History Where's the Shadoff Special?

In a previous post 'Streamliner Dragsters' a photo of the 'El Tigre' dragster from 1966 was shown. This was actually the old Shadoff Special streamliner that set numerous speed records at Bonneville from 1953 thru 1960. During that time the car set multiple records in the C & D streamliner class plus International records. In '66 Ted Worobieff converted it to a dragster, the El Tigre. So what happened after that? I've been told that in 1980 the body was at Malcolm (Mal) Hooper's motorcycle shop (Gilroy Honda) and the chassis was at another race car shop. Upon Mal's passing his son got the body and also came by the other race shop and picked up the chassis. Does anyone know the rest of the story or Mal's son? It would be a real shame for this famous record breaking car (I think on par with the So-Cal, Chet Herbert and Mickey Thompson cars) to have been destroyed. Any help out there?

 

There is a good thread over on Landracing.com about it.

 

I’m not sure if this it too late or if you will see this But Mal Hooper is my grandfather my dad still has the body frame and some other parts of the Shadoff. If you write back to this I will send my contact information.

 

Welcome Matt. What made you come on HAMB and reply to this post? I'm real glad to see when word gets out and is answered. Thank You.

Pat

 

I was googling my grandfathers car the Shadoff and this popped up. I use to play in the frame of that car as a kid and it’s currently just in a bin. After starting to restore a 56 Ford. Made me more interesting in getting the Shadoff out in the open. But I have no clue where to start

 

Hey, Matt;
Iffen you get some good detailed pics of what you have up here, there are a number of good folks that will give you info on how to go about it. Depends on what level of info you desire. No shame in knowing nothing - everyone starts from the beginning. A list of parts that you n your dad have would be a good start. I'd guess that the 1st thing most would tell you, is don't damage anything, throw anything out, & research what you have in parts. Also before you start a-fixin' , research old mags for pics n info. Any of your grandfathers' friends, or even your dads' friends, around that would know of the cars' history would be a plus - if so, interview them asap -> do NOT wait <- !
Hope to see this brought back to life. .
Marcus...

 

Thank you. The Shadoff I would not do myself, I will have to find someone to restore the way it needs to be done plus would be amazing if i can get it into a museum for everyone to see. I know my dad and grandfather would love for it to be shown once again.

 

Matt where are you from? Like Marcus says there are a lot of knowledgeable on here maybe even close to you.

Pat

 

Im totally new to here so trying to learn all I can. I live in Southern California L.A area. The car is also here.

 

Hello! My family name is Shadoff and we stumbled across a picture of this car way back in the 70's and way far away from where most of my family settled way back when. I would love more information about the car and the history of the car. My dad and son are big racing fans (and have done some amateur racing) and I would love to have more of the story. Thank you!

 

Hi Matt,
Just came across this thread. Didn't your grandfather own the Yamaha shop in Gilroy?
If so I knew him in the mid 70’s. I was in my early teens racing flat track MC’s and did work at the shop for him helping out on our race bikes. Very nice man.

 

The thing with restoring race cars, they changed year to year, month to month week to week. Just found this thread and turned up this photo on a quick Google search. To me it looks much nicer than the OP photo. Bob

 

Jeeze, if I didn't know any better I would say that is Roy Rogers in this pic

 

Roy showed up in another photo looking under the hood of another car. Wonder if the Shadoff body was glass or aluminum?

 

It just occurred to me as I looked over the photos in this thread again... The Shadoff Special was used in the movie "The Lively Set" with James Darrin in the lead role as the genius racercar builder. There were a number of famous cars in the flick, and Mickey Thompson even starred as himself. Anyone else seen this movie? Somewhere I have it on tape in a box in the garage.

 

And there is this from the landracing.com thread...

Ugo Fadini LSR Models / SPEEDONsalt / Shadoff story

 

It is Roy Rogers. He was interested in racing, you'll find pictures of him at various motorsport events.