Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

If it was easy, everybody could do it...Mishmash of styles

 

My contribution.


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What a neat picture!


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When I was a teenager in the early 90’s (there I dated myself so you can get the context) I wanted to put baby moons on my OT 60’s Chevy truck and my dad pulled me aside and said “you need to pick a theme an a look and stick to it if not you’ll end up with a circus wagon. Son, Baby moons are too old for your truck. “ It was a good father son talk that I am thankful for. [emoji1303]
If not you put dumb crap on your car, say things like this how they use to be and then get made fun of by car people. Lol


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A few pages back I told Chuck Norton I would try and update the Olson & Mattei Corvette (1957 6 cylinder). I have a note that he ran a reworked 292 six cylinder and I believed he was displacing a little over300 cubic inches. Earl Britt had run reworked 292s in his Pizza Man Vette and he had crankshaft vibration issues and bought spare milk truck engines so he could insert another bullet when the latest engine let go. Dan Hampton who owned the Pizza Man car told me that the car would vibrate like crazy when Earl would run through the traps. I asked Dan if he ever wanted to really drive the car and he did not seem overly thrilled with the idea.

Apparently Larry Olson and Mike Mattei decided to build the new engine which is in this picture. You will notice it has an aluminum cylinder head which was experimental and the engine is a 230 cubic inch six with allegedly 460 HP. This engine had a much shorter stroke which helped in the vibration department according to them and also that they could use 283 pistons and rods (aftermarket of course). They ran three 600cfm Holleys which each carburetor supplying two cylinders. The car ran a Doug Nash five speed. Not sure if the car survived-hope it did.

With the 300/302 motor they ran in D/MP but that was a pretty tough class and at Indy it was not unusual some years to have 24 cars in class. It was hard to beat the likes of Larry Kopp, Tim McDonald, Paul Mercure and Gus Phillipich. With this smaller 230 inch six they ran in L/G which was really the domain of the VWs that also ran pretty strong so I am not sure he had an easy go of it. He ran mostly west coast events and I hopefully I will have a couple pics in the book when it is done.

When I moved to San Marcos California in the 80s, it was right around the corner from Carlsbad Raceway and I used to go over and watch the racing on occasion. I have never been a VW fan but I have to admit those guys really knew how to make them scream. Not sure I would want to build a “new car” to compete against them.

 

Jim, if I remember right when I saw the Inch Pincher run it was around 12.2 or 12.4. It MAY have been in J or I gas. I would have loved to see this six cylinder run. 600 cfm sounds like a bunch for two cylinders.

 

Doug, I agree that it seems like a lot but I believe they probably knew what they were doing. I imagine that it may not have idled all that well but if you remember a lot of these guys with Doug Nash 5 speeds with stump pulling first gears and rear end ratios could probably burn a little bit of fuel.

Last summer I played with carburetors on my black car and rejetting them before going to the Glory days drag event in Byron. I had one carburetor I rebuilt that ran like crap but took it out for a test run and it made me laugh as it ran pretty good-driving back home it ran terrible. I rebuilt another carburetor to exact 365 hp specs and put it on the car (as it is a stock 365 hp engine right down to the stock 365 cam and figured maybe GM knew better than my screwing around) but took the ill running one with me for giggles. When I got to the track, the ambient temperature was right around 100 degrees and I was happy that my car was not overheating in the staging lanes and at the line. Kept the ill running one in the box-where it still sits. Not sure why it idles so poorly and runs so good-I did not seem to do anything exotic.

 

Jim, thank you for following up with more information on that car. I can't quite understand how it never appeared on my radar locally or, perhaps it did and I just don't remember it. I left California to go to graduate school in mid-1968 and didn't get back into the game until early 1970. When I returned, I immediately began to develop a Junior Stock project based on the '57 Corvette that I'd already owned for six or seven years so I may have merely missed it in the midst of all that was going on.

