When I read old car magazines (and a recent thread about the 1951 Hot Rod Issue), I often see the name Tony Capana. It's almost a constant. But if you go to the WilCap web site, and read their history page, they have the correct spelling. Even the Hemi book spells it Capana. I guess he probably just got tired of correcting everyone. Sort of like TC Lemon being called Lemons in print all the time. Not being sure of the spelling, and who was right, I checked the ancestry pages. History says he had two sons, one who preceded him in death by 16 days, named Lloyd: Anthony Capanna Born: 14 June 1921 Died: 20 September 2001 Lloyd Capanna Born: 22 October 1955 Died: 4 September 2001 Michael Capanna Still living in Santa Maria I'm thinking it's Capanna...
In Dean Batchelor's "Dry Lakes & Drag Strips" Tony's last name is spelt Capanna. and while we're talking about Tony Capanna here is a few prewar pics of his hudson modified. 1940 1941
The correct spelling is Tony Capanna. It is true that Tony's son Lloyd preceded him in death. Tony's son Mike is still living. I know this because I am Tony's daughter. My maiden name Is Rita Capanna.
Rita, thank you very much for that! When I started building a Dodge Hemi, a couple of my friends mentioned Tony, and how he ran the Dodge engines when they first came out. When I told them what I was going to do they would always say "What would Tony do?" or "Tony might approve of that!" ha! It's almost a constant now. I'm probably the same age as you and your brother, so it was an interesting time during our parents younger years. Every time I think I've done something new, I find out it was already done 50 years ago...
The Jalopy Journal
