Dick Harrell never had a chance to show Detroit Dragway fans how well his flip-top Camaro could run, thanks to the rain which cancelled the big funny car show in early 1968.

We returned to the Ditch (Detroit Dragway) in the spring of 1968, lured by the promise of a huge funny car line-up. The entry list left us drooling over the opportunity to see many of the top cars in the country. The radio spots guaranteed records would fall, and knowing the caliber of the cars involved I could well believe it.

Sadly, it was not to be. As we made the turn on to Telegraph road, the first rain drops hit the windshield. By the time we reached Sibley road, twenty minutes later, we were driving through a full-fledged downpour.

Could they dry the track and run the race?

I still hoped they might be able to dry the track and get the show in. When we reached the track entrance, however, the gates were locked and a small signed proclaimed “Event cancelled due to rain.”

How do you describe disappointment? A rain-out before a single funny car is able to make a pass is a good start.

I’m not sure whether my step-father spotted some funny cars from the road, or whether he just figured that a motel might be a good place to look. Whichever, he wheeled the car into nearby motel parking lot. There we found several out-of-state funny cars parked because of the weather.

Mr. Chevrolet and his Camaro

It was my first chance to see Dick Harrell’s Camaro flopper. Harrell was known as Mr. Chevrolet, and his prowess behind the wheel was legendary. Harrell started with a Chevelle match racer, then progressed to a wild Chevy II match-basher. In late 1966, Harrell had Don Hardy build a tube frame, steel body ’67 Camaro funny car. The car was a twin to Kelly Chadwick’s Wild Thing II Camaro (which was also on hand for the rained out event). Although other Chevy stars ran various body styles: Corvairs, Novas, Vegas and Monzas; all of Harrell’s future funny cars were Camaros.

Harrell was one of the first to embrace the multi-car team concept. He ran at least three, possibly four Camaros during the 1968 season. The fact that he brought one of his best cars, this flip top ’68 Camaro, is an indication of how good the field would have been that day, had the rain not interfered.

Several of Harrell’s 1968 cars still survive. There are claims and counter-claims regarding the legitimacy of some of these cars as current owners claim their Camaro was campaigned by Dick Harrell in the past. I will look further into the Harrell Camaro legacy, next time.

 

I found this edition of the CKLW All-Time Top 300 amidst my papers from the 1968 Autorama

As a certain cartoon moose used to say: “And now for something completely different…”

Don’t worry, Vintage-Nitro is all about fast cars, custom rods and racing. But I found this among my material from the 1968 Autorama, and just had to share it with everyone.

It is the CKLW All-Time Top 300 from May, 1967, and was probably handed out at the CKLW booth at the ’68 Autorama.

If you grew up in the Detroit area during the sixties, CKLW needs no introduction. CKLW was actually a Canadian AM radio station located across the river in Windsor, Ontario; but it was powerful enough to be heard throughout South Eastern Michigan and beyond.

If you had a time machine and could go back to the era before FM radio, you would probably find CKLW and WKNR programmed on the buttons on 99% of the GTOs, Mustangs, Chargers and Corvettes in the Detroit area. Except for news and ball games, few gear heads listened to anything else.

Perusing the song titles in this list brings back lots of great memories. Most of the songs don’t have any automotive connections, although I spotted GTO by Ronny and the Daytonas at 151 on the list and the Beach Boy’s Little Deuce Coupe holding down spot number 253.

Even the sappy love songs and finger snapping dance numbers bring back lots of racing memories. These songs were the soundtrack of our lives during the sixties and we listened to them on the way to and from the drag strip, while building model cars in the basement and working on real cars in the garage. I know many of these songs played over the PA system during down time at Detroit and Motor City Dragway.

According to the booklet, the order of songs was “based on votes mailed and phoned in by it’s (CKLW) listeners listing their favorite all time records.”

Detroit is the home of Motown, so I was surprised to see that the highest rated Motown song only reached number seven on the list. Even more surprising was that the mighty Beatles failed to crack the top five.

My guess is that Beatles fans voted for many different songs (I counted 23 Beatles tunes on the list!) which diluted the votes for any single Beatle title.

The top ten, in reverse order: (Note the song titles are  links to the songs on iTunes and the comments are reprinted from the CKLW All-Time Top 300 handout)

Number 10:

Stop in the Name of Love | Supremes

Detroit’s singing sweethearts honor the Top 300 with nine entries into the Motor City Hall of Fame. Born on stage, at a local amateur show, in the early sixties, the home town sound of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard is now famous the world over. The girls, as they are called at Motown, have an unbroken string of hits and the number ten entry on the Top 300 is one of their super samples.

Number 9:

Kicks | Paul Revere and The Raiders

Paul, Mark, Phil, Harpo and Smitty comprise one of the most powerful and exciting groups in the world. Unlike the Boston Paul Revere, who rode a horse, this one hails from Portland, Oregon, and rides herd on four zany minstrels known as the Raiders, who are the musical minutemen who have captured the hearts of a nation as stars of television’s “Where The Action Is.” Terry Melcher, Doris Day’s talented son, arranged and produced the classic you made number nine on the Top 300.

Number 8:

Downtown | Petula Clark

In 1964 English born Petula Clark was a resident of France … a young lady who had sold 20,000,000 copies of her hits in Europe alone. In 1965, composer and conductor, Tony Hatch, presented America with her record of DOWNTOWN. In 1967, Petula Clark is firmly established as the top gal in the record business. Her upbeat, big band number eight song on the Top 300 won Petula a Grammy award and was just the beginning of her conquest of U.S. charts. Short and sweet, Pet records in five languages and maintains a non-stop schedule of concerts and TV appearances.

Number 7:

My Girl | Temptations

About five years ago, five Detroiters got together to do some harmonizing. They’ve been singing together ever since thanks to the writing talent of Smokey Robinson and the guiding hand of Berry Gordy, Jr. Melvin, Eddie, Paul, Otis and David make the musical dedication of number seven from the Top 300 to MY GIRL.

Number 6:

Yesterday | The Beatles

For the hung-up minds that predicted a Beatle burn-out after their unparalleled successes of 1964, the boys, in mid-’65, served up final proof that this amazing “foursome was just getting into gear. In one of pop music’s outstanding examples of brilliant versatility, YESTERDAY became not only the Beatles’ biggest of 1965, but also the Lennon-McCartney song most recorded by other artists. The highest ranked Beatle hit on the Top 300, YESTERDAY is just one of the group’s twenty-two all timers on the list. What next from the pacesetters? Whatever, count on hearing it first on Radio 8.

Number 5:

The House of the Rising Sun | Animals

Another of the four United Kingdom products to make the tip of the Top 300, the Animals’ THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN is an example of how a British group’s deep appreciation of American blues can pay off with a mammoth modern smash. Reaching the top of the charts across the nation in 1964, RISING SUN was previously known only to folk freaks. The hit consistency of Eric Burden and his men guarantees the Animals’ fan much more to come . . . perhaps to challenge number five on the Motor City Top 300.

Number 4:

Sunny | Bobby Hebb

The surprise song hit of 1966 was originally released by Philips Records as a B side. The song itself was written the morning of the day after the death of President Kennedy. After being up all night in sorrow, Bobby wrote the song. It must remain as one of the greatest songs ever written and recorded. You’ve ranked SUNNY as the number four entry on the list of all time favorites.

Number 3:

Cherish | The Association

One of the most hauntingly beautiful love songs of any era, CHERISH was born in Los Angeles, late last summer. The song was written by group member, Terry Kirkman, and leaped to the top of the music heap, overnight. The number three all timer is a never-say-die smash that everyone enjoys hearing again and again.

Number 2:

Louie, Louie | The Kingsmen

1963 was the year of LOUIE LOUIE. Rhythm to move feet — a rousing musical experience that has become a theme for today’s generation. A perennial favorite, LOUIE LOUIE has sold over three million copies. And, it continues to sell, day after day. The Kingsmen “hail from the same part of Oregon as the group behind the number nine memory maker on the Top 300.

Number 1:

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction | The Rolling Stones

Above ‘em all, the Stones rule! The Number One spot in the Top 300 goes to I CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION. As the record that probably captured the mood of the summer of ’65 betten than any other, SATISFACTION shot the Stones up to the exclusive cloud occupied by today’s superstars. The hit by leader/composer Mick Jagger closed the Stones’ 1965 concert at the Cobo Arena, successfully blowing the minds of the more than 12,000 in attendance and even further assuring the group and their song a permanent groove in the all time Hit Parade.

If you are interested in seeing the entire Top 300, I have compiled the list into four 75 song lists:

CKLW Top 300 Part 1: Songs 1 – 75
CKLW Top 300 Part 2: Songs 76 – 150
CKLW Top 300 Part 3: Songs 151 – 225
CKLW Top 300 Part 4: Songs 226 – 300

Most of these songs are available on iTunes or through the Amazon Music Library. The links above are affiliate links and I receive a small commission when someone buys a song through these links.

 

Banshee Firebird arrived late for the 1968 Autorama. The owners are seen waiting for approval to move the car onto to the show floor. Note the snow underneath the car and the heavily-padded roll bar that extends through the roof.

I was in the basement loading dock at the 1968 Detroit Autorama, when these guys showed up with an injected Pontiac Firebird. The show was already open to the public and all of the other cars were set up in their displays.

Some of the officials pointed out that the owners had missed the deadline and attempted to prevent them from bringing the car into the auditorium. Cooler heads realized that the crowd was there to see cars, and the more cars the better. So the Firebird was allowed to join the other exhibits in the lower “overflow” area.

The Firebird looked to be freshly completed. The fact that the car arrived at Cobo Hall after the show opened to the public has always led me to believe the car was thrashed together to make the show.

The Pontiac was known as the Banshee. I’m not sure what class it was built for. It looks like a funny car, but it wouldn’t have been very competitive against the supercharged floppers on the match race circuit. It is possible it was intended for the NASCAR Ultra Stock class, where it would compete against cars like Wayne Gapp’s Super Cat Cougar.

One odd thing is the roll bar; which extends through the roof. What’s the deal with Pontiacs with the driver’s head above the roof line? We’ve already looked at Dick Jesse’s chopped GTO. The Banshee would be the second Pontiac at the same show with this configuration.

It is possible that Jesse had input into this car’s construction. If you were from the Detroit area and were intent on building a Pontiac funny car, you would almost certainly talk things over with Dick Jesse. Perhaps Mr. Unswitchable suggested the roll bar above the roof design?

I assume from the arrangement of the injector stacks, that there is a Pontiac V-8 under the hood. The other injected engines I am familiar with typically lined the stacks up in neat rows.

The name Banshee is a reference to the code name for the Firebird. Not long after rumors started to spread that Chevrolet was developing the Camaro, we heard that Pontiac wanted in on the “pony car” action. The automotive press announced the new Pontiac would be called the Banshee and Pontiac even displayed a Banshee concept car on the show car circuit.

Shortly before the Banshee was to be released, however, Pontiac abruptly announced that their Mustang fighter would be known as the Pontiac Firebird.

Apparently someone at Pontiac did a little research and discovered that Banshee is a Scottish term for “Wailing Death Spirit.” You have to remember that there was no Google and no internet back then. Seeking out information such as this required much more effort in 1967.

The management at Pontiac always tended to free-spirited, but even they realized that you don’t offer a car named after a death spirit. So exit the Pontiac Banshee and enter the Pontiac Firebird.

Of course that is the story I heard. Wikipedia suggests that Pontiac didn’t want to pay Eugene Lally for the naming rights. That could be true, but the death spirit story is the one we heard back in 1967.

The builders of this Firebird chose Banshee for their drag racing name. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you who owned, built and drove the little Banshee. Can someone step up and provide more details on this injected Firebird?

Another shot of the Banshee in the Cobo Hall loading dock.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/32698815@N04/6743729075/” title=”banshee-431 by TomBonner, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7011/6743729075_1b5710fa6d.jpg” width=”496″ height=”500″ alt=”banshee-431″></a>

 

Wayne Gapp got it done in 1968 with this gasoline Cougar Funny Car.

The last time we looked at Wayne Gapp, he was still running the Chargin’ Cyclone for the Hi-Risers. For 1968, however, Gapp went out on his own, campaigning the new Super Cat Mercury Cougar.

Gapp’s Cougar was another race car on display at the 1968 Detroit Autorama. Although flip-top funny cars were becoming the de-facto standard, Gapp’s new ride adopted the familiar tilt-forward front clip on a stock appearing factory shell.

When nearly all his contemporaries were embracing nitro and superchargers, Gapp bucked the system by building a new, gasoline powered funny car. The Cougar relied on the tried and true injected SOHC Ford 427, mounted in a tube frame. You cannot see them in this photo, but the injector tubes punched through the hood and were nearly as high as the car’s roof. I cannot say whether the body was shell was steel or fiberglass. I suspect it was a mixture of both.

Although the fuel cars grabbed most of the headlines in ’68, the Super Cat was very successful. NASCAR was still sanctioning drag races in 1968, and Gapp walked off with the NASCAR Winternationals gas funny car crown. He won class or eliminator titles at several other events as well. In addition, Gapp and the Super Cat engaged in match racing with other gas funny cars.

You can read more about the and find additional Super Cat photos on Gapp Online, Jeff Gapp’s web tribute to his father.

According to FordMercuryCougarXR7.com the Cougar was eventually sold to John Skitmas, who continued to campaign the car under the Super Cat name. Gapp acquired Pete Gate’s old Comet flopper, equipped it with a fiberglass “68 Mustang shell and replaced the Cammer with an injected Boss 429 Ford running gasoline. Daryl Huffman now owns the body shell and has done a wonderful restoration of the Pete Gates “Gate Job” Comet using the original chassis. I have no word about the whereabouts of the Super Cat in 2012.

 

Another B/G entry at the 1968 Autorama was the Dennett Brothers and their modern 1965 Chevelle gasser.

Another gasser at the 1968 Detroit Autorama was this sanitary 1965 Chevelle.

Although I preferred the traditional Willys and Anglia gassers, there is no denying the Dennett Brothers B/G Chevelle was a head turner. Built from a 1965 Chevelle, the Psycho was powered by a fuel injected, 440 CI rat motor.

According to Draglist, the Westland, Michigan based Chevelle achieved a best of 10.19 at 135mph, which was hauling for a B/Gas coupe in the late ’60s. I wonder if the Dennett Brothers ever faced off with the Buckpasser Willys that I talked about a few weeks ago. The Buckpasser also ran B/G, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Dennett gang tangled with the Ohio based Buckpasser at some point.

It appears that the brothers took turns driving the Psycho, as Dennett Brothers is painted on the doors where the driver’s name usually appears.

The team eventually moved on to fuel funny cars, fielding a slippery blown Corvette, also known as Psycho. Ken Dennett was the principle driver for the funny car.

Front 3/4 view shows 1965 Chevelle grille with inner headlights removed and tall ram tube injectors stabbing through the hood.

 

The Chevrolet Big Block V-8 is affectionately known as the rat motor to Chevy high performance fans.

One of the displays at the 1868 Detroit Autorama was this jewel-like big-block Chevy, AKA the Rat Motor. How did the big Chevy come to be known as a rat?

To a hot rodder or racer any Chevrolet big block V-8 is a rat motor. The slang term goes back over four decades and few enthusiasts will use any other term to identify the big Chevy power-plant.

Generally, the expression rat is less than complimentary. From James Cagney’s famous line “…that dirty, double-crossin’ rat” to the much-maligned rat finks of the fifties, calling someone or something a rat is the ultimate insult. When something is old, used up and falling apart, it is “ratty.”

The Chevrolet big block is a marvel of engineering and is the most powerful automotive engine ever mass-produced by General Motors. How did such a masterpiece of automotive design come to known-by the unsavory term of rat?

In the early 1960s, long before the first rat motor was introduced, a David and Goliath confrontation was taking place on the nation’s dragstrips. The Chrysler Hemi had become the dominate force in the Top Fuel and Top Gas categories, gradually replacing the Cadillac, Lincoln on Oldsmobile engines that previously controlled these categories.

The early Chrysler Hemi: Elephant Motor

While the Chrysler Hemi produced gobs of power, it was also physically larger and heavier than other V8 engines. The huge V-8 quickly earned the soubriquet of Elephant motor due to it’s size. An elephant motor with a GMC supercharger looked amazingly huge when installed in the typical tube frame sling-shot dragster chassis. It was enormous.

Although the big elephants were the de-facto standard in Top Fuel, there was another engine that could hold its own against the hemi. Many chose to run the legendary small-block Chevy in their dragsters. As often as not, they didn’t bother with a supercharger, preferring a simple set of injectors.

On paper it was an unequal contest. The blown hemi was far more powerful than the miniscule Chevy, and it seemed that the Chevy didn’t have prayer against the Chrysler in a quarter-mile sprint.

The Chevy, however, did have an edge. Tire-technology, or rather the lack of tire technology was on the Chevy’s side.

While the big elephant motors developed a huge amount of horsepower, the tires of the day were unequal to the task of delivering that power to the asphalt. As a result, much of that power went up in smoke, as the big Chrysler rails burned the tires almost the full length of the drags-tip.

The Chevrolet powered rails could burn their tires as well, but their lower power allowed the tires to hook up and gain traction while the big hemis were still spinning their wheels. The combination less wheelspin, lighter overall weight and higher RPMs allowed the little Chevy powered cars to be competitive and often best the more powerful hemis.

Enter the Chevy Mouse Motor

While the hemi teams weren’t actually afraid of the little Chevy dragsters, the small blocks tended to make them more than a little nervous. There was no shame for a blown hemi machine to lose to another blown hemi, but it was positively embarrassing to lose to the much smaller Chevy.

Some wag remembered the fable that the only creatures elephants are afraid of are mice, and started referring to the small Chevy as the mouse motor. Thus the elephant and mouse motors vied for racing honors on dragstrips throughout the country.

The mouse motor’s role as elephant-killer was short lived. Tire and clutch engineers continued to expand their technology, and the big elephants were eventually able to deliver more power to the track. By the early sixties, the mouse motor could no longer plague the big Chryslers in the Top Eliminator ranks. The small block Chevy was still hugely popular in the altered, gas coupe and modified classes. Even though it seldom ran against the big elephant motors any longer, the engine was still known as the mouse motor.

During that period, Chevrolet and General Motors were following a strict non-involvement policy toward auto racing. It is well known that many GM engineers didn’t agree with this policy, and flaunted the official stance by helping various race teams without management’s knowledge or approval.

The Mystery Engine

Legend has it that during the early sixties, certain Chevy drivers showed up at the race track with a strange new engine under the hood of their race cars. It wasn’t a mouse motor, and it wasn’t the big 409 V-8 that the Beach Boys immortalized in song. It was a mysterious, all new Chevy V-8.

The mystery only lasted a short while, as in 1965, Chevrolet formally announced a new big block V8. Available first as a 396 cubic inch version, the engine eventually evolved to displacements of 402, 427 and 454 CI. Eventually, enthusiasts could buy a 572 cubic inch crate motor based on the same engine block.

Even after the engine was introduced, many people still continued to refer to it as the mystery engine. When the valve covers were removed, hot rodders noticed that, unlike the mouse motor which had the valve stems neatly lined up in a row, the valves in the new engine were canted at various angles. Because of this, the engine also gained the nick-name of the porcupine V8. When engine builders started modifying the engine for racing, they noted that the cylinder heads had a somewhat hemispherical design. The engine wasn’t a true hemi, but it wasn’t exactly a wedge head, either. Thus the engine earned another name: the semi-hemi.

Look at photos of Chevrolet race cars from the era, and you find many examples of cars with the terms Mystery Engine or Semi Hemi painted on the hood.

The Rat Motor, big brother to the Mouse

For most rodders and racers, however, there was only one legitimate moniker for the new engine. If the small Chevy V-8 was a mouse motor, it’s bigger, more powerful, fiercer sibling could only be a RAT motor.

The name has stuck. Today, only old school hot rodders and nostalgia buffs still employ the terms mouse motor and elephant motor. The name rat motor, however, is still universally used to describe the big block Chevy V8. Far from being a derogatory term, the expression rat motor is much-loved by Chevy fans and is used as a title of respect even by those who build and race other brands.

And that is how the Chevy V-8 became known as a rat motor.

 

Not many funny car drivers were positioned above the roof of their race cars, but that is exactly how Dick Jesse drove the 1967 version of his Mr. Unswitchable Pontiac GTO. In case anyone was wondering, the car was Pontiac powered.

Pay no attention to the man poking through this GTO’s roof. It’s just Dick Jesse and his “slightly” chopped Mr. Unswitchable extreme funny car.

When we last saw Jesse, he was running an altered wheelbase 1965 GTO, which was also known as Mr. Unswitchable. The ’65 edition was one of the earliest independent match racers and Jesse kept the heavy goat competitive as long as he could, adding a supercharger to the Pontiac 421.

Jesse built this ultra-radical GTO for the 1967 season. Starting with a brand-new 1967 GTO fresh from a Pontiac showroom, Jesse built a tube frame, altered the wheelbase and replaced the hood, front fenders and doors with light-weight fiberglass. The only sheet metal retained from the original GTO was the roof and rear quarter panels.

Of course there is the issue of the major chopped top. The front of the roof was dropped 13 inches and the rear B pillars were shortened by 7 inches. The result is a steeply raked roof line. Car Craft magazine quickly dubbed the car the Slant Roof GTO.

Even with the radical chopped top, the car was still recognizable as a Pontiac GTO. However, Jesse no longer fit inside the car. He constructed a raised platform so he could drive with his head and shoulders protruding through the roof. The figure in this photo is only a mannequin dressed in a firesuit for the car show. But that is where Jesse would be seated on his quarter mile passes.

To be honest, I didn’t care for Jesse’s attempt at pushing the boundaries of the budding match race ranks. As a funny car, it was too radical for my taste. As an unlimited drag car, however, I thought it was great.

Let me explain. To me, funny cars were supposed to be all out race cars that looked like the cars you could buy at the local dealer. They were supposed to resemble the car you drove, or the car your father drove or the car your neighbor parked in their driveway. No one I knew drove around with his head sticking out the roof of the car, making the slant-roof GTO too extreme to be considered a true funny car.

As an unlimited drag car, however, Jesse’s concept harkened back to many of the forerunners of the sport. Go back and watch the Ingenuity In Action movie. Take a good look at some of the cars running in the unlimited classes at the 1959 US Nationals. Unlike today, where all Top Fuel dragsters look basically the same, Top Eliminator was made up of a varied assortment of strange and exotic race cars. The Pontiac GTO didn’t come out until 1965, but if Jesse had cobbled up a ’59 Bonnevelle in the same way as his ’67 GTO he would have been right at home running for Top Eliminator in 1959.

Which brings me to another minor mystery. The extreme GTO was featured in the January 1967 issue of Car Craft magazine. Jesse actually built the slammed goat in late 1966. So how is that both times I saw Mr. Unswitchable in 1967, Jesse was the running the older 1965 GTO?

Jesse had the ’65 Goat at the 1967 Autorama and he also drove the mash-bash car at the Detroit Dragway Midwest Championships in May of the same year. The question is, if Jesse had the swoopy tubular frame slant roof GTO available, why did he continue to run the heavier, less competitive altered wheelbase Pontiac?

I can think of three possible explanations.

