History Jack Bayer Z-11

Link:

https://www.348-409.com/forum/threads/bayer-z-11.55154/

 

Not bad. Needs a Mooneyham blower though. Hehe.

 

I'm under the ***umption and may be wrong that the car had the aluminum pieces swapped for a stock steel pieces and a 425 hp 409 was put in it and it was put in street trim as shown in one of his photos.

 

It all sound's pretty Janky to me...

 

The Petersen photos shown are Winternationals 1965. The 55 Chev (Ken Petersen) VS Z-11 (Bayer) was not for the cl*** win as no NHRA "trophy" window stickers. The BMP cl*** winner was the Ernie Dutre (Corvette) that went on to win Street Eliminator that weekend.
Cl*** winner and Eliminator lists are found but participant list for events are hens teeth. During those years they usually printed a "stuff in" for the event programs including entry names that were sold at the track but nothing was published. The scans Janaki posted earlier from Drag News is probably your best info from that event.
Edit: I referred to Z-11 car as Bayer only because there is no info to driver ID. The Petersen site only shows location, dates and photographer and not always correct. It is still very useful and addictive.

 

I have all of the aluminum pieces except for the hood and the fan shroud. I have all the correct and original top end pieces Heads, valley and intake, guide plates, fuel lines and a nasty looking camshaft that I’m trying to get more info about. I do not have an original recip ***embly as yet. If I don’t come up with what I need I will build out the engine with a 396/427 steel crank which has the same stroke as the Z-11. Cut down the snout to fit a HP ‘09 balancer. Use 6.135 rat rods which is the correct length and then have new piston forgings custom made. I have the correct carbs and factory exhaust manifolds. The car ran ****** Headers and I have a set of period correct ******s from my previous race car. I have several correct early Super T-10s I need to find a correct date coded P carrier for the posi diff. I don’t have the Z06 vented brake backing plates but have pics and templates to cut them. I already have the correct sintered linings. I do not have the cowl induction AC. But they are available. The missing hood and shroud can be fabricated. Originals are available. I plan to bide my time and to either locate a restored 4 spd car in Monaco Blue /blue interior or an early ‘63 donor car to restore. Either way the car will be a rebody when done with all the Z-11 pieces in place.

 

Thank you 1320 Fan.
I don’t believe the car was owned by Bayer at the time of the ‘65 Winternationals. My source says he sold it by 1965. Does Peterson’s photo list the car as Bayer’s? The car had been sold and relettered by its new owner. This persons timeline is one of two gaps in the ownership history I’m trying to track down.

Maybe the NHRA Museum will be able to help me further or it might be a dead end. I just figured I’d try this venue to see if there were any hits. Those saw this car run in the day would be in their late 70’s and beyond today.

 

If you believe the fenders are from the car build away with a tribute. Can you afford to pull that off?
If I had some Z11 top end pieces I would put them on my race engine and treat them as they did when you could buy them over the counter.

 

I absolutely know the origins of the body pieces and the top end pieces at this point. Can I pull off a tribute car? The short answer is yes. Once I locate a suitable donor car. They are out there as currently a quick search shows several Monaco Blue cars that have nice paintwork and one is even a 409/ 425hp 4 spd car which would make this build move quickly along. Suitable cars are out there. If I wanted to build a car down and dirty someone else’s restored car would be the quick means to an end. By replacing SS trim levels for standard Impala, replacing bucket seat with the correct bench seat, removing optional equipment and adding delete plates for the radio and heater and making the necessary cowl mods for the air cleaner. Then either purchasing an original hood and aluminum shrouds or have them fab’d. Or the other option is to find a suitable donor and build it from the ground up which would be more costly and time consuming in the end but I wouldn’t be correcting other’s restoration mistakes and the car would be done correctly and to my highest standards. This wouldn’t be my first restoration rodeo. I have done in my past a 62 SS 409 which is about to undergo its second restoration. I’ve own this car since HS. That’s been 45 years of ownership. I had a 62 Sport Belair 409/409 that I restored in the late 1980’s. It was my nostalgia drag car. I’ve restored multiple Salsbury motor scooters and currently selling off this collection as well as vintage HD’s. My alternate ventures in the decade has been with multiple MGTD ‘s. My first ground up restoration was/is a fast road car purpose built for vintage road racing The second was/is a factory spec compe***ion model that my dad had ordered in 1951 and was his weekend race car and daily driver.

