Folks Of Interest Bob Osiecki and Mad Dog IV

tpahemi, we probably crossed paths in the early days. I was a flagger at the Golden Triangle drag strip and all of the famous racers from all over the country came to Florida in the winter to run Garlits. Art Malone ran our strip many times for himself and as a driver for Garlits. Great memories. RIP Art Malone

 

REMINDER Nov 2-3 Bradenton Motorsports Park
Southern Mussel Car Shootout special Tribute to Art Malone
on Sunday at noon. We plan to assemble and fire up a large group of Dragsters in his honor. I hope to film it and post it on Youtube. Hope to see some on you guys there!
Flathead26

 

Don't know if it's a tribute car or the real deal but I was very happy to see this car at the Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville Georgia. Bob Osiecki moved from New Jersey to Atlanta in the '40s and made a name for himself before moving to the Carolinas.

 

This is the shop in Charlotte where work was performed on Mad Dog IV. The Mustins were very talented craftsmen. Their family still operates a business there.

 

I think the car that is on the top of the Daytona 500 trophy is a copy of MD IV.

 

I stumbled onto this thread a few days ago, copied and pasted it and sent it to a guy I work with.
Turns out Bob was his grand dad!
He's also an engineer, but I believe in the computer programing side.
He said that he got to walk into the track at Indy with the drivers one year when they were honoring his Grand Dad, and the family had brought the car there to display.
Unfortunately, none of the family is into cars, Indy, or NASCAR, so the car's only importance was that it was something cool that Grand dad had made.
Small world.

 

As if Bob Osiecki was not busy enough with his Mad Dog race cars at Daytona and Bonneville, running a timing association (International Timing Association.), running Chester Drag Strip, running a speed shop and manufacturing speed equipment--- well he also founded The Charlotte Custom Car Show which was also sanctioned by I.T.A. The shows were held at the Charlotte Radio Center at first and then at the Charlotte Coliseum. I have been looking for pictures to post here and finally found magazine coverage in the April 1959 issue of Rod Builder and Customizer.

Some of you probably attended those shows but don't remember who promoted them. It was Osiecki's International Timing Association, the same crew that ran the Chester Drag Strip.

As I said on the original post on this thread no one was more involved with hot rodding in the early days than Osiecki.

 

Excellent post , very great information , thanks for the great info.

 

This is great information about Bob Osiecki I had no idea how involved he was in so many things related to Hot Rodding. Many years ago I aquired a pair of Osiecki aluminum racing heads for the flathead Ford. The head design is certainly better than most of the other heads made at the time. Thanks for posting the history.

 

Thanks for the nice comments guys. Bob passed away in 1964 and I only saw him a couple times but for a hot rod crazy guy he was greatly admired by me. And he seems to have been forgotten. I hope as times goes by more information will be posted here by those who either knew him or by historians. Ironically, I was over at Holman & Moody a couple weeks ago and Osiecki's name came up. Jimmy Tucker, who will celebrate his 50th anniversary at H&M in a couple months, told me Mary Ann Osiecki--Bob's widow--worked there during the glory years of the '60s and '70s after Bob passed.

Talking about NASCAR check out Fireball Roberts (left) looking at the Cadillac engine under the hood of the '40 Ford coupe at the 1959 Charlotte Custom Car Show. That is legendary Charlotte TV personality Brooks Lindsay also looking under the hood.

 

Great pic Frank!

 

This is the interior of the Cadillac powered '40 Ford. It appears to be running the stock '40 Ford transmission and rear end with the stock column shifter in place. It is possible, of course, that a Cadillac 3-speed transmission was used along with modified column shift levers.

Curtis Turner and Fireball Roberts had the NASCAR Stock Cars on display at the '59 Charlotte Custom Car Show. Both had won the Darlington Labor Day races just a few months earlier in the fall of 1958. Roberts won the Darlington 500 and Turner, the Convertible race. Turner also certainly had Charlotte Motor Speedway construction underway as it opened just a year later in 1960.

 

Interesting to read this background info about Bob- his wife Mary Ann was my father's sister, and although I remember "Uncle Bob" somewhat I was only 10 when he passed.

It was a great pleasure seeing the MDIV in a position of such honor at Garlits' museum:





...directly as you walk in the door- in my mind I clearly remember it coated with dust in their small garage in Dilworth after Bob died, and then somewhat ambivalently displayed at the NC Motor Racing museum up until this latest move.

Would loved to have heard it cackling through those short stacks, but unfortunately never got the chance.


.

 

I have some good news for followers of this and the Chester Drag Strip threads. I have just been in touch with Tom Osiecki, Bob's son. He was only 10 when his father passed so he was not traveling around the country with his dad during the glory years. I told him some of the things I had learned about his father that he was not aware of and said he looked forward to reading the threads here about his dad.

He is going to share some information from his mother's scrapbook with me and I am optomistic I will have more information and pictures to post here about his intriguing father.

