barn find "little monster" (new york guy's help) Pic's update

Hell, this thing belongs on Antiques Roadshow!! how can you put a price on history?

 

Mars auto part store in bayshore still in business, still an "old time" store.

 

wcreek, do they still sell speed equipment?
also wondering if there are any of John breens family left in freeport?

 

Those are some great shots! Very cool story.

 

here's some video of the motor running.



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What a HELL of a find man!!!!!

1shot

 

cant wait to see it running with the 4 carbs back on it.
thanks for posting the vid..

 

Awesome ... That's all I can say really

 

I was in ther 2 yrs ago, I don't remember seeing Speed parts, just a store with people who know about cars, no computers, and had a rebuild kit for a Stromberg 97 in stock.
Someone else here must use the place more often than I

 

I'm trying to help my dad get his running. It hasn't been sitting as long as that one,so it might fire up too. He's talking about putting it in his new coupe. His car kinda looks like that one,but not chopped.

 

Damn! I've driven by that trailer park and seen that car sitting in the dirt for I don't know how many years. For quite a while there was a big hand painted sign on it that said "don't stop and don't ask". I think it was on old River Road in Ehrenberg just outside of Blythe...nice find!

 

not to long ago i needed brakes shoes for my 29 hot rod i used 40 juice brakes and wanted brand new oem ones so a friend of mine put me on to MARS AUTO PARTS STORE bayshore long island new york it supposed to be a store from early as the 50's
so i go there ask for the brakes turns out the son of the owner didnt know if they could get these for me so the son says come back tomarrow and speak to his father who i might add is still very much alive very nice guy .so i come back the following day and speak to the old gentleman and ask for the brake shoes he says yes i do have the ones you want but im not shure i can find them he says go with one of my guys to the warehouse down the street .(now at this point im freaking out to my self of course) i here warehouse i think old speed parts im dying to get inside ..so the worker takes me down the strret to a building we walk in and go down stairs into the basement im thinking i hit the god almighty mother load of parts ..so as we start we get to this big ass steel door with like a dumb weight on it cause that shit had to be very heavy to open without it .so the guy barely slides the heavy door open to this dark room tells me to wait outside while he hits the lights ..so im waiting as he stumbles in the dark finally a flash and the lights turn on into a really big room .with long tables and rows of shelfs.let me tell you they have shit down there i dont even think they know they have ..carbs brakes shoes i mean tons of shit ..but let me just tell you everything and i mean everything was in boxs with labels on it for i guess easy finding but all brand new oem parts i was like a kid in a candy store so i grab my brake shoes and my wheels cylinders and say to the guy.do you guys sell alot of these parts still and the worker says yes we are still a very popular store we deal with people from all over they drive from every place too get parts because they know we have it in stock..anyway if i were you i would try to contact them to speak to the old man i bet with some talking to he might have known the previous owner hell they may have been friends ..any of those recipts say wards scrap yard on any of them bye any chance..there is a very old and i mean old ass scrap yard local to me that has had hot rod history just wondering if he had any parts from there at any time ..

 

wow listen to this i was doing a search on the name rod snappers car club it turns out in my very own neighborhood there was members that went to my old high school in the 50's and 60's and they all raced together at westhamptons raceway i love this stuff heres the link hope this helps

on the internet explorer page type in rod snappers car club and a story of a yellow car will come up read this there is name of guys that were in the club im going to try to get more info post more soon

 

jlow, where's the link?

 

the damn link wont work click on internet explore than type in the name
rod snappers car club and than click on the part where is says the yellow car and read the story all the names that are mentioned in the story all own shops and store here now i still live here ..im gonna get some names and address and find out more
contact me by e mail [email protected]

 

heres a story pobably where don garlits came from its a story about a track where they used to race at in the upstate area.

Jay Thompson, an Oswego resident for the past two years, had been making films and commercials for some time. But, a few months ago, he decided to upgrade his talents and learn new techniques so he began looking for the proper school.