Do I have the skills and abilities to take on this project …most certainly.. Once I thin my herd of past restorations and spares of MG, scooter and 409’s parts to make room for this car build. The project will move forward at a quicken pace.

The point to all this is I have the pieces mostly intact from a single true Z-11. O
Know where to obtain the missing parts. I bought these parts to keep them intact rather than to have the parts separated and ****tered. The history is in the parts as a whole not parted out My belief is it’s important to keep it that way. And to build a car in tribute to both the late Jack Bayer and Bill Bader Chevrolet. How quickly this project is completed is left to my determination to see it through. But this is sidetracking from the OP which is an attempt to gain further history on this car’s ownership history.

Thank you all for your responses …even the negative comments. Everyone is en***led to their opinions. Negative comments won’t deter the end goal I have for this project.

 

I know the PO and when the car was purchased. I was present. I already know why the decision was made to s**** the car and it has been revealed on the Bayer Z-11 thread @ 348-409.com. I did say “remains “. I never said I had “The car”. Any inference was solely by those who made ***umptions. Only they are responsible for their misrepresentations in their own minds.

I also referenced the Bayer Z-11 thread on the other site so anyone could read what I indeed had and what history had been already uncovered. That was done for two reasons. First, so I didn’t have to go through the entire litany of known history here. Second, the sole purpose of this thread was to seek out information regarding the possible second ownership. Thats it .. Given that those who would have firsthand knowledge would now be in there 70’s and beyond may have been too much to ask. But it’s all I can do to ask.

I’m trying to stay on topic with the intent of the OP., but this thread seems to keep straying from the requested topic. At this point the topic doesn’t seem to be offering anymore useful information. Perhaps it’s time close it or bow out and let the topic stray off course. I don’t feel the need to defend myself for others ***umptions, for simply asking for history on the Bayer car or what my plans are for the project. Nor do l need to read, “ if it were me , I would do this or that” comments. Non of which are productive to the thread OP’s stated purpose. I don’t expect those who make such comments to understand my purpose or intent so I’ll just let it go at this point and hope that this thread will stay on topic and cordial. Otherwise, I’ll bow out and close the thread.

To anyone who has further interest in the direction the project takes can follow it on the other site dedicated to the preservation of these rare cars.

 

The car in deed does not exist. The main body and frame was crushed. It did not enter an auto wrecking yard for further salvage. Which was a sad end. As this car was complete and solid at the time it was dismantled by the PO. Like many old race cars back then , they didn’t have the value they do today and the true history was unknown and couldn’t be verified. There was no internet, no networking and no forums to search. A bad decision was made. It was as it was.

 

Now you are saying "the true history was unknown and couldn’t be verified. " So the parts might not be from the Bayer Z-11 as you know the car they came from but no verified history of the car.
I agree with Moriarity. Your postings, meant to be or not, have been misleading.

 

I have a different take on this, the key words in that sentence are “back then”. He’s saying at that time it was just another wrecked car, nobody cared and there was no way to determine that it was a Z-11 with the unusual heads, manifold and aluminum front clip missing and a heater installed where the block off plate once was.

 

I agree this post is all over the place and intentionally misleading from the beginning, but I would love to watch this car come together in a build thread here.

 

You guys are driving me nuts, the information wasn’t available 45 years ago. Read the damn posts and go to the sight before you come at me with all the bull ****. I’m done here