Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

First time I ever heard of a Pontiac powered sprint car, that I can recall.

 

There were a few in URC including Don Gillette's ex-Leitenberger car in 1960 and 1961 before he changed it to a Chevy. Also Charlie Buckwalter's car in 1957-1958 in URC; USAC in 1958. Charlie Edwards car in 1961-1963 in URC. Buckwalter's and Gillettes' were fairly successful in URC. Walt Flynn's USAC and IMCA roadster in 1958 before changing to Offy. Others in IMCA too.

 

Do any of the esteemed photographers here have any good pix of the Bill Forbes Indy roadster or his championship dirt car. I'm looking for the lettering graphics for a drawing?????

mac miller in INDY

 

Thanks old Bill,

I`ve got a lot to learn about those good old days.

 

I have read a number of your posts and they are spot on!
What was Long's first name and what became of the car after the race at the Grove in '63? It is good to see you back.

 

Mac Miller,

Here is a photo of Shorty Templeman in the Bill Forbes dirt car. Hope you can punch it up enough get a clear shot of the Forbes name.

 

Wally's 1963 #9 car was built in Eddie Kuzma's shop by a kid named Don Ergo. Wally bought the car from Kuzma and build a couple more just like it. The #1 car that forum member, Wynn's#1, has just finished restoring, is a Wally built car equipped with parallel front torsion bars instead of the cross leaf like on the #9.
Paul Leffler then took over the design, from Wally, and built 40+ of them... some with cross leaf front ends, some with parallel front torsion bars.

The original Ergo/Kuzma #9 was part of the McPherson collection which was sold at a auction a few years ago but I don't know who bought it.

mac miller in INDY

 

Roy- great shots! Thanks for sharing those shots with us.

 

Jeff Barbour from the Reading, PA area purchased the car. He was the driver exercising the Vargo sprint at Hershey this year.

 

If you've still got "a lot to learn" I don't even want to know what that means for me!

 

This thread is a pretty good darn place to go to school. I`m enjoying the lesson plan.

 

I believe this is the Urgo car. Jeff Barbour at Hershey in 2009. He showed me a scrap book with dozens of 8x10s of the car.

 

That is a beautiful sprint car!!

 

Thanks monkaz!! Thats exactly what i needed.

mac miller in INDY

 

The HOW car that became the KEY car was bought by E.T. Morse in Frankfort, Ky. It wasthe first EZRA BROOKS car [number #91] driven by Charlie Masters and others. Charlie bought the car and ran it a year or two. He then traded ittoLeffler for a used Leffler car. That is the first Sprint carGreg Leffler ever raced.The last time Charlie saw iit the frame was hanging on Leffler's wall. Do not know what happened to it.
Jim Graybeal

 

Jim,

Did Ezra Brooks purchase that car in 1966; and is that the car that Charlie Masters drove in 1967, sponsored by "Morse Chevy"?

 

SOOOOO nice to see a Properly restored Sprint car engine in working service! N0 NEW Autozone stamped steel Valvve covers, Old Heads (NO mounting holes in the front) Old style lines and fitting, BROWN cap Mag, Cloth wraped wiring, Copper lines, Old Hiems and Bell cranks, Steel water fittings... I could go on and on.

That stuff WORKED FINE then, no reason it doesn't work fine and SAFE today.

BEAUTIFUL car, PERFECT Engine.

Thanks for the pics, best restoration I've seen in a while.


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BUT!! While we are on the subject, can someone tell me what the Four spoke "thing" in bolted on the firewall? 32' Fords used a device like that HOOKED to the engine in the 4cyl cars to reduce Vibration. But it's got me stumped here.. (as with the rest of you, I have a lot to learn still too!)

Joshua Shaw

 

Hi Josh,

Glad you enjoyed the photos. The car is stunning.

Here is a photo-art of the car in 63 at Terre Haute.

 

I was at at a IMCA Old Timers meet at Arlington Mn some years ago and there was a Pontiac powered car there.
I spoke to the owner and he said it had always been Pontiac powered from the day it was built.
I asked him it he was taking it easy to save the car, and he said that was as fast as he could go on the tires he had there. That he had brought the wrong tires for the track.

Sadly, at a Old Timers dinner I asked what had happened to that car and was told it had been sold and the owner pulled the Pontiac out and put a Chevy in it.
Very, very sad.

 

Buildy, that's Bobby Marshman. He won there that year but don't know if the day that picture was taken.

thx

 

Denny;
Thanks; we think the same. Im not cold- hearted. Its just that racing is sometimes risky; always has been, as it will always be.
Its still the best sport going.
Jim

 

Me too, so I e-mailed Duane Nelson who restored the car to ask him and this is his reply...


The four spoke thing is a (original) fabricated piece to coil the excess tubing for the temp gauge as the stock length was too long.

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Ha! Great! That's pretty good. Makes since, cause on my cars I end up wrapping it around the guage itself!

 

Thats awesome! I was sitting here wondering the same thing! It is amazing how we all scrutinize these pictures to learn every little detail. It is more amazing that we actually get quick answers to these details! Thanks to everybody that contributes!!!

 

Eddie Sachs 1959 at Reading PA. in the Cheesman Offy.

 

Bob Sweikert working on teammate Jerry Hoyt's car at Langhorne. Mar. 20,1955. Not only was Sweikert an exceptional driver he was also an excellent mechanic and chassis man.

 

Re the 'four spoke thing'....this may be a dumb question,but why wasn't the line shortened? And if you guys are still learning,God help me!

 

Because this is a Bourdon tube type sensor bulb and connecting capillary tube that is filled with a gas that expands with rising temperature and the guage face is calibrated, temperature wise, to the pressure of the gas at any temperature within the range of the gas used. So really it's like an oil pressure guage directly reading pressure of the gas in psi but calibrated in degrees F.

Takes no electricity to run it like most later gauges that have an electric sensor sending a varying signal to the guage which again is calibrated on the signal the sensor provides at various temperatures.

If the tube were cut to shorten, the gas is gone and the guage is inop. These guage and tube assemblies came in various lengths but were mostly for normal cars with greater distances from the guage panel to the engine.

I'm sure Smith's made many of them and were commonly used in earlier cars on your side of the pond.

 

love the photos of the #9 rutherford car-it ran in this area for many years as the "Max Campbell Chevy" and later just as the "Campbell car"The car was driven in this area by Don Mack,Harry Thurlow,Frank Witte and Bob "tumbelweed"Nelson-probably a few more I cant remember.It was "found"about 20 miles north of my place and if you saw the shape it was in you would appreciate the restoration even more.It was my understanding that this was the car Dick Atkins was killed in at Ascot?I do have some photos and race programs showing the car in its various paint jobs while it was in this area.