Dave -- yeah - a "little ink in MCR --- was told there would be some pix in the issue too but they fell to the "edit pencil" before final publishing. Was told that maybe this spring they will make it. Also, It was not my original car you saw --- mine is till laying in the collapsed-roof garage where it has been since 1975 -- rotting away - but the owner still wants a wheelbarrow full of $$$$ for it -- ugh!!
Yep, now that would be cool! It's a beautifully restored car. IMO the front end needs to be lifted a bit but otherwise perfect, and very nicely done. An outstanding piece of NHRA history. I'm interested to see what it sells for... I'm sure I would need to put my house up for sale to buy it. LOL! I don't think the Wife, kid, or dog would approve... It is a roomy wagon though... fits up to six comfortably.
Here's a couple pic's you don't have, 'caus I took'm from the bleachers at Indy. Plus another killer car from division 5, Al Corda's '64 Plymouth wagon. Awesome thread, Thanks to All.
Now this picture has it all... traditional hot rod, street muscle, and NHRA drag car! Thanks for posting Colesy!
I always watched Barrie Poole and John Elliot when they ran the SS Mustangs. I noticed they seemed to have a little techinque where they preloaded the driveline as they waited for the tree to countdown.Maybe they just were letting the clutch out a bit and used the lineloc to hold the car. I am not sure what they were doing but the cars were always fast I was in the tower at Sanair during a WCS race taking care of something and Sandy Elliot (John's Father, I believe) was there and I spoke to him for a couple minutes. He was kind of unhappy because the cars were too fast and I guess they lost some races due to breaking out......I don't recall the rule in SS back then as far as breakouts..... Even though I was never a Ford guy......I always like the sound of the Cobra Jets and the 427's in other cars like John Downing's Fairlane to name just 1 I can think of...............
Wagons rule !!! Thanks for the pic's. That plain brown Fairlane agon looks awesome.....This from a Chevy guy!!! LOL
World of bizarro in the NHRA, 1967 B/S class,,,,,,, 67' GTX 440/375 HP Super Commando 65' Mustang Coupe 289/271 HiPo
It is a neat car especially when you consider that it has been owned and raced by the Wenzel's since new. Jerry MacNeish's '67 Z-28 is pretty cool too! Jerry posted this photo on Facebook and Tim Bishop's wife asked "Where are your wheelie bars?" Jerry replied "Z28's don't need them. It's only a 302 under the hood." Jerry is the current D/S record holder at 10.45/ 126.21.
I'm familiar with Jerry's cars as well. I would really love to own a real documented '67 Z-28 but that's probably not likely because they are so rare.
Craig - there is one in Beach City!!! its "untouchable" though! Same guy also has a 69 Z-28 that he bought new too!! He has two sons that will get them!!
That race car of Jerry MacNeish (the turquoise '67 Z28) is just the proverbial "tip of the ice-berg". He also owns the Strickler '68 Z28, an un-restored '68 Z28 with original everything and I think 20k miles, and an un-restored '67 Z28 with 13k miles that looks better than new and would put most restored cars to shame---it IS that nice. Whoops, almost forgot the 93 Z28 Indy Pace Car, too. Plus of course the drivers and tow rig. Quite a guy and quite a group of cars. I've been friends with him for a long time and he has done some work for me. Everything about him is top-shelf and I highly recommend his services. Until next time..... Dave.
Thinking of Strickler and Pizzi, Charlie Hampp, Sr. and I took the '55 to Atco for the points race in 1970. Strickler and I were standing side by side behind the starting line when Pizzi set the record at 11.68. Strick said "he just screwed himself, he'll never run that fast again." The very next week we were at Delmar. Strickler and Jenkins were there for a match race and Tony was there as well. When Tony came up to make a run, Strickler and I were again behind the line to watch. Damn if Tony didn't run 11.68 and Dave was speechless. That is what he had run in his car as a super stocker.
Old racing stories are coming to mind tonight. Here is one that I have told Jim Pizzi, but not the group. Tony had a guy working for him who was called Sycamore. I met him at the Atco race and we hung out while waiting to go through tear down. He was DIFFERENT! Brad Watkins and I both worked for the GM dealer in Easton and I remember the day he called Tony to see how his engine was coming along. I was behind the parts counter and Brad was talking on a phone at the service writer's desk a few feet away. All of a sudden Brad started laughing and almost dropped the phone. When he finished, I asked what that was all about. Brad had called through the operator so he could bill the call to his home phone and he called person to person for Tony. Sycamore answered the phone "Good afternoon, Tony Pizzi Automotive" The operator said " I have a person to person call for Mr. Tony Pizzi." Syacmore sez "He's not in right now." The operator replies "When will her return?" Sycamore tells her "He's takin' a shit, he'll be back in about ten minutes." The operator stuttered a and asked Brad "Sir, would you like to leave a message?" Brad was laughing so hard at that point he could hardly speak. We sure had a lot of fun times back then!
I remember going to a race with Tony and my sister in law when he was working for Jenkins and they were running the Dodges. we were in the truck towing the Super Stocker and Jenkins was towing the AFXer with his 56 Chevy wagon. As we were driving down the road, Tony looked in the side mirror and said Holy Shit. Just as he said that the AFXer flew past us . It was flying and soon the wagon and trailer followed. We stoped when we caught up to Jenkins puting the car back on the trailer. Tony said to Jenkins what was that all about? Jenkins said Testing! What a blast it was back then!