Maybe Jesse never intended the chopped car to be his principle racing machine. With his head poking through the roof, it is possible the new car was intended to be an exhibition machine, and Jesse kept the older mash bash car for funny car racing. Not sure that makes sense, as the old car was seriously outdated. It would make more sense to simply build a flopper and leave the exhibition runs to wheelstanders.

A second explanation could be that the slant roof machine was damaged in late ’66 or early ’67. A crash or fire could have sidelined the new car forcing Jesse to put his old ride back in competition until he could get the ’67 car repaired. I never heard of any incident involving the chopped roof car, but that wouldn’t be surprising considering the frenzied pace of match racing. During that era, you could find match races scheduled nearly every day of the week. It’s not inconceivable that the chopped GTO was put out of action for a time after a wreck at some small out of the way track.

My final theory is that it simply took time to get the radical car sorted out. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone developed a revolutionary race car that needed extensive massaging to get running well. Maybe Jesse took most of 1967 to get the new car dialed in so it would run straight and true. It is possible that in-between tuning sessions with the new car he continued to race the old ’65 machine.

Which car did Jesse drive at the US Nationals in Indianapolis in 1967? Mr. Unswitchable captured C/Altered honors at the Nationals that year. There was a funny car eliminator at the ’67 Nationals, but Jesse’s old GTO wouldn’ t have been competitive against the lightweight tube frame cars. NHRA probably wouldn’t allow a car with the driver sticking out the roof in Funny Car, so Jesse could have ran as a C/A with either car. Anyone remember?

There is usually some Dick Jesse memorabilia available on eBay.

I have one final question. What happened to the slant-roof Mr. Unswitchable after 1968? Less exotic cars could change hands and continue to race under a new owner without being recognized. A car this radical, however couldn’t be disguised with a some paint and body work. The driver position would make it impossible to conceal the car’s original identity. So what happened? Where is the GTO now?

 

Pretty little B/G Willys Coupe: The Buckpasser appeared at the 1968 Detroit Autorama at Cobo Hall.

Fortunately, Google is our friend. Typing “Buckpasser Willys” in the search field in Google resulted in a large page of gasser photos on the site called Gasser Madness.

There I found a photo of the Willys at National Trail Raceway, along with the information the car ran in the B/Gas category and was campaigned by “Tinney and Tignanelli.”

There is no mention of first name for either member of the team.

A little research revealed that Tom Tignanelli was the driver of the UFO Altered Wheelbase Plymouth Fury in the mid-sixties. I never saw the UFO run, but in the sixties, I did see numerous photos of the A/FXer in various racing magazines. The car was owned by the Tignanelli Brothers and also carried Shadowoods Auto Center sponsorship.

So which of the Tignanelli brothers was partner with “Tinny” on this gasser?

B/Gas indicates the car was normally aspirated. Supercharged gassers were indicated by a double class letter or by a “s” after the eliminator designation. The top gassers competed in A/GS or AA/G, depending on the sanctioning body.

A B/G car would have a less powerful engine with either injectors or carburetors. I can’t say what engine is under the Buckpasser’s hood, but I would guess it is a small block V-8 of some sort. The small block Chevy was extremely popular for this kind of work, but the Tignanelli’s seem to favor Mopar powerplants. I’m only guessing but I think the car probably had some sort of high winding Dodge or Plymouth small block V-8.

I think the three guys setting up the display in the background are interesting. This photo must have been shot on Friday night, right after the three-day show opened to the public. Note the rag protecting the paint where the hood closes has yet to be removed. These guys are thrashing to get the display set up, even as the crowds pour in.

Shot in 1968, no one in this photo had ever heard of the internet, or the personal computer for that matter. The only computers were in gunnery control centers on battleships and huge mainframes used in a limited number of financial institutions. These men could hardly guess that some teenager would snap a photo of them struggling with the display stands and that more than forty years later their image would be on the world-wide web for all to see.

We live in a magical age, indeed.

Anyone have anything to add about this Willys gasser?

