History Old Time Philadelphia area Hot Rods + drags

Though I don't have any pictures, I do have a story. I had the opportunity to hang out with the Hose Bros. and their dragster. Yes they were from Orland which was only a couple of miles from North Hills where I lived. Down the street from my house was the intersection of North Hills ave. and Mt. Carmel ave. There were three gas stations on the corners, Texaco, Gulf and Sinclair, I hung around and worked in all three. The Hose brothers were friends of the owner of the Sinclair, Mr. Klenk. One day as I approach Klenk's Sinclair I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a chevy powered dragster with 6 carbs and a vertex mag getting worked on in the parking lot. Of course I was stuck to that project like glue and spent hours and hours with the Hose brothers working on the dragster. I was a little kid so I never got the chance to go to the drags with them but it was real cool to me just to hang out with them.
At that time in my childhood I would hitch hike some Saturday nights to Hatfield to watch the modifieds run. I would never miss a Sunday at Hatfield drags except for an occasional trip to Langhorne drags. However the Hose brothers were strictly 1/4 mile guys so they raced at Lancaster Pa. so I never got to see them run. I would love to talk to some of these guys today because they influenced me to live a life of drag racing. Over the years I've run many drag classes including Top Fuel and Funny Car. I am still running them in the present day. Guys like the Hose bros. and Tony Tierno's My Sin started it all for me.

 

This is a really interesting thread for me because I remember a lot of the cars that are pictured. I used to go to the races at Hatfield, Langhorne, Atco and Vargo all in the Philly area.

 

Here is an old shot taken in front of my race car garage on Mt. Carmel avenue near the Glenside train station. My Model A Hot Rod in the foreground was then powered by a 292 Ford Y block with 3 carburetors and an Isky cam. The name of the car is "The Fugitive" it was turquoise color. It has a 1950 Merc dash, 1940 Ford steering column and steering wheel. That car raced at Hatfield in this trim.
The Crosley in the background was built by Jack Meyers from Jenkintown. Jack was a member of the SLEEPERS in Abington, Pa. This Crosley was run as a club car, it was blue and had a Chrysler engine. When I bought the Crosley it was an empty body. I converted it to Nailhead Buick power with 6 carbs and painted it yellow. I named it "Bassackwards" as the lettering on the sides "owner driven by the car" " Buick powered by Crosley" was all ass backwards . I raced the Crosley at Atco, Hatfield and Vargo.
The Model A coupe has gone through many changes over the years. For about 5 years I turned it into a dedicated race car. I ran NHRA D/Altered and last raced the Fugitive at the 1971 Summernationals where we semi finaled in D/A class. Now the "Fugitive" is in the care of my sons, Kenny and Paul. Kenny is responsible for restoring the car back to it's street Hot Rod status today as a surviver. You can go to Kennys threads here on the journal at gbones32coupe. He posted a lot of pictures of that rebuild.

 

This is the Fugitive as it is today.

 

GREAT thread goldy!! thanks

 

Great thread! I can remember running at Front Street, 11th street, JFK, "little Delaware", and the Automall "across the bridge" until the sun came up over South street in a diner...those were my Friday and Saturday nights..Sunday was spent working on the car in preperation for the next weekend. But that was closer to the end of street racing in Philly, at least for me. Although I was into photography back then, I never took pictures, but the memories will last forever. Good times. I still live right outside of Philly and i still ride past the usual haunts. I even did a paper in high school about racing front street...

Spike

 

I have been looking for information on my Uncle Eddie Woodlan, who was an early racer around Philly.

My introduction to drag racing was when I walked in to my grandmothers house on Frankford Ave across from St Bart's Church and my Uncle Ed and another guy were watching an Olds Rocket 88 race -8mm film?-. This must have been late 50's or early 60's. He and my Uncle Lou both sold the Sunday paper at St. Bart's for years. Ed delivered mail for the Post Office and Lou ran maybe the first "roach coach" type sandwich deliver business in the area with a '55-57 Chevy Panel truck. I also learned the connection between girls and hot rods reading (ok, looking at) the stacks of magazines he had.

I later found out he raced a '55 ("we towed that thing all over the place") and would like to see a picture of that car. He talked about getting free parts, like Keystone Wheels, because the supplier wanted to get advertising.