Can't answer that as I don't remember seeing the car, probably Ollie. Could have been run during '67 or '68 when I was out of the country. This is the only car I recall involving Ollie.
Does anyone from Kentucky remember the 67 or 68 Z-28 stocker named after the TV show "The Flying Nun" around 1968. I was stationed at Ft. Knox at the time. That car was so cool and fast it impressed me enough trade my 66 Corvette in on a new 68 Z-28. It ran around Ohio Valley, Hardensburg US 60, and others.
I was at that race at Atco and we set the H/S record there that weekend. A 12.25 and a 12.26 backup. Probably could have run faster as both our record and back up runs were not perfect....one bogged a little and one spun a little.... I am not sure if it was that event but I do remember being outside the gate I think and Tony Pizzi was checking his timing while the car was on the truck or trailer. He was revving that thing very high and it caught my attention and stuck in my mind all these years. Those 302's are awesome little engines. I raced one myself a few times. A '69 in F/S. Felt more like a real race engine compared to a hyd cam 350. The 302's rpm capability was awesome even back then as a Stocker... My memory of that event includes being in the line to go over the scales and Dyno Don Nicholson pushed his Maverick in front of us and a few other cars. He set the Pro Stock record and it was 9.60
"Border Bandits" Update: I talked with Barrie Poole, today, who tells me "The Collector" wagon was built as a 289 car...and then "converted" with "Farmer's" approval to 427 status... I wonder what the Marti Report lists it as?! Of all his/John Elliot's former Stock/Super Stock cars, "The Collector" wagon is the ONLY one restored in total, to his knowledge. His '66 Comet GT Convert (also "The Collector", C/SA) is unknown; John's '67 A/SA 427 Comet resurfaced about 20 years ago (very rough) after life on the meanstreets of Windsor-area and was last heard of, untouched, in the Brantford/Hamilton area (needs rebody and/or a total redo); the '68 Mustang CJ "lightweight" SS/E car was totalled in a towing deal; the '69 Mustang Hardtop SS/H Pomona Champ X 2 was returned to the street (?!!?!) by its next owner - whereabouts unknown but probably crushed long ago... BTW, Sandy Elliot (John's father and Barrie's former "boss") is quickly approaching the ripe young age of 91 and still a "goin' thing"!! I made Barrie aware of the site and thread, but I don't expect him to rush in here and "beat his chest". He's still involved, somewhat, in a Super Stock GT/E '85 T-Bird with '74 Lincoln 460-based "recipe" engine..."havin' fun in retirement", as it should be. So he's around...just pretty low-key... I talked with Terry "Zeke" Maxwell last nite. He's signed up, here, recently, under his name, and will likely make an appearance "when I have the time". His work keeps him busy...and now the Christmas season...but he invites those interested to "see" him on "Facebook", again as Terry "Zeke" Maxwell.
Here's some video of Bobby from a couple of years a go... God Bless ya Bobby!! http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/5720705/#/vid5720705 Larry
Hey Colesy, anything in your pic-to-pedia about another Canadian who started in Stock, graduated to S/S, and became the Sox/Landy of Canada, John Petrie of "Highlander"/Argyle Dodge fame? He had the Chrysler Canada Performance deal, doing seminars across the country. I lost track of him when he "retired" in the early-'70s...but I recall him runnin' Dodges in the early '60s...
I like your 57 and trailer!! In the late 70s I built a white 67 Chevelle 327-250 H/SA for 2 clients and they let me race it until a good friend, Mike Cleary, bought it. I also raced Marc Heroux's 73 Vette L48 in I/SA. I built many stock engines.
Hello Terry and thanks for the kind words, good to see you here and hope you can share some stories. I first met you while I was at Indy with Rick Jones(73/ 74?) and we traveled back to Ottawa in his wagon, lots of hours bench racing, I think his son Steve was with us and someone else whom I cant recall. Henry Albert.
Actually, the first I recall of John was a '62 or '63 Mopar in something like B or C/SA??? Or, is this another '60s hallucination...?! Zeke, thanks for showin'!! A LOT of neat "stuff" here for you to digest...and contribute to... BTW, Happy Birthday to Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins! 80 years young 'n still growlin'!!
A buddy and I built a D/S 68 Z/28 stocker in 1975. A guy in Hialeah Fla had the carb off of Tony Pizzis car because he was going to build one but never did. I bought it for $100 because I didnt have one. I looked it over & thought, no way this is going to pass tech but it did. I bought a set of stocker heads from RHS and when they got there I thought theres really no way these will pass tech but they did. I can ony imagine what the stuff looks like now 35 years later going a full second faster but with different rules then we had then. I had to pay 3 times what a set of TRW pistons cost just to have a set with factory numbers on them, same exact piston but thats what the rule book said ! The Lunati stocker cam put the sound of most modified production cars to shame and the car went thru at 7200 -7400 with 5.86 gears. First time we showed up with the car a guy I knew said "oh yeah, thats a stock cam all right !"
The Jalopy Journal
