there was a T roadster that ran the lakes right after the war (if i remember correctly) that was setup "backwards"
There's a great scene in the movie "A Bronx Tale" where the mafia/goodfella type character starts a conversation with the main character as they get into his car. He backs out of his driveway, down the street, through a few intersections, turns, etc until they park in front of the local hangout without shifting out of reverse!
Thought about re-bodying my circle track car with a Corvair body thats sitting in the back yard. Measured it up, and it would fit better backwards. We almost did it, might still do it. I'll get back to you on how much beer it takes.
Yer not nutz as some have said I remember seeing that article too. It was a 59 Chevy, as I remember the cat eye taillights ( my dad had a '59 when we immigrated to Canada as a kid) For some reason I thought it was Popular Mechanics or Popular Science because I think the article was about the fuel crisis etc... and the backwards car was used as a visual analogy to old technology.
The HAMB friendly lakes racer was pictured in the Trend Books #102 Hot Rods on page102. It showed the 27 T driven by Bob Corwin and belonged to Manuel Butkie in c class. And yes, Stroker did a cartoon showing this combination. It might be interesting to see who was first with this idea Mr. Butkie or Stroker, Tom Medley. deChrome
I was driving down in Mexico like 20 years ago.... we damn near put ourselves in a ditch when a car darted on the freeway BACKWARDS. yup, reversed the chassis and though us for a loop!
I'm pretty sure this is the right answer. I seem to remember it was done by one of the R&T cartoonists, Phil something? as a goof, and created a huge ruckus when driven over the Golden Gate Bridge...
From Dean Batchelor's The American Hot Rod, p. 60: "Manuel Butkie's Backwards T modified roadster. The class rules allowed some streamlining ahead of the firewall, but from the firewall to the back of the body, it had to be stock configuration. I suggested to Butkie that the '27 T body was better aerodynamically if it were turned around. He did it, and I drove the modified roadster 148mph at an SCTA meet. Manuel is shown here at a Russetta meet. The sight of the car seemingly running backward through the timing traps was a bit unsettling to the timing crew." Dean Batchelor photo (courtesy of my crappy phone cam).
Hope you've got time to read. Many years ago when I was going to art school, I had a professor who knew I was into cars. He had been hitting the complimentary wine fairly hard, when he relayed this story. While he was in Vietnam he worked as a cartoonist for the military papers with a guy named Phil. Now I have to set the atmosphere for this story, The professor was kind of out there, and his lectures were quite strange. But, he knew how to capture an audience. So, there are about twenty of us sitting around a fire, drinking beer, and quietly snickering about the fact that he was lizard eyed, and telling stories. Seems that Phil & him had went into this little Vietnamese novelty shop, where they happened upon a stuffed creature that looked like a cross between a pig and a bear. They couldn't resist the novelty of this creature, so they bought it, and proceeded to have fun putting it in people's bunks & different places in the camp. the reaction was always the same. "What is that? It looks like a cross between a pig & a bear." More exploits were performed with said creature. Some one finally suggested that it should be sent to the Smithsonian to find out what it was. We were all curious at this point. It had been an entertaining long story up to this point. When the professor was sure he had us all hooked, he said, "Do you know what the Smithsonian said?" " Near as we can tell, it looks like some kind of a cross between a pig & a bear." I made the mistake of asking what happened to Phil. After they got home from Vietnam they corresponded for a while. Phil made headlines by taking a 59 Chevy and flipping it around, got into trouble on the Golden Gate Bridge with it too. Later Phil became Philomena , San Fransisco? And now you know the rest of the story.
The 65 GTO was raced since it was bought new . Les is the original owner/builder. He was modifieing it for Funny car class and by time it was done they went to full glass bodies . He still raced it in the early seventies ( keep in mind the car wasn't worth shit back then ) . I'm told the car went 8.6x's , has a SD 389 bored to 400cui and runs dual quadrajets . They converted to street legal in 80's . He tows it with a 71 Cutlass conv. on his himemade single axle trailer still
The Pinto deal (you can't mount the body backwards on a unibody car) was done in the windtunnel to see if the Aero was better. Urban legend says it was Winna Winna, Chicken dinner! Ding ding ding Man that's hard on the eyes, and brain. Thanks That's some imagination you got there .....
I couldn't make up a story like that. I can provide the professor's name and # if you want to verify the story.
Didn't Hot Rod Cartoons or someone like that build a wheelstanding funny car with the body backwards? It was a fastback car, same as the 'Hemi Under Glass' with the big flat back window. This would have been in the late 60's early 70's from vague memory... Cheers, Glen.
San Francisco in the '60s. I wish I could remember that. I don't know about the car at all but that doesn't mean it doesnt or didn't exist. The backup pickup was a wheel stander in that era and it was mounted backwards.
The Jalopy Journal
