History The Truth About Smokey Yunick's 7/8-scale Chevelle

An exploration of one of the great bench-racing tales of all time...



The Truth About Smokey Yunick's 7/8-scale Chevelle |Mac's Motor City Garage.com

 

I have no idea whether any or all the stories I've read about smokey are true, but I'm fascinated by the dude. The story about him firing the car and driving off with no fuel in the tank is awesome.

 

Great story Bill. As always your pictures and stories are appreciated.

 

Great stuff, Bill. Smokey was a genius.

 

Very good read, thank you.

 

good article .... thxs for sharing ...

 

Normally I could give two shits less about NASCAR but Smokey intrigues me. I love to hear the 'cheat' stories. Good read. Thanks alot.

 

Another story tells how he "Drooped" the fenders after seeing how the templates fit the middle of the body. He supposedly left the center line stock, and kinked the hood and roof down a bit at the outside edges. When he got caught, he said he was just following their rules......

 

The car was full of trick rules-bending features.

The front bumper was extended down and all the holes were filled. The side glass was moved out even with the body. The driver's seat was moved to the left. The exhaust was tucked up under the floor pan. The inner fenders had big holes in them, as Smokey thought of the tires as air-pumps.

That was the car that iniated NA$CAR to use templates, which were made off a Chevelle rental if the story is true. When the first car was wrecked, it had tons of bondo all over it that served to make it more aerodynamic.

Bob

 

I think Smokey was the first to fab little sheet metal flares at the bumper ends to keep air from getting trapped there at speed.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Vic Edelbrock Jr. own this car now?

 

A few things stand out: The C-pillar on the grid, is clearly farther forward on the Smokey car. The length of the quarter windows is also different on each car.
The grid line on both cars intersects the base of the windshield, yet the top of the windshield on the stocker is roughly 2.5 grids back from the cowl, while the Smokey car is only 2 grids.

The rear wheel on the smokey car is also clearly moved, while the center of the front hubs in both cars is only different by an inch or two.
And unless the stocker is wearing 14 inch wheels, there's something wrong with the comparison there, too, since I believe NASCARs back then wore 15s... the wheels are clearly different sizes.

The main thing though is this: Unless you can be absolutely certain both of those pictures were taken from the exact same distance away, the grid comparison is useless. If the camera is moved closer to one or the other, it's going to affect the scale. You'd need to find a known, measured reference of both vehicles, and scale from there.

After that, the vehicles need to be lined up absolutely even on the front bumper, and only THEN can an accurate side-by-side profile comparison be made.

I have a friend who's brother worked for Smokey when that car was DQ'd, and my friend walked with Smokey to the infield trailer and stood outside while Smokey and the officials went at it.

-Brad

 

I have always heard that the car was either chopped a little short of 2 inches or the windshield was laid back or both. Of course this may have just been more of the "myth" that surrounded the car. Good point about the distance from the camera being consistent.

 

I've posted it here before but my favorite quote that is attributed to Smokey is: "It ain't what the rules say you can't do, it's what the rules don't say you can't do".

 

That Chevelle is one of my all-time favorite race cars. I have a poster of it signed by Smokey hanging on the wall in my garage.

I got a chance to meet Smokey at SEMA, and he was working at the Prolong booth. Linda Vaughn was also there, and they were both signing posters, and Linda's line was 50 people deep, and nobody was in Smokey's line, so I bolted to the front and started asking him questions about the Chevelle. His eyes lit up, and we bullshitted for about 15 minutes. What a cool guy. He was as deaf as a stone, so I had to repeat nearly everything I said. He told me that working on the Chevelles nearly killed him. He said he contracted pneumonia from laying on the cold shop floor and was sick nearly the entire time they were building the cars. He said that he rarely ever went home, and slept in an Army cot in the back corner of the shop. I asked him questions about the long fuel line, the pseudo belly pan, the flush windows, the tucked bumpers, and he said all of that was true. I laughed when he said one of their tricks they used to do when the car was being tech'd was to have a roll of duct tape and a helmet laying inconspicuously in the car. Well, that "roll" of duct tape was a lead billet that weighed 75 lbs and the "helmet" was filled with lead and weighed another 75 lbs! Another trick was putting lead shot shot in the frame rails. Then, on the parade laps, the driver would move down to the apron of the track and open up a trap door and let the shot fall out on to the apron and roll into the grass.