Thompson, 55, who moved to the area from Iowa, is a marketing person, but has an undergraduate degree in film from the University of Iowa. He said most of his work today is a blend between computers and film although he has written comedy and h as been on the stage as an extra and in comedy sketch groups.

&#8220;I was considering a possible job with an equipment manufacturer and was looking for a refresher course when I came across FVTV,&#8221; he said.

Fox Valley Television, a public access TV station, has the latest in Sony professional model video cameras and the most-up-to-date computerized editing equipment, so this was just was he was looking for.

FVTV, headed by Mike Rennels, broadcasts from Waubonsee Community College&#8217;s Sugar Grove Campus. It was formed as Channel 17 within the past year by officials in Oswego, North Aurora, Yorkville, Plano and Sandwich to serve Comcast cable subscribers in those communities.

Public access stations allow residents to take classes to learn how to use cameras and editing equipment. The residents, who become producers, can then video tape their own program in the station&#8217;s studio or on location about almost any subject imaginable.

When the producer is done, he or she gives the program to the station for broadcast.

Although Rennels was his primary instructor, Thompson said he leaned a lot on Mike Moore, Rennel&#8217;s assistant, for help.

&#8220;They never questioned what I wanted to do and always had answers for my questions,&#8221; he said.

At the time Thompson took the class, he had no idea he would end up producing a one-hour documentary on the former Oswego Drag Strip featuring many of its drivers of yesteryear.

&#8220;I have a mild interest in cars and have always been interested in history, but that&#8217;s about it,&#8221; he said.

&#8220;I was working on a couple of program ideas when I met my neighbor, Bob Mead, and began admiring his 1965 Corvette Stingray. Bob said, &#8216;If you think that&#8217;s neat, you ought to learn about the Oswego Drag Strip&#8217; and that started it,&#8221; Thompson said.

&#8220;I began seeing enthusiasm and a rosy-glasses syndrome of the strip in Bob&#8217;s memories of it,&#8221; Thompson said of his neighbor.

From that time on, Mead was constantly supplying him with his memories and names of people to talk to.

&#8220;And, he&#8217;s still doing it,&#8221; Thompson said. &#8220;I was giving him a hard time the other day telling him I hadn&#8217;t even finished my interview with him yet.&#8221;

In the beginning, Thompson was not planning to do much with the drag strip information.

&#8220;I took the camera out for a couple days but all I did was a lot of nature shots,&#8221; Thompson recalled. &#8220;When I starting thinking about the drag strip, I figured I&#8217;d probably do 15 minutes or so of shoots, and put the tape in a box somewhere. But then I met Don Hausler and after spending hours talking to him and Bob I began to feel guilty about the idea of not doing anything with this information.&#8221;

Hausler, a Plano native and former Kendall County Board member, raced at the track from 1958 to 1963. Setting him apart from others who had only a past in racing, and made his stories more interesting, was Hausler&#8217;s return to racing in 1998.

&#8220;I figured I&#8217;d do at least a 30 minute program and decided to start talking to others,&#8221; Thompson said. The program ended up as one hour, with loads of material being cut for lack of time.

Thompson dug deep into the background of some people such as his neighbor Mead. He learned Mead became hooked on the sport while selling popcorn at the races for Bill Denney, a local grocer.

&#8220;Bob had to wait five years till he was old enough before he could start racing himself,&#8221; Thompson said. &#8220;After he got out of the Army he built his first car with his friend Jerry Swanson and is now trying to track down that original car.&#8221;



Al&#8217;s Speed Shop a major strip player

One of the most well-known names in area racing circles was the late Al Thompson (no relation), who owned a small nondescript speed shop on South Lincolnway in North Aurora across from what is now the Off Track Betting Parlor.

In 1957 Al Thompson&#8217;s first dragster turned 136.35 mph while traveling the quarter-mile in 10.53 seconds. When he retired in the mid 1960s, he was hitting 195 mph and 7.9 seconds. Jay Thompson said he hopes to talk to Al Thompson&#8217;s family before he does the next chapter.

