Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

That looks like OCIR a place of my youth... Good Times!!!

 

Sand Canyon Rd….

 

Wildebeest

 

That alloy lump sitting by the frontend is now worth twice what a whole 63 Corvette cost new.

 

And it probably got thrown in the dumpster to make room for the tunnel ram!

 

Fantastic,
jp

 

What its all about there, memories for a lifetime.
jp

 

Perfection!

 

Mazmanian

 

Ralph Ridgeway

 

Paging @Sancho to the front desk.

 

Even with the funky lookin' rear wheel opening's, this has to be the greatest looking '61 Vette ever! JMO

 

I like it better in this picture before it had the funky wheel openings.

 

The wheelwells on Mazmanian's car do not really bother me that much although I wish they had done them differently. The car was pretty successful at West coast meets and was one of the strongest running Vettes in the country in the early 60s. If I was lucky enough to own the car there is no way I would change a thing. Car is certainly bad ass.

 

I agree, it would be crazy to change them now because that is part of the history of the car but I wish that they had done it differently too. I’m my opinion it is one of the best looking ones ever.

 

Mazmanian’s Split Window Vette with Rich Siroonian in the first picture.

 

I apologize if I’ve posted this one before but it’s just too cool.

 

That car must have been modified the day after it was bought in '62. It still has yellow '56 plates on it. They changed to black in '63.

 

That wouldn’t surprise me. I’m sure that they planned to modify it even before they bought it.

 

The initial letter, "Y" is a tip-off that substantiates that observation. The range of possible combinations of the black-on-yellow series began to reach the end of the 6-digit sequence (ZZZ 999) during that era. As I recall, the "black-on-yellow" plates were removed from service and replaced by yellow-on-black plates instead of merely assigning the new format to newly issued applicants.

My '58 Corvette had black-on-yellow plates when I bought it in '61 and they had been in a footlocker in my garage until about ten years ago when my neighbor restored a '57 Ranchero. By this point in time, there were a bewildering array of legitimate plate formats allowed in California so I gave my plates to the neighbor, DMV validated their use on the Ranchero, and they were on it when his widow sold it.

 

@Chuck Norton, I don’t know if this picture has been posted before.

 

Yes, I think that one has made the rounds but thanks for the memory. That picture was taken in early '66 at an AHRA meet when the original Irwindale was a relatively new venue. That was my brother's last ride in the car before he reported to Uncle Sam and traded in his Hurst shifting glove for a Huey door-mounted machine gun. AHRA's rules were very liberal when compared to the NHRA sanction.

Note: The hood scoop was allowed in AHRA Stock Sports Car at that time as was any hydraulic camshaft, any in-line dual quad manifold, etc. I had scored a spare hood at a local swap meet and we liberated the scoop from yet another source. Later, I was glad that we hadn't butchered the original hood because NHRA did not look favorably on that kind of modification when I ran it in Stock Eliminator.

 

Glad you posted that car, EG. We could go to the track and see some really special plastic cars in that era although I think that Mazmanian's car and the Wildebeast left the scene by the time Bill brought his car out. We had plenty of eye candy to go around and, in those days we had to choose between Lions, Irwindale, San Fernando, Fontana, and Pomona every weekend.

I was always partial to the "Bandit" because it was a '57. It doesn't show up in those pictures but the non-candy red paint job was superb even when compared to the candy colors. The detail work on the car was very thorough. I never knew what happened to the '57 when Bill moved on to Hemi Super Stock and, eventually to Pro Stock but his cars always stood out for their visual impact as well as performance.

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