History Stock-S/S-F/X 1959-1966

Thanks for the link Hans. The title says 1963 but it really is the 1962 NHRA Nationals. It is too bad the quality is so poor though as there are a number of good S/SS and B/FX cars pictured. It appears that Nicholson's B/FX Impala (yellow) and the Old Reliable B/FX Impala are shown along with the TASCA '62 lightweight and a number of Mopars from '62. The Drag Truck first appeared in '62 as I recall.
I'll see if I can get permission to post the shot of the Drag Truck but don't hold your breath over it.
Joel

 

Yeah, that is pretty obvious when you look at the cars. Sure hope that the quality was better but still cool someone uploaded the clip. Sure appreciate your efforts regarding the photo Joel!

Hans

 

Just to keep the Ford camp happy, here is Detroit Steel Tubings answer to the Ram Truck;





It is amazing how well it has been preserved, the whole story is here;

http://www.f-100xl.com/

Was there ever a Chevy truck like this?

Hans

 

There was a "clone/recreation" of one of these on the streets of Columbus a few years back at the Mopar Nationals. Cool truck driven by a "young gun."

 

That's interesting. Was it by any chance this nice truck from Canada with some period type decals added or something closer to those racers?



Hans

 

There are great new photos up on the Double H site Click on Other photos 2
Joel

http://www.doublehdragstrip.com/ghoststrip/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

 

I saw Howard Neal and the Strip Teaser race Arnie in his GTO one night at Double H.

I also saw Robert Nance put one of the Little Mr Plymouths (Valiant or Barracuda) into the trees at the end of the strip at Paradise one Sunday. The old stopping area ended up going down hill after a little ways when they ran a full quarter mile.

We run at Paradise from time to time now, they only run an eighth. Paradise is susposed to be the oldest continuous running strip in GA.

 

Joel, cool site. Check out that Willys Gasser getting the jump off the line on those 2 AWB Valiants, I wonder if he was able to hold them off for the win??? Is the Ronnie Evans on the photos the same guy that currently runs the Wildfire 409???

 

Hi John,
No different Ronnie Evans. I thought the same thing at first!
Joel

 

I have a photo of Robert Nance's wrecked Valiant on the trailer, I'd guess it was from the race you've mentioned. Unfortunately the photo isn't mine and I don't have permission to post it. Nance had a Valiant and a Barracuda back then.
Joel

 

Some may not be aware of the Thunderbolt thread here on the HAMB that Jody Aberts started ... take a look ...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136384&highlight=Ford+Thunderbolt


Joel

 

Yes, he had both there that day.

 

Here are some Pontiac Wagon Pictures taken by my friend (Clark Rand, who owns the Sox & Martin 68 Hemi Cuda). These pictures are NEW, taken only a few months ago......

PS: There is 1 Pix of Ronnie Sox with his old car just a few months before the passed away.

 

I am a mopar guy from Germany and are looking for vintage pics of the 67 Sox & Martin Plymouth Belvedere GTX.
I enclosed some pics of my car. It is a 67 Belvedere II which I put into the Sox+Martin Style.

http://pixeleye.smugmug.com/photos/3...7_gPWHd-X3.jpg

http://pixeleye.smugmug.com/photos/3...1_oQ23C-X3.jpg

http://pixeleye.smugmug.com/photos/3...0_TUnLk-X3.jpg

Thanks in advance for any response.

Andreas
<!-- / message -->

 

Very nice car Andreas. S&M fans all over the world!!!

 

Hello, I have been lurking here for a bit and this is a great thread. I was wondering if Jody or anyone else had some vintage pics of '66-'67 Fairlanes? Also, does anyone have pics of any of the Nate Cohen cars?

Mike

 

Mike,
Glad you joined in ... I'm sure there are some '66-7 Fairlane pictures out there and I'll get around to posting any that I have but we do want to keep them vintage shots so that the thread remains more or less true to the title subject criteria.
Joel

 

That works for me! I recently acquired a '67 Hardtop and am interested in replicating the 60's Super Stock Look with this car. I really like what Earl ( thegoingthing.com ) has done with recreating the Ryan and Downing car and I would like to do something similiar.

