Rochester NY historical pic and question

You are correct that it is at the museum in Detroit, I checked with a family member and they confirmed it....

 

Can anyone tell me what happen to a guy named Zeilinski and his Roadster?

I remembered the roadster that Zeilinski (sp) drove and the name on it was ExCaliber!

 

If it's the same car that I'm thinking of, the big wagon was sold new by the now defunct Taylor Chevrolet, in Rochester. Again, if it's the same car, it had a drag racing history early in it's life, then wound up sitting back in Taylor's showroom for a while, just before the dealership closed in the mid-late 70s.

For what it's worth, I thought that I had heard that Elmer Taylor, the dealership's owner, was originally from the Detroit area.

 

Yes, it certainly was unfortunate that Steve went down the "wrong path" in life. My father's employer transferred him around a couple of times when I was fairly young, and when we moved to Rochester, we became neighbors of the LeFrois family. I met Steve around '60-'61, and although I sort of stayed away later on, knew him until he moved to Clifton Springs.

Yes, that '37 Ford was quite a piece of handiwork. I drove it once, in the late 60s, when it had minimal suspension modifications, and still was a stick shift car. It was quick, to say the least. Sadly, the car wound up as part of an IRS auction in the early-mid '80s, and a friend of someone I knew, wound up as the owner for a few years. I guess he tired of it, and it wound up on the used car lot....

 

Hey guys, I already talked to Mike(BigCheif) about this, but a man named Frank Malvaso is desparetly looking for Ross the Boss's Anglia pickup truck. He's offering quite a reward for information about, and the current location of the truck. If anybody knows about it please let me know, I'll pass it on, if there is any reward, it will goto Ryan or one of the folks in need lately. Thanks Chad

 

Last night I e-mailed Frank and asked why it is so important he finds the truck, he replied to me this morning, saying the truck was stolen from Ross when he was ill before he passed away. So this is a search for a stolen vehicle verses a where is it now. Again a 48 Anglia Pickup.

 

Hi Ron just some early histor..y on the rambler. It was originally built by Pete Nap whose family owned Nap Rambler in webster. My cousin was good friends with Pete. Pete built the car from a brand new car. My cousin used to take me to spencer and ride in the tow car. What an exciting time that was. The car was originally black with amber plexiglass windows.

 

Cool to see this Rochester thread. I worked at Wards Natural Science in the late 90s/early 2000s and spent a lot of time in Rochester.

With the long/cold winters up there, I never equated the place with a vibrant hotrod community, but this thread proves otherwise.

 

Dear all,

I found this forum when googling Nagle Ford, Rochester/ NY. Maybe someone of you remembers that Nagle Ford sponsored a 1966 Ford Mustang that participated in the first Trans-American Sedan Race ever, the 1966 4 Hours of Sebring and a second time in the V.I.R.400 at Virginia International Raceway. The driver was Ed Diamond from New York, crewchief was Brian Fallon from Rochester. The suspension was setup by Maynard Troyer who worked with Nagle Ford in 1966. As you might know he drove NASCAR in 1971-1973.

Maybe someone has a photo of the car or of Nagle Ford. I am collecting all I can get because I built a replica of Ed Diamond's 1966 Trans-Am Mustang #5 with the help of Ed and Brian. #5 ist most probably the least photographed car in race history. I only have these 2 pictures.





And this is my car. It is used for local historic hill climb races and other historic race events.





Thank you in advance & cheers from Switzerland
Tim

 

Found this picture of Fred Walker Ford in a 1979 Rochester telephone book, I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it does help to remember what the dealership looked like...

 

Hi guys: I started a Facebook group on the history of Empire over the years, complete with pictures. I have also seen similar FB groups for Niagara and Lancaster. If you're also a FB member,and wish to be a member of the Empire group, ask to be my friend first up there. Search for my name (Michael Pazdyk)--once you're my so-called friend, I can add you to the Empire history group! I would also ask any of you who might have old pictures to add to the group to email the to me: [email protected] I would be happy to include them on the site...For those of you who don't know me(or I don't know you), when you send the request, say you saw it on H.A.M.B. Remember you have to search for my name, ask for to "be my friend", then I can add you to the Empire group. I have kept the group "private" so I can control stuff there!

Thanks!

Mike Paz
Announcer since 1987for Motorcity Raceway, NYIRP and Empire Dragway (all names of the facility) until a stroke took me down in 2009. But I'm still here...

