Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

Thanks, Bowtie.

 

MOJO looks like D/MP

 

wonder where this one is?

 

Ads like that are heart wrenching these days.

 

Killer Car

 

@jimdillon , Congratulations on the selection of your 62 for the top 40. It's well deserved. It's a beauty.

@enloe , Keep up the good work on the Corvette and you will be driving it soon and you already have a volunteer to ride shotgun and keep and eye on the gauges and let you know how the motor sounds.

 

I believe that you will remember this one Jim

Added the link to the article

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1957-chevrolet-corvette-in-the-barn/

 

Jason thanks for the compliment. The 57 looks like yours. Is there a link to the article?

Cool ad Scotty. Wonder what ever happened to it. Corvette nazis would go on and on about how terrible it would be since that would make it so nose heavy, putting aside the fact that they switched from the General's brand.

 

"corvette nazis" i love that! i love modified corvettes, until they are just too cut up or butchered. that being said i do have a numbers matching unmodified 69 L46 roadster,LOL, sometimes it bothers me to see it that way!

 

Mine through the years

 

Jim, it does look kind of like mine. I added the link to the post with the photo. It sounds like one that you have talked about before.

blowby, I like your car a lot. Black was a good color choice for it and looks good with the body modifications.

 

the best modification is the luggage rack!

 

Jason I missed the link (DUH). I believe that must be the car that I have spoken about. I cannot place the owner's name but could ask some guys in my club. He occasionally attends out monthly meeting. I tried to get him to even show me the car and he wouldn't bite-invited him to see my junk and never takes me up. Told me he had no interest in selling it (or trades). If you press him too much he clams up. I have told him about some of the stories of the Midwest car etc that ran a Pontiac (and about a 53 or 54 that runs around here with a Pontiac). Too bad -cool car for sure.

 

The green '61, that's definitely a Corvette hot rod.

 

I also appreciate your efforts Loudbang, you are one of the few that attempt to keep this thread (and others) alive. I agree with Quick 85 that the green 61 is real hot rod-cool car great stance and love the scoop. The only change I would make is to put on a hardtop-just me.

Like this shot of the two Vettes going at it. I believe the car in the far lane is Skip Hess in Wildabeast. The near lane is a car that I have tried to figure out (although I have not spent enough time apparently-name on the side is Dursin & Alves I think)). Here is the same car racing Earl Wade.

 

I love that wildabeast car.

jp

 

I don't have a picture of it, because I had trouble keeping up with it, but I saw a beautiful red 56 Corvette going up Preston Hwy. last night, coming from the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Ky. Bad little car.

 

Not a Hot Rod but a cool vintage shot

 

Planned to get some work done today in the shop but my back feels otherwise so thought I would add something to this thread.

The other day I posted on the 1962 Corvette being listed as one of the Top 50 drag tests (and muscle cars) of the era. I have seen several versions of the top 50 but they always seem to include the 62 Vette.

Back in the 60s when I worked hard to run halfway decent numbers at the drag strip I had guys tell me tales of how fast their cars were (and I still hear many tall tales today as well). If you look at top 50 lists you will see except for a very few cars almost all were big blocks, which is understandable and the times and speeds are more in line with reality for “stock” muscle cars IMO. I have read where the 62 Vette turned 13.89 at 105.14mph coming in at #37 or #43 on the lists. The #43 was in a list I believe in Super Stock and Drag Illustrated. The original test was done in Hot Rod in January of 1962. Contrary to what so many story tellers have convinced themselves this was a pretty decent time for the day with a car that was not “modified”.

I am not unmindful of the fact that there is stock from the factory and from mere mortals and then there is stock from such pros like Roger Sinistri and Larry Lombardo when they ran the “stock” 283/270 (actually 292ci) 1961 Vette-“Buckshot” in 68 and 69 to 12.50s in 68 and 12.30s in 69 (then with the fuelie unit instead of two fours) I believe. I guess there is stock and then there is the other stock-big difference. I am sure there were pros working their magic on the “new “ 327 as well.

Super Chevy a few years ago printed an article on the 1962 Hot Rod Magazine tests with some original pictures I thought were pretty cool. The pictures although are black and white, if I had to guess I would think the color was Fawn beige inside and out.

