my friend cass(spendingtheirinheritance here on the hamb) opened up his shop to a bunch of us. enjoy the tour. cass acquired the patterns for the gallivan overhead twin cam conversion. he has made a couple of castings. it's what he has in his hillclimb car, although that one came from joe gemsa and sports his name. it's this car that cass set the record at the newport hillclimb. the newport officials a year later removed cass' record claiming his car was too modified(?), too dangerous and too fast. you see, the T speedster class is the only class they allow modifications in. the cars all have to be T based. cass' T is all T. it's just twin overhead cammed, 12.75:1 compression, 300 hp. cass broke something in the axle 3/4 of the way up the hill but still coasted to the top in record time. he has not been invited back.
the number 35 car. cass found this in a garage in chicago i think. he answered an ad for vintage race wheels or something and the talk soon turned to an old race car the guy had. cass made an offer and brought it home too. the car has a chain driven off the crank to a 90 degree change direction thingy to the supercharger you see mounted off to the side. one winfield carb with both indiana and illinois advertising on it and the era, it's likely this car ran at roby speedway in northwest indiana, maybe at jungle park also. between the 35 car and hillclimber is the blue car. i'm not sure of any history or significance on it. you have to remember i was on sensory overload that night, and i've been there many times before.
frontenacs everywhere on an earlier visit i had to ask cass if he had any thing model T without an overhead on it. this rajo twin plug engine is going into his new car.
this is the car cass would run at newport before the record setting speedster. this car always came in second. do you think cass got tired of coming in second? do you think he got carried away just a little? center door T. i know, shitty pic. when does it stop? there were T frames and engines laying around. here's a T touring.
i first met cass around five years ago. some nut showed up at cruise night in a model A coupe with an offy in it. i posted about it here on the hamb. cass has owned this since he was a kid. cass fired this up for the guys. twin turbo offy mated to a 39 box all ending in a culver city halibrand quickchange. how about a 34 ford stock car?
I saw the 35 car earlier this month at Jungle Park. It is some thing to see in person. I talked briefly with the owner and he mentioned he had a few other cars. What an understatement.
something a little more modern. 41 ford pickup, 283 with 3 strombergs. the patina is real. the logo and lettering cass had put on in memory of his dad's service station in north hammond. cass talks about the inspiration for this car. how when he was a kid, a local guy had a 50 ford with a hemi. how they would run the block or two over to stateline road when they heard him taking it out and watch him tear down the street. now cass has one with a 392 hemi. not exactly hamb friendly but worthy of mention. tube chassis 57 corvette with late model, what is it, zr6 or whatever drive train? it's still a beautiful car. the 57 tbird cass' dad bought new sits on top of the office. and probably what started it all. cass' first hotrod. he tells how his dad would roll up his pant leg so it wouldn't get caught in the spinning exposed driveshaft. we thought how today it would be considered child endangerment to stick your kid in this car. i told cass i was going to make him famous. hopefully, i didn't embarrass him too much. it was a great evening. we got some pizzas and made new friends. i want to thank him for sharing and allowing me to post this stuff on the hamb.
The decision to outlaw the car at Newport probably was based on money.How much money was spent to outclass the competition.I personally think it was grand he spanked them so bad they won't even let him play any more. They just don't want to step up to the plate and get better themselves!
i don't have a pic that shows it but i think it's an address xxxx milwaukee avenue cass will see this tomorrow and fill you in if i'm wrong. now i'm worried this thread will exceed my allowed bandwith on photobucket like my offy tour thread did.
Hi silentrick.Thanks for a super thread.NOW,I have to go and change my shirt.It is slobbered soggy. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
Rick Thanks for making me famous. The only thing I am embarassed about is all the dust on the cars that your camera has highlighted. Perhaps before you take any more pictures of my stuff you can invest in some sort of dust filter for your camera. cass Everyone Thanks for all your kind comments. Most of my friends just think I'm nuts. cass
The Jalopy Journal