 

I'm wondering if anyone has contact info to the owner of the Rambler American Gasser in this thread. I'm wondering if it might be up for sale. If anyone can help me please message me please comment here or at [email protected] Thanks.....Frank

 

Well!, due to the generosity and kind consideration a very nice person I now have an incredible image of the place where it all started for me. This picture is Archer Ford circa 1940. It was sent to me by the grandson of the founder Steve Archer. What a neat picture with all sorts of eye candy out front. This dealership was located at 350 Monroe Ave in Rochester New York. My father started here in 1962 and became parts manager a few years later. Sometime in the 1960's it was sold and then called Fred Walker Ford. I did 25 years in the Ford parts business myself and started here too at the ripe old age of 14 cleaning bins and emptying trash etc. I learned alot here and I miss the gang that worked there very much. It was a big family. Hope you enjoy the pic as much as I have.

 

Wow guys, I just ran across this thread and had a great time reading through the entire thing. What great memories from the cars that ran at Empire. I spent almost every Saturday night there in the 70's. It was good to see pics of the CMF cars, I had forgotten about them. I remember the big rivalry of the mid 70's was between Jimmie Oddy's Fiat and Ron Rudnick's car, I think (old age setting in) it was a 50's Corvette. Does anyone have pictures or know about Ron's car? Thanks.

 

A big thanks to Henry Floored and the rest of you for all the RaChaCha memories!

 

Not to go too far off topic (let me know if I am), but does anyone remember and/or know anything about a couple of Rochester car clubs named the "Gents" & the other was the "Piston Pushers" ? They would have been active in the early-50's. I got into cars in the early-60's, but never heard of them. I found reference to them in a couple of my little books.

 

Another great thread

 

This is a great thread. Im from Rochester, grew up in Greece down on Edgemere, and then moved to Penfield in HS. My dad had a used car lot on Latta and Long Pond, and when I bought my 63 FI corvette in 71 from Hallmans, I spent a lot of time over at Jim Neuffers on Latta buying used parts, and breathing the resin. Always liked the hood on the wall with the scoop molded from a female model's backside.

As a kid, there was a racer down the street from us on Edgemere that has a blue 61 chevy bubble top named Blue Angel that he drove on the street and raced. In the late 60's or early 70's, he then had a blue Hemi Cuda that he raced at Empire. I know he had that car for years. I dont know whatever happened to it.

Spent a great deal of teen time at Empire and Niagara and fondly remember all the cars mentioned and photographed in this thread. Does anyone have any of Glenn Lazarr's Pinto sedan?

Ross "the Boss" Cinelli used to be a road representative for paint materials, first for Rochester Lead, then Nu-Way, and I remember the Rambler and the Willys as well. Several years ago, I cant remember how many, the Willys pickup was on a trailer at Red Fidele's restaurant. The car looked complete, with silt and tarnish from storage, but it still had the paint and lettering from when Ross ran it. I saw Ross around that time as well at a cruise night on Buffalo road, and it was sad to see how time had taken its toll on him.

I also remember Steve Harby from Penn Valley Sunoco, and that great 2 tone 56 chevy. Interstingly about 10 years ago during a Barrett Jackson auction, Brock Yates was giving a background on a 69 black COPO camaro with a 427 automatic with 450 original miles, that had been purchased new by Steve Harby of Penfield, from I think they said a Chevy dealer in Honeoye. Anybody remember this car?

Im still in the area, living in Geneva. The Corvette is long gone, replaced by a late model Mustang, a 62 Tbird, and some freaky boats.

Thanks all for letting the mind wander into the past.

 

found some more pictures of cars from the Rochester area.
sorry if any are reposts

 

and a few more...

If anyone has any pics of any other cars from Rochester please post them

 

Thanks moparron for the pics!!!! Alot of great memories there. It seemed like every Saturday night the final run of the night was Oddy and Rudnick, what a great pic! Thanks again!!!

 

Hi Henry - Thanks for re-surfacing this old thread. Memories are what us old geezers thrive on, and this thread is just packed full of them for me!

 

Hi Ron. who's austin pickup?

 

Interesting thread, lots of names that have some significance. I did not know that Maynard Troyer did Trans Am cars, nice piece of information about one of the best NASCAR modified driver/builders of all time.

Those drag car photos from posts 199 and 200 brought back a lot of memories for this Southern Ontario, Canada drag race fan.

Did the OP ever get an answer on the building? Funny how these things change course quickly!

