Folks Of Interest Kay Sissell and his Chevy 6 powered T bucket roadster

Tell what you know or might remember from his days of building and racing his 23' altered roadster.

 

Back in the late 60's when places like Irwindale and OCIR hosted events for competetion eliminator class cars (the very category that Sissel raced the roadster) you could count on the El Monte fireman to make it to the final rounds. The car was quite dominant in the class, Earnie Chaves (spl) being the only other competetive 6 banger altered ( that I can recall ) in the area. Sissell's then metalflake tangerine car sounded like a swarm of killer bee's as it ran. It was cool to sit at the ' 1000 foot mark and see Sissell glance over his shoulder to see if he the guy in the C/Dragster was catching up to him.

 

Six Banger Altered, sweet! Where is this car now?

 

GMC Jimmy 302 wasn't it? I cannot see the picture for some reason....

 

What a beautiful car!!

 

The engine in that pic is a Chevy 292 (you can see the offset motor mount). The 302 Jimmy has a one piece side cover.

 

if i'm not mistaken, that car is currently running the NHRA heritage series in one of the nostalgia eliminator classes (3?).

 

I remember the altered (from pics) but of course, Six-Session was the bomb! The guy who found and restored it did a fabulous job, and I saw it run at the March meet a couple of years ago. Damn thing ran one thou over its dial in for two straight days, and in the first round of elimination, ran one thou under!
I'm planning TWO slant six powered altereds for next year, just shop cars to give my employees something to take out and play with on weekends. I'm thinking one Bantam, one T.

 

There was an article on this car and another six powered altered in an issue of ROD&CUSTOM in the late eighties or early nineties. It was just before Kay passed away. One of the cars was 302 GMC powered, and the other was 292 Chevy. I can't remember which was which. Ha! found it! ( Nothing like having every automotive magazine ever printed at your disposal!) June 1990 ROD&CUSTOM, in my opinion one of the best ever. Page 68, the car above was 292 powered, the other car was a darker red/ maroon and ran a 302 GMC. Thing that always got me about these cars is they did what they did ( the article quoted 9.66/139 and 9.21/145 at the time) with stock based heads. No unobtainable 12 port heads. The reasoning was that people would equate fast with trick parts, not talent. Definitely worth looking up.

 

SCREAMIN' sixes! Absolutely amazing.

 

I built a 292 six powered '57 chevy for a friend of mine after he returned from Viet Nam. We ran the car in Gas and Modified Production (depending on how it was set up). Kay was consulted quite a few times as we worked out the bugs keeping the 292 together and making HP. We kept shaking the flywheel loose after just a couple of runs (you always knew as the clutch would act crazy and you would feel a slight vibration). Kay would share his solutions and we ended up drilling and tapping the crank to 1/2" SAE, dowel pinning the crank/flywheel between every bolt, and using grade 8 bolts lock-tited and torqued to 100 ft/lbs. to keep the flywheel in place.
After trying the available cam grinds and getting the car runing respectibly Kay sent us one of his custom ground deals to try. Man, did that ever wake up that six. That cam just never quit pulling, no matter how tight you wound the engine.
About that time my friends dad died of a heart attack at work and he just seemed to loose his will to do anything. The car was put in the garage and sat for years, finally being disassembled and sold off piecemeal. He said he never wanted to see the car run again. The body ended up being used for an oval track car and after a couple of seasons was scrapped. I've always wanted to build another 292 but never had a project suited for one and as they say "life goes on".

Frank

 

there were other six powered altereds and roadsters joe williamson and i believe joe williams

 

I believe Glen Self is running a 6 cylinder altered in NHRA now. At least he did a year or two ago.
He's no stranger to straight 6's either.
Larry T

 

There just aren't enough Straight 6 powered cars out there any more..

 

From the Self Racing website.

 

Here's mine Destroked 300 (272ci) Ford

 

Glen Self is running to new GM six. Where are all the pictures?