Coincidently, about fifteen years ago, I became acquainted with Mike Kirby who was a partner with Kay Sissell in the development of aluminum cylinder heads for Chevy six-cylinder motors. Kay's shop was originally located in South El Monte, very close to this area. For a while, after Kay's passing, Mike set up his shop here in Covina and kept busy massaging the raw castings for the heads that they had turned out over the years. Mike still had the twin-six dragster as well as Kay's T-roadster at that time and he frequently competed in the NHRA Nostalgia Series. I believe that Mike eventually relocated to the western end of the San Fernando Valley around Simi or Thousand Oaks. I wonder if the "experimental" aluminum head on the Corvette was based on Sissell's casting? I, too, sincerely hope that car is hiding out somewhere and will eventually surface for everyone's viewing enjoyment.

Thanks again!

c

 

Chuck as you know Kay Sissell was probably the go to guy if you wanted a six to be competitive. Both Jim Elliott with his Stinger/Apricot Brandy and Earl Britt with his Pizza Man both of which were National record holding six cylinder Corvettes had Kay Sissell work his cylinder head magic on their cars on occasion. This particular Olson car had a Frank Duggan, 12-port experimental Duggan cylinder head. I have heard of the Duggan cylinder heads and I believe the Sissell heads were a completely different casting. I am certainly not an expert in this area and have a few mysteries to solve but if I run across the real story sometime I will try and make a note of it.

 

Jason, that is Dan Kirkconnell-60 Vette called Earth Shaker-was from Southern Michigan. Ran in the mid 70s in H/G and I believe some modified production.

 

There is more information on the Sissell and Duggan heads in the Leo Santuci book. I think @CNC-Dude on here might have or had the Duggan patterns. C'mon Scott, fill us in

 

All this talk about 6 cylinder Corvettes got me thinking. Now this may not be totally traditional but going faster always is. Can you imagine with the CAD programs and 3d printers available today the type of cylinder head that could be designed and manufactured for one of these vintage Chevy or Ford straight 6 engines? Of course it wouldn't be financially feasible as maybe 3 guys in the whole country would actually buy one but man, the possibilities are interesting.

 

@CNC-Dude
They're calling!

 

The original Duggan head was developed in Australia by Frank for the local Holden six cylinder engines. That motor was pretty much a scaled down Chevy six which came in 149, 179, 186 and 202 cubic inch versions. It had semi downdraft intake ports (about 45 degree to the block surface) and was popular in various forms of racing down under.
Here is a photo of an altered with a Duggan head that was run by Paul and Ivan Wilson out of Melbourne.

Roo

 

WOW I like this car.
jp

 

Yes, still my favorite wheels, 200 S Americans.

 

When I first built the car it had a 468 Big block, but I later changed
it to a 406 small block. I ran a 150 shot of Nitrous on the SB and it ran
as good as the BB. Both great engines though.

 

Have any more pictures of it?
jp

 

very cool

 

One of five 1959 Corvettes that Carroll Shelby had restyled in Italy by Sergio Scaglietti (the Ferrari stylist who did cars like 250 GTO etc). Saw a red one at Shelby's Dallas dealership on Yale Boulevard by SMU.

A blue one. Never saw this car

 

Actually there were only three cars. Shelby and Texas Chevy dealer Gary Laughlin along with Jim Hall conceived the project when Laughlin's Ferrari broke a crankshaft. Journalist Pete Coltrin hooked Laughlin up with Sergio Scaglietti and then Laughlin acquired three new Corvette rolling chassis units via Ed Cole at GM. About 18 months after the rollers were shipped to Italy the first car made it back to Texas. About that time the GM racing ban came into play and Cole called Shelby (living in Italy at the time) and told him to can the project. The second and third cars were shipped to Texas incomplete with Jim Hall taking one. Shelby declined to take the third and it was sold.

Roo

 

Beautiful. Does your diner still have curb service right now so you can at least stop for coffee to go?


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