Hot Rods The Ultimate Willys Gasser Thread

Know a guy who's got Willysitis bad! Think he's up to 7 now.

 

Hello,

When I got my own C&O Stick Hydro installed in our 58 Chevy Impala, Steve Montrelli and Gene Ciambella did all of the sales and change-over work at their shop in the Torrance/Gardena area of So Cal.
They were very busy, but did not have the Willys Truck in the garage/shop area. The truck versions did not come on the scene until later in the middle 60s.

This was in 1961. It was a difficult time, as my brother was still recovering from our drag racing accident and the 3 speed stick Impala was our main form of transportation. So, if I drove my own Flathead 40 Ford Sedan Delivery to high school, my mom was left at home with a car she could not drive and my brother needed to go to the doctor’s office for treatment. Our dad took a day off and drove him to the doctor’s office a few times, until we could schedule the appointments when I was at home.

So, with that in mind, our mom liked the 58 Impala, and I tried to teach her to drive a stick shift car. But, after several weeks, she opted to get an “automatic” powered car or have the Impala converted to automatic. What!!! Since she was the one with the $$$ to get things done, we went ahead and found the C&O shop after a conversation with our L.A. “hot rod/drag race” connection recommending them to do the conversion.

Jnaki

I drove the Impala all over So Cal and the C&O put me out in front on every race and encounter anywhere. It was amazing and the guys at C&O hit a jackpot for transforming my Impala to a faster car on the street and drags, without doing any other modifications. But, since we were now in a gas coupe class, that was not going to be a good thing at our household. So, the fast times in Bixby Knolls and the rest of So Cal were our stomping grounds. Also, our mom could still drive my brother to his doctor’s appointments and I still drove my own Flathead sedan delivery to the beach.

Within several years, I was invited back to the drags for the unveiling of our friend and mentor, Atts Ono. He wanted me to film his newly finished 40 Willys Coupe with a 671 supercharged motor, similar to our build which he had a big part in creating. But, his own version was night and day compared to our start up Willys Coupe. he never ran it until it was 100% finished with a gold leaf lettering name and bright red paint. We had the same goal, but decided to keep the red primer paint until we started setting some records.

So, the HAMB has those days posted on other threads.

This one shows my films of the first time the C&O guys built a very fast 40 Willys Pickup Truck for the oncoming Gas Coupe and Sedan competition.




In the rapidly changing drag racing world, name changes come and go as new/different opportunities abound. YRMV



The MGM Willys Truck versus our Westside of Long Beach friends, Gary Weldele/Bob Foster A/MSP La Dwari (Long Beach based Mfg.) custom sport car.

an October Halloween month old art work: