History Stock-S/S-F/X 1959-1966

Anyone know anything or have anymore pictures of this 409? Both of these appeared in Pop. Hot Rodding with no information. I've always wondered about this car. I know they ran a Camaro in later years but that's it. The 409 is the one I'd like to know more about.

Joel

 

Second picture of the Shaker, Reed Draper 409.

Joel

 

Eddie Schartman in Dyno Don nicholson's '62 in 1964 before he started running the Comet wagon. This is from a copy of Mid-Eastern Drag News I believe.

Joel

 

From a CA photographer, can only remember his last name ... of a 409 running at Pomona, CA in maybe 64-5. Anyone know anything about this car, more pictures?

Joel

 

Another shot from the same photog ... Shirley Shahan's '65 Plymouth A990 car when it was pretty new. Doesn't look like Shirley in the car though. Carlsbad Raceway.

Joel

 

Thanks Verne ... as long as we keep it on topic, friendly and lean I'm sure the thread'll keep going!

Ok, here's a magazine shot of the Northwind following Don Gay at the '63 NHRA nationals. Do you have any idea where the car was run as an oval track car? I'm involved in the history of that genre too. I'd love to try and track down some pictures of it.
Joel

 

Race Artist, I talked to my uncle the other day and got some info on the Northwind. Somehow it found it's way here to waynesboro, PA and he first saw it in about 1970 at a local upholstery shop. It still looked like it did when it was a super stock car.

A couple years later a local guy he knows has bought it and he even remembers the new owner cutting on it to "prepare" it for the track. I'm assuming that it ran at the track in Hagerstown, MD because it is pretty close to waynesboro.

My uncle says as far as he can remember it was only ran at the track a couple times before the 409 blew, and this was in Apr-May 1976. It was scraped shortly afterwards.

He knows a guy who has some photos that I'm trying to borrow to scan copies of. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Ok, thanks. Looking forward to seeing anything you can find. Much appreciated!
Joel

 

If you guys are digging this go order some dvd's from Bee On Video http://beeonvideo.homestead.com/index.html You won't be sorry. Amazing stuff.

 

sorry I have no info on this photo (excluding the obvious), who took it and where.

 

ditto with this one. 62 1/2 tells me it had some factory upgrades? school me please.

 

62 1/2 could mean a couple things. In April '62 Chevy released a service package for the '09 which basically brought it up to '63 425hp specs. It included the .510 lift cam, sprngs, push rods, long exhaust manifolds, etc. These pieces were approved by NHRA for S/S.
OR, it could mean the car was converted with over the counter Z-11 stuff, meaning the heads and 2-piece intake. Those pieces began to trickle to known racers like Don and Jenkins in Oct. '62.
Thanks for the neat photo. I've never seen one with the "62 1/2" on the rear window.

 

thanks for enlightening me. This has been a great post, I love the early 60's stock, s/s, /fx cars. The knowledge on this board amazes me.
Keep it coming guys

 

Joel, Sorry but I don't have any more info on the Reed-Draper car. To follow up on Joe Gardner, here's a little more history (if this doesn't stray from topic too much). Joe was originally from Texas, which explains why the roof of the car had "Joe 'Tex' Gardner" on it. He was a recruiter for the Navy and got stationed near Philly, which was when he teamed up with the Grump. Joe had also been stationed on a Naval ice breaker up near Alaska. The name of the ship was the Northwind, thus his pick for the name of the car. In late '63 the car was completely taken apart and redone with Jenkin's help (and tricks). That was when it got the spiffy paint job with the gold around the upper body edges and he added the chrome wheels. It was a stunning car and performed under the record. He showed up late at the '64 Mid-Eastern Drag News Top Dog meet at York where Ronnie Evans was the fastest qualifier running 12.90s. Joe promptly clocked off a 12.60 then went on to win the meet with a 12.39 on a .45 record. He continued to race through the '65 season but the car never went any faster. He sold the car to a guy in early '66 who raced it a few times but never paid him for the car, so Joe repossesed it and sold it to someone else who turned it into an oval track car. It probably did run in the Hagerstown area. And it was scrapped. There's a good chance Joe is still alive and living in the Hagerstown area (not Arizona). He'd be in his early '70s now.

 

Joel and Verne,

I have nothing concrete to support this, but several reliable scources have told me that the 62 Reed-Draper Impala was one of the aluminum cars.

Mark

 

Since it seems a bunch of the '62 409's are showin up, I thought I would post this picture of Joe Casertano's '62 Biscayne. Joe bought the car from Wilber "Pappy" Tackett in Ohio. Pappy had bought the car new and I remember seeing him race it at Quaker City. I don't know how old Pappy was at the time he bought it, but he wasn't a spring chicken. Joe raced it mostly at Pittsburgh International Dragway and then moved onto a SS Plymouth in '65. Somebody said the '62 ended up in eastern Pa.

 

Hi Mark! IT's very difficult to tell from the 2 photos I have whether or not the car is a Super Sport or a straight Impala. I believe all the factory aluminum cars were Super Sports.
Wasn't there a Shaker Engineering Z-11?

 

here's another shot of the northwind...

 

Do any of you east coast guys have a shot or info about the Rompin Redskin-It was a 61-2 chev and would have raced around washington d.c. ?

 

Hi Verne! I agree - all the 62 factory aluminum cars were Super Sports. The photos of the "Shaker" car are not clear enough to tell one way or another. I don't think there was a Shaker Eng. Z-11. I've never heard they had one. If they did, it may have been one that originated with someone else. Maybe someone here can enlighten us.........

Mark

 

Funny story about the Pontiac wagons. My wife's grandpa opened a Skelly gas station after he got back from WW11. He was a super mechanic but was NOT into cars! Go figure. He owned a bunch of cool ones though. Anyway, he was telling me old stories and then said the weirdest thing he ever saw was a guy passing through with a couple of race cars. This was McCune, KS. The guy stopped and asked if he could borrow the shops lift to fix something on the car. Grandpa said, and I paraphrase, "This little Pontiac wagon had a big V-8 in it and a transmission rearend in the back of the damn thing! I've worked on those transaxles and they're a pain in the ass." I about crapped my pants! I asked him if he got the guy's names but he said no. He wasn't impressed with race cars but he was impressed with how nice the people were so he didn't even charge them for using his lift! I told him what he witnessed was extremely rare and he just laughed.

 

Thanks Joel for the Invite
Some of Joel's great artwork

 

I thought the 62 light weights were Belairs not Impalas?

 

There's much disagreement in the hobby over those questions. To my knowledge, no one has ever proven or documented a factory produced '62 Belair with the alum. Of the known Impala Super Sports with alum, all but one (the Dick Harrell car) was delivered with the alum. on it. I and others who have researched this for a long time believe that is the case, although no one can be sure of the actual number of those light weight Impalas produced. There is conflicting information and too much hearsay.

 

65deluxe ... two great pictures of Don Nicholson's '62 Chevy. I'm curious if there are more shots like these? Any information on the locations of the shots, etc.? The first is when he was still running out of CA and the second is after he'd moved to Atlanta, GA and the lettering and flags are the way the car ran in mid-late '63, not '62. Thanks for posting them.

Joel

 

Hi Bobby! Glad to see that you joined the group. FYI all ... that painting is of Bobby's Alabama Swiss Cheese Pontiac. A real strong "Southern S/S".

Joel

 

Must have been Arnie Beswick?

Joel

 

I seem to recall that there was a "Rompin' Redskin" 1962 Pontiac lightweigh that ran alot at the Pocono Drag Lodge in PA. Anyone?

There was a Chevy or two that ran in the MD-DC area named the "Red Cloud"

Joel