History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Gene Conway in the "Destroyer" Jeep at Lions, probably around 1966 as in 1967 he had switched from the very un aerodynamic Jeep to a Firebird which was short lived as in 1968 he had a topless Corvette. That too had a short life as in 1969 he ran a Corvette coupe sponsored by Sticks Unlimited who had backed the topless car late in its life.

Roo

 

Right, he used to be Gene Ciambella but changed his name to Gene Conway, after one of the characters in the tv series "McCale's Navy," as the jeep was the "Navy Destroyer." He ran an Austin pickup gasser before this.

 

My buddy Tom Larkin used one of his hydros in his 37 b/gasser, and went we went to his shop Tom always called him Geno

 

Scotty's Muffler Service, a very early blown fuel Chevy.

 

Hey Guys,
So, this is the Gene Ciambella of the original, C&O Hydro Company? (the C of C&O) When he first started making stick hydros in Gardena, CA. He required a complete hydramatic transmission as a trade in item. You brought one in and he modified that particular one or used one of his own stored on the shelf. His cost for the complete installations was almost 1/2 of what it would have taken for the popular B&M Hydro. Of course, we all know that the B&M was the king of stick hydros. This installation was one of his first installs for a stick shift conversion to a hydramatic transmission in a stock car.

It took several days to take out the stock 3 speed transmission out of our 1958 Impala and install the new, C&O Stick Hydro, complete with the linkage that used the Impala's column shifter lever. It was an excellent installation and boy, did it improve the performance of the Impala. When he took me for a drive around his shop's neighborhood, he left no stone unturned as the gas pedal was usually on the floor. Our necks were snapped back with each shift...(I was thinking ...this is going to be outstanding !!!)

He was happy with the install and offered a discount if I would place his large sticker in the rear window. We put the sticker up on the inside and it was so big that I could not see out of the complete rear window. So, I told him that I would run two smaller stickers on the rear 1/4 windows. He said that was great and off I went cruising around and trying out that new found quicker performance. (Plus those two yellow C&O stickers in the windows.)

Jnaki
He had me come in several times in a couple of months to check out everything and give me the "OK" for the install and performance. He wrote everything down for his records. Did the stick hydro improve the performance at the drags? Yes it did, we dropped down to a respectable, consistent, 14.60 E.T. for a stock motor 58 Impala, down from the average, high 14's and common, low 15's. But later on, we could not race in the A/Stock class any longer. Some rule about modifying the automatic transmission...etc.

The happiest person beside myself, was my mom. She actually paid to have this new stick hydro installed because she did not want to drive the 58 Impala to go shopping with the 3 speed. Now, she took the car once a week to shop and loved driving the car because of the "automatic." It was money well spent.

She told us of this incident on the way home from shopping in Lakewood one day, When a car load of teenagers came up alongside of her at a stop light and started to rev up their motor. She did not know what to do, so she went to the next stop light. There, one of the boys asked what she had as a motor/transmission and asked if the car was fast. She just shook her head and took off across the intersection. She was petrified when the car took off very quickly. Normally, she was a plodder when driving. Hah ! Drag racing stories for an old lady from Long Beach.

 

Too Funny

 

He is the car Stan posted above ^^^ easier to see this way

 

Quite possibly the same race - lots of twins that year, Dragmaster TWO THING set top speed.

 

Joe Gerdelman Bounty Hunter



Ladd & Milligan Coleman Brothers



Mickey Thompson Ford Power



Mister Six



Mooneyes vs Mickey Thompson?

 

Thanks Dave. All this time I thought there were two Genes. I sure remember his Austin pick up. It was a little scary.

 

Mickey Thompson Ford Power

View attachment 3492930



Mooneyes vs Mickey Thompson?

View attachment 3492932 [/QUOTE]

Mickey Thompson and Wally Parks talking about bringing the Harvey Aluminium Special to England in 1963 where he raced Dante Duce in Mooneyes and ran at the Brighton speed trials, the car was later rebuilt to become Commuter

 

Mickey Thompson and Wally Parks talking about bringing the Harvey Aluminium Special to England in 1963 where he raced Dante Duce in Mooneyes and ran at the Brighton speed trials, the car was later rebuilt to become Commuter[/QUOTE]


This is an Alan Currans shot of the Commuter in its final full body form. For more from Alan on the UK scene check out this cool site: http://www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/alan_currans/index/index.html

Roo

 

Dennis Priddle in the first car outside of North America to run a sub seven second run, hence the "Mister Six" name. The car later went on to become Roz Prior's "Fast Lady/ Revell Fast Lady" when Priddle purchased a newer state of the art car from Norm Wilcox.

Roo

Roo

 

The Coleman brothers ran a speed shop in Maryland (just south of Baltimore) and had a strong connection with Scotty Fenn which may explain why Ladd and Milligan ran one of Fenn's frames . When Scotty came east after quitting Eelco in 65/66 he built a back motor car for the Colemans that was driven by Dwayne Reynolds.

Roo

 

Although the background of this shot suggests that it may have been from Detroit or Pittsburgh Gerdelman was an east coast racer as seen in this color shot from Brian Beattie of Joe at E'town in 1966 . Apart from the headers and the front wing the car is substantially the same. A 2008 East Coast Drag Racing hall of Fame inductee, Joe originally purchased the (Logghe chassis) car from Connie Kalitta and it is currently restored to the Kalitta configuration with a hemi rather than the wedge seen in these photos. Read about it here: http://pacersauto.typepad.com/blog/...of-famer-owner-of-kalittas-bounty-hunter.html


Roo

 

Not sure who owned this roadster, but recognize the one behind it...steel Austin roadster body, blown Olds, think one of the owners was named "Taylor," but forgot the details...Dean Lowe, do you remember it?


