Whoever Dorothy Tognarelli is, I hope she posts more Oswego (Illinois) photos. She posts and I try to clean them up. I tagged the pic with her name. I think this is a sweet shot. Look at those cars in the background, not a single '67 Goat among them.
I wonder how many actual SWC Willys' are out there. I don't know how many were built as I've seen both blue and black cars in photos, making me wonder how many clones have been built and how many are claimed to be the real deal. Or maybe I'm just being cynical. Also, was their '66 Mustang a rebodied Willys chassis or a totally new build? I have a pic of that car taken at Oswego in May 1970 but don't dare post it to illustrate my question.
OK @quick85 , I couldn’t answer your SW&C question without research, but here is the line up. Stone and Woods originally ran a blown Olds in a ‘41 Studebaker known as the Swindler. In ‘61 they built a Willys, the Swindler II, again with an Olds running B/GS and K.S.Pittman driving. Swindler II was light blue and was totaled in a towing accident returning home after the ‘61 Nationals. They soon built a new II car and in ‘62 Swindler A debuted in A/GS again in light blue and running an Olds. In 1963 Swindler II was renamed Swindler B and at some point the A car got painted black, but I don’t know when. Then both cars were painted candy blue and that may have coincided with them getting hemi power. When the cars went to hemis I think it was Chuck Finders that built a ‘33 Willys for the team, it ran one of the Olds engines they had and was named Dark Horse. Finders only ran the car a couple times for the team and they soon switched to the ‘66 Mustang known as Dark Horse II. The Dark Horse ‘33 was sold to Finders and he ran it for a while on his own but not under the Dark Horse name. I remember seeing DH II run many times at US 30. It seems like they ran fuel in the early funny car match races, but I could be mistaken, maybe it did run A/GS.
Doug Cook was very nearly killed in the Mustang when it crashed. He recovered, but his driving career was over.
Dean when I saw that your old truck was being run on the sand by its current? owner I kind of cringed a little, knowing how it can get a bit "loose" unexpectedly on sand....not saying you can't on asphalt...closer to dirt I guess. Anyways I found this shot in a old Hot Rod magazine in a article named sand storming or something along that line...so was that a sand strip?....if so , then the truck was not a Virgin to the sand after all...was just curious.
Mike Cook, Doug's son, still has the Swindler A dark blue car along with a few of his dads other cars. The Swindler II is the light blue car that is now in the Lion's Drag Racing section of the Price Automobilia Museum owned by Rick Loerenzen. Rick owned the original Barris built front end, shown on the Revell model kit box, for years before he was able to purchase the car from Mike W's estate. By the way @quick85 the Swindler II lived not far from you in Oswego for many years. I used to help Mike take the car to the Meltdown to display it. So in summary there were 3. One totaled and two that still exist. Any others are not real.
"In 1963 Swindler II was renamed Swindler B and at some point the A car got painted black, but I don’t know when." Hello, We have all followed the events of the famous SWC Willys coupes in all stages of development. They stood out as it was an outstanding build and had a very quick reacting driver/mechanic in Doug Cook. I was fortunate to be asked to come to Lion's Dragstrip in 1964 to record and film my friend, Atts Ono's immaculate red 1940 Willys Coupe. It was finally finished and making its debut. What a place/event to make a debut... competing against the best in the Gas Coupe and Sedan Classes. Atts Ono's 1940 Willys Coupe Jnaki Here is a synopsis of the origin of the Black Willys Coupe of SWC, that also made its debut at the All Gas Coupe and Sedan races held at Lions Dragstrip in 1964. Posted previously: 1964 “In 1964 the A/GS car was painted black and given a Hemi. It was a terror and set several records. The black car was run for one season, 1964. It was known as the "Black Widow". The car did not get the magazine attention because it was not photogenic in black. Most of the photos you see are B&W…” thanks... @Joe Troilo “In April 1964, the new lighter-weight Willys, informally referred to as Black Widow because of its black paint scheme was fitted with a fiberglass front end as well as various other lightweight components to make the most out of the new rules. Still, the car weighed nearly 1,000 pounds less than Swindler II.” Hello, I just happened to be at Lion’s Dragstrip in 1964 for the biggest, all Gas Coupe/Sedan Meet. I was invited to film the debut of our friend and fellow Willys builder, Atts Ono. He helped us with our 1940 Willys 671 SBC Coupe and now, after years of painstaking work, he was ready to make his debut. What a meet to make a debut. 1964 Lions SWC single run Every powerful Willys Coupes and/or sedans/trucks, made an appearance at Lion’s Dragstrip on that day. These are the only SWC film clips available from that past historic event. 1964 Jnaki As color is a concern, in a color film or photo, red always stands out. But no one mistakes this nice looking Black Willys Coupe when it made a run. It was fast. Drag Cars in Motion...
RS, that photo has been posted on the HAMB at least once before, maybe more. It was taken at El Mirage dry lake in 1961. The current owner, Steve Hill, has been running the car on the sand the last 4 or 5 years. Steve was finally able to build a proper engine for it, and at the last meet he cleaned everybody's clock and had fast time of the meet at over 121mph. And that is hauling ass on sand! Don't worry, Steve knows what he's doing. My old hot rod is in good hands.
That's a no s#/tter Dean! And always nice to know there is a good caretaker when a cherished car moves on.
Any discussion of the SWC M*****g is moot. As suspected and expected, one of the conscientious moderators deleted the M*****g photo used to illustrate what the team had moved on to. I don't feel the text needed to be deleted but I guess anything goes.
The Jalopy Journal
