john walters from greenfield has been a friend of mine since we graduated high school. he bought the dodge charger from a guy in Madison that knew what it was. it still had the chrome rollbar in it. I remember it sitting in his garage painted white like the pic posted. if I remember correctly john bought it for the aluminium front end on it or it came with some aluminium parts. we knew what the car was but being only 18 we were not looking very far ahead in life. it was sold to a guy that claimed to be Kenny rogers manager. this was around 1986 or there abouts. frank spittle eventually bought it and restored it to the present condition.
They say on the hamb if you dont have a pic it didnt happen. Im on call for the hospital tonight bored out of my mind so i thought about looking for the pics of that day with the lethal weapon. Well i have been looking at pics for hours. I will bore everyone with a few of the thousands i have tonight. First up is a pic forrest pitcock gave me along with a pic of me and forrest. This is how i got the awb factory info.
The mckesson car shown here is a recreation of his original car. His original car became the lethal weapon. Heres a few photos about that car. I had taken several engine photos because when i took off the crossram i was surprised to see how messed up the engine was. I cant seem to find the others tonight.I dont think there were two of anything the same regarding the valve train. Theres a sequence of photos taken at jett townsends house. This is on hwy v. The shaddows on the ground show its getting late in the day. Jetts wife monica took the pics as i drove. These are probable some of the only pics of this car injected as it was crashed the next time it ran. The final two show the car at tri state dragway for the chrysler power magazine show.
We have seen several groups of pics related to a particular car or driver. Tonight its my car. So who better to post some pics than me right? I pulled some out that have stories behind them. I wish i could ask the drvers about stories that go along with their pics posted here because there is always a story. First up george rays hot rod wildcat drag strip located in paragold ar. You just have to see it yourself to believe it. no guard rails and people sitting on logs talk about some dangerous fun. the last pic I'm getting the car ready for the fire burnout. I'm smearing vasaline on the rear of the car
Heres a pic from good guys at indy. Look at the starter just above the roof holding his hat. This guy was really pissed i kept blowing it off. He was getting tired of chasing it. The stuffy good guys staff met me in the lanes to tell me they didnt like the big burnouts. They said not to do any more. I just did more of what i was paid to do. That was more of the same. It didnt go over well lets just say. I started laughing when i ran across this one.
Some random shots. Atco; cordova;virginia motorsports park. The last pic shows joel naprestack behind the car. He is race car artist on the hamb. I was just a kid when joel took me on as a student of ss and fx racing. He really taught me about these cars and all about the details. Gold leaf lettering; rosin burnouts; showmanship and many other topics were gone over. joel was there to witness every major ss and fx race back in the day so he knows his shit. Joel even flagged some races for me.
The story behind this pic is different. While at george rays we went into town saturday night. The town looks like mayberry. I told our group while eating a pizza wouldnt it be cool to get some pics of the car driving around the square. Then that led to wouldnt it be cool to stage some shots like the old popular hot rodding magazine covers with a cop. All we needed was a cop. No joke right then this old cop car drives by. I ran out to flag it down. The driver didnt have a cop uniform but my friend knew some real cops in town. This police woman wrote me tickets as we took pics. I still have them some where.
Good stuff Racer-X, personally I really enjoy reading about the history of drag racing cars. Keep them coming I say LOL.
Heres just a few of the greats i ran into along the way. Mr norm who broomed rosin for me. George wheiler and bud faubel. Lee smith. And the guy that taught me how to do fire burnouts mr.bruce usa- 1 larson. Thats all for now. I really do wish all the photos on this thread could talk and tell us their amazing stories. i was fortunate to have heard a lot of them first hand. i tried to run the car the way they would have back in the day based on these stories. while my race adventures didn't happen in 1965 many out there feel the car did revive the interest in awb cars. a new generation became exposed to these great machines.
Some Darts. There are not too many that are 65 most are too new. Bill Reick Quarterbender getting beat by SWC At fontana
Does anyone know if Terry Ivey used to run the '67 RO23 Belvidere called Poison Ivy? A friend of mine just purchased the car. We are trying to find information about it.
that sounds about right. the car has the magnesium wheels and leaf spring wheelie bars in the photo. the car never ran in modern times with those wheels. the wheelie bars lasted only one day at the track.
looks like they got a new tree at George rays. they used to have a tree with less bulbs mounted on some casters so it could be rolled around. too bad the original tower is gone. I sat up there watching races while we were down there. hands down my all time favorite track. my son and I have been talking about bringing our cars there again some time soon.
Racerx when you decide to go back to George rays let me know I'm not to far away I'll meet you there and help anyway I can Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Love the pics of Charlie Allens car, looks like he was having trouble with that drivers side door popping open?
a lot of guys back in the day did dry hops with the door open. they would then hang out of the car to back into their tracks. they didn't have back up girls yet. it was extra important if they were using rosin. they car had to be right in the tracks. I think it was cool the way they did it back then. no need to keep opening and closing the door.
Photo credit to Perry Ellis and Mike McCarthy's Conn. Dragway Memories. Does anybody recognize the guys in this photo or have any other photos of this car ? I wonder if it might be Roman Pryputniewicz and his brothers.
Pretty distict with the vinyl looking top on a 2dr post car. Is it an awb? I can't tell by the photo.
I have been remiss in my posting been out with some of my distractions having too much fun So a bunch today to make up for my shameful behaviour LOL. It's Dick Branstner day with one of the more "Unusual" ones posted here.
And to make up for my being MIA a BUNCH of Dandy Dick Landy's Dart. Look at the weird angle on the steering wheel and the location of the trans push buttons. Look at the next one to see the WAY high seating position he used.
Before the gold digger was altered it was this blue car. These photos are from george rays while we were down there. Traction is more of a ritual there than a given. Water is used first followed by raw vht. They do burnouts until they feel they can get ahold of the track. Too much vht results in these glue strings. John grinwald bought this car from me after i brought it back to wi. He also bought a complete fiberglass package from me . He did a great job converting the car into a 8.7et wheelie machine.
Salt flats...the tickle me pink car was glass...the ready to race car weighed in at 1630 lbs. it also used a torsion bar front suspension. Ron Pellegrini did the glass body.
Dick Smith G-T Dart Len Silvers Malco Bloody Red Baron Dart Another Len Silvers ? or same guy? Len Silvers Quicksilver Dart again One more of Charlie Allen I missed Rampage again Samson Steve Agajanian Rapid Disposal
The Jalopy Journal
