History Help! Chrysler 300 Racecar (Daytona Beach)

Have you seen this article? http://www.allpar.com/cars/chrysler/chrysler-300-at-daytona-beach.html

 

I found this in Google books.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=Ign8btHPbvMC&lpg=PA27&ots=vvlI2RT1BC&dq=tom mccahill 1955 Chrysler 300M&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q=tom mccahill 1955 Chrysler 300M&f=false

 

I'll never understand the thinking of someone who would let a car like this sit outside.

 

Contact NASCAR corporate office and ask to speak with an archivist. For a nominal fee, they will find photographs (and, perhaps) other details on the car. They sent me loads of info a while back while researching the Johnny Mantz Plymouth (winner of the inaugural Southern 500)

 

Is the car driveable? Have you driven it?

 

I'll call and see if I have any luck, thanks!

The car hasn't run in 45 years, but I'll start soaking everything in preparation of firing it up. It's really rough, so it will have to be pulled apart before its on the road. But I'll try to get the engine running....

 

I sent you a new PM with updated contact numbers . I hope they are able to help..

 

Here are two videos with Vicki.

96 years old... And still amazing.

 

great thread. thanks for sharing and best of luck.

 

in ormond beach ,the next town north of daytona beach is a museum called the birthplace of speed. they have lots of info and old timers who might be able to shed some info . nice find

 

I'll give the museum a call and see if they can help, Thanks!

I got a package from the Daytona Speedway archives today. It's got a few new photos of the car on the beach.

This one appears to be the acceleration run? The car's weight is shifted and sand is flying, so I'm guessing this photo was not the Flying Mile? I don't have a clue if it is Shaw or Wood driving. The wind shield number should answer this.

 

When he parked it this was just a old used car to him and many other people. A fast car but old.

 

W O W ! ! !

 

Pretty cool huh Quentin? That's the money shot. I'm thinking by the shirt, that might be Vicki Wood, but I could be wrong. She won the Championship in the car, so I'm hoping it is.

I'm hoping a program (1956 would have the results from '55) will shed more light and provide more images of the car. The two 300s were the "big news" of the domestic manufactures this year, so I'm hoping they were well photographed.

 

Here's a photo of Brewster Shaw in Vin #001. It was taken on February 22nd, 1955. Just before the Men's Speed Trials.




I've tracked down and talked with Brewster's son, Bill. A very hard guy to get a hold of. Bill thinks he may have something related to the car in his Dad's old paperwork, but doesn't seem too interested in the topic of his Father's racing history. He seems like a very nice guy... he just doesn't seem interested.

Brewster was in a small group of pioneering Daytona surf enthusiasts back in the 1930's-40's. During the war Shaw was questioned by the U.S. Military after reports of Germans arriving on "torpedos" late at night, which turned out to be Shaw and a friend catching waves after dark. The Shaw family was very well off and Brewster was Princeton educated. His father ran San Juan Motors, but upon his sudden death, Brewster had to take over the dealership. He knew the Daytona SpeedWeek events were a great chance at marketing and actually hosted Chrysler staff in his garage. When Chrysler would send a team of engineers and cars to Daytona, they would work out of the San Juan Motor's garages.

This kind of explains why the very first 300 ever would end up in Brewster's hands.

 

Cool find, congratulations on finding it!

I will add another avenue to research - it might at first sound like off in left field, but bear with me. You may find some information on your car, buy doing some looking at the history of the Kiekhaefer car. Both were built together before being sent to the respective owners.

Two people might prove good sources - Fred Kiekhaefer (Carl's son) is still around. He would have been just a kid, but may have some family archives that could add information. He ran Kiekhaefer Aeromarine, then sold it to Brunswick. They folded it into the old Mercury Performance Products, and I believe it is now named Mercury Racing. I think Fred is retired, but still shows his face around there on occasion, and lives in the area. A call to their public affairs people may get you a contact, or get them to forward something to Fred for you.

More importantly, Charles Strang is still alive (really old, but still sharp as a tack last I heard). Charlie was Mr. K's right hand man and chief engineer during the Nascar period. Better yet, Charlie is known to be somewhat of a historian, never get rid of everything, and have an amazing personal archive. He was in the thick of it, and could be a wealth of knowledge on the who / where / when / why that may apply to your car as well.

Mr.Strang went on to be Chairman of Mercury's chief rival Outboard Marine Corp. (Johnson/Evinrude) in the 70's, and I believe is still retired in the Chicago / Waukegan Il. area. Best place to start looking for a contact would be Nascar - he was the Nascar Commissioner for years (the final appeal guy). Maybe they have a contact, or can forward something to him.

If you pursue this angle and hit a brick wall PM me, I might be able to help though some of my contacts, but better to try the front door first.

Good Luck!

 

Still trying to string a legible sentence together Josh.!! This has to be way up there with Nads find. Absolutely incredible. You are number one. I am no one. Can.t wipe the smile off my face for ya.

 

Excellent info! THANK YOU! I will start working on this within the next day or two!

 

Quentin, don't be so humble. Anyone can buy a car... Very few people can actually fabricate and build them.

 

Here's another photo of Brewster in the car. This photo was taken before the start of NASCAR Speed Week. It's Brewster sitting in Vin#001, in front of the San Juan Motors showroom. What's funny is Brewster took this exact same photo in 1956 again with a 300B. This image is currently being sold by Getty, however it's in the Daytona International Archives.

