Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

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Hey Enloe! Some guy is trying to copy you (wheels). LOL

 

Thanks chevy57dude and 1934coupe!

 

Mumbles I can empathize with you about building a "corner carver". I grew up drag racing but drive everyday like a road racer, I think it more practical to make the trip in the shortest amount of time with a few turns thrown in, then going straight up the block once or twice. How close are you to completion?

Pat

 

Mumbles,
It looks great! I’m excited to see you get it on the road! I get what you are saying about making it corner. Although I don’t think my 61 will ever be a “corner carver” I’m plan to make it as much fun as I can for a street car without modernizing it too much.


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Nice tail lights!
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Woah, these rear wheel well openings are uglier than those on the Mazmanian car. Don't get me wrong I love the Big john's '61. Just not a big fan of the rear wheel openings. John's were done much better than these. I have to wonder if this is the hasty result of implementing a jig saw to make a modification to allow the installation of a tire and wheel combination.

 

Looks like a butcher job if you ask me.....

 

I have a straight line car so I figure I should have one that can corner also.
I need to rewire the whole car, plumb the whole car (fuel, coolant, and auto trans fluid cooling), change out the steering column, replace the gutted interior including welding in a new cross bar that was cut out by a previous owner and add some sway bars. I have all the parts now. I just need time. I would love to have it drivable by this summer.

 

Function over form

 

The 62 with the cut wheelwells makes me wonder if he also changed to a different rear differential setup-maybe an Olds/Pontiac rear. The rear wheels have a pretty deep dish and offset it appears. The rear wheels do not appear to be sticking out as wide as they would if the stock housing was used from the vantage point of my computer at least. The dog legs are the biggest deal as the big tires hit there first. On my next project I will try and modify the dog leg so it looks correct but gives more room for the taller tire. He may have been in a hurry to give his setup a try and did not consider the later potential of restoration. Mazmanian switched to a pretty tall rear rear tire on 16" wheels so he needed more room for sure. Over time I have gotten used to his wheelwells although I wish he had taken a bit more car with a car that has stood the test of time.

The 62 above is still a cool car IMO and he is running a roll bar so he was somewhat serious on setup (I am not so sure he had to run that bar in CMSP-but smart to do so IMO). I like his scoop so it is a strong possibility he changed from the standard intake. Wonder how he did? I am amazed at how well they ran back then with the so-so tires and lack of track prep.

 

Jim I think you may have hit on the story behind the questionable workmanship behind the rear wheel opening cuts on the car above.

I too have come to be more accepting of the treatment on the Mazmanian car.

 

I've pondered that point as well. There's something special about the wheelbase and the position of the engine relative to the longitudinal mid-point of the chassis that contributes to successfully hooking a drag car. I've owned and/or driven a range of Chevy drag cars in Stock Eliminator that were limited in terms of tire width including Impalas, Chevelles, Novas, Corvettes, and Camaros. The two configurations that were the most efficient were the Corvette with a 102" wheelbase and the 4th generation Camaro/Firebird "F-body" with a 101" wheelbase. By comparison, the 1st generation F-body was considerably more prone to wheel spin that either of the two shorter models. My '66 Nova wasn't bad but during the years that I ran it, we were allowed a wider, treaded slick and the 283 under 1975-76 rules didn't challenge the traction gods to any great extent.

 

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The light blue 61 above was a pretty successful Vette drag car. The VIN number is only two away from Mazmanian's car (Maz is 093 and this car is 095) and in terms of statistics it may be more successful in terms of wins than the Mazmanian car. The car was purchased in the fall of 1960 with the 315 fuelie by Alan Lockwood and he had it prepped and took it to the track when is was barely broken in on October 30 1960 at Pomona and took class with an impressive 12.98 107.78 run in AA/SP. The car was raced pretty extensively at a number of SoCal tracks winning many events and was purchased in late 61 by Brendan Grassman. Brendan took the car to Don Nicholson and Earl Wade and they tuned the car naming the car the Grassman Nicholson Wade 61 and that is the lettering you can see on the side. Grassman had Hugh "Putzel" Osterman (who drove for years after that a number of cars including one night in Pure Hell and also drove for Dick LaHaie) handle the driving chores. Due to the new 327 for the 62 Vette they were classed in B/SP and won class at the 62 Winternationals. The Lenke 62 fuelie Corvette (also tuned by Nicholson and Wade with Earl Wade driving) ended up winning not only class (A/SP)at the 62 Winternats but also became the only stock solid axle Corvette to win street eliminator- a pretty big feat since this was prior to handicaps-he won heads up against a C/GS supercharged Willys of Pittman and Edwards).

The funny thing about this Grassman Nicholson car is the new owner still calls me occasionally and funny he even called me last night. He had called me a year or so ago since he wanted to buy a solid axle drag car (he also owns Pizza Man) and asked if I knew of any early Vettes he could use as a comp since he was interested in another old drag car and wanted to use the comp in his negotiations. I put him in touch with Bert Brown who owned this great 61 and not long after called me and told me he ended up buying it and still thanks me repeatedly to this day. He will be a great caretaker for the car and it is on loan to a museum right now where people can appreciate it. The surprising thing about the car is Bert owned it for years and drove the wheels off of it before deciding to restore it. He decided to talk to Earl Wade and got in touch with Brendan Grassman and asked what ever became of the original engine. Brendan said he had it sitting in his garage so now the car retains it's original engine, which is quite rare for a race car that raced numerous times.

Here is a picture of it at the 62 Winternats in eliminations going up against Hayden Proffitt in Mickey Thompson's A/FX 421 cubic inch (some say it was larger than 421) in eliminations with Osterman leading to the 1000ft mark and losing a close one at the stripe. Notice the flag start which was prior to the Christmas tree.

 

Summers over and I got back in the garage to work on the 59' again. Took her for her shakedown run after probably 30-40 yrs of sitting collecting dust. I did a frame off restoration just before the weather got hot. I restored the chassis but will leave the paint for another time. Running a 59' 283 and 4 spd. with an edelbrock carb but I have the 2-4 set up I may put on at some point. View attachment 4923422

 

Dutre Bros from bay area Calif. very sucessful team