Apparently Ray Brock as Hot Rod Editor was able to have the use of a new Vette from Harry Mann Chevrolet (Los Angeles) and probably drove the car a bit here and there before taking it to Lions Dragstrip In Long Beach. The car was equipped of course with the new “bigger” Vette engine the 327. There was some discussion of the 348 being available but “The resulting 327ci engine “had more power than the standard 348 engine, was cheaper to build, was lighter in weight, and with smaller displacement produced better mileage than the 348.”

The 327 chosen was the 360hp fuelie (352 lbs. of torque) with the 4-speed and 4.10 (4.11) gearset. The original article stated it best I suppose; “The first thing we noticed when driving the ’62 360 hp Corvette was the increased low speed torque that accompanied the increased displacement,” Brock said. The jump up in peak torque from the previous year’s fuel-injected 283 was substantial—20 percent, he noted—and “it reaches its maximum at 700 rpm lower engine speed.”

Yet any hopes for blazing e.t.’s at the strip were dashed by the lack of traction from the Vette’s bias-ply tires. In as-delivered tune and with tires set at 24 psi, Brock’s first pass was 14.22 seconds at 102.97 mph. “A half dozen runs later, we had only managed to raise the speed to 103.98 mph and lower the e.t. to 14.12.”

As it turned out, Mickey Thompson was at the strip that day testing a dragster, and Brock asked him to try the Vette. “After a trial run, he turned in a speed of 105.14 mph in 13.89 seconds. The difference between our times and Mickey’s was his shifting speed. Mickey used full throttle ‘power shifts’ while we released the throttle slightly between shifts. Power shifts give better results, but unless you are experienced, you’d better stay away from them. Mickey confessed that he had scattered a few transmissions before getting the knack. We were reluctant to try.”

Kind of cool that with all of the muscle cars and good running small block cars built in the 60s that the tests would still list the 62 Vette in the Top 50. Maybe since the articles and drag tests actually happened with time clocks involved, so many of the stories that followed and still follow some of us till today, we realize that stories then and now have the possibility of being simply that.

 

As a bookend of sorts to the earlier post of a stock 62 327, we have the “modified” 283 of one of the all time great early Vettes owned by John Mazmanian. Super Chevy once again had a relatively recent article reminiscing on another drag test done a little later in the year of 1962 (October 1962). Rod & Custom did what they called “RodTests” on subject hot rods of the day and luckily they did such a rod test on Mazmanian’s car. The pictures in black and white I believe are some of the all time best.

John bought the 93rd 61 Vette to roll down the line and immediately made plans to see how it would run (first on the street allegedly) and then he entered it in the first Winternationals in 1961 where he won class (AA/SP) with a mph record of 109.96. John’s nephew Rich Siroonian drove the car to high 12 second runs with the 315 hp 283, that had been tuned by Nicholson and Earl Wade. Since they ran in Street Eliminator they made it all the way to the finals of Street Eliminator losing to Johnny Loper in his super fast Willys.

In 62 at the Winternats they ran it in a modified form (small hoodscoop and the wheelwells were still untouched) and they had to run it in CM/SP where they upped their speed to 113.84. In street eliminator they faced and beat Johnny Loper in his Willys but lost in their quest but the street eliminator was won by Earl Wade in an A/SP 62 Vette (which we have discussed somewhere in this thread previously).

Mazmanian’s Vette was one of the rare cars that could win trophies on and off the track. It has been reported that John’s car had 24 coats of candy Persimmon by Junior Conway, with a lot of chrome and polished items. Apparently the car took 3rd at a NHRA car show just prior to the Winternats in 62.

After the 62 Winternats they stroked the engine to 316 ci with a 4-71 supercharger and Hilborn injector with an Isky Polydyne 505 cam. It was in this trim that the car was featured in Rod & Custom and the car had recently ran a pretty stout 11.11 at 129 at Fontana. The wheelwells were now cut to make room for the sizable rear tires. By this time John had twice the money in modifications in the car than he had paid for it originally.

Much has been made of the rear wheelwells and I have questioned it myself. I have played with going bigger on rear wheels and tires on these cars and can attest that they will only allow a tire in the 28+ range without hitting the dog leg. If you look at this one picture with the large 10.00 x 16 pie crust slick you can see how large it is. I am sure it is over 30” tall and with this picture it makes it clearer to me why he cut the wheelwell. We can debate the way in which it was cut but the car certainly was and is a star wherever it finds itself, jagged cut or no jagged cut. If I could go back in time I may try to convince John to take the route of Skip Hess and radius the wheelwell like Skip did on Wildabeast, but that is simply my .02 cents.

