Loudbang we spoke of the 00 Corvette earlier in the thread I believe. That is Dave McDonald's 61 road racer-the same Dave McDonald who died at Indy in 1964 in the big fireball with the ill handling Thompson "Roller skate" car. The crash will go down as one of the worst at the Brickyard and it took out Eddie Sachs as well. McDonald was a good racer and probably should have turned down the Indy ride like others that lived did. The story of this Corvette is quite a story in itself. A little busy now but will try to follow up on it later.
I briefly spoke of the car in Corvette Hot Rods. The story of Dave McDonald is actually a pretty decent read if you are a race nut. Rather than take up large bandwidth if you guys go to DaveMcDonald.net you will find the story of his life including the building of this car and pictures when it was built by Max Balchowsky and Dave and Jim Simpson. If he had not taken that ill fated ride at Indy I believe he would be spoken of much more than he is today.
Jason, great pic. From what I have read after Bones won class (BM/SP) at Indy in 62 with the J&J Muffler 58 Vette he partnered up with John and John bought the engine, trans and blower setup from Bones and put it into the 61 Vette. I believe the hood off of the J&J muffler car was part of the deal so I am assuming that John ran this hood for awhile starting in the autumn of 62 (for how long-I have never researched it but John was working on the switch to Willys in 63 for the 64 season, so not for too long I suppose). I assume the picture above is late 62 or early 63. Here is a picture of Bones' 58 and a pic of Bones and John racing I believe in the fall of 62 after Bones won at Indy. I asked Bones about the 58 and the whereabouts and VIN number but he said he had no idea, and that they were just cheap cars that no one would think would be worth money some day.
That is interesting history on the Mazmanian Corvette. Other place that I found the pictures had them labeled 63-4 so that would be about right. That is the best picture that I have ever seen of The J&J Mufler Corvette. It's very hard to find good pictures of that one. I think that these are both the same picture with one cleaned up and cropped a little bit. Also it looks like the front fender is split. That could be from a hard landing after a wheel stand or maybe a blow out?
Jason I am not 100% sure but believe that pic of Bones is Indy in 62. Here is another picture of one of my favorites (Skip Hess' "Wildabeast") at the same venue (although my notes say the Wildabeast photo is Indy 63 (and I have another in 63 with the yellow guardrail). Man what I wouldn't give to find Wildabeast under a tarp in someone's garage with the owner feeling an itch to sell it. .
That is my favorite one too. Do you think the paint color is Honduras Maroon or Candy? I wonder if Skip Hess would have any idea of where the car went. It has never surfaced in all of these years.
I believe it is a custom paint color. I have pics that show a shade of red and pics that show a shade of orange. Not sure what is correct but I believe it is a candy. Many of the So Cal Corvette guys hung around in similar circles. Junior Conway was reported to have painted John's car and it would not surprise me if he sprayed Wildabeast but that is strictly a guess. If you look at John's 61 and Skip's 62 the numbers on the side windows appear to me to have been done by the same individual. It may be the same with the paint on the body-who knows. I am working on a Honduras maroon body right now and it seems far off from either shade in the pics I have.
Stopped by a friends on my way to my shop this morning, and he brought out some old pics to look through. Here are a couple pics of the Hayseed, Blasingame's 56 and no idea who owned the blown 59-60. All taken at N E Dragway in the early 70's.
Here is one that was for sale in Pigeon Forge this past weekend. It looks like it had a rough life but I still wanted it
Here's one that's posted at Great Lakes Dragaway in one of their buildings. I don't know anything about this car.
Mike Alessi's 56. Runs 10.00's consistently. (capable of running nines)Real nice car and a good guy and excellent racer.
I think it was at the Hot Rod Reunion at NE Dragway 2014. My friend Steve's 56 Chevy gasser is in the background of your second picture (the blue 56).
Hot rod or gasser hard choice where to put this one LOL. FUEL VETTE FUNNY CAR George Reese's George's Corvette Shop cars were popular draws on the East Coast in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but none was wilder than this one, the Long & Lean II, a stretched '64 Corvette reportedly fitted atop a Top Fuel chassis running a small-block Chevy mill on a small load of nitro. Reese updated to a more conventional later-model 'Vette and then a Vega in 1972 before adopting the George of the Jungle moniker, driven by Tom Stephens, Mark Emery, and Tom Raley.
http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery/closeups/corvettespecialriverside1.htm More about Dave MacDonald...
Those are great finds. Going to put the photos up on the corvette hot rod thread thanks. Good coming from a FORD guy too.
Anyone know any history of this car from the early 70s when it was green and ran for sure at Bristol.