Anyway, if anyone had some Fairlane pics to post, that would be great.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Mike ... lots of those car (images) are posted here ---> http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=201085

How bout Richard Charboneau's 'Killer' Fairlane Wagon?

 

i tried to make the interior of my car, NOT to be the rough look. Although I had moved the engine back a full 26" I still fabricated an entire aluminum interior...this was a done with a hack saw, rubber mallet and an old fashioned jig saw...no specialty bending and forming equipment existed when I did all of this in my garage in 1966...
From an old funny car AWB racer. Mike Gaines

 

I have a pix of the very car you are looking for. It is owned by a friend of mine and it was taken just recently AFTER it was completely refurbished to its original state.

Here is the Picture.

 

In fact, for a short period of time, this car was owned by a friend of mine. He was what is called the "unkown 3rd Owner"

He has since passed away. His name was Kenny Hampton from Mattoon, Illinois.

Before buying the Kentucky Colonel, Kenny owned a 1963 Lightweight 426 Savoy. At the time Kenny had this '63 we went out to the edge of town and had our own little drag race at 1am in the morning. At the time I owned a 1963 Corvette 4 speed, with the 64 Fuelie cam, dual quads, header and 4.56 gears. Needles to say the Ramcharger beat my Corvette.

But in 1967, after Kenny bought the Kentucky Colonel we had another race...it was the featured Match Race of the Year at our hometown track .. Coles County Dragstrip..in Charleston Illinois.

That summer nite in 1967 I did NOT get even for Kenny's 63 Savoy outrunning my 63 Corvette 3 years earlier.

Kenny bought the Kentucky Colonel "ready to race" and Kenny was a very accomplished mechanic and knew 100% what he was doing with that car....BUT I had just received my set of HILBORN FUEL INJECTION, direct via Greyhound Bus (prior to UPS service) the day of the match race.

I got it running ok prior to the match race but didnt have even a chance to make one pass prior to the first round of the 2 out of 3 match race.

In each of the 3 rounds, on the big end my car really fell on its face and Kenny easily beat me. I found out the next day that I had installed the by-pass jet (pill) 100% backwards in the fuel return line back to the Moon Tank...therefore the injection system was not capable of bypassing excess Nitro/Alchohol mix back to the tank...and it litteraly flooded itself on the big end....

At the time ( I was only 25 years old) this was a huge disappointment to me...but now 41 years later, I wouldn't give up the memory of that nite for any amount of money.

Mike Gaines, formerly of Mattoon Illinois
My car that I raced against the Kentucky Colonel is pictured below-

 

.......................

 

http://www.supermotors.net/registry/5161/18851

Here is a great link to some shots of 66-67 Fairlanes.

 

This is one of my favorite '67 Fairlanes. It was originally built by Phil Bonner & Don Martin but was obsolete before they finished. Phil sold it to some fellows on Long Island that were hooked up with Far Rockaway Ford. One interesting thing about the car was that it was righthand drive. Phil said it was something he was trying for better traction. It was painted both blue and red while raced as the Silencer.

Does anyone have any idea what happened to it?

 

Here it is in blue.

 

Hey, Super Stock TRIVIA fans....how about this one....

In 1964 I bought my first race car....a 1963 426 Plymouth Aluminum Front End car....It was really a rare, rare, factory produced combo.....A 2-DOOR HARDTOP BELVEDERE with the 426 Stage III Super Stock Ramcharger Motor, Trunk Mounted Battery, Heater Delete, etc, etc. 1 of 3 produced at the Chrysler St Louis Plant in 1963.

But my point of this thread... the car had, what was alway reported to me, was set 1 of 3 sets ever made of custom headers built for the Ramchargers. They were called Ramcharger Mark III headers...

I am not sure but I have been told years ago that they were built by Sanderson Headers in SoCal...like I said, especially for the Ramchargers.....each tube was of equal length and several of the individual tubes wrapped UP and then BACK DOWN and around...they looked like spagetti when installed...and were made with "slip joints" so you could get them installed.... the set I had on my car were bought off of Al Ekstrand's LAWMAN car...1963 Lightweight 426... I will scan a pix of the headers and post it soon....my car is pictured below.

