The Jalopy Journal
The car was owned by Hot Rod Magazine...not a staff member. It was a project car designed to be campaigned throughout the year. The car was built...
Yes...I remember this car running in 1962. It was sponsored by Hot Rod Magazine and driven by Ray Brock. I saw it run at the Feb 1962 Pomona...
I love Pontiacs , but also have a 1963 427/425 Rangoon Red Galaxie 500XL Convertible in my collection.
Reflections of my street racing experiences in the 60's....... In 1963 Ford built about 200 427 Lightweights to compete in S/S. They were fairly...
Let me just say a word about Ford's T-Bolt S/S crown in 1964.... It sounds impressive, but Chevy and Pontiac were gone and Chrysler only had a...
It seemed the Fords were always a little late to the party!! The 390 was no match for the 409 since it gave up 19 cubic inches, 2-4's vs 3x2's...
We never weighed the car..(shipping weight was 3450, but that was with a small block and no accessories) I would estimate we took about 125 lbs or...
As to the '61 Ford 390/401 ....you need to remember , they were encumbered by a 3 speed stick on the column. The competition all had 4 speeds !!!!...
Looking at a few of the ads in the above posting shows a '61 Ford 390/401 turning 12.80's ...NO WAY!!! The hottest 401 Fords of Gas Ronda, Les...
I just got off the phone with an old drag racing buddy and we talked about "tricks" we used on his '62 409 back in the day..... In October 1961...
No doubt Sox was good, but let's not anoint him to sainthood !!! Plenty of guys in the early 60's could power shift without the nose dropping....
Ok....For what its worth, here's my thoughts on ET and MPH vs. driver skills. Obviously, Ronnie Sox is an extreme example and undoubtedly one of...
Then again, looking back 50 years, maybe I wasn't as good a driver as I thought!!! LOL!!!!
I was always considered a competitive driver in S/S and there is no way anybody was going to gain 5 car lengths and 5 MPH in the same 13 second...
A HALF second quicker with a different driver???? That's' 5 car lengths !!! You can miss 2 shifts and not lose 1/2 a second LOL
Driving style would be the first thought, but I was a very competitive S/S driver at the time and was asked to drive the car, only after the owner...
In my opinion, the "wrinkle wall" slick was the biggest innovation of lower elapsed times and higher trap speeds. First introduced in 1964,...
I grew up in N.J. in the early 60's and lived through the factory horsepower wars of 1960-65. "Bending the rules" was half the fun!!! Virtually...
It was always amazing to me back in the early 60's how little attention racers paid to weight. They were so intent on finding horsepower they...
I wasn't much of a mechanic and concentrated on driving....Remember, we had a 4-speed manual and a clutch and NO electronics...Shifting was...
I wasn't so much "in the loop" but my father was a corporate attorney for GM and Pontiac in particular. I hooked up with a local Pontiac dealer...
You are right...Chrysler made it easy to get a Max Wedge car in 1962..ANYBODY could walk in the showroom and order a 425 H.P. 12.5 Compression...
The trick was to shut off the car as soon as possible while negotiating the race spot.....It was a common trick to "adust" the hydraulics with...
The hot spots in 1960-63 to street race in Northern N.J. were Rutt's Hutt, Bonds, The Texan, Don's in Livingston and The Adventurer Car Hop in...
I raced with Carmen Rotunda and his brother Dominic back in the early 60's. We used to street race out of Rutt's Hutt in Clifton N.J. Carmen had...
I built this '61 Cat tribute to match the real one I ran at Island and Atco Dragways in N.J. in the early'60's. I ran A/S, B/S and C/S,,,with a...
This is Bob Harrop's '61 S/S Pontiac. It is still around and showed up at a muscle car auction where it sold for $90,000.
Separate names with a comma.
The Jalopy Journal