Held back long enough, I'll toss my old dog in the mix here. Second pic its finally getting bodywork and paint. It wont hold a candle to most of the others here, but how many altered wheelbase 55' studes have you seen? Pics didnt load for some reason!
Held back long enough, I'll toss my old dog in the mix here. Second pic its finally getting bodywork and paint. It wont hold a candle to most of the others here, but how many altered wheelbase 55' studes have you seen?
As for the debate on the Beswick cars. It was the '64 GTO Mystery Tornado that got into the 8's in '65, not the '63 Tameless Tiger. This was claimed to be the first stock bodied car to get into the 8's at that time. Beswick has a VHS, now DVD that was made years back that has some good info in it for all makes of cars and a lot of drivers. It is worth a look. Oh and by the way, Mr. Pontiac was at one time in the late 50's a Mopar guy for a half season!!
i could be wrong on the beswick car. it would be cool to post some facts from old mags here on who did what when. i do think the ramchargers did the first 8 sec pass. this would be the injected 65. arnie also came back to the mopar camp again around 1970. he ran a hemi power cuda or challenger funny car. he crashed it on the top end at the grove. i just saw him overn the weekend there he still looks good and still can drive. looks like the car had some damage to it. i heard he hit the wall at cordova the previos weekend. i never had the time to sit and talk to him to know for sure.
arnie 63 awb was built after the 64 mystery tornado gto. then the 64 chassis and some of its drivetrain was used for his fiberglass 66 gto funnycar.
The 70 T/A funnycar "The Boss Bird" of Arnie's was also Hemi Powered later on after the old Pontiac blocks would no longer hold up and parts were starting to get few and far between.
there was a boss bird that burned at the grove last labor day. quite the fire. i heard a fuel line came off. they said it can be fixed but it was pretty crispy. i was told this was the original body. i have not heard of any updates on if it was fixed. it really sucks to be there watching history go up in smoke. hats off to the guys from ohio that run that car poncho motor on nitro and all. that take guts
Your right Racer X it was an original body. It was one of very few things that were left from the shop fire at Arnie's farm in the 70's.
Here are a few images of my Grandfathers altereds before he built The Pete's Lil Demon funny car. The first car he raced was the 62 in the third shot. Later he chopped the roof off and stretched the wheel base (fourth image). I have a ton of actual images of his cars, Unseen pictures of Bonniville salt flats in 1954 (I think). Old racing letterman jackets, and a 60's "Street Racers" Los Angeles county jacket. BSR. Pretty rad stuff.....
Berwick told me the Mercury broke a lot and part were hard to come by and a lot of tracks wanted him to race the '63 so he did and Mercury didn't like him doing that so they parted ways.
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="468"><tbody><tr><td style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></td></tr></tbody></table>Arnie Beswick might not have been the biggest winner of the sixties, but he did put on a hell of a show. Beswick was a loyal Pontiac racer, though there was a short stint with a Comet A/FX. The "Tameless Tiger" GTO was home built and a little scary to say the least. Beswick stepped up to blown nitro after beginning with gas at the urging of future funny car star Frank Oglesby. This gave the greater Chicago area three blown nitro funny cars in 1964, including Gary Dyer in the Mr. Norm’s Dodge, Ron Pellegrini’s Super Mustang, and Beswick. This car was Beswick's second funny car, replacing a newer GTO that he raced during 1964. Arnie was credited the first nine-second funny car run. The "Tameless Tiger" was rebuilt to be much lighter than when it first raced in super stock. Beswick later went 8.30s with the car! Arnie Behling later tuned the car before it was parked for good. (Photo provided by Drag Racing Memories; info from www.draglist.com files)
One reader posted the following, some folks say Beswick financed his racing by NOT paying his bills. Hell I knew drag racing and circle track guys who were receiving Welfare Checks for a few years and drag racing cars all over the country at the same time and making money doing it. I won't name names but these are guys we have all heard of from the past. Jimbo
the article is wrong. the mr. norms car that first received a blower was a 65 sedan not a 64. then followed by the ex lindamood hardtop that was inj. at first then upgraded with a blower. the hard top was first a two tone blue with the ram on the door. it was later painted red and silver with the ram moved to the front fender. the words mr.norm were much larger going down the whole side of the car. you cant always believe what you read in print. there was also the calumet city blown ply and the austin coil ply.both out of the chicago area. these may have been the same car they looked very similar.
The "Boss Bird" body that burnt last year wasn't one of the original "Boss Bird" bodies, it was a new body pulled from a mold made using one of the original "Boss Bird" bodies. the new body was updated for better aerodynamics. the car is repaired and ready to go!
I guess I really wouldn't consider the '64 GTO "Mystery Tornado" a funny car as it was more a stock bodied car.
Donny. Reeves dug it up years ago and put it back on the track. I saw it race at the ss reunion in north carolina and at the nhra midwest hhr at Columbus oh.this was around 1995-1996. He later sold the car to a collector. To see it run was awsome
Racer x. I should have only copied the second part of the article to help prove your right that the '63 was probably the one not the '64 first in the 8's.
I don't know if the story is true or not. I heard 2 large guys claim they sat on the edge of the trunk lid of an AWB car in the pits back in the day, and the front wheels raised off the ground.
No, the '64 GTO "Mystery Tornado" was the first stock bodied car in the 8's, not the '63 "Tameless Tiger".
THIS ^^^^^^ Rob Bruce (zombies) had that body (original) for many years behind his garage, 2 bodys were made from the plug. I belive Rob still has a new one as well as the old one
Geez, I had read and heard that the Ramchargers injected Dodge was the first stock bodied car to run under 9 seconds. If I remember right, there were several cars knocking on the 8 second door in 1965 around the same time after switching to superchargers. I don't know if we can accurately account for every date, et, car, and place after nearly 50 years ago. At any rate, it was an exciting era for sure.
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