Let me try this one:On the left,up ahead, The Mackey and Mayersohn O/Stocker 65 Chevelle wagon. Ahead of it, Ronnie Siriani's Destination Unknown Chevelle conv. Up ahead, the Troxell Vista Cruiser. Up ahead of Blevins, the Carl Bennet "Just Me" Camaro....more to come
WoW! I'm (really) impressed! I didn't even see John's Vista 'BRUISER.' Looks like you (still) have plenty of 'gray matter' remaining. Congratulations! Your prize is a (bad) copy of the Dec 5, 1975 National Dragster Automatics Record page Cheers! ... Steve
"...more to come" YES, Please! PS: Great Bill Jenkins piece that some of you guys may have missed--> http://www.nhra.com/50th/top50/B_Jenkins08.html
I worked for John for a while at Buckaroo. He told me they took a cheese-grater wheel on a grinder to this car, and shaved the hell out of the fiberglass body. Sanded it smooth and it was a couple hundred pounds lighter. I don't remember the weight it took off, but it was substantial. He also told me a story about one of his Dusters. They acid-dipped the body at an angle--nose first into the tank, the quarters and deck lid were out of the tank. It lightened the front of the car and kept weight on the rear. He was doing dry-hops in the staging lanes at Indy (I think) and before he got to the water box he let the clutch out a little too hard and lifted the front wheels off the ground. When they came back down, the whole front of the car collapsed, because all the metal was so thin. NHRA told him not to bother racing that body any more. -Brad
OK, here's one for you 'Eagle-Eyes-Guyz' ... WHO is parked NEXT to Ronnie? Winner gets (sorry, image only!) a vintage time card from Cecil!
Congratulations! 'You GOOD' Bill ... guess it was a bit too EZ As to your 'prize,' I couldn't find a 'Cecil' card right away ... is this OK?
This--> *"They substituted a 12-bolt Salisbury rear end in place of the mandated 10-bolt by affixing the 10-bolt rear inspection cover to the stronger housing with two or three bolts that happened to line up correctly. They cut the heads off the rest of the bolts and glued them to the cover to make it look kosher. The cover, in turn, was cemented to the housing with yellow 3M. Truppi claims they never had any trouble with this arrangement from an operational standpoint or from Bill "Farmer" Dismuke's legion of doom." *from--> http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=138607 is certainly 'one' of the more 'creative mods' I knew of.
Wasn't that hard. I probably was there. Ahead of Bennet's Camaro, The Rinaldi and Seaman "It's Dynamite" Mopar wagon .Top left, the blue 55 Chev of Bob Beckert... ... still working on this. BTW, I was good friends with Lee Sherman too.
Well, I thought I did. Hey, I like that old HT you had. I've been wanting to build something like that lately...See, I've got this 455 under the bench,and.... Might do it, as soon as I sell my NHRA stocker. It was fun while it lasted, but it's way too expensive now. The expense takes all the fun out of it. Mark
"Well, I thought I did." Sometime in '01 Linda Sherman called me and told me Lee had died several months earlier. She didn't call me right away because she said she had 'felt bad' about the two of them not coming to my wife's funeral in late 2000. Lee had contracted cancer of the esophagus and died within a very few days after it was diagnosed ... he was still a 'young' man. I 'threw out' lots of old 'memories from the past' after my wife died, but while I was looking through the boxes of old negatives I had kept ... just a few days ago, I ran across a photo my daughter had taken of me and Lee 'wet sanding' (paint prepping) his first 'real' race car on the apron of my garage. It was his '65 Biscayne 4 DR, 185/283, four speed. I guess you know this part of 'the story,' but just in case ... The likable team of Lee and Linda Sherman went on to become serious competitors in the (GM) stock classes. Lee eventually moving to a '66 220 glide Wagon, one *convertable (*old Kenny Koonce car), and then to Cameros ... and Linda with her 'Madam X' Chev ('X' body) Cavalier. So it goes! Regards ... Steve
"Truppi claims they never had any trouble with this arrangement from an operational standpoint or from Bill "Farmer" Dismuke's legion of doom" How about some stories from the (infamous) teardown 'Barn'? And speakin of The "Farmer" --> http://www.nhraonline.com/2004/news/august/083101.html
Nice comment Bob, thanks. Yes he certainly was nice (and generous). This was my car, BUT the engine and powerglide was a no-strings, long-term loan from Lee. Lee usually had a 'spare' or two. ... Steve
Mark,curious about your comment about selling your stocker and "fun while it lasted". I was at the NHRA NED1 Dutch Classic watching the stockers run today. They all were flying cause it was cold. I am sure they are more expensive that the Jr Stockers but are they REALLY expensive to build/maintain?? I kinda have a bug to build one but your comment caught my eye .Could you go into that a little for me?? thank you
I've been away for 2 weeks. The first thing I did was to check this message board when I got back. So yes I have crazy issues and thanks for keeping this Jr Stock history lesson rolling!!!
