Folks Of Interest Toured Bruce Crower's Shop

I start my new job in two weeks so I've got some free time on my hands. I joined my father-in-law on a mini rod run from North County San Diego down to Bruce Crower's personal shop. We met up in Fallbrook with a few living legends including Don Montgomery and Dode Martin. From there we headed down to Rancho San Diego and met up with a few other guys. All together there were probably 20 cars.

Bruce has been struggling with a a couple of different ailments over the past year but he is on the road to recovery and is doing better. He was glad to see a bunch of hot rodders come by and ogle his stuff and talk cars. Bruce is an amazing innovator that's always thinking way ahead on everything he does.

Here are some shots:

Group shot

My father-in-law's '31 RPU. Has a flatty V8 and a 5 speed. Awesome car.

Nice A Tudor.

*****in' '36.

'32 with an all aluminum BBC and torsion bar suspension.

'52 Chebby.

Don's Willys Coupe.

Nice '35.

Deuce Tudor.

Ford pick-em-up truck.

Beautiful A roadster.

Bruce explaining his experimental 6 cycle prototype engine. Pretty neat.

 

Bruce's A roadster with an all aluminum 600 hp SBC, late model Vette
transaxle, and cantilever suspension.




Early Ford spindles.

Dode Martin admiring.

Sweet T on Chevy ch***is and OHV banger.

Crazy 5 cylinder Mercedes with experimental 2 stroke conversion and blower.



Bruce's streamliner.

Crazy Deuce with a blown SBC and killer Halibrands. This car hauls!

'31 A Couple with Aardema OHC conversion SBC.



Of course there was a bunch of other cool stuff like a straight 8 Nash that was in a Modified Roadster Bruce ran at Bonneville and a home built plane. Someone told Bruce that you couldn't run a Chevy upside down in a plane. So what did Bruce do? He built a plane that had an upside down Chevy and flew it all over the place just to show it could be done. Awesome.

 

Very cool pics. We were down there last week getting some clutch pieces for the race car. Bruce is a very innovative cat for sure.

 

!!!!!!!!!

 

Bruces' shop use to be about a block from Phil's Auto Salvage, where I worked...we could hear the sounds of engines being run up on the dyno occasionally. He'd take them to redline and if they lived, you'd hear them decelerate to idle....if not, the exhaust noise would suddenly just stop...
There was a pantera parked out front of Bruces' shop daily....this was in the mid 70s. The "Palimino Club" was just down the street on the other side of the street...
Chula Vista California, Baby! as da wolfman usta say on XERB..Ahhh, the good old days

 

Very cool photos, thanks for sharing! Looks like the engine demonstration caught everybodys attention! Also great to see Dode Martin enjoying the collection! I had the privilege of visiting Dode's shop two years ago, he is a really nice guy and his his wife is very sweet! Truly a heart warming experience to meet one of my heros from back in the day and find out he is one of the good guys!

Hans

 

Beef Stew, did you get any pics of the roadster with the Nash in it? I did the body work on it a long time ago, and I have cant find any pics of it. Small world, I was just talking to someone about that car a couple days ago.

 

VERY cool pics! Thanks, sounds like a great time.

 

Looks wonderful to me.

 

Sorry no pics. It was actually in pieces. The cage has been cut off and they're actually working on making the car rear engined. I've been around LSR stuff for a long time and I don't remember ever seeing this car. There were some Speed Week inspections stickers on the body that showed 1988, 1989, and 1990. That was a while ago. Maybe we'll see it out on the salt again soon.

 

pics of this plane with the upside down chevy??

 

You can see the plane in the background of one of the pics I posted. The engine was out of it. I didn't hear the story about the plane until after I had already left.

 

I heard that Bruce was building a twin cam head for a Packard inline eight to replace the Nash, years ago when the car dissapeared from the meets. Did you see or hear anything about that. Dolan said it was near finished.

 

Awesome tin!

 

Thanks for posting this! Always good to see my heroes looking human instead of sporting Superman underwear. I'm still holding out hope of meeting Crower and Dode Martin some day...

 

Thanks for the info. I believe it was in 85 or 86 that the car was built. It was a long time ago! I worked on that car when I worked at Unique Metal Products in El Cajon.

 

Looks like a cool time...awesome pix...thanks for sharing

 

I got to visit with Bruce for a few minutes at Bonneville in 1988 when he was working on the Nash powered roaster in the pits. He took the time to show and explain the engine setup to me and what an impressive and well thought out setup.

At the same time this K car wheels up and out pop Don Garlits and his wife. Don doing the hi how are ya and his wife shooting photos.

 

Hey Rich I didn't see or hear of a Packard. Bruce has been out of commission for a while so a lot of his project were put on hold. I'll see if I can find out though.

 

Nathan, did you ever hear anything obout the DOHC Packard?

I'm real interested in the details, but haven't been able to run any down.