Jimmy Addison and The Silver Bullet

Like this?

 

Yes, I believe so, But it may have been like the picture in post #2 of this thread, far right pic, but with the autograph. I'm thinking it may have had him standing behind the car, but it has been so long now.... on second thought, yes I believe that's it!

 

Dr Hemi, I'm 99% sure now it was like the first one. You could see the exhaust hanging down, it had the autograph and the Silver Bullet title. Regardless, he sure had the look of it spot on. All business, no gay stripes or add-ons.

 

Well, right now, MY exhaust is hanging down and I have to sleep. Keep the info coming.

 

thanks thats what i needed. if anyone has a extra poster to trade i have some of my car that i can autograph. see avatar. these are originals not the mopar performance ones.

 

All I can say is WOW!!!! Dr. Hemi!!!!! Absolutely Spectacular to see Jimmy's car PRE Silver Bullet days!!! I would love love love to have a copy of that poster to laminate and hang in my office!

once again THANKS!!!

 

Early Bullet:

As the caption states, 1969 and still blue with earlier milder Hemi,
3600 lbs (now 3200), unmodified fender wells (and narrower slicks)
at Motor City Dragway. Thru the mufflers 11.89 @ 121 mph.

 

Fantastic thread. We're so lucky that a few of the old street racers still exist.

 

Did you get that Mustang done yet? You didn't sell it did you?

 

Dr Hemi, almost completed. Headers are finished and to coater, next is fire the engine and re-install the front clip. Its debut is the NPD show at Silver Springs, FL in January.

 

I am a such huge fan of that car but I have never seen it in person. I read
all of those original articles about it back in the day.

I also followed your discovery and restoration on YPE, Yellow Bullet Forum etc.

I know that the original owner, Joe Ruggirello, died earlier this year. It's Too
bad he never got to see it's ultimate completion.

You're doing the right thing putting it back to the way it was and we all
appreciate it. That car is iconic to the era; one that will never be repeated.

There has to be a time in the future when you will bring it north to it's old
stomping ground.

I hope that there will be a reunion of all of the great street racers of the
60's-70's era. Woodward? Goodguy's? Where should it be?

 

Joe's passing was a real blow, as I had hoped from the beginning to get the car back to share with him. I do intend to make sure his relatives who are interested, will get to see it.

I'd love to bring it to the Woodward Cruise and/or the Autorama. It would be amazing to see a display of these cars who roamed the streets of Detroit back then.

I do have a thread on Motown Muscle if you're interested.

http://www.motownmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?144139-Joe-Ruggirello-Gapp-and-Roush-Mustang-II

 

Thanks. I'm going there now!

 

I sent you a PM Tom.

 

Posted by current owner and restorer HemiViper588 on the Motown
Muscle forum - a dated picture of what was to be (but not completed
by Jimmy) Addison's ultimate weapon. 2650 lbs with Hemi.

 

The Silver Bullet was great, but the street racer that impressed me the most was the Dodge Challenger...I think the guy's name was Steve Lisk?

 

That's correct. Steve Lisk. It was basically a '71 Dodge Challenger
containing Mike Fon's complete Pro-Stock drivetrain. 9 second car.

Photos from a period magazine article:

 

The staging lanes in the woods at Milan. Genuflect. You're in church.

 

A couple of Bullet pics not previously posted.

 

Stinsonart photo blow up. This is how I remember the Bullet when it came to Toledo.

 

Quoting Stinsonart:



........................

...........................................Jimmy and Gloria - 1970

 

So who owns the originl Silver Bullet engine pictured in that other car? Is it still around today?

 

For the answer, go to this link and scroll down to: The "Original Bullet" Unleashed

http://www.greenval.info/#!silver-bullet/cqsc

 

Good stuff.

 

Here's a new treat - Extremely rare (but somewhat poor quality) photos of the Bullet
after it had been sold and painted white. It also has Fenton Gyro wheels here.

 

Here are some excerpts from an old dead thread from Chevelle Tech in 2008 that the above
picture links came from. Some rare and never seen before (by me at least) Silver Bullet
history - especially towards the bottom.

cuisinartvette
Jan 23rd, 08, 10:21 AM
I understand there is a little buzz going on about the car. I bought the car from J.Addison in 1974 and owned it until 1985. I repainted it white in the attempt to draw in some 'flys'.
Most of the info posted is accurate, car was little less than 3200, (glass doors, trunk lid, fenders , bumpers, van seats, light glass etc. everything gutted, heater, doors, etc.etc.) No big tricks, worn out front shocks, pinion snubber, SS spring, 50/50 shock. Rear end was a cheimically milled (center section) 8 3/4 w/4.56 for the street and 4.88 for the track. Trans. was a 727 full manual auto w/B&M 069J (5k stahl)converter. Best et. w/Addison was 10.02, car would run a 40-50 off the trailer, my best was a 10.18.