I loved the 27 T-bodied modified roadsters, though none stacked up to the Speed Sport roadster...no i.d. on this one


Dee Keeton, far lane, stages against Samson, from Northern California, at OCIR


back when real street-driven cars could drag race, this deuce at San Luis Obispo.


sbc in the shut-down area...this might be the top end at OCIR, but I'm not sure...steering looks really interesting.


Dode Martin at Paradise Mesa, long before the Dragmaster days.


Yes, the 15oz coupe has been here before, but who objects to another picture of it? The 15oz. was the largest can of Burgermeister, the beer of choice for the Groundshakers, that's where the name came from. This car still exists with its original, if faded paint. The last I heard from Les Hawkins, he was 79 and living in Reno. Lyle Webster was living in Oregon, and Mike Bartlett (Jim Busby's later brother-in-law), who sometimes drove the coupe, died a couple of years ago.


Ken's Automotive "Odd Couple," sbc and a Chrysler...this car won often.

 

Ken's Automotive "Odd Couple," sbc and a Chrysler...this car won often.[/QUOTE] If you had a SBC to run the blower on your Hemi. You would do good too!

 

Sure do remember that Austin roadster Dave. It belonged to Ed Taylor. He ran it out of his ET Auto Parts shop in Pomona. Ed loved him a blown Olds. His next roadster was an A/comp driven by Merek Chertkow. That nitro Olds gave the T/F guys all they could handle.

 

A first name of Rich was a must if you were involved with this car. The original version was owned by Rich Abate (as seen here--most likely at the 1967 Manufacturer's Championship event at OCIR due to the fact that Dee Keaton is in the other lane) and it was driven driven by Rich Hammons who later assumed ownership according to some sources. Goodies Speed Shop was owned by Richard Guess and he backed a number of early floppers including the Hairy Canary Valiant originally run by Hammons and Don Williamson who built the engine for Samson.

Roo

 

Hello,

At the time of the install of the C&O Stick Hydro in our 58 Impala,(60-61) Gene Ciambella was in the early stages of building a drag car. Jump up to 1964 at an All Gasser Meet at Lions, he showed up with a red Willys pickup (Keith Martin?) that ripped up the dragstrip.

Jnaki
I was already proud to have one of the first C&O stick hydro installs in my slightly modified, 58 Impala. But, now, the competition races were on with the other big name stick hydro companies installs on the top racers in So Cal.

Here is that Willys pickup racing the Arioso Bros. coupe at Lions in the eliminations.



JUST BY CHANCE:
Does anyone have access to photos of the original, yellow/black, C&O hydro (OVAL) transmission sticker(s) from 1960-61?

 

Midnight Madness



Sonny Lemma's & Henco caddy power



Underdog









Butch Lehman



Dick Harrel in a Yenko car



Dyno Don



Ferd Napfel's Storming Bull

 

Ron Leslie Who passed on this week. Ron on the left RIP

 

If you had a SBC to run the blower on your Hemi. You would do good too![/QUOTE]
For at least one race not "The Odd Couple".

 

The Lehman name was familiar so I did a bit of digging and although the caption lists the driver as Butch he is more familiar to latter day racers as Harry of "American Way" fame. The car also had a familiar look to it and then I remembered the Coleman Brothers rear motor car that showed up when I was researching them (post # 55239) and sure enough Scotty Fenn had an involvement in both cars. Read all about Harry (including the history of this car) here: http://www.americanwaytopfueler.com/evolution.html

Roo

 

For at least one race not "The Odd Couple". View attachment 3494861 [/QUOTE]

And driver Walt Stevens still has the same paint job on his current helmet as seen in this Bob Brown shot from the 2009 CHRR


Roo

 

Although the caption tends to concentrate on the Bliss brothers the real story here is driver Walt Weney who went on to start S & W Race Cars. Here is a Brian Beattie shot of it and some more background courtesy of WDIFL.

Here's the C/FD of Bliss-Weney-Bliss in the pits at Island Dragway in 1962. The car was owned by Ed Bliss and driven by Walt Weney from 1962-63. They won C/Dragster Class @Indy in 1962 . Also was voted outstanding competition car on the East coast by Eastern Drag News. This team was also vote top 10 in the country by Hot Rod Magazine in 1963 .this car also was the record holder for C Dragster from about 1962 -67. Won a number of competition Eliminator titles all around the East coast.

Roo

 

John Smyser's car, with Nando Haas driving


Dick Belfatti's "Shadow," from Willow Grove, PA.


Bob Routhenwaite's 34 coupe at Saugus, can't remember whose deuce roadster that is in front...the GCRC means "Glendale Coupe & Roadster Club," which Routhenwaite also belonged to...(he built his coupe for the lakes, but drag raced it until he and Tom McLaughlin built a very early dragster).


Tom Walsh drove this Fiat, once a coupe until the hacksaw...this car, from Hayward, blew up at one of the first Bakersfield meets, and Tom suffered burns as a result.


Sush Matsubara

 

Gene Mori



George Resse Kenilworth Sunoco Yellow Cab




Hans Schmidt



Joe Jacono



John Ridgway's Problems Problems. wonder if he is related to Ralph Ridgeway?

 

Bill Marshall photos.