Thompson said the most difficult part of the project was dealing with the volume of information he had. He estimates he spent about 100 hours at the FVTV computer editing the video, and 20 hours on the Internet doing research.

&#8220;I learned that not everything is on the Internet,&#8221; he said. &#8220;People don&#8217;t understand that it&#8217;s not there unless someone puts it there.&#8221;

Most of his contacts were in person but some were by phone. He interviewed about 20 people in depth, and had what he called significant talks with another 75.

&#8220;I think my list is now up to about 150 people,&#8221; he said, noting that he added another ten that day.

He did between 15 and 20 on-camera interviews and worked about 50 photos into the program. And, he ended up with about 200 individual videos or montages that included personal interviews with drivers, photos of cars and drivers and copies of home movies of races.

He did all the narration himself.

Thompson said he now sees drag racing like many other sports in that it has multiple facets.

&#8220;I could see how it played out in their lives,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A lot of what I was hearing were big stories to the people who told them.&#8221;

He compared sorting out the plethora of information to working with two hay stacks and trying to find needles in each one. While talking to one person, he would receive additional names of people to contact. Mead led him to Dan Smith, who founded the strip with his brother the late Wally Smith.

Thompson said he learned that Dale and Darold Cutsinger of Oswego encouraged Dan and Wally Smith to build the track on their U.S. Route 34 farm, situated between Yorkville and Oswego. The Cutsingers&#8217; father was a tenant farmer who worked the fields for the Smith brothers&#8217; parents, owners of the farm. The Smith brothers inherited the farm after their parents were killed in an automobile accident.

In 1955, the brothers plowed under several acres of soybeans, and the dirt track known as the Oswego Drag Strip was born.

Only a few races were held on the original dirt track which at that time went from north to south.

&#8220;But, but they were enough to encourage the brothers to borrow money to build an asphalt track in 1956 that began to satisfy the needs of racers for several states around,&#8221; Thompson said.



Track, drivers, fans add to the story

Thompson has accumulated a wealth of information about the track, its drivers, and the fans who came from miles around to cheer for their favorites while occupying hot bleachers in the sun like groupies in an auditorium.

He learned about the car clubs that ran the track for the Smith brothers&#8212;names that have not been heard for several decades&#8212;the Aurora Autocrats, Audets, Traction Masters, Torquers, Road Angels, Slam Shifters, Bearing Busters, Rod Snappers, Illinois Valley Idlers and the Slicks of Seneca.

In those days, car club members displayed cast metal plaques on the back bumpers of their cars showing the name of their club. The plaques, which oftentimes included a logo alongside the club name today, are no doubt among many people&#8217;s souvenirs.

The drivers&#8217; names Thompson came across during his four months of work were new to him, because he was not a drag racing fan. But, to the veteran racing aficionado, the list reads like a Who&#8217;s Who of the sport.

Those names and their cars will be familiar with the area residents who use to make the short trip to the strip every Sunday morning during the racing season. They included Rich Warbler, Gabby Bleeker, Norb Loche, George Kingshott, &#8220;T.V. Tommy&#8221; Ivo, &#8220;Lefty&#8221; Mudersbach and Connie Swingle.

Then there are names closely associated with their cars like Jack Ditmars&#8217; &#8220;Lil&#8217; Screamer,&#8221; Joaquin Arnett&#8217;s &#8220;Bean Bandits,&#8221; Ron O&#8217;Donnell and Jim Russell&#8217;s &#8220;Bubble Buster,&#8221; Arvy Mack&#8217;s &#8220;Big Wheel,&#8221; Bob Tinsley&#8217;s TNT, Bob Sullivan&#8217;s &#8220;Pandemonium,&#8221; Jim Woodrow and Jerry Livingston&#8217;s &#8220;Misfit,&#8221; John Krannenberg&#8217;s &#8220;Chizler,&#8221; Chris-Don&#8217;s Chizler I, Bud-John&#8217;s Guzler I, Don-Jerry&#8217;s Guzler II, and the Arfons Brothers&#8217; &#8220;Green Monster.&#8221;