 

Josh (@Hyfire) -

Congrats on your very cool find/purchase!

I'll be sure to scour my archives for any vintage photos of #3N551001.

 

I appreciate it! THANK YOU for any help you can give!

 

I enjoyed your archeology on the 300D. This one is getting just as good.

 

@StillOutThere & @johnl - It would be wonderful if you could share some of this knowledge here in this thread!

 

That car was kind of a long journey. Every time I thought I reached the end of researching, I would find new leads. I think this car is a little more "up-front". I don't think I'll have as much luck here. Although I'm very happy with what I've found already. I think this car is more historically significant than the 300D (The very first production Chrysler 300 made, a NASCAR Championship Speed Trials record car, the only know '55 racer to date), but the 300D is a much more personal story. The cool thing is I'm planning on flying out to Florida really soon to meet Vicki in person. Where Norm died before I was even born.


Here is my final Vin#001 photo from the Daytona Archives. Here's the woman herself..... Just before running the C300 and cleaning the clock of over 600 other vehicles at Daytona Beach.

 

I have a timeline question. With the cars entering Daytona in February of 1955 and being No.1 and No.2 does that mean the C-300 was a mid year introduction for Chrysler? Obviously the regular forward look New Yorkers came out in September of 1954 as a new model year introduction.
Are there any ads stating when the 300s were available at dealerships?

 

Since the production cars wouldn't be ready by Daytona in February, Chrysler arranged for all the major publications to test drive and review the Engineering Prototype car. It was an unusual move as everything 300 specific was hand fabricated on that car. Many of the test drives actually state that it was simply a prototype and that production wouldn't start until March.

Looking through trade magazines, they also confirmed that the 300 wouldn't start production until March. Which brings up the question as to how NASCAR accepted a car that wasn't available. I've found an article that says the other auto manufacturers were pretty angry that Chrysler could get away with creating the 300 and selling it as a "stock" car. Even after selling over 1000 units, GM and Ford didn't consider it "stock". While that sounds like sour grapes... The question for '55 SHOULD have been how they could race pre-production cars in a production class. There was truly no homologation involved. It might have been that they could point to the magazines they arranged to test the prototype and say "see, it's a production car". It seems it was an aggressive push by Chrysler.

Here's the early ad they released at the time... Before this ad I found press releases and the newspaper ads earlier in this thread.

 

Found these two PDFs about Vicki Wood. They offer good background.

April 1960 Feature: "Vicki Wood, Now Top Race Driver"

October 1960 Feature: "Fastest Woman In The World"

 

I just went to the Swope Auto Museum in Elizabethtown KY. They have a 63 Chrysler K edition car for sale for 25K. 440 car, auto transmission, A/C with supposedly original paint. Doesn't seem like too bad a price for a pretty rare car in great condition. Wish I would have taken a picture of it.

Gary

 

Now for the complex part. Chrysler did not install engines in sequence. A pallet of engines was dropped by the assembly line and engines were pulled out of order.

Car #1001 was built with Engine #005.
Car #1002 was built with Engine #004
Car #1004 was built with Engine #007

On one hand I wish the car had Engine #005 in it today, but on the other hand the engine it's got adds to the history. I've been able to correspond with several people who were there or had connections, including local historians, Shaw's son, Richard Petty and so on. Some of the small details are different, but the bones of the story are the same.

In 1955 Lee Petty decided he was going to race a brand new 1955 Chrysler New Yorker coupe at Daytona. Lee showed up and he was extremely pissed and bitter to see other drivers with their pre-production Chrysler 300s. Petty proceeded to throw a fit.

There was nothing Chrysler was willing (or could) do about it. Petty was a friend of Brewster Shaw and although Shaw had 1 of only 2 cars, he wasn't about to let Petty beat the hell out of his extremely rare car. Lee Petty was known for being brutal on the track.

As a compromise, Shaw offered to loan Petty the parts from Vin#001 to convert his New Yorker coupe into a C-300 for the NASCAR Grand National at the end of Daytona Speed Week. Richard Petty said he still remembers working on the cars in the San Juan garage, Converting the parts over. Shaw made sure the car was taped off to protect the loaner parts.
The borrowed parts include the entire front clip (hood, fenders, grille), 300HP Hemi engine and trans, all 300 trim, 300 emblems and so on. Petty ran the race as a "real" 300 and came in 2nd. Giving Chrysler a 1-2 win after Roberts was disqualified.

After the race, the parts were returned to Shaw and Vin#001. The hood, fenders, trim and so on where reinstalled onto Vin#001... But for some reason the engine block wasn't. I don't know if the block was damaged or if Brewster just didn't want a beat-on engine block back. Instead, Shaw kept Petty's brand new engine block and put all the original 300 parts onto it.

Since Lee Petty's car was returned to a New Yorker model after Speed Week, Petty would have to retire his car until he could get "permanent" C-300 parts. Petty had no real connections at Chrysler and regular production hadn't started, so he would have to wait nearly a month before getting the permanent C-300 parts. Because of this he went back to driving his 1954 car during this period, before reemerging with the cloned red and white C-300 again.

After Speed Week Brewster Shaw took the restored Vin#001, still in race paint and used it for publicity around town. The race paint wouldn't be taken off until it was sold to it's new owner.