Drag Racing History 101: Jazzy Nelson

[50Fraud]

Circa 1954, the Santa Ana Drags were where a lot of history was made. Guys like Art and Jack Chrisman, Mickey Thompson, the Bean Bandits, and other major racers of the day set many national records there.

A guy named Jim "Jazzy" Nelson ran a really cool comp coupe: a Fiat Topolino on a slightly lengthened wheelbase, with a fuel-burning unblown flathead in it. The car was unbelievably quick, for one with its modest specifications, and frequently blew off cars that should have been more fearsome (namely dragsters).

After he had run the car for a while, he altered its chassis further, setting the body back on the frame, and I presume the engine as well. In this configuration it became even quicker, and my memory says it was the first car to record an ET in the 9's -- even before the top fuel cars did it. I also recall that this run was argued about, and that many didn't believe that a coupe could run such a quick time.

Seems to me that Hot Rod did a feature on the car when it was current, but I don't recall the specific issue. I don't think any of the drag racing historians have written about Jazzy or his extraordinary Fiat in recent times, but I could be mistaken.

Anybody here remember him, the car, or its amazing times? Anybody know of anything that's been written about him/it/them in recent years? Anybody have a picture of the car?

[48_HEMI]

I remember Jim best from the first second and third locations of the old San Gabriel Drag Strip
Jim and Dode Martin were still running that Fiat till they started building dragster chassis http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I did get to see the Bustle Bomb run at santa ana after they broke the 150 barrier and loved to go to Lions to watch Jim Lytle's Big Al

Made trips to San Fernando when I was dating a gal from that part of the Valley.
San Gabriel and later Irwindale were my Home base from 55-65

probably the biggest deal at the time was the 58 meet in Bakersfield when we sent the swamprat home on a trailer. before Garlits mounted a supercharger. I can't believe to this day how close California people got when we were threatened by an outsider. then turn around and knock "the good old boys" for sticking so close together in early NASCAR.
Yep People are funny!

[48_HEMI]

Just re read your post.
Cook and Bedwell Hemi rail job were the first car into the 9's June 56 followed by the Arizona Speed Sport Roadster sideways mounted rear engine chain driven Hemi
Then came that Florida Guy (that we all knew then and now that florida people count different HAHA) in Aug of 56 at 176 mph (yeah right) http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[stan292]

Hey 50-

There has been tons of stuff written about "Jazzy" Nelson over the years. I can't believe you haven't run across some of it. I'll look through my old mags and see what I can dig up. I'm pretty sure there was a whole page in the recent NHRA history book devoted to him.

BTW - Jim "Jazzy" Nelson, and Jim Nelson of Dragmaster fame were two different guys - something I just learned (from the NHRA book, I think). It's an easy assumption to make, as they were both from the same era.

[lurker mick]

Tony, here is some stuff I dug up on Jim.
The Fiat was 59 in. tall, weighed 1700 lbs.and was on a 34 ford frame. It ran a 315 c.i. 49 Ford flathead, Edelbrock heads and manifold w/ 4 Stromberg 97's, and an Isky 404 cam.
It also ran a 37 Cad trans.

Don't know if it ever got into the 8's, but on Oct 9th 1955 it ran a 9.68 at San Fernando. On Dec. 18th 1955 he clocked an unbelievable (to some) 9.10 e.t. at 132.51 m.p.h.
By the end of '55 he had won 17 top eliminator titles, running some of the fastest fuel dragsters in the country.

[AnimalAin]

One of his "speed secrets" was floatless carburetors. I think the fuel came in the bottom of the float chamber, and bypassed at the desired fuel level. No float in the chamber means plenty of gas..... or other stuff. I remember reading about this in Hot Rod about a thousand years ago. The killer Fiat was already drag racing history by the time I was interested in the sport....

[av8]

Mick's correct. BTW, first racer into the 9s with a 9.44 was Lloyd Scott in the "Bustle Bomb" at San Fernando in 1955. I saw Jazzy take home Top Eliminator at San Fernando many times in 1955-1956.

This photo of Jazzy at Great Bend in 1955 was shot by Bob D'Olivio and is from Robert Post's book, "High Performance."

[50Fraud]

Thanks for your input, all. Mick's picture (and AV8's too, I suspect) are of the later configuration with the body set back; I found this earlier picture with Google's image search.

