Jake, Without pulling out my box of Raceway News and looking for which issue this photo came from, I can tell you it was either 1970 or 1971; no later. Pete P.S. I checked...it was in 1970!
Correct me if I'm incorrect but I believe this car's paint scheme was a beautiful metalflake blue and silver. Or, was it metalflake silver and blue? Metalflake blue AND metalflake silver? Pete
Tony Janes has a lot of the dates and data on Tom's career and the towing accident that claimed his life. Hopefully, he'll see this and fill in the blanks. I met Tom at Jack Bayer's shop in South El Monte in about 1966. Tom was a unique individual who had the gift of a great personality to go along with his passion for Stockers. Who knows where it would have taken him had things not ended when they did. c
I saw Tom compete at the '70 Summernationals. He was a Division 7 racer who was well respected in The land of NED ... traveling a couple thousand miles to race was just 'part of the game' to him. And that, in itself, was really admirable! I don't recall just when word of the accident arrived over here, but I do recall learning about it while in the staging lanes at Cecil, some time in the late Summer of 1970 ... somber news indeed. Details were vague at the time, but really inconsequential, as we knew he didn't survive the car hauler accident. He was certainly on his way to achieving great things. Good to see him remembered here! Tom Neja and Ray Dissette *From Colesy's post #707 ( http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3279816&postcount=707 )
i remember reading car crafts article on nejas ramp-truck (by terry cook) and how they built it, was that truck the truck involved in the accident that tom neja was killed in? was another vehicle involved,or was it some type of failure on the ramp-truck?
Ha! Check out the right side header collector on the ground! I wonder if performance fell-off on that pass? What? Car went quicker?!
cool to see Pete Tritak picture up...he is a few blocks away and still chipping away at it a few days a week
Hey guys and Gals, I would like to tap the tremendous information and knowledge of this thread. I'm working on making a set of decals for Frank Iaconio's 57 Banana. I'm having a small problem. I can't make out the lettering under Rotonda's Speed Shop on the side of the car or the lettering on the trunk. Anybody got any idea or better pics? Cap
Hotrod28: I see Donnie Stephenson evry wednesday night at the cruise in by our house. Email me if you want to get a hold of him
They don't look like the same car to me. One is an Aluminum frot end Savoy....the other is a steel front end Belvadere. Its quite possable that the side trim could have been added during a resto.
According to a Google search, Carmen Rotunda's speed shop was, at one time, located in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Hope that helps. c
On the left side is a tire with the caption " The Peels Got You" with a Bananna peel The 63 had a steel front end at one time. The Aluminum front was damaged in a towing accident... By the way I never said it was the original Black 63, There was more than one.. I remember Rotunda's as being in Montclair on Bloomfield ave. first ( down the street from the Chevrolet dealer that Frank Sulc worked at )before he moved to a much larger place in Bloomfield NJ We used to buy the .043 Stainless rings from Carmen, he had a deal with Venolia..
That makes sense inasmuch as my first reading of the picture (before I looked it up on Google) was "Montclair." Not being familiar with New Jersey, I relied on the computer rather on my eyes. c
'Janet' ... I can't help but ask what everyone on this thread must be thinking (And I really don't mean to be adversarial). Do you actually mean to say that the (virtually priceless) aluminum front end was 'tossed,' because it was bent?
Sorry but back in the day the Alum front end was not pricless, just difficult to obtain. It was beyond "Bent" if I remember correctly .. Carmen gave most people better pricing on Venolia products than Tony Feil or Pete Van Iderstein did. In latter years when Ralph (Truppi) opened his store Ralph helped out the "Racers" In case anyone missed it that is a Tony Feil Decal on Frank Iaconio's car. Frank did all of his own engine work. Tony had excellent machine shop facilities and again was very helpful to "Racers" Dick Moroso and Joe Manley were also a help to "Racers"
Wow! Small world, Janet! I downloaded that pic somewhere on the 'net a while ago and had no idea. Pete
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