@jnaki, thanks for the information on Jr Thompson's Willys. There is nothing better than first hand experience. I found it interesting that he had a lot of success racing the Studebaker Sedan and that in your early videos there were several Willys sedans racing in the same area. I wonder if the sedans were thought to be the hot ticket for a racecar in that area or if it was even tough to find a coupe in those days?
Hello EG, Actually, Willys coupes were more prevalent at the strips. (within a two mile radius of our house in Long Beach, near Lions, there were 3 stock, Willys coupes to be found in overgrown grassy yards and in backyards, not one sedan to be found anywhere.) The sedans gave more weight over the rear tires for traction, but for the most part, racers wanted lighter weight cars for the classes. If the combination of motor vs weight was brought in, as in the chart: Most simple set ups for cars was to put in a SBC and set up a simple stick transmission, trying to use most of the stock stuff to save on money spent. Then, later, the high, money, speed stuff came into play. Simple example: Racers just wanted a 283 sbc in a stock willys: 6 Strombergs / 283 SBC La Salle 3 speed 2500lbs/283 = 9.20 lbs/cubic inch equals B/Gas In our 40 Willys coupe the first time we built it with the 283, it fell into B/Gas vs Thompson, Pittman, Hirshfield...etc...that was a depressing outlook... for us newbies... So, our ET and speeds were closer to the racers in C/Gas, so we opted to be the best in that class. (with added weight) The sedans weighed more and there was the possibililty that they would drop easily into the C/Gas category with the same set up. (like the Weddle and Peters green Willys sedan. This clip is what everyone seems to think is the Weddle/Peters C/Gas record holder in 1959 Riverside Raceway.) Thanks, Jnaki
Not only were identical twin brothers Gary and Jerry Mallicoat among the elite campaigners in the famed Gasser Wars of the 1960s, but they were among the first to apply turbocharger technology in a successful manner for drag racing purposes. After formally retiring from national event competition in 1981, they have remained relatively active in comparison to many of the counterparts of the era with their extensive efforts in nostalgia racing. So the pair bought a ’40 Willys from a local police officer and obtained supercharged-engine mentoring services from “Bones” Balogh, who worked at Isky Cams while racing his own cars. Balogh put his own blown small-block Chevy in the Mallicoat's Willys and also took over as driver, but by 1962, Jerry resumed his duties behind the wheel, and after building a new 327-cid engine and installing a B&M four-speed hydro-stick transmission and fiberglass body components in late 1963, they finally had the equipment needed to compete at the national level. Their potential was realized at the 1964 Winternationals when they won B/Gas Supercharged with a class-best 10.51, which enabled them to join the match race tour, where they frequently were paired against K.S. Pittman. They stopped at the U.S. Nationals on the way home and defeated John Mazmanian’s car during class eliminations but lost the trophy dash to Jack Merkel. During that winter, they had a pivotal meeting with Bill Edwards, who was using the Isky shop dyno to test his 233-cid small-block Chevy Bonneville engine that ran with twin turbochargers. “We were very impressed with the power that he made, and we wanted to adapt this technology to the quarter-mile,” said Jerry. Helping them with the project were Ed Iskenderian and one of their neighbors, former Top Fuel racer Al Williams, who made the headers and intake manifold that had to be specially fabricated for turbocharger use. Even though they had no track runs with the new combo, they dominated B/GS at the 1965 Winternationals, which earned them a shot on the cover of Super Stock & Drag Illustrated. It appeared that they were now in position to rule the gasser ranks for years to come, but the arrival of the wild Funny Cars quickly eclipsed the popularity of the traditional vintage-bodied hot rods, and match race dates were accordingly reduced. This prompted the Mallicoats to sell their equipment and step away from racing.
The Mallicoat bros coupe still exists. It resurfaced a few years ago, they verified it was the car. A restoration was started then all the sudden everything went silent. Don't really know the whole story so I won't speculate, but I really wish it would have been finished for all to see.
Something about NHRA and turbos might have been left out of Mallicoat story. The body evolution in A/GS took place and they built a Barracuda, which is the car they honored when building their nostalgia racer. Sorry if this is slightly off topic.
Most of the posted dates on this thread are between 3-7 years earlier than they actually are. Kinda normal on the HAMB, everybody seems to want everything to be as old as possible.
Look at the widths of the tires in this sales literature from 1959. The car that you are talking about came out of the same early fotos that the 38 Willys coupe came out of that was in the nationals in 1956. I would like to see documentation of an earlier Willys Gas Coupe. George Gilmore and his Willys are shown as entries at the Nationals in Kansas City in 1956 If you have any pictures or Documentation of Early Willys racecars feel free to share them and if you have any corrections to the dates of the pictures that I posted let me know. I am trying to get first hand information from people that were there and saw those cars run.
If the tires in that pic are 8.50s, I'm an Airedale. They are 10x16 M&Hs. Carry on... Oh and by the way, its 1957 right? Must be in Roswell, theres a '59 Impala in the background.
The restoration first came to a halt when the cost became much more than the owner had estimated. Jerry & Gary had built the engine for it, when all of a sudden the project came to an abrupt stop. Don't know what ever happened to the car, but I'd guess it's sitting in the corner of a garage gathering dust.
Someone that was there said that the picture was taken at the Nationals the same year that Calvin Rice won. It led to an argument and I wasn't there so I let it go. It came out of the same early foto collection as the George Gilmore coupe. That is the Earliest proven Wilys Gas Coupe that I have ever seen. I can't prove that the other foto was taken in 1957, unfortunately it doesn't have a date on it like the George Gilmore foto does. The point of this thread is to get information about these early cars from those that were there while we still can.
