Smokey Yunick vs. Grumpy Jenkins

i think both men gave us a lot of most valuble imformation on how to make power and it was simple imformation to some .iam realy sorry but i cant pick one . smokey gave use the flow bench light years ahead of the others and torque to yeald bolts witch are a SAE standerd grump gave us a great knolage of head flow and header design both are my heros and to me they both are the same. Great men in there times

 

I just finished reading Yunick's book "Best damn Garage in Town". There's a lot of tongue in cheek bullshit in the book but if half is true then Smokey Yunick liked to get laid a lot.I'm thinking most guys here would rather get laid than mess with engines.My vote is for Yunick.

 

Smokey defined innovation in so many ways. He should be an inspiration to us all.

 

I like apples,

so

i'll go with the Grump.

 

Ha! That does sound freakin' gay!

 

Grumpy!

 

You're comparing apples to oranges, i.e., one was involved with circle track the other with drag racing. I say both were/are creative geniuses and above par innovators.

Pete

 

in a fight between these two, Chuck Norris would win.

 

My father-in-law knew Smokey, both WWII vets, from the 40's on down there in Daytona, so I got to go with Smokey.

 

Hi guys,
Got this in my web referrer links today and popped over to see what you were talking about. Interesting debate. I'm pretty sure in the right circumstance they were both pretty gruff- I know Smokey could be. They both dress(ed) kinda funny- I can remember Grumpy at more than one banquet in tux and high top tennies. Smokey refused the tux. He wore dress slacks, a silk Mickey mouse vest and a tux jacket, with cowboy boots and always the hat. If they were ever pitted evenly it would be quite a fight.

And now for a couple of clarifications to some things in this thread- not because I want to dog anybody, but because there is so much mystique and halftruth about Smokey, that I try to keep it as straight as I can.

Smokey had a garage (The Best Damn Garage in Town) full of one-off Ford engine parts when he died that Ford wanted back.

As she who answered all phone calls into Smokey’s shop for months before he died and ever since- this is a good story, but not true. To be sure many many people wanted lots of the magic contained there, but Ford never contacted Smokey or the family.


(Paul Goldsmith) Same guy came back to the beach course in 1958 and won the 500 in a Pontiac also tuned by Smokey, and eventually finished 3rd at Indy as well. I'm not sure if Smokey that was one of Smokey's cars though.

No, it wasn’t. The best he did with Smokey was 30th.


He was working with Chrysler for a while, and took a K-car and built an engine he deemed the "homoginizer" if I remember correctly.In the K-car it was getting like 80 miles per gallon.I am sure that Shell Oil Company paid him dearly for the patent rights.

The power and economy of that engine were fact. The Hot Vapor engine patent rights were never sold for production and are now public domain. Every major motor company; foreign and domestic looked at it. Several branches of the armed services as well. Human resistance to change, extreme cost of retooling and some bad blood from previous motor company experience combined to prevent it’s success. There is one in the Smithsonian. There are more than one running examples in private collections.


I really dig Smokey's "Power Secrets" book.

Just for your information, this book went out of print in January 09. If you have one treat it well, and if you find one used somewhere, grab it.

Oh yeah the reason Smokey ended up in Daytona was he fought so much with the engineers in Detroit that he moved as far south as he could get !! A Damn Shop right at the waters edge "Far Enough For Ya" ??

Not true but an equally good story. Smokey hated the cold weather. In 1942 he also hated his boss. There was a regular door to the outside, flanked by a big ole roll up door. Boss bypassed opened up big roll up door next to Smokey’s work station one too many times and the ice and snow flew in. Smokey took a hammer and smashed the door opening button and moved his tools out. Drove home, packed up the house trailer, wife and kids and moved to Daytona Beach. He’d seen it from the air during airplane test flights and thought it was pretty. He knew it was warm.

All the best-
trish

 

One of the hilites of my teenage years was sneaking into the garage area for the 63 or 64 Daytona 500 and watching Smokey seat the rings of a 421 Pontiac motor by holding it at 4500 rpm and dusting a can of Bon Ami cleanser down the carb. Also saw Bobby Allison with a 56 Chevy modiified with a 396 type engine in it. Only thing is the motors hadnt come out yet so no one knew what it was. They are 2 of the greatest we will ever see, no need to pick just one.

 

Great answer!

 

Grump still works to this day, gunna be 80 next year. was working 2 days after a semi major heart procedure.was there last thursday, he is getting ready to write a book on quadrajets

 

When you hear a thunderstorm,that's Smokey supertuning The Big Guys' roundy-rounder!

 

Welcome Trish! Please continue posting!