thanks , frank . all of the stuff i wrote [ above ] was from memory , as i was too lazy to look it up . i'm pretty sure everything i wrote about depaolo is correct , but to be sure i went back to check pete's autobiography , "wall smacker" , published in 1935 . it says on page 247 that pete received a letter from harry miller asking him to drive one of the ford V8s he was preparing for indy [ the story of these factory ford entries is well known , but could fill a book by themselves ] . pete says he decided not to drive , as only 4 of the 10 cars were ready in time . perhaps he foresaw the problem they would have with the steering boxes , but he doesn't say . as to the info on curtis' crash , most of that came from pops' biography , "full throttle" where much of a full chapter was devoted to the crash . however , i read the book when it first came out 5 or 6 years ago , so i may have "mis-remembered" a couple of details . jack
My Dad worked for Holman and Moody and Stropp, after Shelby American was shut down.I heard stories usually at dinner about shop life, one was Ratchet jaw parnelli Jones, he would be telling and asking questions of the workcrew, in your face type of guy, thus the nickname. Dad was flown out to charlotte for training the pit crews on how to move metal during the race, 1 or 2 precise hits would move more metal than hammering on it all day. He went to a couple races, charlotte and daytons with the HMS crews, 30 sum guys in Holiday inn, serveral toilets were blown by flushing cherrybombs down into the piping. The bills were taken care of by HMS and were told not to come back. One saturday I was riding with Dad, and we did the tour. Trayco shop that did the trans-am engines, then to HMS signal hill, where Parnelli got a ticket testing a motorhome on signal hill, 80 in a 25 zone. High horse power in a new motorhome for Stroppe Baja adventure, forewheel drive added. I remember going to Halibrand, indy wheels of 12" to 16" wide, with grandpa, Chad of CMS and wheels were poured magnesium on woodem forms made for sand casting the racing wheels.
It has been over a year since my last visit to H-M and as promised in a past post I would get there and get some questions raised on this thread answered. First the wheel manufacturer issue. Junior Martin, who has worked there since 1963, told me they did manufacturer steel racing wheels and all steel racing wheels ordered from Ford teams were built by H-M. I did not ask if the halves were stamped by H-M but assume not. The halves were welded and trued at H-M. I have much more to post from today's visit. It was great to see the gang again. Lee Holman had to leave for Talladega while I was there to represent his Dad's induction into the Hall of Fame Thursday.
This is Junior Martin. He is the guy who will probably answer the phone if you call and if you order something he will be the guy who packs and ships it to you. He was working at a cotton mill in Charlotte in 1963 when a job opportunity came his way to go to work for Holman & Moody in the parts department. By the end of '66 he was parts manager of the Ford Motor Company racing parts division of H-M, the chain link divided portion of the main building. His crew handled the parts requests for all forms of racing including NASCAR, NHRA, INDY, TRANS-AM, ETC. He never left. He is of course well past retirement but says he would rather spend the day with his family of friends. He says when he gets to work that day he never knows who from the past will stop by. As most of you racers know you develop a bond with other racers that is no less stronger than your blood family. Junior Martin is a good example. He knows everybody. And there is not a nicer guy. If you ever have an opportunity to visit stop by. There was a HAMB member and his wife, Maurice and Pauline, there today from Australia. Junior showed them the whole shop and of course the sales room. They left with a bag full of souvenirs.
Danny Eames was a private contractor, specializing, amongst other things, in getting performance out of production cars. He did work for Chrysler, with their development of the Dodge D-500. He was the Chief Test Driver and Special Assistant to the President at Dodge from 1953 to 1955. At Dodge, he talked Lee Petty into dropping General Motors; and going with Dodge. We know the rest of that story. When he quit Dodge he contracted with Ford, as an adviser/manager of Fords performance programs. He was, if you would, the conduit (go-between) from Ford Motor Company to their client, sometime shadow firms like DePaolo Engineering, Stroppe and H-M. After Eames sucessfully completed a round-the-world promotion drive with a new '58 Fairlane Sedan; Ford, put Danny on the payroll, gave him a desk and secretary; a retirement plan and set him to work on a project to beat General Motors. His first project was the Thunderbirds, that were later dubbed the "battlebirds". He suffered, along with the rest of the Cobra team, the scathing rant of Henry Ford II ("The Deuce"); when they failed to beat the Ferrari's at Le Mans. He was part of the acceptance cadre for the prototype coupe put out by Eric Broadley (Lola) of Great Britain. This, of course, led to the GT-40 project that Ford eventually turned to H-M to get the performance that ended in Ford's ultimate victory at Le Mans. Danny lives in a town just to the south of me. Each time I talk to him, I get more fascinating information. I've think I've said enough, in this missive. However, I think there is enough information from him to fill a book.
Thanks for meeting us at Holman & Moody Frank it was like walking into living history,Junior Martin and the rest of the guys are a wealth of infomation which they gladly share.Maurice...