Any info on this early drag racer from Philly would be appreciated.

Goldy, Thanks for posting!

 

Someone should write a book about racing in Philadelphia, it must have been quite a scene in the 1920's with all the old MILLER Indy cars, and speed shops in the area. Bob

 

a friend of mine used to be in the Modifiers in the earley 60's. had a T with an olds before he went to Nam, put a flathead in after that. He has some wild stories about them. We are living in sc

 

Am a member of the modifiers we have a lot of old members that belonged back in the 50 60 70 come back into club .A couple live in Florida & South Carolina.We have a picnic thats also a reuion every year.In the Rodders Journal book Scrapbook was a great story on the club .

 

Alanwoodieman: If maybe you have the story a little backwards Your friend might have been Russel Sift, a carpenter by trade. Russel bought a 27 T roadster from Augie Calajo who was one of the Satans. When Russel bought the car it had a flathead in it then he pulled the olds out of his 53 ford and dropped in into the T. At first he had a Lathem blower on it then I set up and switched him over to a 671 blower. The car was a green 27 T on a 32 frame. Goldy

 

Goldy, I talked with my friend, John Foster, and he still has the "T" that he had in the 60's and the 70's. He took the car to the 50 year reunion and said he had a ball, trying to get him on the site he knows names, cars, etc,

 

Bob,

I've shared this before, but Dad graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1951. He told me time and again about an upperclassman that drove a green Duesenberg race car to school.

 

This Philly pic was posted on the Vintage Shots from Days Gone By thread.



Gerry Christiansen bought it from the original owner. Gerry had the top chopped at Dave Simard's.

 

If i can remember this car was bought out of Glenside pa by Glenn Klurissi in late 80s when He was a member of Phila Modifiers.Rodders Journal did a article on it after Glenn sold it.I think it said Deuces Wild on deck lid.It was chopped later on.

 

I about fell in love with that 3W when it was in the Journal. Super cool piece...it just reeks style!

 

My two boys attend LMHS now. I'm going to ask around there and dig through old archive photos from back in '51 to see if I can find pics of this Duesenberg.

 

What a shame to chop an original east coast hot rod that made it that long un-molested. Personally, I would have turned down the job, but then again, someone less talented may have got the job. But still, its a damn shame. but thats just my opinion.. I know the guy just wanted a chopped deuce, but there are much better ways to go about it. Sinful. I mean, if someone liked blondes and re-painted the Mona lisa, that would be OK, I guess..

Spike

 

Nick,

I graduated from LM in '86- worked with Tom Elliott and the band program from 89-97.

How do your boys like the new building? I haven't been in it yet, but have heard it's fantastic!!!

Ted Goldsborough (one of my old English teachers) is the local historian- he might have info/pics. I'll talk to Dad and try to get the guy's name who had the Duesenberg.

 

Mac,

My boys love the new buildings. The other evening I was dropping them off to watch a basketball game, along with a carload of their buddies, and I heard one of them say "damn, we have a good looking school".

My wife graduated from LM in '75 and remembers Ted and his historian expertise. She first met him when she was still at Bala M.S. when he was there. She says I met him at a reunion we went to but I'm sorry I don't recall that.

I asked my older son, the senior, if he knows of any school archives I could access but so far I don't have leads. I'm going to call a couple teachers to ask about it.

 

I like the 32 three window chopped, nice car !!!

 

I'm with you on that one Spike. I would've left it alone, even though I like it better chopped. However, Mona Lisa as a blonde doesn't make her any prettier. woof

 

This is the 48 Ford coupe that I drove to Abington High School in 1961. I put in the nailhead Buick engine with 3 carburetors and an export cam. I would cruise Old York Road and the Hot Shop in Abington. I would run B/Gas at the Hatfield drag strip. The following year I put the Buick into my first dragster build.

 

I'm a graduate of Lower Merion in '55. Lived in Gladwyne, and our 'hotrod' social axis was oriented around Rte 30, Lancaster Pike, from City Line out to Paoli or Exton.

One of the prominent local speed shops was Alec Burgess who had a garage in Wayne. One of the first around there to do radical flatheads.