 

Connie Kalitta's simple but fearsome front engine Ford powered dragster at the 1968 Autorama in Detroit.

Connie Kalitta had his Ford SOHC Top Fuel car on display at the 1968 Autorama. It’s amazing how simple this rig looks. Slingshot dragster chassis, with a minimum of body work and a huge Ford V-8 mounted in front of the driver.

This isn’t some cut-away display car, it is the complete dragster, ready to race. The chassis is from Logghe Stamping Company, and Kalitta carried the LSC sponsorship in 1968.

Kalitta was a Michigan native, and he gained fame (and fortune) campaigning his famous series of “Bounty Hunter” top fuel cars. Kalitta painted the names of all the big stars in the AA/FD ranks on the side of his cars. With great ceremony, he crossed the names off one-by-one after he defeated them in match races. This gimmick made him extremely popular with drag racing fans throughout the country.

Of course the Bounty-Hunter gig could only work if Kalitta could actually win against the drivers he displayed on his car. That wasn’t a problem, as Kalitta was a fairly consistent winner, both as a match-racer and in national event competition.

Like almost everyone else in the Top Fuel ranks, Kalitta started out running a 392 Chrysler power plant. Ford had originally created the SOHC V-8 to run in NASCAR stock cars. When NASCAR banned the big V-8 from the high-bank ovals, Ford had a surplus of ‘cammers available. Ford offered engines to several highly ranked dragster teams, including Greer-Black-Prudhomme and “Sneaky” Pete Robinson.

Kalitta was also on the receiving end of the Ford deal, and he made it well worth Ford’s sponsorship by winning the 1967 NHRA, AHRA and NASCAR Winternationals with the ‘cammer powered rail. The Ford powered version of the Bounty-Hunter continued to rack-up match race wins a well, making the Bounty Hunter name feared from coast to coast.

Besides being quite simple, notice the rear slicks on this car. Compared to the monstrous tires used on current top fuel dragsters, these slicks look fairly tame, but they were state-of-the-art in ’68.

Kalitta, of course, would go on to further fame and fortune, and he is still active as a team owner today. He no longer drives, and his current rear-engine dragsters are a far cry from this spartan rail from 1968. One thing hasn’t changed however. The Bounty Hunter is still collecting bounties.

 

It may look stock, but Dave Zackary campaigned this all steel, flip-top Eldorado Funny Car

Dave Zackary decided the drag racing world needed at least one Cadillac funny car. To that end, he created this one-of-a-kind Eldorado flopper.

Since no one offered a fiberglass Eldo body shell, Zackary created his own one-piece body by welding together stock Cadillac sheet metal components. The resulting body was said to be much heavier than the fiberglass shells decorating his competitors, but Zackary could still boast he ran the quickest and fastest Cadillac Eldorado in the world.

Zackary also built the chassis, utilizing square tubing. The chassis rails consisted of long, straight pieces of tubing, only interrupted by a small dragster-style roll bar.

For power, Zackary started with an injected Chevy “rat-motor.” The heavy, steel body rendered that set-up uncompetitive, so Zackary upgraded to a blower, eventually trading the Chevy for a full-tilt Keith-Black Hemi.

Zackary displayed the Caddy at the ’68 Detroit Autorama, where I shot these photos. As you can see the Eldorado looks completely stock, with the exception of the blower poking through the hood.

I’m not sure which engine Zackary was running at the time, as they never raised the body while I was around. In addition to the oddity of being a Cadillac flip-top with a steel shell, the car was also noteworthy because the body was hinged at the front and raised from the rear.

Sadly, we will never know if Zackary could have made the Eldorado competitive against the ‘glass Comets, Mustangs, Novas and Barracudas that dominated the funny car scene in 1968. In September of that year, Zackary was killed when the car went out of control on a full throttle run at Lexington, Kentucky.

According to Dragstripdeaths, the Eldorado barrel-rolled in the lights. Reportedly, the roll bar failed and Zachary did not survive the crash.

Thus ended the life of the colorful figure who conceived the idea of a steel bodied, fliptop Eledorado funny car.