Hot Rods The Ultimate Willys Gasser Thread

Arteaga & Hellmuth

Hello,

In my own readings of old drag racing books and magazines, there was no complete organized classes for each and every dragstrip in America in the 50s to the 70s when the classes were gone. The small dragstrips used their own selection of weight to horsepower designation to create their own classes. In So Cal alone, Santa Ana, was the first to open, but their designations were very odd. They had the weirdest class designation that no other So Cal dragstrip used. But after they closed in 1959, most, if not all So Cal dragstrips started unifying to the Standard 1320 designations.

The other states had their own names and numbering systems and printed the results as they saw fit. It was hard to have the list of classes from sports cars, stocks, the various streel legal classes and modified classes including the wide variety of dragsters. Eventually, those dragstrips accepted the standard 1320 designations as class names. So something was done to unify entry if one was a traveling drag racer.

Jnaki
Locally, it was possible to have different white shoe polish numbers and letters on the driver's side windows if anyone raced at two different tracks on a Friday and Saturday. But, the white shoe polish was easily wiped off so as not to confuse the folks in the towers to record who was who and in what class.

From the TOP photo of the Arteaga & Hellmuth Willys Coupe, the designation was probably for their local dragstrip, where they raced all of the time. But, they were listed as B/GS for the Cordova World Series of Drag Racing in 1964. At the time, most timing towers were on the driver’s side and had to have a dragstrip designated class logo on the driver’s window or side panel.


Case solved to some satisfaction: After 1964-66 timeline, as we can all see, no one runs street legal coupes with individual side exhaust headers. In the previous photo, there was a collector added before or after to meet some of the modified rules that were now acceptable as the real street legal classes from the early days was getting changed. If they had a Moon Tank in front of the radiator, then it was after September 1960. In 1964 in So Cal, individual exhaust pipe headers were starting to be allowed in the Gas Coupe ranks. And the down fall began… for street legal cars… YRMV

 

Recently for sale (Oz); said to be in very sound condition; a few more pics on the Aussie ute icon thread https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/aussie-icon-the-ute.339810/page-19#post-14813845

 

Dean Mink 41 Willy’s Gasser, he drove this until he moved to the 68 Race Hemi Cuda and 65 Coronet. Great racer and a good guy to know, poor picture though. View attachment 5686599

 

Hello,

In my research on another event in So Cal and then expanded eastward, I found this series of photos that describes what happens to a B/GS Willys Coupe in 1963. In So Cal, white shoe polish was used on the windows/doors/body panels, since the early beginnings. The class was B/Gas Supercharged as designated by the Standard 1320 group rules. Now, by this time, most, if not all So Cal dragstrips had similar class designations.

1963 Winternationals So Cal Del Wiesner, Dean Seveers, Harold Owens

Then, racing with the same modifications already built in place, racing in Arizona, they were in the B/MG class. Same car, same motor, different dragstrip classification.

1963 B/MG designation… normally B/GS

“In 1963, on the way home from the Winternationals, we stopped at Mel Larson’s track in Phoenix where he was holding the AHRA Fuel Nationals. The track is still at the same location today, 2009 and is called Speed World. We won our class and ran several rounds of Little Eliminator. We had so much fun that the next year, we came back to the new beeline raceway in Scottsdale, az on our way to Pomona.”

“The above picture was taken by drag racing magazine and was in their July 1964 issue. We were running B Modified Gas Class carrying about 400# of ballast. We set a new AHRA national record at the time at 136 mph. Before the meet was over, we ended up doing a huge wheelstand and bent the front axle. That put us out of competition for the rest of that meet. We took the car to California and built a new axle at George Britting’s shop so we would be ready for the 1964 Winternationals in Pomona.”

Jnaki

Competing in the next year, the class designation was erased and it was blank, again for the So Cal Winternationals. Note the window class designation in tape or shoe polish. 1964

 

Another Willys ute which was recently for sale (Oz); unmodified - except for the rear mudguard ... more pics: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/aussie-icon-the-ute.339810/page-19#post-14813845

 

Is that "Big John" Mazmanian's nephew Richard Siroonian with "Big John" ?

 

Yes it is.

 

John, It sure would be nice to learn more about the history of my car. I know the Kellison front clip had three holes in the hood on the driver side, indicating it was possibly powered by a GMC six at one time. I know Stab Bowman owned it briefly...other than that - nada.

 

I had my sister edit this pic and another one, with my Willys in her PhotoShop class!

 

Is that Ron Ladley's restored 1941 Willys Americar coupe ?

 

Wow is that yours?

 

No that,s sure out of my budget. L.O.L.