Get Smokey's book, "Best Damn Garage in Town". It's a fun read, because Smokey pulls NO punches. There's a section in the book about the people he liked and disliked that's a freakin' riot.

 

I think Smokey would perhaps
sometimes deliberately start
rumors about some 'super-secret'
quasi-legal modification that he
had supposedly done and while
the tech inspectors were pulling
their hair out trying to find the
non-existent. but rumored
modification, they would overlook
and not see the real surreptitious
quasi-legal mod that he done had
elswehere on the car.

Mart3406
=================

 

I read somewhere Smokey would look at girls in the bleachers with no panties with binoculars from pit road

 

......Can you blame him?

 

His daughter races the Camaro

If you read the book he talks about the "beaver patrol"

My favorite part of the story is that even in 66/67 stock cars were not all stock and most guys were using a ford frame so the NASCAR rule book said you could use a frame of ANY manufacture so Smokey "Manufactured" his own frame. When he built the fuel cell the would also put in a deflated basket ball in it before the welded it up and run a line to the outside so he could inflate it before the tech inspectors filled it up to check capacity ( only 16 Ga. at the time I think) his was 22!

 

He bought me a hot dawg and a cup of coffee once at a race. We talked for a few minutes then he was off on a bigger adventure then talking to me. Most stories get embellished and things get blamed on thw wrong person all the time but there is bound to be a grain of truth in all of it.

I would say from our breef meeting that he was a character and a character among characters.

 

.......Much like yourself, Beaner.

 

I incorporated many of his ideas in my race cars. (65-73 Chevelles)
Venting of the rear axle area, 30+ pounds of Bondo to smooth out the
undercarriage, trick engine parts, he must of spent hundreds of hours modifing the car. I studied numerous photos of the 13 and I am convinced
that the car was slightly smaller than a regular Chevelle, besides the other modifications he made. The car was destroyed in a wreck. I was suppose to interview him for a magazine article, however, this was two months before he passed and he was too sick to attend. R.I.P

 

Me too. I find him to be one of the most fascinating characters in American motorsports.

 

His book on audio can make a road trip fly by!

 

I can't get enough of the stories of his exploits. Racing today is shit. There's no innovation, everyone has the same car, same setups. I like to think the Smokey stories are based on truth, if not accurate. I believe that Chevelle was greatly modified, I doubt 7/8 scale but I think there was a ton of subtle changes. He was the man.


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Get Smokey's book, "Best Damn Garage in Town". It's a fun read, because Smokey pulls NO punches. There's a section in the book about the people he liked and disliked that's a freakin' riot.[/QUOTE]

Unquestionably one of the most entertaining books I've ever read!

 

Don't know if he really said it or not, but my favorite Smokey quote is, "Want to be different? Wear your pants on your head and race on Thursday." When someone tells me they want to do something just to be different rather thinking there might be an advantage, I quote him.

 

Some time after 1974 when the gas crisis hit, the Iowa State Fair decided to hold a "fuel mileage" race on the fairgrounds 1/2 mile dirt ( where the "normal" sprint car and stock car races were held). The idea was who could go the furthest on one gallon of gas.
As part of the event, they brought in Smokey for an all day seminar on engine technology. It was really enlightening. As others have said, he was very hard of hearing because of all the years of racing engines. I did manage to have a great conversation during a break where he tried to explain that we all make the mistake of trying to make engines run COOL......when they should acutually run as HOT as possible in order to maximize the combustion effect.......of course without melting the engine.
I did meet him one more time when I was sitting on the pit wall at Indy before time trials......he came over to say hello to my friend who was involved with GM Motorsports activities.......and, yes.....he had a really stunning blonde on his arm !!!

 

--------------
What??!! There were girls in the
bleachers with binoculars and
Smokey didn't wear panties when
he was looking at them??!!!
Jeeze...I'm really, really glad and
relieved to hear that!!!

Mart3406
==================

 

One of my favorite pictures, the Yellow Banana at Atlanta, with Smokey's Chevelle in front of it. I bet Smokey was pissed.