 

Frank : The '40 coupe with the Cadillac engine mentioned/pictured in your last few posts..Wonder ,if by chance that was Jim Iveys car ??? If I remember correctly, he had a dark blue coupe with a Cadillac motor.. He ran at Shuffletown and is also on that entry list to Chester you posted on another thread...

 

There was no identification of ownership in the feature but is likely the same car. Was Jim part of the Ivey's Department Store family?

 

This is something interesting. Another Osiecki Mad Dog, this one a '55 Studebaker convertible. Of course Studebaker didn't make one so Bob cut the top off a new or almost new car. This picture was published in '57. The tail fin says Osiecki's Mad Dog so this may be #1. I will try to find out more about this car from Tom Osiecki.

 

Thanks for posting this history lesson. I had never heard of Bob before. It sounds like if they told him that it couldn't be done he took that as a personal challenge and proved them wrong. We lost him too early.

 

I have been involved with hot rodding in Charlotte since 1961. But until recently reading the April 1959 issue of Rod Builder and Customizer I had never heard of or seen anything about Charlotte's Cam Winders Auto Club. The only hot rod car club in Charlotte in the '60s I am aware of was Rods Exclusive, which I joined in 1968 and was a member for about 15 years. I don't recall any mention of the Cam Winders from the long time R.E. members.

Rod Builder & Customizer covered Bob Osiecki's '59 Charlotte Custom Car Show and included a photo of the Cam Winders club display which is below. I wonder who the three members in the booth are and if they signed up any new members. If so, there were not enough over time to keep the club active. This is an interesting discovery for me.

 

Frank Spittle, a mechanic that worked on the team and the one that built the speed breaking engine still lives in the Paw Creek area of Charlotte. His name is Bud Mustin. His father also is the person that did the metal work on the car ( wings and vertical stableizer ). Also if I remember correctly MD IV was a customized Indy car, one of the first cars was a heavily modified chrysler product that had been designed by an aironotical engineer from Georgia Teck. Mr. Mustin built this car but Osiecki had problems finding drivers because the car design was so radical they were scared of it. Great artical, I very much enjoyed reading it.

 

i have a pair of those heads. i like them

 

i also have a pair of these beautiful heads that i am just about to bolt onto a flathead for the road!

 

Bob would be proud to see how much his speed equipment is treasured more than 50 years after being manufactured.

 

This is a great shot of the '56 Daytona Speed Trials I borrowed from another thread on the HAMB. It shows Bob Osiecki in Mad Dog II, a '56 T-Bird, at the front of at least 50 cars in line to make their runs. This is the only photo of MDII I have seen. Osiecki also had a '56 Dodge D-500-1 entered. Post #24 has details of that car and driver Danny Eames. I believe MDIII was a '57 Dodge D-500-1. Hopefully I can post a picture of it in the future and have all four of the Mad Dog cars posted here. #1 was a '55 Studebaker (post #47)

Here is a little more information on MDIV. An article in the Oct. 1961 Sports Illustrated covering the record setting run stated it cost Osiecki $35,000 to win the $10,000.

 

This thread has been dormant for nearly a year, mainly because I ran out of pictures to post. That changed today. I met with Bob's son Tom Osiecki and he has turned over his entire collection of his father's memorabilia to make copies. I have looked over about 10% so far and it is a real treasure trove of racing in the '40s,'50, and '60s. The above post shows Mad Dog II, a '56 T-Bird. The Mad Dog I '55 Studebaker and the world famous Mad Dog IV are posted here but Mad Dog III has been a mystery. We found it. It was a radically customized '57 Plymouth built by the Mustins in Charlotte, the same guys who built the other Dogs. Bob Osiecki led a life most of us can only dream about in his short 44 years and I will continue posting here in hopes his contributions will never be forgotten.
Tom told me when Bill France, his father and the other founding members of NASCAR had come up with the rules for the National Stock Car Racing Association it was his father who brought to their attention the NSCRA could be NASCAR changing the wording around. The rest is history.

 

Bob Osiecki was honored with the Pioneer Award at the North Carolina Drag Racing Hall of Fame ceremonies in Greensboro N.C. Feb. 21st. Congratulations to his family who were there to accept for him.

 

I have been trying to buy a 28 Roadster from a 87 year old man who lives close to me for 3 years and finally we made a deal. It has a gorgeous set of Osiecki heads on it and I thought I would share a picture

 

I recently reconnected with an old friend from when we were both in our 20s but had not talked to in 40 years or more. It turns out much to my surprise he went to work for Bob Osiecki when he was 16 years old (before I met him) and worked for him during the Chester Drag Strip heydays. I am having lunch with him in a few days and will have a lot more to add to this thread.

 

I just found this thread, and it brought back memories from deep in my brain of days, events, and people long gone. Thanks

 

Found this in a junk yard over 20 years ago. Owner said he had a pair but I couldn't find the mate. Some time later a good friend found it - he won't give it up & I won't either!!