Motion Pictures Sports Car Racing - 1963

Ah, a man after my own heart.



One day I will build the short wheelbase, overpowered, overrubbered, sporting roadster that I've had on the drawing board for years, but not until my sheetmetal skills have advanced to the point that I am comfortable fabricating the body from scratch.

I'm starting the ch***is for my '36 next week, which will be built in this same vein (big motor, big brakes, smoke, terror, etc ). It'll be a road race/sports car ch***is, albeit one wearing some decidedly un-sports car like tin ('36 Ford Tudor Sedan).

Very glad to see I'm not the only fellow on the HAMB addicted to CanAm cars and road racing in general.

I might be married to dirt ovals, but road courses make for excellent mistresses.

 

Number one...Ya'll need to buy and read "The Last Open Road" by BS Levy(http://www.lastopenroad.com/) Buddy Palumbo is my hero!
Basically, it's fiction that loosely chronicles the history of sports car racing in the US. BS Levy is one cool Cat, met him several times at Sebring, Lime Rock and Elkhart Lake, while I was working as race mechanic.
Secondly...An Allard J2 trumps all these Cobras and Cheetas, as the grandfather of big motor/little body american muscle. Bad boy had '49 Cadillac power with a straight axle. Good Thread Ryan!

 

The VLV race scene... some good stuff in there. Elvis actually runs a silver Elva, not the Ol' Yaller.

 

Yes, The Last Open Road is an excellent read!

B.S. Levy also did a second book to The Last Open Road, called, Montezuma's Ferrari. It's about the 2000 mile La Carrera race through South America.

 

My friend Tom Masa was the crew chief on this in the early 60s. They won alot.

 

Ol' Yeller was in the movie though. Here is a shot of Ol' Yaller tailing Augie Pabst in his Scarab at Road America.



Here's a clip of John Plaisted's 1954 Cheetah race car. Very simular to Ol' Yellar, but fender less.

 

I love the threads about sports car racing. Some cool stuff always pops up. This is my favorite form of motorsport as well. I haven't had a chance to check out the other videos yet. Ryan's video is on the boring side but it is exactly how most from that era were. Perfect representation I'd say. This just makes me excited about the Mitty's. I hope there is a decent turn out all things considered. And like Ryan I too dream about building my own special. I've had some ideas spinning in my head for along time...I just never seem to have the time and money simultaneously to do it.It won't be the type to make the earth slow, but it will be cool and fun.

 

Nothing like a race on spectator lined streets. Don't think you would see that today.

 

And Ann Margerat too, doesn't get any better then that.

 

It's what I grew up with. Dad bought a 56 Jag XK140MC brand new and raced it all over the east coast. I was also born in 56 so from birth I was getting dragged to Thompson CT, Sebring Fla, temporary road courses set up on old military runways and in parking lots, etc. The car in my avitar is a Jomar. Built in Manchester NH by a bunch of local guys in the upstairs of a car dealership. Took the car in the pic to Daytona in 1959 and surprised the hell out of alot of the factory big buck teams. Dad is the guy on the far right and the pic is taken at Daytona. He also raced an Allard and at one time I owned a Ferrari V12 engine & trans he had bought from a wrecked racecar and never done anything with. Sadly I sold it many years ago. It would be cool to use it to build a hotrod.

 

Vette independent suspension ch***is basically didn't change much from 63-82 and from 65 on they had 4 wheel disc brakes. The later ch***is are readily available dirt cheap since the mid 70s to early 80s cars aren't worth squat. I'd find one of those if it was me and I wanted the best bang for the buck. Have to see if the wheelbase is compatible of course but the frame can always be modified.

 

Devin made the SS body for Corvettes and Corvairs. I saw a corvair Devin SS at Iola swap about ten years ago for sale, and it looked just like your body. I willing to bet that would fit perfectly on a Corvair ch***is.

 

Convertible, but hell yeah, it was! One of my favorite movies of all time... shown at the inaugural Lawn Chair Drive-In last summer!