It really appeals to me that there was a time when a steel-bodied doorslammer could win top eliminator!

[Dirtyest Devil]

Neat post... just stumbled onto it looking for something else.

I had the pleasure of hanging with Jim this last week... besides his flu, he is well and in better spirits then any young men I've met. A true die hard of our sport, innovator,and most importantly a true gentlemen.

Here is Jim signing my Oilers shirt... Good luck! Jim is one of the of the most wonderful people I have ever met, a hot rod humanitarian.

I'll have another report sometime soon as I take Jim for a ride in my 22 roadster... he can't wait!

[Dave Martinez]

Myself,Mel,and Kenny.. were very lucky to have had the chance to spnd a hour with Jim.

Words can never describe what we all had felt that day.. Jim is a amazing person.

He is a true icon..

[Rich Venza]

Two very nice posts fellas, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, the Jim Nelson you met wasn't the Jim "Jazzy" Nelson of the fuel Fiat fame.

[Mike Zenor]

One cool sidebar about Jazzy Nelson: his crew included Eddie Flournoy, who was one of the first black guys to race in the nitro classes. Eddie's son Rodney Flournoy competed in F/C in the 80s and 90s.

[39cent]

yeah, the 2 Jim,s used to have me mixed up who,s who. I used to go to Colton watched a lot of the big boys run there in the 50,s. Jazzys coupe and John Bradleys, flatheads took many eliminator wins. Cook and Bedwell, came to Colton once after getting the record, and got beat by Johns [mr flathead]rail.

[Dirtyest Devil]

Ahh man, never even realized you guys were talking bout Jim Nelson. There has been a lot of confusion. I was visiting with another icon from Carlsbad and we kept getting caught up between the two as well, and we knew whom we were talking about. Sorry I posted on Jim Nelson's post... two heros! Hopefully we helped bring both men to light, not confuse further. hahahaaa.

Tell us more bout Jim Nelson and his Fiat ?

[miller91]

jazzy's pre-Fiat twin, now being restored

[fullhouse296]

Seems that Ed iskenderian ground a super 505 for Jazzy , to get extra lift .They ran the cam without bearings to squeeze the stick in .would sure like to hear that puppy barking on nitro .

[Rich Venza]

How in the world do you run a cam without bearings? Me thinks it would rattle just a little bit!!!!
I can understand using just the front and rear bearings, as the rear never sees a lobe and the front can be installed after the cam in is the block. Then these the issue of the cam flexing, or did the cam have larger journals to fit the bock with just the oil film?

[1955hemi]

How in the world do you run a cam without bearings? Me thinks it would rattle just a little bit!!!!
I can understand using just the front and rear bearings, as the rear never sees a lobe and the front can be installed after the cam in is the block. Then these the issue of the cam flexing, or did the cam have larger journals to fit the bock with just the oil film?

Ask Isky. I know he gave a similar cam to Warren Hokinson ("Hoke") to run in his V8-60 powered Kurtis midget. Sorry, can't tell you how well it worked.

[Bruce Lancaster]

How in the world do you run a cam without bearings?

Aaah...5 1/2 million A's and B's and the first few million flatheads had no cam bearings... and on the flexing, dropping the bearings on an engine formerly equipped with them allows everything to be made larger diameter along with the peak of the lobes, so potentially less flexy. Trickery to allow cam diameter to be increased in castings that will allow it is not at all new, though of course it is a complicated and expensive set of tricks!

[Toymaker]

jazzy's pre-Fiat twin, now being restored
I met the man from Visalia who is restoring the TWIN. I hope I can get him to bring it to the Eagle Field Hot Rod Gathering in Oct.

[Pete1]

"Seems that Ed iskenderian ground a super 505 for Jazzy , to get extra lift .They ran the cam without bearings to squeeze the stick in .would sure like to hear that puppy barking on nitro."

Ah yes, Bored & Stroked has the sole remaning example of that grind.
I have masters to duplicate it if anyone wants to try it..It uses the same lifters as the 404.
It has to be ground on a steel billet.
The story as it was related to me was, Isky made 3 of those cams..Jazzy got one, Isky kept one and the other went into a track roadster running in the CRA at that time.
Who knows where Jazzy's went but Bored & Stroked got the one Isky had and I copied it.
The other one disappeared...Probably laying under someone's bench in Podunkville.
It has .505 net lift.

