tripped over each other trying to get these pictures; I think next year we all need to wear balloon hats or something, so we can find each other and say hi in person.
Eerie how similar the camera angles are...

 

Shoulda known this was Josh's handiwork; it just drew me in.
I especially like the hood prop

 

Those are my feet over behind Schleppi's car in the third photo, I am looking at his scrapbook. How about clown noses

 

Coyote X14 the bolt was a attempt to control ring gear defelection under power. Really do not know proper adjustment. I would lightly bottom bolt against ring gear and then back out a quarter to one half turn, tighten jam nut.

 

They did a GREAT job with that one! We were really happy. Visit us anytime!!

J Shaw

 

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hey, I needed a Hood prop... looked all over for a stick, or sign to steal but Indy is CLEAN!!! No hood props laying around.

HELL!! THAT ONE COST ME $4 !!!