History Help! Looking for grandfather's old altered bantam drag car!

I'm looking for an old altered Bantam Drag car that my Grandfather built and raced in the sixties. Here is what the car had. It had a fibergl*** Bantam Roadster body with an aluminum firewall. The car was built in the early sixties by my grandfather. It originally had a Chrysler 426 max wedge with a vertex magneto ignition, cal custom valve covers, Cal Automotive Engineering straight axle with a Enderle fuel injection and a shortened tailshaft 727 trans with an olds rear. And from what I hear ran 165 mph in the quarter. While my grandfather owned it, it went through 3 paintjobs. The first was the candy red and carmel. After that he painted it jet black and named it "Back Blaster". Then when he sold it, it was red metal flake and named “Ichabon” ( Japanese for one).
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Here is what I have discovered of the story
My Grandfathers name is Daryle Chip Smith. He owned the Byron Dragway in the 60s and 70s (known back then as the Rockford Dragway located in byron Illinois). When he bought the track he sold the car to a man named Richard Bawers and him and his son Richard Bawers Jr. had the car and raced it for a while.

They then sold it to Terry and Don Patkus who had the car and never really did anything with the car and around the early 80s. He pulled the motor and parted it out at a local auction house. The rolling ch***is was then sold to the Campbell brothers who live in Rockford close to byron. They raced it with a small block chevy a detroit locker rearend. The Campbell brothers had it until the late 80s and then sold it to the last known owner in the area, name was Bill Whetzel.

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Bill owns a powder coating business so just about every little thing was powder coated on the car. The guy that Bill remembers selling it to was from out west around Seattle or portland one of those two cities. He said that the guy lived in a very small town outside one of these cities. The guy that bought it around 2002 worked for the Union contractor named Shaw. He was a pipe fitter for them that came out to the Nuke plant in Byron to fix an outage or build something for them.
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While he was staying in Illinois he was out garage shopping for stuff to live on. Bill said he bought a grille and other stuff to cook with and noticed the car in the garage and asked about it. The guy came back several times and finally a price was pitched and a deal was struck. The guy asked Bill if he could store it until March when he came back to get it. The guy came back in march in a blizzard with some ****box truck and a trailer with a few buddies. While they loaded it on the trailer and taped and wrapped it, the guy talked about how he was going to get drunk and drive it down Main Street back home.

That’s where the trail ends. Bill cannot remember the guy’s name, he says Bob rings a bell. And that’s when I got pissed and came on here to post to see if anybody has seen it out west. When it left on the trailer to go out west around 2002 it had a black paintjob, a small block chevy with a powder coated hilborn style scoop. Tons of powder coated parts.

If anybody has seen this car, or has any information I would greatly appreciate it. This car has TONS and TONS of sentimental value to me and I would like to put it back to the way it was when my grandfather raced it. <O</O
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Thanks Andy <O</O<O</O

 

Good luck, nice car.

 

if you know where it raced you may be able to contact a race club in the area, someone might have a piece of the puzzel for you, over a year ago i bought an old dragster and only today i recived an email from one of the two owners, he sent along a pic from back in the day, dont give up.

 

thanks for the help ill try and see if i can contact the dragway.

 

Love the pontiac wagon too

 

what does btt mean ?

 

Back to top ( bumps the thread up to the pole position)

That looks like a great car. I would want it back,too. Good luck with your search.

 

cool car hope you find it

 

If the HAMBERS can't locate it or give out some clue's your lost! Its amazing how many readers on this site have identified or located old rides. Here you will always be in a wealth of information and knowledge. Good luck in your locating your GF's car

 

Try contacting Jim Livingston at Woodburn Dragstrip- 503-393-5982. It's just down I-5 from Portland. He's been running the track for years and knows all the local racecars. Good luck!

 

thanks man that should really help

 

bttt for ya cool stuff there hope ya get some answers.... jeffrey

 

good luck !

 

BTT for you, hope your search is successful.

 

This is in New Zealand came from that general area I think,

 

Go here there is one of it on it's back wheels, but I can't seem to copy it or link it to the HAMB http://www.bayrodders.co.nz/gallery.html

 

Bump for ya, Hope it surfaces for ya!

 

thanks so do i

 

I bought one from California,5os/60s era.ran mopar ,ch***is was stretched 19 inches at one time and they added an updated cage.was last ran in 1996,thought might be but ch***is looks different.

 

Typed wrong stretch.Ch***is was stretched 10 inches.

 

I think I have the car sitting in my garage but I dont want to sell it Im gone restore it some day





HAHA early April fool day Andy!

 

I know it's not nice to horn in on someone else's thread. But. Since this thread has been around for a while and you guys are looking foe an old Bantam drag car I thought If you see mine you might let me know. I sold it in '65 to some East Bay guys. It's a real Austin Bantam no gl***. T frame Olds rear end. A front

 

no i haven't but that is a cool car

 

hey guys more information on this if you can help me. i think i found the car i need helo from you guys who race at Portland international raceway. there is a guy who races a yellow bantam. the name on the side of the car is Joe Nye. the car has a slow poks car club sticker on it. if anyone can get me his info that would be great.

 

More Pictures

 

thanks for sending me the pictures but i dont think that this is the car i am looking for. thanks for helping out though.

 

I know Joe and the car. I p.m.'d you, G.....

 

I wish you the best my friend. It would be awesome to be able to touch family history like that.

 

thanks man thats really what im in it for is to find my grandpas car that he worked on and actually raced. i have lots of the original parts off the car that people in the area kept through the years as it p***ed from hand to hand. i have the fire wall, hand brake, strutts, traction bars,and two sets of original wheels. just having that is awesome but having the car would be icing on the cake.

 

My experiance with finding things is that they show up just after I buy a new one. With that in mind, if you start building a repicla, your grand dads car should turn up just before you finish the repicla. Right at the point that it's impossable to decide between finishing the new car or using the parts to get Grand dads car running.