Ok, sure ,I'll try. Example, I was going to go to the divisional race at Vegas to set the national record in my class . That would require atleast two runs (record and back-up). They are expecting 800 racecars, including about 400 Super Comp and Super Gas cars. Stock and Super Stockers only get two time trial runs,all on Friday . Seeing that Stock is almost always out first (8 am), that means you would have to be there on Thursday to get teched in before 5 pm. Let's add it up now. Two days away from work or vacation days, whatever the case. Minimum 5 gallons of racing fuel, $ 50 (pump gas won't pass fuel check) Gaskets for teardown: $80 (turbo head gasket,etc) Gas for M/H , 600 miles, round trip, $300 (no motel or eating out expenses that way) Entry: $160 We haven't even gotten to normal wear and tear on tires, valve springs,etc My car doesn't eat parts and I don't have to fear a heads up run with another car in my class. If you want to go fast or be the one who gets to chase the other cars (A-B-C/ Stock) you will need a top shelf engine and trans /converter combo. Otherwise when you run another car in your same class, it's a heads -up run and you just had a bad and expensive weekend. You are probably looking at 40-50 grand to build a fast high class stocker, and that's if you can do some of the work yourself. I could go on ,if you want me to.....
"I was at the NHRA NED1 Dutch Classic watching the stockers run today." Me too! I arrived on Thursday, but didn't go to the track until Friday morning. It was announced yesterday that there were 17 records set, the most impressive was by Charlie Wescott Sr. in his "War Fish" SS/AH Baracuda at 8.38! Last night I learned that Barry Musser is in the same campground so I looked him up to BS about the old days. He told me something interesting regarding the Monster Mash. He said there was only one car and it was always a business coupe. He also said that his father-in-law (Tink)bought it from "Spyder" Spanokos and that he had run it for several years as "Tinker's Toy."
''I learned that Barry Musser is in the same campground so I looked him up to BS about the old days. He told me something interesting regarding the Monster Mash. He said there was only one car and it was always a business coupe." Great post/pic! Good to see how many of those guys are still 'breathing,' much less racing! As to "there was only one car and it was always a business coupe." Barry 'should know,' but ... well -- see below--> Windshield and backglass trim, 'beltline' chrome, side chrome, full back seat ... a '210' NO windshield and backglass trim, 'beltline' chrome, side chrome, or back seat ... a 'business/utility' coupe' Who knows for sure (someone does') perhaps it was (the 'II') 'converted. One thing I remember when I first saw it ... it was a '210,' not a 'utility/business' Coupe.' Both models 'made' the 'weight break,' but the '210' was a bit heavy (30 lbs?) for the class.
The top picture is a 210. The bottom picture is a 150 but could also be a business coupe without back seat or roll down quarter windows.
Agreed. A '55 150-model had no windshield trim, no belt line trim or side trim. What made it a Business Coupe was fixed rear side glass and no back seat. You could get a regular 150, or a 150 Business Coupe. The regular 150 had a rear seat and roll-up windows. The top car is a 210. It's entirely possible they stripped off the chrome, rear window regulators and rear seat. I'd think the rear seat itself would be 30 pounds...but they had a plywood deck in its place, so if the rules were REALLY particular, that might have had to go in. Total speculation on my part about the rules--I wasn't even born then! The rear deck wsa so the sales men, etc. could haul their wares and get to them easier. I'm sure more than one slept back there too. -Brad
The Jalopy Journal