Shortly after the article John updated the car once again with Bones Balough assisting with driving and engine building duties and they moved up to a 327 with a 6-71 and moved up to BM/SP.

Shortly after the car was retired and Mazmanian moved his pocketbook and attention to what would become one of the most photographed cars ever- his Willys.

As much as I like his Willys there is certainly a place in my heart for what he did with his 61 Vette. Glad to see that it is still around albeit in show form. His car was certainly one of the reasons that I went with candy red on my avatar car.

Here are the black and white photos from the Rod & Custom article and thanks to Super Chevy for their article helping to keep this history alive.

 

Fun facts Jim, has always been a favorite car of mine. We ran the same class with our MG, sure would have been cool to see a picture of the two racing each other.

Pat

 

I agree Pat it would be fun to see either of the cars run for me. I am happy that I got to see modified sports before they morphed it into gas for the 68 season. I remember I looked forward to seeing the gassers run at a meet in the mid 60s and was fortunate to see a number of Vettes run in modified sports. There were a number of Vettes and Bill Coon ran his 57 Bird. It changed my focus a bit from Willys gassers (which I stilll love) to the early Vettes. Hooked me for life.

 

Jim, first thanks for all the information. I have always loved that car. Big Johns Willys as well.

Do you know what the rear gear was in the car when purchased and did it run that gear to start with?

Might you know what brand of wheel the Torque Thrusts were?

You mention in the beginning of your post that it was the 93rd 1961. Do you know if the VIN was 10867S100093?

Thanks
Dan

 

Rumblegutz, the gear that the car was sold with at auction was reported to be a 5.14. My friend that raced his 61 Vette with a 283/270 ran a 5.13 and a neighbor just sold a 5.13 pig assembly so I believe 5.13 may be correct.

The wheels were reported to be American Torque Thrusts.

The VIN you mention is the VIN#. Strange the 61 Vette now owned by Bert Brown and raced as the Grassman-Osterman entry (tuned by Nicholson &Wade) won class (B/SP) at the 62 Winternats and was the 94th down the line. Both 93 and 94 were tuned by Nicholson and Wade, both raced at the 62 Winternats, both won class and both survive thankfully. I have corresponded with Bert and he knew Wade pretty well. He told me that in the run for street eliminator at the 62 Nats his car beat Hayden Proffitt's new A/FX 421 Tempest heads up. As stated above Earl Wade ended up winning street eliminator in a 62 Vette (A/SP), turning in a 12.20 at 112.35.

Included is a picture of the street eliminator run with the Grassman-Osterman entry beating Proffitt's 421 Tempest

 

Thanks for the information Jim. It's nice to hear from someone that was around and drag racing Corvettes in those days. I also enjoy the detailed articles on some of the heavy hitters. Now if we could find something like that on the Wildabeast I would be really excited. I am also a huge fan of the Willys Gasser Coupes and the early Corvettes.

Here is some more info on the Mazmanian Corvette

http://www.rmsothebys.com/rw09/icon...ohn-mazmanian-corvette-drag-racing-car/391384

Plus a picture of Buckshot recently

 

Jason I agree on Wildabeast. I would love to find out the whole story on the car. We have discussed the car before and I have more questions than answers for sure. I have read that Skip bought it new in 62 and stroked the 327 to 375 inches and ran it with Hilborn injection and the four speed. It may have survived but not sure if it was returned to stock or not. I keep looking for the gold mine on the particulars of the car. If I find it you will be the first to know.

Skip Hess is known more today for the BMX bicylces that he manufactured under the Mongoose name.

Buckshot was certainly one of the headliners in F and G stock. At the time I enjoyed Corvette junior stockers almost as much as the MSP and Gas cars. Before the sticky tracks it was great fun to watch them launch with the tall gears in stock rear end housings. The axles used by many early Vette racers were often Summer brothers and Henry axles. I have a couple of sets of Henry axles and gearsets from early Vette drag cars. One set is from a Dana 60 and the other Olds/Pontiac. If only parts could talk.