Point taken @falcongeorge the foto must be at least 1959 due to the Impala in the background. Thanks, the point is to get discussion and get the facts straight. I would still like to see documentation of a Willys Gas Coupe Earlier than the George Gilmore car.
I read that the Malicoat Brothers tried to buy their old car when it was discovered but the new owner didn't want to sell it. I wish that it would get restored.
This pic is from the early sixties. The tires are WAY too big for the late fifties, I would have to look it up, I think M&H came out with the 9x16s in '59 or '60? And the tires on that car^^ are the 10s which came out later than that. The photos of Junior Thompsons Willys are all way later than the dates say as well. He was still racing his Studebaker in '60. According to Montgomerys book he STARTED racing the Willys in aug. 1960 and at that time it wasn't even lettered, and had steel wheels on the front with moon discs. The photos of Thompsons car that are posted here as being fifties are actually from the '63/'64 time frame. The vast majority of the photos on this thread date from '63-'66 time frame, none of those constitute anything like the first Willys race cars. Ward and Taylor are one of the earliest, 1957/8, if not the earliest, as far as gassers go anyway, that part is accurate, OGM and Jack Kulp were both racing Willys coupes in '59, that's pretty early, Pittman/Edwards were also racing a '41 in 1959. The one photo of the light coloured coupe that says Caddo Mills 1956 is probably correct, I have seen that photo elsewhere, if the 1956 date is correct, its probably the earliest Willys gas class race car. But if a willys has big-ass 10" wide rear tires and shiny polished mag wheels, and the nose jacked way up in the air, it sure isn't one of the "Earliest Willys Race cars".
@falcongeorge, I agree that a lot of the pictures posted are not the earliest versions of an early car. For example Jr Thompson's car. I have taken the liberty of doing this myself. There aren't many pictures of the first versions of the early cars and I hoped that it would bring back some memories and lead to discussion and more fotos being posted. They evolved to stay competitive and there weren't many pictures taken in those days. Thanks for your input. Do you have any pictures of Early cars that haven't already been posted.
Well I would have to dig through 16 pages. Over the next couple days I will post a few, I don't know if some of them have already been posted. I will keep it pre-1960, in keeping with the thread title.
Hello, I was able to film KS Pittman in 1960 at Lions in one of his early versions of the red Willys. Three versions on two, maybe three different days. Originally, I thought the whitewall and black rims were taken in 1959, but several others said it was 1960. He then changes to larger slicks in the next version and then wheel color changes. There is a 59 Chevy black Impala on the same side as Pittman's tower side run, but that could have been in 1960. It is too bad that early cameras did not record the date like the new digital ones. that definitely would have solved a lot of conflicts. Thanks, Jnaki first version new version in order
There are 1959 and 1960 photos of the Pittman & Edwards car in Montgomerys book. Its obvious when you point it out, but its also important when trying to date photos to keep in mind race cars weren't like new cars where the changes were made in Oct of '59 and stayed that way till Oct. of '60. Looking at tires is a good way to date the earliest possible time a photo could be taken, as tires were changing every couple years, and the time frame when various tires were released has been fairly well documented.
Sorta. I thought about it, sometime in the next couple days I am going to do a separate thread and link to it here, it will be a pre-1960 gas class thread instead of a willys specific thread. I started scanning, but Saturday I was at a swap meet 200 miles away, and yesterday we had guests (Canadian Thanksgiving).
Does anyone know anything else about this one? Here is what I have been able to find out about it so far.
This is the earliest ad I found for the 9x16's, note the phrase "all-new M & H Dragster 900/16!" Note the date at the bottom of the page, Sept 1960. Now I will try to find an ad for the introduction of the 10 x16s in the photo above, that will give you a good ballpark for the earliest date the picture above could have been taken. And if you are one of those HAMBers that hates history, documentation and so on, please be aware, you are almost certainly already on my "ignore" list, so I wont be able to read your whiny, half-witted rant anyway, so save the bandwidth.
Falcongeorge, if you find any with Mike Bambers $ilver Dollar or before when it was Red, I'm looking Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've volunteered myself to aid in your search @falcongeorge. And the earliest i can find an ad for the M&H Racemaster 1000/16 is in the March '62 issue of Hot Rod. Please excuse the fuzzy image as i couldn't stick it in any further (the page i mean) and my scanner doesn't seem to do well with detail on the edges. There is a gap in my collection between Aug. '61 and Mar.'62 but this should give you an idea of where to start looking.
AND... Theirs an early 60's Chevy pickup behind the front fender, and as i've just pointed out the slicks are from late '61 early '62.
I was figuring around '62 for the introduction of the 10x16 racemasters, I will look between aug 61 and March '62 later. I have a hell of a cold right now, so haven't been doing much. Tires are a good way to get a good idea of a time frame on photos from the late fifties/early sixties time frame, because they are consumables, so racers changed them pretty often, and at that time the tire designs were evolving so quickly.
The car that we are discussing was called Rowdy Willy and here are some more pictures of it that might help. Thanks to everyone for helping us get the facts straight.
Rowdy Willy ran a ford engine but I am not sure which one. I know that the Grist Brothers ran a Mel. Here is some more information about Jim Butler and Rowdy Willy. Here are a couple of pictures of Rowdy Willy with the hood up but unfortunately you can't see much. That is Jim and his Wife Inez in the pictures
The Jalopy Journal