Then there was Chris &#8220;The Greek&#8221; Karamesines&#8217;s &#8220;ChiZler,&#8221; &#8220;Big Daddy&#8221; Don Garlits&#8217; &#8220;Swamp Rat,&#8221; and Arnie &#8220;The Farmer&#8221; Beswick&#8216;s &#8220;The Mystery Tornado.&#8221;

&#8220;Dan Smith explained Sunday events as community affairs,&#8221; Thompson said. &#8220;It was a place, according to Smith, &#8220;where young people, usually members of local auto clubs, helped by collecting entrance fees, inspecting and classifying cars, conducting races and most importantly building cars and racing them, and grooming and tuning them to peak performance up till the last moment,&#8221; he said.

Thompson said one of his most interesting interviews was with Jim Woodrow of Montgomery, who was the starter at the track. Because this was before the days of using flashing lights to start each pair of drivers, someone had to wave a flag.

Woodrow, known as Woody, had his own trademark&#8212;white pants and shoes and a deep blue jacket.

As two cars sat behind the starting line only a few feet apart gunning their engines, Woodrow would stand in front them in the narrow path between lanes holding a white flag in each hand. He would point one flag at the first driver and wait for a nod. Having received it, he would point the second flag at the opposite driver and look for a nod.

When he got the second nod, Woodrow would take his famous leap into the air waving the flags faster and more furiously than a child at a parade. By the time his feet hit the ground the vehicles, with engines roaring through straight pipes, were already past him. All that was left was the acrid odor of burning rubber and exhaust as the pair headed for the finish line 1,320 feet to the north.

Thompson, who interviewed Woodrow in his home, said the former starter during their talk, suddenly, reached down and pulled two white flags from under his chair.

&#8220;It was just great,&#8221; Thompson said, sounding almost like Tony the Tiger from cereal fame. &#8220;I was blown away by this&#8212;him still having the flags there.&#8221;

He also placed Mead, Hausler and Dan Smith among his most interesting interviews, probably because he spent more time with them and got more information from them.



Women involved at the track, as well

Thompson said he learned some women were involved with the track. Most of them were known as trophy girls who tallied points and awarded trophies.

But he did find one woman who was involved in racing with her husband. They were a team and the husband became an official for the National Hot Rod Association, he said. She has not yet consented to an interview, but he&#8217;s hoping he can change her mind.

Another woman added some color to his information by talking about the women wearing shirts and short shorts at the track, he said.

&#8220;Everyone who speaks of the drag strip is amazingly enthusiastic about the time, place and the events,&#8221; Thompson said. &#8220;While a few people talk about the noise, traffic and the smell of burning rubber they still get excited and are even eager to complain about it.&#8221;

He learned that the traffic on Route 34 through Oswego during the racing season appeared heavy to some people back then.

&#8220;But, Evelyn Dwyre, wife of the former Oswego police chief didn&#8217;t think it was any worse than today&#8217;s rush hour traffic,&#8221; &#8220;She said the traffic is terrible all the time now compared to being bad only on race day back then.&#8221;

Thompson said he&#8217;s already starting work on a second video that he will call Chapter 2 and thinks there will be a Chapter 3 as well.

&#8220;Looking back I would have started earlier with a bigger budget and been done by now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But the way it started, everything unfolded so quickly that everything kept going faster and faster.&#8221;

The video has been broadcast only on Channel 17 so far, but Aurora Community Television also plans to broadcast the program in the near future.

ACTV is available as Channel 10 to all Comcast subscribers in Oswego, Yorkville, Boulder Hill, Bristol, Montgomery, Aurora, and North Aurora.