. The pictures were how the car looked before I sold it in the 80's, and as I purchased it aside from changing the color from silver to white.

I picked up the car in 74 from Darious Ball who had the car in his possesion. The title until then was in J. Addison's name, and was signed off by J.Addison, until I had it transfered ito my name at the DMV. Others who would be familiar with my era of ownership would be L. Mancini and R. Mancini, T. Tigganelli, J.Tedder, G. Kozak, M. Dawson and some other local guys.

The link talks about Andy Angelucci (the fireman). Haven't seen him in awhile I have known for a number of years. I did not sell the car to Kraft but to a guy that worked at the direct connection warehouse in Warren Mi., however that did not happen until the 80's. I can't remember his name, I think it was Larry Henry. I sold the car less motor and trans. which I kept as spares for my race car.

He in turn took it over to Gene Kozak who had done the frame for my 70 purple duster (big inch hemi, 12 point, narrowed dana car, originally intended for the street). The guy I sold the car to brought the car over to Gene to have the original quarters/replaced and opened instead of being "bellied out" (as originally done by Tommy Tigganelli's dad), removed, tubbed and 2x3 square tube to tie the chassis rails.
Some months after the work was done, and he did not get it up and flying and he called me trying to sell the car back to me. Where the car went after that, and up to the current owner I do not know.

I just read that link as well and see no mention of my ownership....I'm sure the DMV would have a more accurate record as I did have the title in put in my name.

Jan 23rd, 08, 1:08 PM
Thanks for the added history of the car! That car has to be the cornerstone of street racing made famous. I'd be willing to say that the Silver Bullet is the most highly valued modified street Muscle car of all time. Too bad the Moderator would erase any kill stories. I'd LOVE to hear them!


The runs against little kim stories are by far the most famous around here.
Yes I have a few, did a lot of back peddling, brake light delete type runs.
There was a guy named Riggurello who owned a 74 silver mustang built by rousch (supposed 500 incher). I went out one night to get him to run ("high end club" nugget restaurant located at 696 and orchard lake road "the place to be" thurs. nights after mid night). Now that car had the best chance, but it never materialized as he wasn't sure if his car could do the job.

cuisinartvette
Jan 23rd, 08, 2:00 PM
It would be really great to get the full history pieced together for a "Total history of the Silver Bullet" as it appears that a little of it remains hidden to this day. Mister Addison's attention to detail was apparently as great as his connection to Chrysler engineering's back door. At any rate all these tales are interesting to all of us that like old Hotrods.

True, however his connection to mopar was mostly T. Spehar, M.Fons, who worked at the 13 and Coolidge unmarked missile location.
The original M.Missile guys also had given me quite a bit of free help , including D. Killan who designed the electronic and c. triggered ign. system coming over to my house to do my wiring at no charge, because he thought my duster was a great project. This included Kenyon doing the heads, and Bowman doing the carburation (all the same who helped Jim and were responsible for the Missile).
The wheels (fenton), intake (weind), to only name a couple that you see in my pictures are perfect examples of free help, strange we saw the same parts on the missile.
The missile location is really were the 'BIG GUYS' were at, and being gear heads who simply loved these kind of cars.

I don't think Addison considered at that point in time, that the car would ever become such an icon to muscle cars.

I remember seeing that car back in the day on Woodward. Damn that car got a lot of press back then

I can say stopping that car was a nightmare. It was equipped w/stock 10" drum brakes front and rear in the effort of weight reduction !! I used to shoot past the first return road at the track doing approx. 90mph. w/both feet on the pedal and pulling on wheel w/both hands for more leverage. I would pull the 2nd return road at around 35, always thinking I would peel a front tire off the car.

BTW, Thanks to all for the responses, it is pretty cool to see others who have an interest and share in cool cars and the times. I have been away from racing for a number of years now, and really had no idea that the history of the car had become so important.

Jimmy told me the car was NEVER beaten in a street race. There were local guys here in Flint that had some good connections at the engine plant on Van Slyke. They would meet at Thurmon Stanleys Sunoco station at the corner of Richfield and Center roads and talk about the Bullit. Lots of hi-po stuff was in this area back them. Guys that worked at the plants could actually go and see the engineering guys and get the latest, greatest the General had to offer.

Thanks for the welcome here on Team Chevelle. While I don't own a Chevelle, there were/are a couple of guys I knew from around here that were on the scene at the time who had some serious pieces that did deserve respect.

