Hot Rods The Ultimate Willys Gasser Thread

It looks strange with the wide rear fenders and the rear narrowed.

 

From Bristol Connecticut.

 

Stone, Woods & Cook Dark Horse was built and campaigned by Chuck Finders another one of the gasser greats. I think it was built in either late ‘66 or early’67 and used one of the Olds power plants from SW&C’s early days. The funny cars were taking a lot of the match race bookings and the ‘33 was sold to Finders, he teamed up with Altizer and Kibler with the car redone and named Traveler. SW&C soon introduced their Dark Horse II ‘67 Mustang with a 392 on gas but soon switched to fuel.

 

March, 1959 - Woody Parker's '41 coupe, punched out 283 (all the way to 292) with 3 x 2's:

Custom Rodder magazine.

 

Is that your '58 Impala @jnaki

 

Lemme hep 'ya wit dat... @jnaki

 

Hello,

Thanks for thinking of our 1958 Impala. Yes, it was heavily involved in racing from 1957 to 1960. Then it was our tow car for our 1940 671 SBC Willys Coupe build. But, the photo does bring up some great memories from that 1958-60 activity time period and the following years of recovery/new horizons.

In 1962, my brother thought he was well enough to go to the Winternationals in Pomona. So, we packed up the 58 Impala with enough food and drinks to last several days. He did not want to walk up to the snack bar, as he still had bandages and other first aid stuff. He knew we could get a front row parking space as the dragstrip had long telephone poles marking off the whole dragstrip on the edge of the paving and safety areas.

We parked in the newly opened area as the place was getting packed. Our front row seat with the Impala was about ¾ of the way down the dragstrip. But, the 58 Impala looked like this:

Since my brother was no longer driving until he was fully recovered, I was the driver of the 58 Impala until otherwise. The previous night, I put on the Bruce Slicks for a Friday night of cruising around and on Saturday morning, we left before I got a chance to change over to the normal stock tires. My brother wanted to leave early to drive to Pomona for a good spot to watch the Winternationals.

Jnaki

Normally, we would have just sat in the spectator’s seats. But, he said he was not ready to mingle and so, we picked a great parking spot to watch the race cars zip by. It wasn’t the normal thing we usually did at Lion’s Dragstrip, when we were taking a lunch or dinner break by sitting in the stands.

Plus, we had better food when we got hungry. Our mom was not going to let us go without some of her outstanding food varieties. Teriyaki steak and chicken plus all of the added goodies in the cooler. Including some pickled, thin sliced cucumbers to make us feel at home and eating our “veggies” as per a mother thing…while on our road trip.

Note: The Impala had the 4:56 Positraction rear gears and that made the freeway driving a little tight. But, we did make it an all day thing. On the way home, the C&O Stick Hydro lever was in drive and the white ball stuck up almost as if it were in 2nd gear.
Reverse on the stick shift Impala was "up," as shown. The white ball up as high as it would go. Then several years later, when the C&O Stick Hydro was installed, the the final "D" lever was also in the same position.

Several times, a car load of hot rod folks came up along side us and made the “shift to 3rd” motion as they could hear the motor winding up. But, it was in the final drive gear of the C&O Stick Hydro, so, we just smiled and waved thanks… a little chuckle was eminent at the notion.

The Bruce Slicks worked fine and as long as I did not go through water or we got caught in the evening dew near our house, we were fine. It was a long day and as much fun as it was, it just was not the same as being a participant in the races like we had been doing since 1957.

The Impala is in the Blue color family, anyway. Also, we were never that close to the starting line, but ¾ down the dragstrip. It does look like the Sparks and Bonney Willys Altered/Competition Coupe, but they had quit racing the Willys fenderless coupe prior to 1958. YRMV