Others have covered how the cam runs in the block.

[Pete1]

Somebody mentioned floatless carbs...
They were the next best thing available to Hilborn injection for 100% nitro.
I built lots of them back then....There was a fuel manifold under the front that dumped
into the 3 old well plug holes. The overflow was out the original fuel inlet..All of the holes were bored out as big as possible and rethreaded...The hole in the top of the carb where the original accellerator pump came thru was welded closed..No pumps were needed with 100% nitro.
I used 48's because they started out with bigger venturi's...I bored the venturi about .040
which was about all the meat there was...Installed 1/4 inch ID dump tubes, bored the base to match the venturi..The fuel lines were 5/8 id inlet and 1/2 id overflow..Some of the guys ran a pill in the overflow line.

[Bored&Stroked]

Dang Pete . . . You always have the insight into all things flathead related - I guess because you're one of the few who has actually done all this stuff! Just saw this post today . . . someday I will run that 505 . . . if nothing else, just to hear it!

[296ardun]

Anyone know what happened to Jazzy's Fiat? I think I saw it at San Gabriel after he sold it, running a small block and painted orange, but you could tell it was once Jazzy's because of the '34 Ford frame (drilled) and the front end. That was in the very early '60s, and have never heard what happened to it. It is great that his twin flathead is being restored.

[derelict]

Just re read your post.
Cook and Bedwell Hemi rail job were the first car into the 9's June 56 followed by the Arizona Speed Sport Roadster sideways mounted rear engine chain driven Hemi
Then came that Florida Guy (that we all knew then and now that florida people count different HAHA) in Aug of 56 at 176 mph (yeah right) http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The Speed Sport roadster had the Chrysler mounte normally. The "Sidewinder" driven by Jack Chrisman had a sideways mounted, chain driven Chrysler and was a gas dragster in the nines. I'm old and not sure about the entire sequence of event but I remember Cook and Bedwell being the first to run 160...

[RichFox]

How in the world do you run a cam without bearings?

Aaah...5 1/2 million A's and B's and the first few million flatheads had no cam bearings... and on the flexing, dropping the bearings on an engine formerly equipped with them allows everything to be made larger diameter along with the peak of the lobes, so potentially less flexy. Trickery to allow cam diameter to be increased in castings that will allow it is not at all new, though of course it is a complicated and expensive set of tricks!
Leave us not forget many Plymouths and Dodge Bros came without cam bearings also. In fact my 32 Ply cam looked so good I kind of wondered why they ever started using cam bearings. Seemed to work fine running on iron.

[Bored&Stroked]

Leave us not forget many Plymouths and Dodge Bros came without cam bearings also. In fact my 32 Ply cam looked so good I kind of wondered why they ever started using cam bearings. Seemed to work fine running on iron.

Another technique is to align bore the front two cam bearings (only 3 on a flathead) and install a different/larger bearing from another engine. This is what Barney Navarro did on some of his large base-circle cams. This does protect the block - as you can replace the bearings. This is probably the technique I'll use on a large flathead mushroom cam that I'm itching to build. I'd like to have a lift in the .475 to .500 range - with a big enough base circle so the cam isn't flopping all over the place (bending) due to all the spring pressure on it.

Spring Pressure and Cam Deflection: Even with an old-school high-lift cam like a Potvin 425 (which was originally ground on a 32 steel billet core), you'll notice that the valve adjustments in the middle valves (between bearings) gets a little funny . . . as the cam wants to deflect just a bit. This is a good reason that you don't want to run high spring pressure on a flathead cam - run the least you really need. Even on a blown motor, you'll rarely need more than 90 lbs on the seat (if you have light valves, light lifters, etc).

FlatDog and His Crower Roller Cams: FlatDog and I talked about flathead cams and spring pressure a lot -- got him to switch from the Isky Dual springs (which I see no purpose in) back to the single 185G springs . . . and that was with a .450 lift roller cam with 8 - 10 lbs of boost. Up to the day he died, he really wasn't confident that the roller design actually ran any better than his previous flat tappet (which was lower lift). Wish he'd been around a bit longer to try some new things we were pondering.

[Von Franco]

Bttt......