I borrowed a family scrapbook from a racing family and found some interesting photos. Most of the photos are the dirt track cars they raced in the 50's, 60's and 70' but I found this one of a Stude streamliner. The photo was taken in 1965 at Dynamic Balancing in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Jim Pospisil at Dynamic Balancing built a lot of race engines and these are some of the cars that he built engines for. I remember the Stude sitting in my dad's buddy's barn in the late 60's. I am not sure what ever happened to the car. I'll look and see if there are any other HAMB friendly photos in the scrapbook.
The Stude known as "The Glass Slipper, was at one time owned (at least partially, there may have been a co-owner) by John Lawrence who operated several automotive shops, the last one being Golden Age Antique Auto in Hiawatha, Ia. When I worked for John in the late 70's he had sold the chassis, and body, but had saved the fiberglass nose. He sent me looking for the car one day, and gave me directions to a farm near Palo, which was it's last known location. Unfortunately, the residents there told me the car had been hauled away for scrap. According to John's son Mike, there are more photos of the car, but so far he has been unable to locate them. To my knowledge, the nose was still in storage at John's shop in Hiawatha until he passed on in 2004. I am excited to find this photo, as I am planning to build a scale replica of the car
Cool pic!!! Do you know anything of the whereabouts of the 57 Ford stock car. I wonder if it might be the 57 Ford that Bill McDonough drove in 65??? Bill worked for Holman Erection Co. Which was next to Dynamic Balancing on Ingleside Dr. In CR. Are you a model car builder??? My brother and I are very interested in the history of Bill McDonough and his son, Tim!!! Anything you might know would be very interesting.
Also, 36cab, are you at liberty to share any other pics of old dirt stock cars in the album or anything about the owner of the album. Just crazy about racing history from this area!!! Thanks for any info you're able to share!!!
John Lawrence was a good friend of my dad and lived just up the street from us. I remember going to his house on E Ave and seeing the Stude sitting in the barn / garage.
Just a cross reference to another thread about this Stude: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...udebaker-streamliner-in-old-magazine.1164521/
...a pic minus the ps picture wrecking bug... ...it seems Rude didn't respond to Cabs PMs... Anyone know @rudedog699900...he knew of the last sightings of this Stude and was going to clone it...
Quoted From Post below... "My dad was friends with John Lawrence. I would sometimes go with my dad when he visited John when John lived in the big house on the hill in the woods on E Ave NW in Cedar Rapids. Besides the big house there was also a barn on the property. And I would love to go in the barn and look at the Studebaker streamliner that John kept in there. Being around twelve years old, I was fascinated by this red, white and blue sleek machine of pure speed with the engine mounted behind the driver. In my mind it was going 200 miles per hour just sitting there as I dreamed that I was behind the wheel of the amazing XL, the coolest race car I had ever seen up to this point of my short life. John moved away and sold the car and I never knew what happened to it and I eventually forgot about it. But then about twelve years ago I came across a photo of it. Bill McDonough drove a stock car for Jim and Don Pospishil who owned the Dynamic Balancing engine shop in Cedar Rapids. Bill’s granddaughter Tina showed me the McDonough family scrapbook and there it was, the XL Studebaker posed in Dynamic Balancing’s back yard with other race cars that the Pospishil’s were involved with. I was excited to see it again but disappointingly it did not have any more information about the actual car than I had when I was twelve years old. And then this summer I was interviewing the family of drag racer Leon Evans to do a story about him. They showed me some of Leon’s old photos and scrapbooks and there it was again, the spectacular XL Studebaker in an old newspaper article about the NEITA drag strip in Cedar Falls. The fabulous XL Studebaker had made yet another unscheduled appearance in my life but this time with a little more information! It turns out the XL was never a Bonneville streamliner but was built to be drag raced in the old NHRA B/Competition class. The XL was pictured with Jim Pospishil, Don Pospishil, Dennis Johnson, Jim Elliot and driver Dennis Kolda proudly standing around the car and we also now know that it had a “big-bad” Studebaker engine in it. And there was a second photo showing a smiling Dennis Kolda in the cramped driver’s seat (a driver’s seat that was rightfully mine) with his nose up against the windshield. So now we know the names of the guys involved with the car (Pospishil, Pospishil, Johnson and Elliot) and we knew the driver’s name (Kolda). So I am asking anyone out there that reads this story to help with more details about the car and about the men that were involved with it. I know that Jim and Don Pospishil have passed away and I did an Internet search for Dennis Kolda and he passed away last summer. Are Dennis Johnson and Jim Elliot still with us? And does anyone know what happened to the car and, if it still exists, where it is at? My twelve year old self would like to get my car back!" More Quoted Text from another Poster...Ted Ted Hidinger In 1964 when myself, Leon Evans & Bob Havlicek started building our A/C not long after Jim Pospishil & Dennis Kolda started building what became the B/C XL Studebaker. Jim ran Dynamic Balancing, if you were building a race motor you had to have Jim's shop balance it, We were all friends, Jim had a "thing" about Studebaker's (his shop truck was a Studebaker) which was behind him using a 327 cubic inch Studebaker (it was really a Chevy) engine - at the time Studebaker was on it's last breath, they cut a deal with GM/Chevy to put 327 Chevy engines in their cars - Jim jumped on this - giving him the ability to call the engine in the XL a Studebaker. I remember the conversation (as if it happened an hour ago) between Leon and Jim when Jim was telling Leon how he was going to make the frontend as if it were a Bonneville streamliner out of fiberglass, to which Leon said : "you better keep it as light as possible". As a side note - when we were building the A/C we drilled holes in just about everything but the frame - Leon was all about building it as light as possible. Yes the top of the XL came off to work on the engine, but due to the weight of the car it wasn't as competitive as Jim & Dennis would have liked. When we started taking the A/C to NEITA I do remember the XL being there for the first year but not after that, it might have been run at Cordova, we only went there for the World Series of Drag Racing, therefore don't know if it did. It was a very radical approach to a B/C, Jim was not afraid to try something different. Jim's shop - Dynamic Balancing - balanced most of the Offenhauser engines used in the Indy 500 cars of that time period, he was very respected and a good friend. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=951619838521657&id=681110035572640&hc_location=ufi ...A link to more about this Stude... It's funny I'm searching FB and gleaning info that was being shared by a fella that was just posting on the Other Thread whose Dad Helped build this Drag Coupe......All Good... @36cab I believe you are familiar with this FB Group correct? Credit to Photographers, Owners
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