Jump ahead to 5:20...

 

Good times for sure...

 

Just as long as you don't let him buy fancy driving gloves and twed sportcoats with elbow patches!

 

Those cars are running around on some pretty small rear tires.

What would have been the tire of choice for this type of racing in 1963? ...would it be a raidial or bias ply?

 

Uh...would you mind making a few copies of that?
i'm building a GT6 with a 289 for fun, but that body already has my mind churning with ideas for a ch***is.

 

Didn't have radials in '63. Stock on a new Corvette was 6.70X15, race tires would have been about 7.50X15 Blue Streak Goodyears.

 

Europe made radials in the 50's but I don't know if they would have been used for racing in 1963.

 

Great video, Ryan. Lots of Healeys for me to check out. Nice shots of the Glen when you could still see the cars and not the armco. How often do you see an Elva ("She Goes!") being chased by a Sabra ("Israel's best sports car." "Israel's only sports car"

PS: Buddy Palumbo rules!

 

You are right Flipper. I guess I'm just thinking American tire Co.s.

 

I grew up about twenty miles from The Glen and as a very young boy actually went to a couple of the races through the streets of Watkins Glen with my parents. I went to the very first race at the purpose built track up on the hill and went to most every race there in the late 50s up to the late 70s. Some of the best racing was the SCAA regional and national events. Many of these were non-spectator events but we always found a way in. The drivers and cars on Ryan's video were typical of the hard core low buck racers that made up most of the regional sports car racing in the northeast. As an aspiring driver I found it cheaper to go dirt track racing instead of sports cars but I always wondered what would have happened if I could have afforded a sports car instead. Either way it was a great time to see sports car racing grow in the USA.

 

If you poke around you can usually find a Devin body for sale. A few years before he p***ed away Bill Devin ran off a number of SS style bodies from the original molds he still had. They show up every once in a while, but not cheap.

I would probably go with a solid rear axle ch***is instead of an IRS ch***is. It's just simpler and more age appropriate.

Kurt O.

 

Great stuff Ryan! Use to hit Riverside as a kid...talk about being inspired!

 

Yep..spent another day running around the mountains p***es here in my old warhorse..
My XK120S raced from it's birth..then was converted to SBC in 1957 to stay compe***ive..was raced until the late 60s...or so.
I bought it in 1973/4..and put it on the road.
When I bought it (from the **** of the Universe)..small roll hoop..interior gutted..aluminum bucket and heel/toe hung pedals ( I kept those). It still has the three holes for mounting the race screen..the windshield on mine is from another 120 I restored.

Every time we go out..it'd like a day back when it ran in anger.. Just an old race car..and an old racer...
Gratuitous picture included...

I slip back in time behind the wheel to Cotati..Paramount Ranch..Pebble Beach..all the places I read about as a kid in the 60s..and dreamed of racing.

 

Here is a video of Corvettes at the 1960 LeMans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kshjUAmiTss&feature=related

 

I had a lot of sports cars over the years and they were as much fun as the hot rods I built, albeit for different reasons. Loved the racing scene at Willow Springs and Riverside way back in the day.

I was told that Old Yaller MkII was in NZ for the Bruce McLaren Memorial last month. This is a car I loved (a true rodder's sports car!) since it was built by Max and Ina Balchowsky more than a half century ago. If I'd known the car was in the country, I would have gone to see it rather than waving flags at nutcases riding obsolete motorsickels that weekend...

 

I had a lot of sports cars over the years and they were as much fun as the hot rods I built, albeit for different reasons. Loved the racing scene at Willow Springs and Riverside way back in the day.

I was told that Old Yaller MkII was in NZ for the Bruce McLaren Memorial last month. This is a car I loved (a true rodder's sports car!) since it was built by Max and Ina Balchowsky more than a half century ago. If I'd known the car was in the country, I would have gone to see it rather than waving flags at nutcases riding obsolete motorsickels that weekend...