 

Six Gun what class are you running and why did you destroke it?

 

just a little info. sissels tangerene and the maroon car are owned by mike kirby now. they both run off and on with us in the anra series at famosa. ron anzalone has an incredible six that is candy red and runs in the low 9's and he ran the marron car for mike at last years events. some times in bracket 3 and sometimes in open wheel. also that pic of him here is at our series in famosa. that's ron sitiing in it. i can't stand it when he runs in open wheel because he always gets ahead of my flatty and just fender races me!! he is a great guy though. love to hear those sixes whine too. poor ron blew his motor all to pieces last year.
all you calif guys should come out to our events. we have some of the nicest nostalgia cars in the country running.
http://www.anra.com/index.html
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orderpage.aspx?pi=1ML30000000055&po=55&pc=247

 

jeff/21 I run with the U.M.T.R. North Quick Stick class.. The car has run 10.96 @ 120 in the 1/4... I destroked it because of (((vibration problems))) same as the Chevy 6 ...

 

Jerry Arnold from Kalamazoo Michigan has been running an inline ford for many years...and won a ton of drag races with it.
Here is a little bit of info on him from his website:
2000 NHRA National Champion in Competition Eliminator
7 time NHRA Division 3 Champion, Comp Eliminator. 1990-93, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003
Inducted into the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1998
1996 Jegs All Stars Champion
Many time NHRA record holder since 1986
4 time US131 Martin Dragway Modified track champ 1973-74-75-76
Competed in NHRA classes since 1962

• Competition Eliminator Classes-A/ED-B/ED-C/ED-E/ED and E/EA
• Modified Classes-D/MP-E/MP-G/G-H/G and A/SM
• /Stock and L/Stock

I started Drag Racing in 1961. I have always built my own engines for all of my race cars. I have worked part-time in two machine shops doing cylinder head work, valve jobs and engine assembly. I soon found out that the cylinder heads are the most important part of a high performance engine. I started porting my own cylinder heads.

When my race performance improved, my friends wanted me to do their heads too. I bartered with them for other work I needed. They became the "test bed" for my cylinder head work. That led to paying customers and allowed me to purchase a flow bench in 1980.

I have built and raced Chevy big and small blocks, Ford and Chevy inline six cylinders and even an Olds V8. All of these combinations used my cylinder head applications. These combinations also used three, four and five speed transmissions.

I've also done head work for championship oval track cars as well as off road racers. I was fortunate enough to do prototype cylinder head work for Ford Motor Company.
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I have met and talked with Jerry several times over the years when I was drag racing and just starting out porting heads, intakes, and buildint race carbs. Some of the work I have seen this man do was unbelievable. He is one man who is way under rated as far as I am concerned. I wish I could find more pics of his first roadster that he built in the mid 80's and raced until 98. It had many different engine/head/induction/exhaust setups as it was his test mule!!! One amazing car that was incredibly fast.

This pic is his latest bantam roadster altered.

 

Jerry did the head on my car, thats what put me in the 10's...

 

There's still a few that run sixes in Comp like Steve Ambrose, Glenn Treadwell, Mike Nahan,& Rob Harrison, There's also another lil "T" called the TeePot that runs a chevy six with ANRA in So-Cal.

 

Sorry, I thought it was just a finger pointing downward. Gives you an idea of how often I'm on here asking for info. If it offended anyone, and I mean anyone __ I deeply apologize. I just happened to run a t roadster in D/A for about years a way bit before Kay was around....

 

Wush, it's all good. I doubt I would have noticed it if it weren't for the red thumbs down! Glad to have read, cool thread.

 

"Not enuf straight sixes being built?" I do my part!
Just a few I have built . Second last one aka "kitty" (JAG AJ6) arrived at the shop yesterday and will be alternative power for new FED.
Don

 

No one has mentioned Joe Williamson and his Ford powered 6 in NHRA a few years back.........someone google that.

Mark

 

John & Ann Peto J/A

 

Joe Williamson