Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

This boat reminds me of "Super Car"! I like it!

 

Ferrari pictures and a novel about falling in love with Ferraris. Has this thread been hijacked? Or just gone off the tacks?

 

NO, it hasn't. It's ALL good.

 

I don't think it has been hijacked-especially when we can hear old stories from the early days. The boat is well cool in its own right and I am not sure we are going to go heavily into boats. No big deal. I appreciate the stories as this thread can benefit from new life breathed into it. If it is is the Ferrari talk, Corvettes did not exist in a vacuum but lived and raced alongside the Ferrais in that era (be it 3 liters versus 5 liter+) but they still ran together. All of the stories of these old warriors are cool and add to the thread, I believe. I too became hooked on Ferraris when I was around 8 years old and never forgot the time I heard one up close at my grandfather's- a Berlinetta although not sure of the model year.

I never forgot it but life went on and when I was 12 in 1962, a neighbor bought a red 1962 fuelie that had a great sound (I later learned it had an off road exhaust). I was walking home from school and he drove by and I knew at that moment that I would own a 62 Vette. To this day I have never owned a fuelie but my red avatar car has a sound that still gets to me every time I start it (BBC with a decent cam and headers). I still think occasionally of both that old Ferrari and the 62 Vette-they both got me hooked. I ran into my neighbor at a car show in the mid 80s and he told me he still owned the red 62 fuelie.

Cool 270 above as well. They had some real success on the drag strip, especially in the mid to late 60s.

 

"Joe Frietas," that explains the presence of Jack Bayer's name on the fender. Had never caught the road-racing connection until I saw that picture. Check post #157490 for additional "Bayer/Frietas" endeavors.

 

Check to snow tires out....

 

Raceway Park, Englishtown NJ. Mid 70's I'm guessing.

 

I wonder if the picture of the two blue solid axle cars that LB posted is Roger Sinistri's gas station in Pennsylvania and if one of the blue cars is the Troutman car in an earlier stage.

Also the copper color 56 at speed is Steve Norton's Tunnel Rat at the Meltdown a couple of years ago. The tires he runs are Firestone Pie Crust cheater slicks.

Here is a pic of the two of us in the staging lanes at the same meet. Cool looking and running big block 56.

 

Tom McMullen and Rose Genuso with the roadster and Vette. Rose drove both with some measure of success. If anyone has a nice photo of Rose's Wild Rose Corvette, it would be appreciated. I have a couple of poor black and white photos out of old magazines but looking for something better.

 

1962 Chevrolet Fuelie 327 Corvette road test

 

LB the coolest part of that picture above is the results of the test. This is from the January 1962 issue of Hot Rod who were testing the new "Big Vette", since it had 44 more cubes than the 283. In the tests they turned low 14s but Mickey Thompson happened be testing another car there on that day so they asked him to give the car a try and he turned a 13.89 at 105.14. This was a pretty amazing time and speed for the era IMO.

I have several lists of the top 50 muscle car ETs of the 60s and this Corvette makes the lists that I have. On one list there are 48 big blocks that make the list and two small blocks, I think one had a 289 Cobra at close to number 50 but this Vette was like number 37. Another list I have has a 351 Mustang that was a bit quicker on a list towards the end of the 60s but maybe a total of three small blocks on that list.

With all of the quick cars from the Big 3, I find it pretty cool that this car could hold its own with some of the mid to late 60 muscle cars.

 

Yes that is where it came from. The best part was they were afraid of busting it and granny shifted it. Mickey jumped in and after practicing a bit power-shifted it through the gears showing just how much better power-shifting was.

 

LB, I have read their version but I am not sure I buy into it. We all know that the magazines test drivers were of questionable talent (not all of course but of course who did the driving was a crap shoot). Putting a car through its paces in the quarter mile takes a bit of talent and the test drivers did not have it in spades and they would not admit it. Obviously we all know what Mickey thought of standing on it and pushing it to the limit. A pro versus a mere mortal IMO.

You dragged race back in the day and can you imagine your times if you decided to granny shift? Your times would more than likely fall off more that a few tenths-more like a full second.

Back in those days before they sprayed the track you could put down pretty much all you wanted in power shifting. With the tires being a big limiting factor and having all new parts those test drivers were more than likely not going to break anything. Today on a sticky track, maybe.

 

Not the best but it’s hard to find pictures of this one.

 

Put a coat of wax on mine last night. I am going to take my wife out in it Saturday night to her company Christmas party.

