Historical Tech - The Filthy Forty of Charlie Hill!

This is a picture of pork under the wheel of our car at the Hot Rod Reunion in columbus ohio lastyear. The car is not a clone its a want to be. We have become good friends with pork and the rest of the S&S team. You will not find a better bunch of people. They have taken us into their family and made us feel very loved. We also had the honor of having pork drive the car in the winners parade at The Mac Tools Nationals at indy this year. Pork won the event in 1963. He brought his trophy and the jacket that they presented to charlie. It was on display with the car all weekend. Pork your a special person and we love ya.
Wanda and larry

 

This is a picture of our car in the driveway. The first time we saw the filthy forty we loved the car. When we purchased our steel coupe we knew right away the paint job that we wanted. We contacted pork and asked if it was alright if we used the filthy's paint scheme and he said sure. We met pork and the team at thompson before the car was lettered or even running. Pork liked it alot. It brought back good memories he said. I believe it was the following year that the S&S team were the grand marshalls and we asked pork if he wanted us to letter the car up for him to have there. Well of course he said yes so it has been that was ever since. We have many pictures of the original car and we think it was the coolest willys around. Boy pork could drive that thing. We have a picture in our garage of it with just one rear wheel on the ground. It still makes my heart hurt when i hear about it rolling at maple grove. There have been a few people who have approched pork to tell him that they know someone who has the car but pork says there is no way it's still out there. He saw it at charlies shop and what was left of it was taken apart and went here and there. It was good to see pork under the wheel of our car and see the smile on his face. I have ridden with him a couple of times and he certainly enjoys it. We call it his car anyway. I hope this thread keeps going for awhile. The filthy forty and pork are part of the history of east coast drag racing and i think we need to see more about them.
Wanda

 

Not sure what you mean there.

 

Telling the stories of those that were there, the cars, the people, and the places.
I grew up in Erie Pa - it's 100 miles West of Buffalo NY, 100 miles East of Cleveland Oh, and 100 and some North Of Pittsburg PA.
I always said I was a 100 Miles from Nowhere.
During the late 50's and the 60's I was at every Strip in that area and then some and always dreaming of going to the Big Tracks.
Its funny now to look back and see that I was there and often times part of the Greatest Time in Drag Racing History.

 

I guess what i mean is it wasn't done up to start with to be the filthy forty we just loved the paint job. Then we met pork and the rest of the team and it went from there. If we had known them then like we do now we would have done a clone of the actual car. So we consider it a filthy want to be. It would have to be a whole lot dirtier to be the filthy.
Wanda

 

Levis Cl***ic,
Just wanted to say thank you very much for starting this thread. Also wanted to say to pork welcome to the hamb.
G***er Girl

 

Never blew a flywheel although we had a problem early on keeping a good flywheel, clutch and pressure plate ***embly for any period of time. Early on, in 62, we ran Miami and NHRA's 1st Winternationals and won cl*** and Little Eliminatior but changed ***emblies several times.

Going up to Daytona that same week, we ran Daytona speedweek drags on the 500 track back stretch and we had to change ***emblies 3-4 times that week.But we won cl*** and eliminator every night..........Suppose to be given a new Chevy engine as a prize for doing so well but Bill France's Gooneys decided to award it to some nice Southern Boy.....They had trouble believing we were 283 inches even though we were protested 5 nights and proved to be 283 every time.

Once we got home and changed to a 60 lb flywheel and E&R PP and clutch and Ohio Georges custom axels, the fun really began

Oh Yes......and we used a four speed

Pork Zartman

 

a friend of mine.we met at the nhra reunion in Columbus.several years ago.Al had a great car, remember he was in the indy finals in 62 against larry teeter, in the finals in 63 against me and won in 64.............2-seconds and one first ain't bad.......congrats tp Al.

and a winternationals winner as well.............

pork zartman

Pork Zartman

 

Charlie's Willys was famous for pulling huge wheelies, I've got a photo from a magazine where all 4 wheels are off the ground and it's up on the rear bumper!
I've always loved that car.

 

Damn, now I'm gonna have to pull my S&S shirt out of the closet and jump in the Willys.

Nice to see you posting on the HAMB Zartie - always good to get the stories straight from the horse's mouth and destroy the myths and 'urban legends'.

 

The car was AWSOME...every time...it convinced David Hales and I to give up on 55 Chevy's and get Willys....the rest is history....I have owned at least one since 63...Fred Bear

 

Porky,

Read about you in the G***er Wars book. Glad to have you on the HAMB.

 

I would also like to welcome the man, the myth, the legend freddy bear to this site.
G***er Girl

 

Febco, talk about coming from the horses mouth, welcome to this site Febco

 

http://jdurand.smugmug.com/gallery/591529_XMjqj#69298514_MUygm

http://jdurand.smugmug.com/gallery/1278387_3AFnA#P-1-15

Here are some very good shots of the Filthy '40.

