In the late 1960s, the guys at Chuck's Speed Center in Phoenix decided to build a drag car. They started with a 1962 Corvette, dropped in a tunnel-rammed, square-port 427 Chevy crate motor and lightened the front end with a transversely-sprung tube... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Just call Chuck direclty and ask all your quesitons. He is awesome to talk to. The shop is amazing and they do all kinds of stuff. In fact Elpalcko's turbo set up was dyno'ed there and final tuning if I remember correctly. Here is a link to the shop. http://www.chucksspeedcenter.com/
This is tough to see. I love Corvettes and I especially love drag versions. I hope some pieces can be found and maybe somebody should rebuild this thing!! I can't imagine rolling a corvette and walking out of it.
It's funny but kinda not but I grew up with a chunk of an early vette on my wall. Though it was blue......
Great little read there. Its difficult to see such a cool car have such a tragic end - but at least no one was seriously hurt. And its interesting that someone took some pictures of it afterwords, and those pics still exist. By the way - I know your Dad. We work together at GM! Mike
What a great looking/running car. There were a few of these great old drag cars that ended up with similar fates but it was good to see that no one was seriously hurt with this car. I marvel at how few of the old Vette drag cars survived when compared to the large number of old drag Vette pictures I have. I remember attending a few meets back in the late 60s when there would be a pretty fair number of solid axle Vettes. Today there only seems to be a handful left. Certainly not all of them crashed or were crushed. I believe more of these old Vettes that raced were put to death by restorers more than horrific crashes such as this. I have read numerous times where old drag Vettes were brought back to stock with no regards for any past histories. These cars had many successes on drag strips (arguably more than on the road courses) and helped make the car what it is today. There are a few guys on the HAMB building solid axle Vettes with the old school drag racing look and drivetrains. I know of a few others that are building drag style Vettes, so fans old and new will enjoy seeing how these old Vettes looked, sounded and performed. I sent pics to Kurtis (Onanysunday) of a future project of mine that is similar to his dads Vette. But it is a 61 Vette, It too sported a 427 tunnel ram, with a four speed, Pontiac/Olds rear, straight axle and spindle mount mags with no front brakes. If you look at the picture you will notice the front fiberglass is different from the rest. This car on its last outing hit the wall (Gainesville allegedly) but it fared much better than Chucks 62. I have another project ahead of this 61 but I may sneak a bit of work on the car here and there. It would be neat if they found the piece of fiberglass that was saved. Even though the car met its demise, its history lives on I suppose-Jim mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]-->
Jim, That car of yours looks really familiar.I remember seeing one that guitarist Randy Bachman of the band The Guess Who had for sale in the 1980's,and it seems to me it was very similar to your car. Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Scott, I suppose anything is possible but it is pretty much just a drag car. It is a tube chassis car. The windows do not open and it is hard to sit in the car with the chopped top. The seats were rockered. It was built by Larry Teter in Elgin in 1968. Larry Teter built a number of drag cars and later racing engines. His Chevy powered Ford Vicky won at Indy in C/G in 61 and 62 and was runner up in 63, so he kind of knew what he was doing. The car was raced through the early 70s allegedly when it hit the wall at Gainesville. The front suspension and the front fiberglass is suffering a bit so I do not believe it was driven since it crashed. I posted the car since it seems so similar to Chucks 62. I would be interested though in seeings pics of Bachman's Vette.-Jim
I'm looking for pics of the Bachman car right now....been 20 yrs+ since I've seen it though... Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Hi Jim, I couldn't find anything on it....I remember seeing it for sale in an auto trader in the mid to late eighties,it was a dark color,radiused wheel wells,roll bar,and some type of scoop. I hope a restorer didn't get it,cause it was pretty cool from what I remember. Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
What I find amazing is the drivers side window is still intact! That the driver suffered only minor injuries is a statement of the builders skill and forethought.
Don't spam this site find somewhere else with your 74 and hour. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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