My dad and I have some crazy ideas, and digging up a '55 Chevy drag car ranks pretty high on the list. It was a B/Gas prepared car with a 409 engine, and it was wrecked on the street. We ended up with the engine first, and curiosity got the best of me. We contacted the family and found the remains of the car in the woods behind the guys house. Just a portion of the cowl and firewall was sticking up out of the ground. I shot a video about the whole deal and it's been sitting in my files for quite a while. I finally put it all together, and wanted to share it here. This photo sums up the experience pretty well. This is what the car looked like in 1963 (before it was a serious race car). I believe it had a 348 in it at the time of this photo. The picture was for the local newspaper, as three local cars won at Harriman Dragstrip the previous weekend...the man standing is Jim Smith, owner of the Hemi-powered dragster. I have a whole 'nuther story (and video) about that car. Anyway, I love that the '55 was a fully dressed Bel Air with whitewalls...wish I could find a photo of it from a couple years later with the 409, straight axle and radiused wheel openings. Don't mind my amateur video skills...but I hope you enjoy the video:
There's plenty of empty wall space in that garage to hang that dashboard up in, I would at least go hack that out and save it, just for the story.
Want to retire early? Fisher Investments. Jeez!!! if that ad popped up one more time I would have retired the video. LOL!
Love the video and the story. I spent a few nights at the old Harriman drag strip back in the late 60s. What I remember is that it was short, not 1320 ft, and it had a mean dip in it. Lot of 55-57 straight axle Chevys running there at the time, and not all of them ran straight . Fun times standing at the starting line, just a few feet away from the cars.
That's Such a cool 55...what a tragic end for such a cool Hotrod......dirt certainly isn't kind to metal.
The 409 is sitting on an engine stand at the moment. We found an issue (too much camshaft endplay) when we had it on the dyno, but it's pretty much ready to be put in a car. Someday I'd like to build a tribute to Don's '55 Chevy, but it's pretty far down my list of potential projects right now.
That's awesome! Harriman Drag Strip was definitely an outlaw track. Unfortunately, it was shut down before I was born, but a lot of the guys I've talked to said it was a pretty rough place (lots of fights). I've seen a bunch of pictures from Harriman over the years, and yes, there were tons of '55-57 Chevys up there. Here are a few pictures that I've scanned from local car guys....maybe some of them will ring a bell.
Sinister at 5 in the morning...Looked like grave robbers! Great vid, I recalled the guys that dug up that old '32 three window that had sat at the base of the HOLLYWOOD sign, on Howard Hughes's property. Car was crumpled, but the buyer pounded and stretched out every panel. I really had visions of you pulling off the same thing...replacing some sheet metal, of course...
Oh, I have no doubt that you will make good use of that 409. Those are some great pics, do you know the whereabouts of any them? That's for sharing them, Carp.
The blue "Satisfaction" car resurfaced about 10 years ago. It was pretty rotten but the new owners re-assembled it an put a big block in it. After they toured it around to a few shows, they sold it, and I believe the car underwent some level of restoration. This is what it looked like in 2008 when owned by the Abbott family.
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