&#8220;Because people came from other states to the track, I plan to see if other public access stations might want to also broadcast the program,&#8221; he said.

Eventually the farmland property was sold to veterinarian neighbor Howard Koch some time in the 1970s. Koch closed the strip in 1979, Thompson said.

After it closed it became the King Nursery. Since then Orchard Road was built east of the property, connecting Routes 34 and 30. The former track property has been annexed to Oswego and zoned for commercial use.

Thompson said he has visited the track, most of which has deteriorated and become grown over as the King Nursery and has included shots of it in the program. In the near future, there will be no track to visit because the land will be covered with commercial businesses.

But perhaps someday one of those businesses will use a small part of their space for an Oswego Drag Strip museum.

The odors and sounds associated with a race track will be missing, but visitors could once again see the cars run&#8212;at least in one of Thompson&#8217;s videos.

But whether this happens or not, the Oswego Drag Strip will always be a vivid memory in the minds of those who raced here in Sunday competition, the spectators, and the area youths who visited the track at night for friendly races with each other.
ck where everyone used to race here in upstate new york..

 

its about 230 a,m right now here in ny im looking at old videos when i get a reply to a e mail i sent out to lead on the little monster . so the reply says to me yes i do remember the car it was one mean beast of a machine ...the sounds it made were fantastic ..than he gave me a number to a guy local to the island who is a pretty famous stock car driver who he says will give me all the rest of the info im looking for ..oh my god ..i cant believe im putting this thing together...cross your fingers ill get back with more info

 

Awesome car, The best find in a long time I have seen Just so cool it all orignal and runs.

 

How awesome is that! Talk about winning a "barn find lotto"!

very cool.

 

Yes its the history with these cars that make them special.

 

jlow your the shit! let me know the second you get that info..
thanks so much! your help is very much appreciated

 

wow ok .here is some info i got from a mr marty himes of bayshore new york
there was 11 memebers of the rod snappers.my spelling sucks so bare with me.
arthur lewis.president
charles gahn vice president
elaine volenti treasure
paul eberst
frank merklin
jhonny breen
kiniky
george tibball
there is more names but couldnt get em all
marty is calling a couple of the guys who are still alive to get me more info and will call me back a.s.a.p..
marty said he didnt know his hot rod but he knew johnnys 46 ford convertable and went on to tell me how the car was customized with new white interior and glossy black paint and white top and how johnnys girl at the time took it for a spin and crashed into a johnny pump(fire hydrant)
i told him the story how the car was found and he was so happy ..and than i had to tell him john passed he was a lil upset not keeping in touch with him for so many years ..he said he can even bring me to his house where the car must have been built ..he also said frank merklin still has hot rods and still has his club plaque on it and still drives it ill get pictures and info as soon as possible...

 

jlow,your the man!!!!!!!!!!!!! George emailed me said he doesn't remember car.

Hi Jim: I was in the Rod Snappers for a few years but for whatever reason never knew about this car. Good luck.

George



George Tibball
Brevard Craftsmen, LLC
Restoration and Renovations
321.536.1233

 

"frank merklin"? Could he have meant Jack Merkel? Look at the results poster bottom left.
Jack Merkel lives Out east (Shelter Island), and still has a coupe.

 

wrceek, it's hard to tell but there's a J Merrel and f Murphy? but it maybe misspelled on poster.

 

According to my 77 yr old friend, ( the red haired guy in the picture) This was Jack Merkel's coupe, around 1957.
(The scoop on the side is to bring in fresh air because the nitro fumes were brutal.)

 

Who is J Merril?

 

jlow, just got off the phone with Marty..... what a nice guy!
he went to school with John.... said he even bought his first race car from john...
looks like your hard work has paid off thanks so much.
I emailed him the link to the hamb thread.... he cant wait to see it.
he knows nothing about computer's so he is waiting for his grandson
to get home. looks like the dots are finally getting connected.

 

Thanks for posting that. Sounds awesome!

 

I'm still speechless over this find.