 

Jason, I have that picture and it is a cool picture but have always hoped to run across a nice full side shot. Another picture I would like to find is Judy Lilly's 61 that did not come out of a Peterson Publishing Magazine. Thanks though.

 

Jim, and others not to rain on the parade but I am wondering how true either times were. In '67 I followed as MANY others did the articles in Hot Rod about the first SS 350 Camaro. For about 6 months months they ran the car, first in factory stock trim then starting to modify it. They finally put a 396 in it, had slicks, headers, etc. I, like many others fell for Camaros and have had several over the years. For the 50th anniversary of Hot Rod they admitted it was all a scam. ALL the times were trimmed, the 396 was actually a 427, etc. Then Car and Driver told the real story of the two GTO's from 1964, Pontiac vs Ferrari, how they cheated the Ferrari to make the Pontiac look good for the dumb Americans. I have never believed any magazine since when it came to " tests". Mickey was a hero at the time, as he should have been. Who's to say they didn't trim his time to prove he was faster.

 

Doug you may have a point but I have a file on the road tests of the solid axle cars and they were pretty much in the low 15 second range for the most part. This particular Hot Rod test was the best to come and actually Motor Trend ran a test with another similar car (except it had a 3.70 gearset as opposed to Hot Rod having a 4.11) and they ran a 14.9.

One of my pet peeves are the ETs I hear from guys today when they are telling tales of their cars back in the day. Memories fade and ETs seem to grow over time. Back in the day I heard so many guys tell me how quick they were but when push came to shove and they had to prove it, excuses were the order of the day.

I remember friends that raced these cars (283 and 327) Vettes back in the 60s and I know what they ran. Stock they would run similar times but if you built them to race and put a 4.88 or 5.13 gear they would run in the 12s on occasion (and depending on who built and tuned the car). I believe a 13.89 is not out of the question with Mickey running it to the sweet spot and power shifting it. I also am not sure Mickey would have been proud of being a part of a scam-he simply did not need any more kudos than he received normally.

I actually put more faith in the magazine tests than I put in arm chair car show addicts today telling tales of their muscle cars in the 60s. In the same top 50 tests where this Vette placed 37th or whatever a 426 Hemi Roadrunner I believe ran like 13.26. Try and get some Mopar guys to believe that today-they would have you believe they ran a full second faster when in a street tune I really doubt it.

On the other hand I don't believe everything I read in these magazines but reasonable times I tend not to question too strenuously.

 

I agree with you Jim. There was also a lot more integrity back then, not as much factory money flowing to curve things.

 

Looks great!!!!


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This is supposed to be Judy Lilly but unfortunately it’s not a very good shot. I believe that your best bet would be from Vintage Magazines.

 

Jason, the problem with using photos out of magazines is that they are copyright protected. I contacted Petersen Publishing and long story short it does not look like I will be able to use their photos. If there were photos out there from private collections it may be a better avenue IMO.

Judy Lilly is a good story that should be written. A friend of mine contacted her a number of years ago on a Mopar article and he gave me her contact info but she has not responded. I may rewrite the portion I wrote on her and send it to her and hopefully she will respond. If not then I have to move on, without a photo. Not ideal but not the end of the world either. One nice photo not associated with a magazine would be nice.

 

Jim,

If the photos are from a Magazine that has been out of business or no longer published and is from the 1960s how does that work as far as copyright laws?

 

Jason, the photos are often transferred as part of the business dealings with the sale of the magazine or rights. For instance, the Petersen pictures are now owned by TEN, The Enthusiast Network and apparently they have decided to use the pictures exclusively (or so I was told by someone at Petersen). That being said one may be able to pay for the right to use a particular photograph in let's say a book with credit given of course, but the costs of the photographs can get a bit pricey. I have bought some photos but they are reasonable while I have been told I would have to spend a few hundred at the very least with some of the magazine photos. Not sure how true this is, but I am still plugging away on the text and the 70s is a challenge. It is one thing if you have a book that is going to make the best seller list but many books do not. In fact I have had people in the Corvette racing community or however you want to refer to Corvette road racing enthusiasts and they told me that a book on drag racing is basically a fool's errand as there are tons of Corvette racing books that had terrible sales-probably true. Solid axle road racers were quite successful but then again I think many solid axle drag racers were also.

No matter what, I am writing a book not to make money but rather to give due credit to those Corvette drag racers that are being forgotten to an extent. But of course it would be nice to be reimbursed and make a few dollars for the effort. That being said I would be a fool to sink a fortune in it as well.