Steve Mayer, 505ci. (can-am motor) 69, and D. Carlisle w/ Moms Headache legitimate low 10. 67 chevelle and consistent bracket 1 winner.

To the above, the bullet had at least 2 write ups, the first being in Super Stock magazine which was the first version of the car (no stroker, cross ram, 11" tire no well mods. etc.) car at that time could best a 10.70, which I own a copy.

As to the stories of never being beat....while that was true, J.Addison was nobody's fool. He understood how to race, when to race, how to set it up, and how to keep a guy coming back for more. He is one of the sources/reasons that helped me understand how to play the game, which in racing, are lessons that are apllied at the track in Bracket, class etc. This IMO, was an area that he didn't get as much credit as he deserved, as he did many match races at the track.

Even when I owned the car you could count the "legitimate street drivable" 10.sec. cars on one hand. However, there were always guys looking to knock him off that had serious track cars, and would show up looking to set up a run. The idea was not just "run what ya brung" but the reality of being able to truely street drive the car (mufflers, plates, are only one part of that aspect)

Originally when I had the bullet I had an isky 590 cam in it, and w/that combo did pretty well (maybe 40 minutes or so depending traffic etc.) reagarding heat, and street drivability. I decided it needed more so I swapped in one w/more duration (270+@ 50) range, this cut down my street time considerably. I was only able to control the heat to about 20 minutes (average summer night). So to some degree I was fighting the same issues: heat, however, performance was big!! I led many to believe that I was street driving it many miles to show up, (the nugget was approx. 20mi. from my house) I would leave the trailer/tow vehicle about a mile away at a somewhat hidden parking lot, fire it up and take it in the lot.

Addison and running at the track;
One of the best ever at having the ability to "brake race" that I have ever seen ! This was one of his fortes, being able to win by just enough, usually under a car length (when under a fender or door would start discrepancies), making the other guy think he could still have won. So, during that week the guy would go home tweak on the car, show up at the local track, and possibly make some gains and would come back for more....yet to still loose by a similar amount. When pulling the car in 3rd, that's were the ride begins, the ass gets big, and the balls get small (so to speak). I had quite a bit of seat time in that car and my duster, which was faster, 3rd gear in a good hemorrhoid car was were the fun began.

Addison and memorable moments at the track:
I remember the most outstanding battles/match races were with a serious local racer who called himself "little Kim". The first car was a 67-8 camaro and over time (almost every year) he built a new one, progressing to a 70 camaro and then later using a monza. This guy was a serious track only racer but wanted Addison's a$$, they ran many times and Addison never lost. As Kim's car got faster (early version being 10.90, later being as fast at the track or faster than Jim), it would seem as though he would still loose by a door etc. Leaving Kim to being one very P.O'd man. Once again, brake light delete/racing worked well (a skill we all started to see later in other class and bracket racing) and his instincts combined with having a real good feel of not only the car, but when and where. Evidence of some serious skills that Jim possessed which are quite different in comparison to just cutting a light or as many worry about today MPH. Back then the MPH. light was past the ET stripe so it wasn't a sign held in such high regard like today.

The ones we wanted to see:
1972 Cobo Hall Auotrama, "Big Willie " from LA billing himself as 'undisputed king'. J.Addison and the bullet was on display and billed as "Michigan's fastest street driven car" (the car was also for sale; asking price 5,000. cash).
Big Willie comes over to Jim's spot and confronts him, this was a sight to behold. Here is big Willie, who was a huge man (maybe around 6'5-6'6 I don't even know over 400lbs?) and Jim, a little slightly hunched over man by stature, but not in mouth or heart ! Big Willie proceeds to tell him that in LA if the car isn't going faster than 9's to leave it on the trailer. Now, Big Willies' car is a orange Daytona charger (complete w/wing on rear and nose peice, year 69? don't really remember), 426 hillborn inj. hemi, 10' tire, all sheet metal sled, but claiming this car car runs 8.98's. I looked at this car, and there would only seem to be 2 ways: 1) pushing it over a cliff w/a 60mph. back wind, OR, that was 1/8 mi. time. (very difficult to believe this car could get out of it's own way)
At the end of all the shows here guys fire them and were allowed to pull behind cobo, light em up a little etc. (local police allowed "some playing") The end of the show came, and Big Willie still talking, Addison's response was, LET'S DO IT ! Then came more talk from the supposed "king" of LA, Addison's response was "where do you want to take it ?", "let's go!" ........Unfortunately we never got to see the guy get taken to the cleaners. This would have been a one of my favorites to witness.

