Hot Rods Hot Rod Sports Cars

Dan Gurney belongs at the top of any list of racers, designers and team owners

 

Salty

 

1959 Kellison J-4R V8 Coupe










Note the large Alternator pulley

 

Mickey Thompson's La Carrera Mexican road race car:

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/...=email&utm_campaign=2019-11-13#comments-block

 

I took this photo in 1972 at Road America. This is the GT Mk IV J4 that won Sebring
with Mario Andretti and Bruce McLaren driving. Seeing it sitting in the spectator
parking area blew my mind. I believe at the time this was owned by a fellow in
suburban Chicago.

 

There was an article in Road & track about the time you took the pic of the Mark IV. The guy used it on the street, and even had air conditioning installed. I think he even owned another J car. Back then, they were just obsolete race cars and Vintage Racing didn't exist so you couldn't do anything but convert them to street use.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. The car did have an Illinois plate on it. I believe
I had the owner's name at one time and had wanted to contact him since we
were in close proximity. I didn't.

 

In 1956 an unusual caravan of vehicle trailers arrived at the Bonneville Salt Flats. They carried a couple of land speed cars from England that must have looked like crash-landed alien spacecraft to the casual observer.
The two cars on the trailers were one-off designs that had been built specifically for Bonneville a couple of years before in 1954.

There was a heavily customized Austin-Healey 100/6 that had been supercharged to within an inch of its life for Donald Healey himself to drive to speeds in excess of 200 mph. And a second car with streamlined bodywork by Jensen that was fitted with a highly tuned, naturally aspirated engine that would be driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Jackson-Moore to challenge a range of Class D speed and endurance records.

 

Great historic photos.

 

Bill Thomas Cheetah

 

^^ I kind of want to see some road grime or race usage on it. Sure, perfectly
restored cars are something special (to those who own them) but they confirm
that they're not attainable by the regular guy.

 

She was Carroll Shelby's office manager in Gardena California. Will try to remember her name.
The ugly guy is of course a young Dan Gurney. We were all savagely handsome back then.

ETA: IIRC her name is/was Miriam Lindley. Last I heard she moved to Florida.

 

Somewhere I have a recent photo of a 1957 Austin-Healey LeMans style car with the engine swapped to an Edelbrock 525. Car is owned by the man who kept the books for Carroll Shelby's Dallas dealership (initials are JRL). Car is exceptional and has been flown to Europe several times to compete in high-profile rallies like the Monte Carlo, Acropolis etc. Europeans really hate the car and I think it's awesome. Pure American hotrod.

Until I find the pic, this is what the basic car looks like with aluminum body panels, big front fender vents, two-tone paint, custom-made 96 thick-spoke wire wheels etc. Hardest part to get was the original cut-down and laid back windshield.

 

double tap

 

Makes me laugh to remember the 1960's Sunbeam Tiger Wars on road courses like Willow Springs and Riverside. Phil Remington's Tiger vs. Doane Spencers Tiger was the best matchup. As good as Phil Remington talents were, Doane's car usually won.

ETA: Sunbeam Tigers were the worst handling cars. Lift off the gas ANYWHERE and they will swap ends. Similar small block Ford-powered TVR Griffith (named for Carroll Shelby's US importer Jack Griffith) was better in every way.
TVR Griffith with Ford 289 engine (like slab-side Cobra/GT350 engine)

 

One of Carroll Shelby's 1959 Corvettes as re-styled by Ferrari designer Sergio Scaglietti. Shelby, Jim Hall (Chaparral guy) and Gary Laughlin bought three brand new 1959 Corvettes and shipped them to Italy for Scaglietti to do his work. Don't know if all three made it back to the USA but got my hands greasy on one of the Ferrari-red ones. Henry Ford II told Shelby to lose them.

 

WOW ^^^^^^

 

Doane Spencer's Sunbeam Tiger


Phil Remington's Sunbeam Tiger



ETA: Doane Spencer's '32 Highboy: The DNA of American Hotrodding

 

The first proper production model in 1959 was the car you see here the Bocar XP-5. Bob and his team developed a new welded chromoly steel spaceframe for the car with a lightweight fibreglass body, the independent front suspension was creatively sourced from the rear end of the Volkswagen Beetle, and the rear sits on four trailing arms and a Watts linkage system.

Engines could be specified by the client, however the most common choice was the rock-solid 283 cubic inch Corvette V8 capable of 290 bhp. The XP-5 sits just 34 inches tall – not including the 4 inch windshield, and the engine was installed as far back in the body as possible to provide optimal weight distribution for racing.

Despite its racing intentions, Bocar did offer a variety of road-car optional extras for those who wanted them, including a radio, a heater, and a removable hardtop. Drivers could also specify up to 7 different suspension arrangements, and they could choose their own wheels and tires. Although carburettors were typically preferred, Bocar clients could specify fuel injection if they wanted it, as Corvette had been offering it as an option on their V8s since mid-1957.