Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

According to Joe Scalzo in "The American Dirt Tracker", the HOW/K.E.Y. sprinter was built by Bob DeBischop.
Anybody vouch for Scalzo's accuracy? He writes entertaining books, but the quotes seem a little contrived sometimes. Great pictures in this one, including a 4 shot sequence of McClusky's crash at IRP. Was it only dirt for one year?

 

Here is the photos of the Weld rabbit as it is today.

 

I was told it's MIA. I'm pretty sure that's what you'll hear from many people in the vintage community.

 

Scalzo has been known to take some "artistic license" no doubt. Don't think IRP was dirt one full year as by late in the 61 season they had it paved, I believe.

 

Another , same car...........

 

I believe it was dirt for only one race

 

Rootie, it appears the 5th pic, #55 has different nose/grille & rollbar. Was car updated or changed???
mlight9.

 

Well guys... Got a phone call this week, and threw my tools down and hauled ass!

Now, I sit in a hotel room in Darlington South Carolina preparing for The Vintage show here.

Zakira's Jim and I brought down a Duesenberg powered big car, along with two Indy Roadsters.. One of which is the San Diego Steel car..

Can't wait! I'll post pics.

J Shaw

 

I think so, for no other reason than it still has a cross spring which by 68 the 4 bar was pretty much the hot setup.

 

One of the bravest of the brave getting ready to get in the # 28 car. A few oldtimers will know.

 

Don Davis, and yes he was!

 

Yeah, Jim. Roger told me once that he ran every motel close to the Speedway out of hot water that night. I told him I saw it and said it was a pretty frightful flip. He said, "You should have been sitting where I was."

 

Actually, it was dirt for only two races. That first sprint race won by Foyt and a stock car race, I believe the same weekend. The next USAC sprint race in 61 was on pavement, and Parnelli won it.

 

I just received an Email that National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Earl Wagner passed away this, Thursday September 24th, morning.

 

Once I figured out DeBisschop is spelled with 2 S's, I came across this, about 10 paragraphs down. If accurate, the HOW/KEY car may very well have been built by DeBisschop with Kurtis influence. Interesting, makes one wonder where it ended up ???
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/default.aspx?carID=11526&arID=9755&i=8

 

Rootie,
I always thought the HOW/Key car had lines closer to a Watson than a Kurtis. Your article on Debisschop shows he worked with AJ. Hmmmmm???? The HOW first dirt champ car was a Watson too. Hmmmm.

 

Yeah, it does look Watson-ish but not quite. Kinda gives some credence to it being built by someone else using a little Watson influence, a little Kurtis influence and a little of his own.

 

The 55 car is not the same car as the other pic s the first car has a single main rail the 55 has a track bar set up , not hair pins and more Wally or AJ looking , just a thought ?

 

Hi Guys,
I am enjoying the comments about the KEY car. It appears to have started life as a single tube, parallel bar, spring front car typical of the late 50s/ earley 60s. In the USAC history book, the Colvin/ Shepard combo competed thru 1971, using#55 and 56 with sponsorship from Sterling Plumbing. What did KEY stand for? Hey Old Bill what do you know?

 

'SteveE, It doesn't take an old timer to take one look at a picture like that and get goose-bumps. Pics like that are priceless. Thank you.

 

Sorry wynn's 1, I don't know. Jack Colvin and Sandy Young were usually listed as the owners for the KEY car in 1963. Just a guess that the Y stands for Young. It was the "KEY Enterprises" Spl. in 1964.

I have always thought that the Colvin-Shepard Sterling Plumbing 55/56 had previously been Herk's car.

I believe the ex-HOW car was built by Kurtis in 1953 for Mari Hulman (who apparenly owned 90%) and Roger Wolcott (10%). DeBisschop redid it in 1956. It went to E.T. Morse in 1967-1968. Driven by Bigelow and Puterbaugh as Ezra Brooks Spl, No. 21 in 1967; Masters as Morse Chevy No. 91 1968. Don't know where it went from there-possibly to IMCA.

 

Yeah, it was kinda fun kicking this around. Sounds like OldBill got us dialed in though. About everything he posted would jive with the fragments of info I could come up with. I googled up KEY enterprises in Anderson Ind., where Colvin was listed as being from, and found a KEY Enterprises real estate outfit in nearby Muncie, no web site or anything though. (?)
Here's a shot of Bigelow in the Ezra Brooks car 1968, looks like some major updating was done.

 

The posts and pictures of the Rabbits (especially of the Brayton pics) got me to ask Becky Brayton if Lee still had the old car or knew where it was and here is Becky's response from a couple of days ago:

Eric,

Lee sold the car, and heard it is now in the Nat'l Sprint Car Hall of Fame Museum in Knoxville, Iowa. It is painted in Greg Weld's colors, who won the Nat'l Championship with that car before he sold it to Lee the following year and went to Indy cars. Lee won a lot of races in that car and held the world record on dirt at Cincinnati.

Becky

 

Yeah it really does look a lot different, thanks Bill.

 

The Ezra Brooks cars (by the way, Ezra Brooks is a bourbon). First two photos the ex-HOW/KEY car in 1967 at Eldora (red and white) and with Charlie Masters aboard at Reading in 1968. Last two, the Grant King-built team at Dayton in 1970.

 

Sorry about the mis-spell, guess I'm guilty of a little "artistic license" myself.
That article sure reinforces Corngrower's original post about the link between sprint cars and hot rods, doesn't it?

 

Since you seem the best guy on here, do you think you could locate any, or as much as possible, info, stats, and pics of the great career of Al "Speed" Chamberlain?
What a great IMCA shoe!
Thanks for anything you can dig up.

 

Spike, are you looking for Vern "Speed" Chamberlain or Al Chamberlain from Altoona, PA?

 

Al from Altoona, PA.
I didnt mean that only one of you guys had godd knowledge of "back when", i just meant that Rootie comes up with some great old pics.