Most of my memories of that period revolve around high school life, but I was fortunate enough to have a brilliant, talented buddy who taught me so much about cars, his name is Johnny Berry from Newtown Square.

In high school I had a series of junkers, projects, and some pretty nice cars.

Cars could be bought for $25-75 which would actually run, though some were crippled in one way or another - one might have a bad transmission, or very sketchy brakes, another had a bad starter and I drove it by jump starting it for about a month.

I was at LMHS in '51 and I don't recall a student driving a Duesenberg to school. I worked in a gas station after school and we DID have a man who drove a Duesenberg - he was the chauffeur and when the owner died he willed the chauffeur the car. It was a black 4 Door (or maybe a limo).

Here are some photos from that time period. Me as a bad ass in my '37 Studebaker President which I actually paid $40 for and drove for a couple of months. Also my '40 Coupe and '49 Coupe. You can see the style at that time was to sit high in the seat and hunch over.

Those were good days, but enough reminiscing. I still love old Fords and hang out at the Fordbarn. I'm including a picture of our current love, a '36 Phaeton.

 

That is some pretty cool stuff you posted there Henry, the real deal back then, that flatty in the forty looks pretty nice!

 

Ed Jepsen - had a shop behind Ed's Diner in Doylestown. Put blown Oldsmobiles in a '32 Vicky, Henry J, Willys Jeepster as well as the dragster.

Was truly an interesting guy.

 

Dave, awesome post! I really enjoyed reading the newspaper clips about people that I raced with back then.
Ed Jepson would race his Blown Olds powered 32 Sedan at Hatfield around 1959. I met Ed at the drags and I went to Ed's Garage in Doylestown. I bought a set of Thomas Magnesium rocker arms for an Olds engine that I was building at the time.
I remember that diner serving coffee with those tiny little bottles of cream. Some things were just better back then!!
A friend of mine named Charlie Gilmore hung around Jepson's Garage. Charlie and I ran a drag racing organization called Eastern States Timing Association. Charlie raced a lot of hot rod cars and dragsters. One of the cars that Jepson helped him with was an Olds powered model A Fuel Roadster. Charlie lived in Lahaska and was the postmaster there. He passed on a little more than a year ago, leaving behind his wife Maggie. I just figured that if you know ED Jepson then maybe you probably know Charlie.
Here is a picture of Charlie Gilmore.


Charlie on the right, sold the spare Hemi from his Jr. Thompson AA/gas car. He was delivering it in Arizona. That was 3 mos. before we lost him.

 

Goldy -

Remember the black S/S '63 Plymouth Charlie had? Bought it from a guy nicknamed 'Mooner' or 'Moonman'. Charlie lost his driver's license and the Plymouth was at Jep's shop ansd he asked me to drive to his house out near Lahaska for him - he said I was the only guy he could trust not to 'stand on it' on the way to his place.

I first heard of Charlie when I was in high school - I believe he had a '38 Chev Coupe with an Olds in it which surprised the heck out of one of my friends that thought his father's '58 Chev was fast......if I remember correctly one of the features of that Coupe was that the generator stuck out through a hole in side of the hood.

I was the first person to be behind the wheel of Jep's dragster when the engine was turning. Note I said turning and not running - Jep, Smitty and myself trailered the dragster to Vargo's during a weekday and pushed it up and down the strip a couple of times with me in the drivers seat and Jep hanging off the roll cage to build up oil pressure and check the blower belts for tracking and alignment. I'm not sure we had Vargo's blessing for that little adventure...............

Later on, within a week or two, the 3 of us pushed the rail out onto West Street in Doylestown and fired it up on a Friday evening.

Small world !!! More stories later

 

Thanks a lot, guys. These are some great stories about local hot rod people and history.

 

Henry,

What station did you work at? My best friend in school was John Purring- spent many nights in his dad's station in Narberth.

The Duesenberg belonged to an upperclassman when Dad was at LM, so chances are that it was showing up in '48-'49.

Dad was good friends with Steve Powell, who did all of his carb tuning, Fred Layfield, Russ Lynn, etc. He worked at Kirsch Chevrolet, and also spent a good bit of time with Gene Miller.