I bought this awhile ago. I only know that the originals were made by Jim Harrell. I read he first ran them under the name Tornado, but later changed it to Harrell. This one I think must be a reproduction, I think someone in the Midwest bought the molds at some point. But I’m just wondering if anyone knows the value of this. As shown in the pics, mine wasn’t finished. They never drilled out the holes. So obviously it has never been used. Any info is appreciated.
OK I see them now. I've never seen one before, might be something to cross reference to ebay or similar? I guess if there's not another one on the market, you price it at what you'd like to have out of it.
To the best of my knowledge, Jim Harrell started making these around 1948 or 49 as Tornado's. A little bit earlier Lee Chappel of Lee's Speed Shop in Oakland, California bought the original patterns for the pre-war Thickstun. He called the modified, cut down Thickstun the Tornado. Story that I got from two different old timers (Actually older than me) was that they bumped into each other at a car show, or swap meet and had an escalating verbal argument as to who was going to be "Tornado." It finally escalated to punches being thrown. After Jim was picked up off the ground, his Tornado became the Harrell. It's not told that way in the Harrell book, but one of the guys who told me about it said he witnessed it. It was NOT a friendly name change! To add a little more info, just prior to WW II, Bob Tattersfield bought Tommy Thickstun's business and kept Tommy on to run it. Thickstun was deemed unfit for military service for a medical problem, probably some kind of heart condition, and during the war designed propane intakes for Tattersfield as well as designing the PM-7 (Post war) tall intake. At that time Tattersfield "owned" all of Thickstuns work and patterns as he had bought the company. Tattersfield probably sold the pre-war Thickstun pattern to someone, probably not Chappel, and that person in turn, sold it to Lee Chappel. Some of this information came from Tony Baron who was the son of Frank Baron, who was Bob Tattersfields automotive shop foreman. Frank Baron, who was also a brilliant intake idea man was a close friend of Thickstun and that's how Tattersfield came to know Thickstun and eventually buy his company. I'm old and decrepit and feel I should pass along what I've learned. CAUTION: Some of this may not be 100% accurate, but to the best of my knowledge it is!
Just to add one more piece to the story, Tommy Thickstun died at Lake Elsinore, California in 1946 at his bachelor party. He apparently suffered a heart attack. At the time, Lake Elsinore was a tiny little town with no hospital. As a result, Thickstun had to be transported to a hospital in Corona. It probably took at least an hour to get there.
I spoke with Jim Harrell's grandson @ FLABOB TROG a few weeks ago. He is going to start recasting heads and intakes again. He's working on fixing the original patterns. The intake you have looks like a recast that someone did in the mid to late '90's. I forget know who did that run back then, but they for sale for a few years. Since your intake still needs to machined and cleaned up, I'd say it's worth around $400-$500. If I recall correctly, Harrell heads were based off of the Tattersfield patterns and added Harrell to it
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