Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

http://usac.racingjunk.com/category/429/Sprint%20Cars/post/1389324/1958-Beck-Chassis-Sprint-Car.html

1958 Beck-Looks to be a dirt champ 100"-Lots of vintage parts, but pricey

 

Racer5c, does A J have any info as to what car it may have been?? ml9.

 

Looking for Pics of Gary Bettenhausen 1969 sprint car geting ready to restore car

 

elffhell, Regarding your picture sent on 8 November, 2008 post # 2722. Even though the picture is hard to veiw the pace car is the key here. It appears to be a GM product. My guess is a Cadilac fron '57 or '58. Also the hats the man are wearing in the fore ground, even though blurry, look to be of that time period. Interesting picture from the race fans view.

 

Corngrower....great score on the sprint car. I'm kind of new to this stuff. How does it work that a seller agrees to hold an auction that ends at a certain date and time but you're able to get him to change the terms of the listing agreement ? Again, great score.

 

Kinda late, but I came across this while deleting some old pics off my albums and recalled your post. Probably the same one you saved, so I can't add any info, but I vaugley recall it was taken at the Coronado vintage meet. Maybe the west coast guys might know more.

 

Excellent Speedwagen! Thanks for the info.

 

If you have (or can obtain) a DVD of To Please A Lady starring Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck, you see this car in action.

 

Good eye Dale, different wheels but sure looks like it otherwise. Ol' Clark Gable is giving it the eye too.

 

Don Lee Special..KK 2000..I think..truly a beautiful car. WRA?

 

Hell yeah! I bought "To please a lady" at the Cincy indoor show and forgot about it till now! I just dug it outta my truck and gonna watch it tonight! Now I have TWO cars teo look for in the show.

Thanks guys.

JD

 

Josh,
Are you saying you have two cars that are in the movie To Please
A Lady?
A couple of people that at one time drove for my Dad [in the Southern Star] drove in that movie. What cars do you have?
I hear the show went well. Glad it did.
PK, waiting to hear from you.
IndyBigJohn, I amtrying to get Dave Gentry [Ralph's son] on here. He knows a lot of people that would love this thread. Do you remember Dave?

 

http://www.hoseheadforums.com/forum~ThreadID~4763.htm
Some great pix from the 50's

 

Great site... thanks for directing us there
PK

 

NOT AT ALL! If you remember WAY back in this thread I posted pics of a Bare metal car at Joe Bairds shop that was supposedly the "To Please A Lady" car.. It was a "Spare" that they built and never used. BUT! I watched the movie lastnight and the #35 car above is the car that Clark Gable drove throughout the Enitire Movie. The only car that even resembled the one at Joe Bairds shop was the car driven by Mauri Rose. That may well have been what The Baird boys were talking about.. they just said "this car was in the movie", I just assumed it was the star.
Anyways, it was cool to see a couple cars that I knew a little bit about in the movie ans well as others. Gable races past the Agajainian 98jr on the mile at one point!

Very cool!!

 

Jim, I remember the name, but I haven't heard anything about him for years. Sorry.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by rustyrail
http://www.hoseheadforums.com/forum~ThreadID~4763.htm
Some great pix from the 50's

Great site... thanks for directing us there
PK






You're welcome. Didn't know if it had been posted before, but too good not to do again.
Some notes: Cool to look in the background and see the cars of the era and the dress of the spectators. Also, the teardrop trailers.
The first picture of Bobby Grimm looks more like it is the start of the race. Note the rope still in midair.
The picture of the pickup and hauler on page 2(Don Hutchinson) was probably from the Topeka race on Sept. 9. Hutchinson was killed a week later in the wreck with AJ(first picture, page 1) In that picture, Hutchinson is also getting a rope start.
Note the condition of the Belleville track. In those days, you ran on whatever condition the track presented...ruts, clumps of mud, dust, etc.
I was in the stands for the Belleville race. Also racing was a young fellow in a wire wheeled sprinter from Albuquerque, Bobby Unser. Would love to have a picture of that.

 

What was the first years, guys started running fuel injection, and was it accepted with open arms or did others deem it cheating?? Also any pics of early set-up out there with dates to back them up??

 

I'm not sure, but the earliest I was taught was in the early 50's. Travers and Coon with the Fuel Injection Special and with Vuky aboard.

 

anybody have pics of any early ones?

 

Not sure if this link has been added, if not here it is if so let me know and I can edit it outta here....BLACK PANTHER Sprint Cars

http://winfield.50megs.com/AAUpload/Panther/BlackPanther.htm


Good pics and great history..

 

​

 

The “Black Panther” with its Dual Right Rear Wheels​

Even though large tires had been developed for use on the right rear of sprint cars, aircraft engineer and car owner “Georgia Bob” Garner came up with this dual right rear wheel setup that was used on the “Black Panther” sprint car until it was legislated out of competition. Not visible in these photos is the conventional single wheel that they put on the left rear. The dual wheels were fitted with tires of different hardness and tread design allowing each tire to flex independently which kept more tire surface on the racetrack than did the larger, single tires used by most of the competition. The dual wheel setup provided great traction, especially off of the corners. In fact, Garner first put dual wheels on both sides but that combination only served to lift the front of the car completely off of the racetrack making it impossible to steer. Other drivers joked that, since driver Charlie Lutkie did not have an ICC license, he should not be allowed to use the dual wheels. It did not take racetrack management long to decide that they just wanted one tire on each corner of the racing cars and the dual wheels were quickly regulated to a corner of the garage.

 

I agree with brian26 that when Travers and Coon teamed up with Stu Hilborn on the Keck cars, that pretty much made the f.i. standard.

 

So did they get resistance from the brass or was it accepted with open arms???

 

Don't think it was any big deal rules wise, I'm pretty sure f.i. probably had been tried before along with supercharging etc. There was even rear engine cars. Kinda run whatcha brung deal post war.

 

Corngrower: Ive posted or rather sent a private message before about the so called:"to please a lady car" or as many folks called it "the Clark Gable car". In the mid 1960s the car was in the possesion of an old racer on the south side of Chicago& when I went to see it probably arond 66 here is that story. The owners name was "Ike" & its to long ago to remember his whole name but he had purchased the car& a lot of casting patterns that had belonged to cassale or conze also. In the summer he would haul the car around the IMCA fair circut as a midway attraction for the races. He also had a current sprint car & a collection of offy engines & parts in his basement . This was a neighborhood that was shall we say was deteriating. I remember reading his obit in the Speed Sport News some years later as he was a part of the old Chicago gang after ww2. Im sure most of his "stuff" was sold off & in those days no one knew that there would be any intrest. By the way the car at that time still had its wire wheels & I remember the Kurtis brass plaque on the dash. Its my understanding that this car is in the Malloy colection on the west coast but that could be wrong. Bill Wallace