History The Scrambler, 1960 - GMC 302 - 12 Port - Nitro - FED

A little bit of history on The Scrambler Dragster.










The Scrambler Dragster was built by Lowell Roemer and his brother in law, Dave Potillo, in 1960. The pair had previously raced a GMC 302 powered roadster and a purpose built racer was the natural progression.




















The car's first color combo was black and gold. Changed to yellow during the 1st or 2nd season.











Homebuilt with tubing purchased from Smith Pipe & Steel in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:City>Phoenix</ST1, a company which Lowell and his father both worked for, the car was soon ready for competition all over the Southwest. Power for the new car was once again, the mighty inline 302.









This particular engine includes forged pistons, Chet Herbert roller cam, Vertex Magneto, Hilborn injection, Horning Accessory gear drive, and an extremely rare Wayne F Horning 12 Port Head that <st1:City w:st="on">Lowell</st1:City> purchased from a circle track racer in N<st1:State w:st="on">ew Mexico.</ST1</st1:State> Bob Blake, who had the first Stewart Warner dynamic balancing machine in the Phoenix area<ST1</ST1, took care to ensure that this nitro fueled beast would spin in perfect balance.


1960-something


Lowell and Dave raced the car from 1960 through 1965 in <st1:State w:st="on">Arizona</st1:State>, <st1:State w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:State>, <st1:State w:st="on">Texas</st1:State>, and <st1:State w:st="on"><ST1California</ST1</st1:State>. The Scrambler won 16 straight Middle Eliminator wins and held the record for fastest F/F/D, for its entire career. A typical pass was in the low 9.50&#8217;s at over 150mph.





May 5th, 2012





Here are a couple links to video of the car.

Lowell taking The Scrambler for a pass May 5th, 2012


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVE10bXWnTY




Beeline Dragstrip, 1963. Watch carefully at the 3:20 mark...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeyndbFO5tU&feature=watch_response_rev


Tuning...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJvBWRrGrQ

 

Too cool.

 

X2 Wow!


Later, Kinky6

 

Thanks!!!!

 

Neat car. Here is a picture of my somewhat similar GMC. Has the same front drive. Pretty interesting. Used '49-53 Ford V8 distributor gears and another GMC cam gear to drive the cam, mag, fuel pump, external oil pump and water pump. I had two of the Charlie Baker castings of the Hourning/Fisher head. But in this picture I am using my Howard head.

 

Thats tough as nails. There was so much history in that shop. Nick, youre a lucky dude.
Tammy and I had a real good time. It was great to meet the Phoenix cool network.
Didja dig into the N/H yet? Ya got the chair behind it? Tammy took the truck to work so I havent been able to play with the Y block yet.
Imagine trading a Y block for a Nail Head?? Whats wrong with you, Bro?????
That was alot of fun teasing with everyone. A full set of push rods. 2 is a set right?

 

It was great showing you guys around yesterday. You'll have to come back November 10th for the Southwest Nostalgia Drags. We'll have the car out and ready to roll!

PS, I kept the other pushrods in case you shorted me some pistons!

 

Here's a video from the Cackle Fest earlier this year in Tucson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LSvoY4QitY

 

I laughed when I saw the guy walking around quickly filming the cars with his iPad

 

Too cool!!

 

Yea, I needed an ashtray. Thats too funny.

 

We are searching for AHRA rule books from 1960, '61, '62, '63, '64, and '65. If you or anyone you know can help out with a copy or some info from these books, please shoot me a PM.

 

Nick, just saw the post about the rulebooks. One of the guys I work with at WildHorse has a couple early NHRA rulebooks if that helps any.

 

Some related articles:

Speed & Custom, December 1963.




P.H.R., March 1963.


Also some more shots of the early version here with the T body in pics 7-07 and 7-13. http://jameshandyphotography.zenfolio.com/p73189976

 

Sorry about the big pics.

 

And I wonder why I can't here now days. Sitting on the front rail with the exhaust right in my ear!


jerry

 

I got to see the car this weekend in Tucson. They had pushrod problems. Looks like it's not the first time? Anyways, I got to hear it run...wild! And Lowell got inducted.

 

I gotta ask because I'm baffled. What are the four vertical pipes running from the head? Can't be intakes and the exhaust is on the other side. They appear to have a flange where they attach... What are they?

 

Maybe that's a photo from before they put the Wayne head on it?

 

I agree looks like exhaust.

 

That is truly a photo of a stock GMC head. Looks like 5 Strombergs and the standard 4 exhaust pipes.

 

I guess I can stop searching for the "Ultra Rare" Wayne 16 Port head... and I can toss the plans for the weird balanced exhaust system configuration. Thanks

 

That was the best there was if you didn't have one of the 12 port heads.

 

3 in and 4 out.

 

Here's a cool shot of the roadster and I believe Dean Turks dragster from a magazine. I'm hoping to find out which magazine.

 

And sometimes bad things happen....

 

We got pretty lucky on that one. Threw a rod, windowed the pan on both sides, but it didn't hurt the crank. There's a small nick in the pan rail to remind us about "that time".

Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Wow is that cool. Music to my ears. I can't decide though if I would say the big balls are caused by driving that thing, or just the risk of damaging some almost irreplaceable parts. Either way, there's some big balls involved. Awesome.