 

I have a somewhat different story on what could possibly be the car you're referring to. The story I heard, from Charlie Conrose himself, former proprietor of 'Precision Automotive', a 60s-70s speed shop in Rochester, NY, is this.... Molye Chevrolet, located in Honeoye Falls, NY, about 25 miles SE of Rochester, had 2 COPO cars, and they were having trouble selling them. They were pretty expensive for their time, at about $1000 more than a small block SS Camaro of the day. One car was a 4 speed, which I think was orange, and the black car with the Turbo 400.

They weren't getting the "showroom traffic" that could appreciate these cars, so they made a deal with Charlie to park the black car at Charlie's shop, with a "base price" of XXXX dollars. Anything over that, was Charlie's commission for selling the car. In order to dress up the car a little, Charlie took off the poverty hub caps on steel wheels, and put a set of Keystone Klassic wheels on it. I had a friend who was building up a street/strip car at the time, and spending a lot of time and money at Charlie's shop. On one of my friend's trips to Precision Automotive, I was tagging along, and we were invited into the back room of the shop, to look at the car. I'm pretty sure I left a couple of drool marks on it.

Where my portion of the story differs is here...The car was bought not by a Steve Harby, but instead by a fellow named Dick Cascino. Dick drag raced the car for a while, then parked it for a number of years. About 10 years ago, just before the business was closed up, I was in Precision Automotive, then located in Webster, NY, and I mentioned the Camaro to Charlie. He was amazed that anybody remembered the car, and his connection to it, but at the time, he said that Dick still owned it. I just smiled, and said how disappointed I was, because I didn't have the money at the time to buy it for myself (I was 17, and working part time after school).

A couple of months ago, I was in S&R Automotive, in Webster, owned by long time drag racer Sam D'Agnolo, and a bunch of gearheads were sitting around the coffee pot, talking about old muscle cars. I mentioned the COPO Camaro, and one of the guys said that Dick had finally sold it, but he didn't know to whom, and the car then wound up at Barret-Jackson.


Hope this makes sense.....

 

Guy's, I just stumbled onto this post and had to register to reply. The Black '69 COPO that you are referencing I currently own. It was purchased by Steve Harby from Molye Chevrolet and then later sold to Dick Cascino. I have been in contact with both of them and Dick was so kind as to email me a pic of the car back in the day from Niagara dragway. Would anyone else happen to have any pics of the car from the past? I am also in search of an original Molye Chevrolet dealer emblem that would have been on the tail panel of the car when new. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

"COPO", welcome to the discussion! That picture that you posted, of the car "in action" at Niagara Dragway, brought back some memories. One of my buddies from where I worked, has a program from the track, with that picture in it. We got talking about old super stocks from this area, maybe 10-12 years ago, I mention the COPO car to him, and he reaches into his desk, whips out the program, and says, "You mean THIS car"?

I'm really amazed that I appear to have missed a couple of pieces of the car's puzzle, however. I truly thought that Dick Cascino was the original owner, based on the little bit of info I remember getting from Charlie Conrose, as well as again seeing Dick's name on the car in the Dragway picture, which I believe, was very early in the car's life. Oh, well....


With respect to your quest for a Molye Chevrolet "dealer tag", I think that Molye, like many dealers of the era, used the cast metal tags that were then secured to the car with a couple of sheet metal screws. Ouch!! Although still in business, I'm pretty sure that the Molye family no longer operates the dealership. However, they're still located at 115 W. Main Street, in Honeoye Falls, NY. Their phones are 866-999-1458, and 888-740-0115. Good luck with the search!


BTW, if it isn't too much trouble, or too invasive of Steve and/or Dick's privacy, could you provide a little more info on the ownership trail on the car? What I'd like to know is how long they each owned the car, as this timeline of ownership thing has me confused. I know it's been 44 years since I personally saw the car sitting at Precision Automotive, and then I saw it a couple of times on the street, within a year or two after that, but I always thought Dick was the original owner....

 

The lettering on the door of the car seems to indicate a partnernship "C+H Rat" so perhaps the H was for Harby. I knew of Steve in 71 or 72 when he owned Penn Valley Sunoco in Penfield, which catered to the local performance guys. At the time he had a couple of 56 Chevys that I think were either Gas or M/P cars. I think the blue one was named "Penn Valley Express". I dont remember the Camaro being around at that time.

 

Mark, was that Sunoco station located on Penfield Road, a few doors down (east) from the former Thunderbird Drive In restaurant? If it was, the building later became home for the area's prime "performance" machine shop, Jess Haelen Engines....

 

That is the building. I had forgotten about the Thunderbird. Wasnt that a drive in restaurant with the big arrows at the ends of the covered car stalls? Its a Bill Grays now. I think there was another Thunderbird on Rt 104 in greece too.