Jack Arnew. I remember hearing guys from quite a distance towing to I believe Baltimore to have him work his magic. It must've been quite some magic, huh???
I remember reading about him in the magazines back in the day. And, yes I was guilty of torching out the stops in the frame. I also came up with the bright idea of swapping the shims back to front of the control arms. Needless to say that did not work. Boy was I dumb, but back then you would try anything for an advantage. Learned about front end geometry when I designed and build tube frame bracket cars in the 80's. Sure do wish someone would weigh in on what Jack Arnew did. If it was not to stagger wheelbase, it must have been to minimize camber and toe change. Also, what about rear end housings? Did anyone else have a problem with bending them? Broke one of the Chrysler axles, took the rear end to a machine shop and he said it looked like I had hit a stump. Later we learned, we should have braced them like the 9" Fords now. But housings were plentiful back then.
I know from studying Tokyo Rose front components it had beefed up upper a-frames(an extra layer of steel welded above the ball joint) and I know it had the spacers, they were aluminum He had new ones made out of steel as they were oxidized quite a bit I have those now.(the old ones) I think he had pics of those on his photobucket account I will see if they are still there.
speaking of stagger in front wheels,i remember watching george cureton in the 4door pontiac he ran one season pull up to the line on an angle, there by creating stagger.before long officals caught on and put stop to practice. watched this at cecil county in 1970 i think.
Back in those day's it seemed like the guy's who won a lot of races all seemed to hang around Duffy's Performance in Red Bank, N.J. It's was like a who's who in racing and they all seemed connected or maybe they were all just friends. Just my opinion. Jimbo
jimbo17, i think different parts of the country all had a favorite place for working on race cars, our small state of delaware was lucky to have alex jarrell, right across state line we had bill jenkins all within a 100 mile circle, we also had some very good speed shops as in K&G, steve kanuka, atlantic speed center, and lots more. also in this 200 mile circle we had some darn good drag strips examples cecil county , york, atco, suffolk, capital, aquasco, englishtown, you get the idea. what a great time to have lived in!!!!!
The left lane at Holiday Raceway in Alabama sloped toward the outside edge. You could line up crooked and the slope would straighten you up. More roll out and a straight leave. couldn't get any better.
Rumour heard at the US Nationals in Indy over the weekend is that the Illinois Shaker 57 Chevy Jr Stocker might have been located,and could be in line for a restoration back to its glory days.Stay tuned!!!!
A lot of stockers staged crooked for a while. If Marty Barrett saw you do it you got a arse chewing. We also used to spin start sometimes until that got banned too.
Today is Pete Kost's 80th birthday. Here's a photo from his younger days. Pete was very successful racing Oldsmobiles in Junior Stock.
john brown, i was going to ask the same question, but i didn't want to sound too far out of it with age!!!!!
Very nice! Tell us a little about the car.I too am building what I call, a Pseudo-Junior Stocker, 56 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery. Butch/56sedandelivery.
I'm guessing what's more commonly known a a "neutral drop". On the start line, automatic transmission in neutral, and pulling it into forward gear at the light. Or maybe he means having the brakes locked up, and power braking to the point of spinning the tires up, then releasing the brake at the light. Butch/56sedandelivery.
this sedan delivery looks like the one that was on racing junk last year for sale for $26,500 dollars. from the pictures, a very nicely done clone, car had the right look and feel about it, i just did not have a spare $26,500. good to see it is being used and enjoyed.
The spin start was simply using the linelock to hold the car and start spinning the 7" ers as the tree came down. The rear of the car would bounce up and down a little and it was best if you caught it on the way down. I've got a picture of our CJ Fairlane doing one at Indy around 69 or 70. This was before a lot of us got good converters.
Butch, I'm the one that posted the ad for Kyle's car when you originally brought it. We've talked a couple of times. I brought the car about 2 years ago. Was a shell, but the body work and paint was done. Has had 1/2 quarters installed, wheel wells were cut out like for a gasser or modfied, and the normal pieces either repaired or replaced for a 55. Seemed to be a fairly solid car to start with. I did find some original sedan delivery seats, had to also find the side boards and some of the trim pieces for the rear. Does have Stahl headers, engine is 350 w/350 turbo nothing special, It has dual WCFB's, not period correct but looks cool and runs & drives great.
Wow, that is a nice 55. It looks great. I'm partial to the stock rear wheel well look and this thing is cool!!!
Here it is at the International City Dragway just south of Warner Robins, GA back in the day Strange Stuff
The Jalopy Journal