 

Well, I see my buddies have chimed in here so I might as well add to the story. This car set a very high standard in the early 60's. In May 1963 at an NHRA National Record Meet in Detroit, the Filthy Forty set the C/Gas National Record at 11.95 at 113.92 mph. The previous record was 12.38. That is a drop of almost half a second!!!!

Pork and Charlie went on to win the NHRA NATIONALS in Indy that year, defeating the previous years Champion Larry Teter and then Al Tschida in the final. For those of you that can remember that far back, winning the NATIONALS was the single biggest thing you could do in drag racing.

Pork was even interviewed by ABC Wide World of Sports TV crew after his win.......I don't know what he said but the interview was never aired!!!! Good job Pork!!!!

I am going to try to attach a couple of photos of the events mentioned above. Just learning here...bear with me.

Happy Birthday Pork.....75 and going strong!!!!!

Dave Hales

 

WOW! Dave, Pork and Fred all joining at once. How ya doin' guys? Been a while since I've seen any of you. There are a fair number of gas/fx members here too. Hope you guys will hang around and share some stories.
Make sure you check out the "Drag Cars in Motion" thread. Tons of great pictures. Dave, those pics from Old Dominion in the 50's would be very welcomed there. Please post them if you have a minute.
Look forward to hearing from all of you. Happy Birthday Pork! Mike H (from Virginia)

 

A couple of more photos. The wheel stand is one where there aren't very many wheels on the ground. In the early 60's, tires and track surfaces were such that very few cars could get the front wheels up at all, much less anything like this. At the NATIONALS in 1963 NHRA told Charlie and Pork to keep the wheels down or they would be disqualified!!!! They added a weight bar to the front tow bar brackets for that event.

The other photo is when they put in a blown 339" SBC and set the NHRA B/GS record. I'll let Pork tell you how much fun it is to drive a high RPM BLOWN Willys with a 4-speed.

O.K. how do I get the photos to show up full size?

Dave Hales

 

One more photo of the Filthy Forty at INDY in 1963. The "T" sticker on the windshield indicates Trophy Run so the car in the other lane is Al Tschida from Minnesota. The weight bar I mentioned earlier is very visable in this photo.

Hi Mike......how is the juke box business? I've been following the "Drag Cars In Motion" thread for quite a while.....amazing!!! Even got a few of my "old dog" on there.

Dave Hales

 

Hey buddy,
Jukebox resto is doing ok. Parts are starting to be a real problem, though. Demand is down and the major suppliers are not replacing sold-out inventory. I've sold a few but not a great market for them at the moment.
The story of your car is good enough to write a book. Found it,built it, raced it, sold it, and then found it again, what, 40 years later? That would make a great post on here. These guys would get a kick out of it and the photo do***entation you have is outstanding. Think about it.
If you want your pics to show up larger, you'll have to use a photo host. Photobucket works pretty well and makes it easier to insert pics.
Any news on K. S.? Rocky posted about his health issues a couple of weeks ago. Sad deal... Take care, Mike

 

Dave - Fred

Thanks for coming in from the cold.
This thread has blown about every hair outta my body from the chilly-willies.
Please keep the stories and the old photo's comming.

 

Since we went a bit off topic what with birthdays and all, how about a happy birthday to Gene Altizer, 68 yesterday, Happy Birthday Gene.
Welcome to the HAMB Dave, there's rumers of a few ********ters hanging out here and its' true and room for a couple more.

 

Thanks for making me feel welcome....I haven't talked to any of them about this, but here we show up together again....way it's always been ...get one...you got us all...David is our historian ...ask him ....I only remember winning...Fred

 

I remember the Filthy Forty and its wheels up launches at Maple Grove in the Sixties. I think there was also a Dirty Thirty 33 Willys. Am I correct on that?

 

There was/is a Willys Sedan - Dirty something running out of South East Ohio - Around Mingo Junction or in that area. It's always at Thompson, runs damn good.

 

We ran disc brakes on the front of a Willys g***er in the early 60's. They were not hooked up though.They were the smallest (hence lightest) ones we could find.The lines were plugged up.We relied on the rear brakes (drum) and a parachute.
The Filty Forty was one of my all time favorites.That was kind of my concept of a rat car.There was a similar one that ran A/G out of Memphis.AJ Lancaster.He was testing one one day and he caught a hard 4th and it stood straight up!

 

Stand it up hitting 4th? Man thats impressive!!

 

Now THAT is a wheelie!

Thanks for the great photos Dave.

 

I see 3 1/2 wheels off the ground. WOW!