The ugliness and crudeness is what I think makes it cool. Not many people would have restored it since its not really based on an actual car body. Makes it unique for sure.
Damn... now I'm feeling kinda old. These cars are what I cut my teeth on racing. Safety stuff wasn't near as important back then. Good old beer keg fuel tanks, minimal roll cage tubing, (they had a tendency to bend), sometimes had a firesuit, etc.
That's a pretty cool survivor. Back then, you used what you had or could make. (no speed shops) As far as ugly... look at what Bently Warren 1st super modified. No frills.
I found a picture of the one that they drove on the street (and eventually raced) for advertising my granddaddy’s shop. It’s amazing that they destroyed all these old coupes not knowing what they would be worth eventually.
The 30s coupes were 20 -30 year old cars that had no value. When most of those 30 year old cars were turned into race cars, most cars on the streets were not surviving to be 10 years old. In the early 60s, you had to pay someone to haul off your old s**** car, no one was paying you for them. If some kid showed up at your house and offered to haul off, or was stupid enough to offer you $10 for that old junker you had sitting along side of the house, you thought you found a ****er, and took his money with a big smile. they had no value. I started racing in the mid 70s. Back then I could buy the 60s high performance cars for $100 nearly, one every week (when I could afford to buy one), that still ran and performed well. No one was concerned about its future value, they were unwanted junk cars with no resale value. Doesn't seem to be much concern about all the late 70s and early 80s Camaros that got turned into dirt track race cars through the late 80s and early 90s.
This was on FB today, aerial shot of the Columbia River 1950, Vancouver on the left and Portland on the right. On the Portland side you can see an oval dirt track or what looks like one right below the Edgewater golf course. That is not where the speedway was when I was a kid, it was over by GI Joes. Is that a dirt track on Marine Drive?
Same thing for these “Holy Grail” Camaros many were bought for less than $100 and were on the dirt tracks in a week. Before them 55-57 Chevrolets and Fords. Each era had its cheap cars cut up and raced.
Our local dirt track went from racing the old coupes (before 1950 model year) to racing late models (After 1950 model year) for the 1967 season. The reported reason was because the old bodies were getting too hard to find (probably started costing more money, with fewer choices). One of the local guys ordered a brand new 1966 Dodge Charger with a 426 Hemi. He drove the brand new car home and started taking it apart to build it into a race car. I can tell you that was unusual, but at the time, that was about the most cost saving way to get your hands on a brand new 426 Hemi. The 1966 Dodge Charger or 1966 Dodge Coronet were the first two cars Dodge Offered the street Hemi in. The 426 Hemi was first offered in drag racing only applications, or through certain dealerships as a motor only option. For the record, the guy ran that 66 Charger body for many years, and when I started racing in 1974, the Hemi was still powering a car on the track! I guess he made good use of his original investment.
Exactly. I used up several of those Camaros myself, on the dirt tracks of Michigan. Some of the best times of my life. I got one fairly nice Camaro for free, and a couple decent ones around $500. Those cars would be quite valuable today. It makes me wonder if Dodge Neons and Crown Victorias will be valuable cars 30 years from now. That’s what they are using up at the oval tracks these days.
Mario and Aldo (Mario's identical twin) Andretti's Hudson Hornet. Their first racecar. Mario in the blue shirt looking to his right Aldo in the middle looking into the camera. Mario with the car as they were building it.
The Jalopy Journal