 

Hi Mike, and thanks for the very informative post about your cool AWB racing the Ky Colonels' car. Since you did an engine setback in your car, I'm sure you would know whether Kenny's car had an engine setback when he bought it. My own belief is that Hall, Heath and Anderson did not do the setback on the Colonels' car -- at the time, it was a struggle for David to keep the front wheels down enough. Judging from the later pics I've seen of the car and the aluminum work, which pales in comparison to your own, it's my guess it was done after David Heath sold the car (maybe by Spivey Williams). Anyway, the internet seller's story seems pretty full of holes and I'm still curious what ever became of the car. So, did it have an engine setback then?

 

This car was located about a year ago...I saw some pixs taken of it....pretty sorry shape. but it was all there....

 

My response to your questions:

The Kentucky Colonel, in 1967, had an engine setback ( mine was 26" and the Colonel, if my memory from 42 years ago is correct, looked to me to be about the same ) I know this to be an absolute FACT...the 3rd owner of the car ( Kenny Hampton ) was a friend of mine from my same home town. Kenny even had the car in my shop in the rear of my speed shop one weekend as I "loaned" him my torqueflite, because his was broke and he had a paid match race that weekend and I didnt.

Another IMPORTANT FACT. The car absolutely had to have an altered wheelbase AND a 25" (or more) engine setback to do "wheel stands" of any significant distance (more than maybe about 50 feet or so).

On my own car...I altered the wheelbase myself (first) then set the engine back and put the straight axle in a few weeks later.

I did the straight axle installation and engine setback (not including the aluminum work) starting Friday nite and finishing Sunday evening. The local Plymouth dealer let me use their shop because they had a great portable engine lift that I could use.

I unbolted all of the "torsion bar" front suspension stuff and cleaned off the the frames rails with a torch and a grinder. I welded on the front and rear spring hangers. ( I used a CAE tubular axle with 40 ford spindles, most guys used the entire 40 ford axle) I welded the front spring hangers onto the front frame rails as far forward as I could.
I then cut the giant hole in the firewall. I held the motor on an engine hoist and pushed the hoist rearward until the chain holding the motor hit the windshield....and that is were I fabricated the motor mounts onto the framerails.

The drive shaft ended up being about 15" long, which was just fine.

And most of all, the silly thing that happened, after all of this "scientific" work...the car ended up with a 104" wheelbase and the front spark plug hole was exactly 26" back on the front spindle...walla a perfect 25% setback which made the car legal for Altered Class when it ran that class. I am glad the chain holding the motor hit the windshield at that exact point (26" back to the spark plug from the frt spindle) or if it gone further back before hitting the windshield it would have MORE than a 25% setback.

I had called up to Detroit (and Chicago) and all those shops wanted thousands of dollars to alter the wheel base and do the engine setback.

I was reading a car magazine and saw an article showing some pictures of Al Vanderwoude's Flying Dutchman '64 car having the wheel base altered...I figured I could do it myself...and did.

But about the "wheelstands" that you mentioned the Kentucky Colonel doing....

We all had enough power to "pop" the wheels up several feet after coming out of a liquid bleach puddle (when the coated tires hit the dry asphalt) but then the front wheels would come down after shifting into 2nd gear on the Torquefile

But.....The ONLY way to hold sustained wheelies for any distance at all was to install a solid steel tubular rear bumper made out of oil well pipes stuffed inside one another to get a bumper that weighed about 250 pounds. With that "helper" then we all could lift the car upon to this rear tubular bumper by merely "tapping" the gas pedal and then flooring it and the car would literally go forever up on the rear bumper until you went thru the lites (or got crooked and had to shut off)...all this was done long prior to the professional wheel standers such as the Hemi-Under-Glass that were equipped with individual brakes on each rear wheel to actually steer the car....we didnt do it the "sissy way" we just kept it floored and let it go until we saw the guard rails coming too close and then let it down.....

Like i said before....when we were all kids (I was 24 yrs old and Kenny Hampton with the Kentucky Colonel was 29 at the time he owned it) with these cars, we just wanted to go fast, or up, it didnt make any difference which way.

Posted below is my car up on its hind legs...