Hi Jeff, yes, Bill was at Stroppe prior to Crane. When he left Crane, all his tools (and box) remained there. Guess they weren't suited to the bicycle technology! I'll try to find some pictures, but unfortunately most of the archives "vanished" prior to the Crane liquidation. Regards, Chase
Thanks Maurice, it was nice meeting you and Pauline...and Tom. Here is another picture from yesterday. This is Larry Wallace standing next to the cam grinding machine he has used for over 40 years. We had to stop him from grinding a cam to get this picture. He came to work for H-M in 1964 and like Junior Martin never left. He has been in charge of producing racing cams since the glory years. If you order a H-M cam today you are looking at the guy who ground it. Larry was quite a driver on the short tracks in the south back in the day too winning several championships.
Here is a picture of Paul Norris and his A/FX Mustang I borrowed from Jimmy Tucker while I was there yesterday. Tucker was Norris' crew chief when he raced it. Jimmy Tucker was the hardest working guy at H-M (still is) and as time goes on you will see why I make that statement.
i'v been trying to download a photo for several days ,with no luck - it just would not go thru . then the 2 pix , above , downloaded easily just now . however , when i tried to download that original pic - after the 2 above - i still can't get it to go thru . anyone have any ideas ? computers continue to frustrate and bamboozle me . i don't know how i've kept from throwing this confounded thing out the back door all of this time ; but i may do it yet !!
I have the same problem Jack but I can trim the size and usually make it work. Jimmy Tucker told me a story the other day about when he was Paul Norris' crew chief. As you know the NASCAR drivers drove the A/FX cars some during the ban and Curtis Turner was booked in driving Norris' Mustang with a match race with Petty's Baracuda. Turner asked Tucker what to do since he had never drag raced. "I told him to rev it to 5000 rpms and drop the clutch. It won't break anything". Curtis did a great burnout and after staging was reving the engine only about 2000 rpm. "I knew it would stall when he dropped the clutch but just before the green he floored it and launched like a rocket. He banged the gears like a pro and beat Petty. He could drive anything" Tucker said.
The Glass House. This was the two story office inside the main building appropriately named "The Glass House". John Holman's office was on the second story and gave a panoramic view of the whole building. Junior Martin told me he started putting up parts shelves close to the "House" and Holman came out and looking down asked what he was doing. That was the end of that!
well , spider , I don't have a problem arguing about championships . in pops' day , championships didn't mean much , as they paid almost nothing and they had to race all over the country to get points...it usually cost a LOT more to win a championship than it paid . very few cared . i don't know that curtis ever raced for a championship , or cared , except in 1956 when ford had pops and weatherly entering all of the convertible races . and curtis SHOULD have won that championhip , as he won about 7 times more races than did the eventual champ - bob welborn [ 22 vs. 3 !! ] . curtis lost because holman pulled the cars off the tracks - for 5 races - to reorganize . but curtis raced to WIN , which is the old school way of thinking . did you know that you can race all season and not win a single race - but still win the championship ? and with the points system they used through the '70's until recent years , a driver could've won EVERY race but one , and finish second in that one , and still lose the championship . points don't tell you much about a real driver . then there's the ironhead side of things . i firmly believe , as do a lot of people , that earnhardt had a lot of help from nascar . and how many races did he win by driving someone into the fence ? but , according to him , that was "just racin' " . 'course , it was always a dirty deal when he was on the receiving end . he got away with so much , and i guess france was just looking somewhere else when he "intimidated" another driver . and then there's that nickname - "intimidator" - which originally meant "bully" . how it came to be a compliment is beyond me , except that , i believe , nascar needed to create and maintain an anti-hero . so i will argue about those 7 championships . and i will also argue that racing for points - instead of wins - has gone a long way toward making racing what it is today.....that is to say , it stinks on ice !!! jack
hey dawg - if you have more info on danny , i , for one , would love to read / hear about it . he's one of my "ford heroes" , also . i read the piece on danny in "rod & custom" , also . in it , he says that his scrap book / photo album has been robbed so many times that he doesn't have much left . okay , now i know i'm reaching here , but would it be possible to pass along danny's e-mail address [ or snail-mail address ] ? i might be able to send him some photos that were pertinent to his career. i'd also like to ask him some questions about some of the cars he , and some others , raced . would this be possible ? on a sad note , i just picked up the most recent copy of "musclecar review" , which has a feature on fran hernandez . it says that fran passed away this past january . for those who don't know , fran was a contemporary of danny eames', working for the ford , mercury , and autolite racing divisons for years . fran was also one of the very first to successfully use nitromethane in a racing engine . RIP jack
PLEASE....this is about the history of Holman-Moody. Start another thread about who was the best driver by bashing another driver or how much better racing was back in the day. I will follow it too. The one thing that can get a thread deleted is drama. I don't think any of you want that to happen to this important thread. Please keep it to the history of H-M. If you don't you may see your off topic post deleted.
sorry , frank . i guess i got carried away . it's just that racing and nascar used to mean a lot to me ; then these greedy jerks took it all away . i'll try to restrain myself in the future .
I don't want to seem obstreperous; but though the efforts of Danny Eames, working in behalf of Ford, then working for Ford; is one of the reasons that Holman and Moody came into existence.
First of all...Great thread Frank. Thankyou to all the contributors. Second, i think this question is directed towards the NASCAR faithfull.. At the 1962 World 600 in Charlotte the two Holman-Moody Fords of Lorenzen and Stacy were prevented from running so two replacement cars were assembled just days before the race. My question is..Why were the original two cars illegal? I've always wondered about this but try as i can, i can't find any answers.
The Jalopy Journal