In the summer of 1975 Manuel, Al Craft and other starving drag racers hung out at the local Big Boy restaurant located at 13 ½ Mile Road and Woodward in Royal Oak, MI. Craft paid $5,000 for the "Silver Bullet" car from Jimmy Addison. Craft wanted to be the "King of the Road" and with this car, he achieved it! Word on the street was that Jimmy had "taken" Craft because of the exorbitant price. Craft drove the car less than 2 months and blew the transmission. Craft parked the car because he couldn't afford to fix it and he eventually sold Manuel the entire drive train. Manuel stripped the car of the engine, transmission, headers, shifter with the chrome box, gauges, tachometer and radiator with the intent of using the parts on another car. Manuel, then, returned the gutted car body back to Craft.

Thereafter, the engine, transmission and other items were placed in storage in 1976 when Manuel couldn't afford to finish the restoration of his own car. Even as a teenager, he understood the inherent wealth of having this engine, since it was the most important piece of the 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX that was once driven by Jimmy Addison.

Storage:

The car parts were placed in storage and remained for 27 years. After the Woodward Cruise became popular, Manuel wondered how much the engine would be worth in today's market. Manuel placed an ad in the Detroit News and the phone did not stop ringing. He was so excited because he obtained many leads and actually spoke with several people who had actual contact with the car in some way, shape or form. He spoke to several people who had either grown up around the car, or helped maintain it.

Manuel asked several prospective buyers what their plans were for the engine and transmission. Many indicated that they were going to drop the parts into another GTX body. After several conversations, Manuel decided he should do exactly what the buyers were planning. He decided that he would not sell the engine and transmission.

The Engine:

Manuel immediately went to work on locating the perfect GTX car body. He found a one owner car. Manuel performed a full rotisserie restoration on the car body. After deciding to reconstruct the car, Manuel needed someone to authenticate this racing machine. A potential buyer told him of a book written by Robert Genat entitled HEMI: The Ultimate American V-8. An excerpt in the book explained how the original engine was built. The original engine was powered by a 487 cubic inch eight liter 426 HEMI V-8 that included a wide range of innovative engineering feats; as well as many sophisticated parts that Jimmy had obtained through his Chrysler connections. The car facts indicate that the original engine housed:
" Aluminum heads
" A set of 12:1 pistons
" A Racer Brown cam with 0.590 lift and 322 degrees of duration
" A magnesium cross-ram intake with two Holley 780-cfm carburetors
" 600 horsepower
" TorqueFlite transmission with a 4,000-rpm stall converter
" Rear-end ratios of either 4:30 or 4:56

At times, Jimmy Addison ran the car with a cross-ram. Still at other times, Jimmy ran the car with a tunnel-ram. When Jimmy sold the car to Kraft in the summer of 1975 the car had a tunnel-ram and two dominators.

The specifications in the excerpt were confirmed by Andy Angelucci, President of Angelucci Performance Products an expert on HEMI engines. Angelucci restored the engine back to its original street power.

Together, Angelucci and Manuel tore down the engine. Angelucci was impressed with the condition of the engine after so many years in storage. The antifreeze looked like it had just been put in. But even more so, Angelucci was absolutely amazed at the engine's mechanical design and how well balanced the machine work had been performed. Andy took one look inside the engine and said "Manuel, do you realize that there is a set of aluminum super stock K heads in this engine?" Manuel didn't even know what super stock K heads were or their significance! Andy explained that Chrysler only built these heads in 1965. In all the years that Manuel had owned the engine, he had never looked under the valve cover.

As the two continued to tear down the engine, they uncovered yet another hidden secret. On the number one cylinder was a hole with an allen wrench screw. Angelucci stepped back and started laughing. He had discovered a "cheating plug." One plausible explanation is that during that era "cheating plugs" were created to throw off the readings during the qualifying races which determined a car's classification.

Angelucci didn't change anything substantial on the engine. He only "freshened up" the system by replaced the rings, bearings and gaskets. He also performed a valve job on the heads. He cleaned up the overall engine block and added the new ignition system to make it more compatible to today's technology.

Jan 25th, 08, 7:51 PM
based on you site, perhaps passing the info along to the current owner (Harold Sullivan ?)would help, as he could do a car fax on the car and see what names actually come up, or feel free to contact me personally :thumbsup:

Actually carfax can't help for older rides. it is only good for the 81 and later vehicles with 17 digit VINs.

Actually carfax can't help for older rides. it is only good for the 81 and later vehicles with 17 digit VINs.
I did not know that, however, the Secretary of State here in Mi. offers a personal records check of either vehicles or licenses. It would seem to me that the DMV would have all records to Vin's. submitted. The idea of a time line of info. availability may possibly be a hitch with them as well. (providing they don't destroy the information after a certain amount of time, I believe it should still be able to be acquired).

Privacy laws enacted in the last few years keep DMVs from allowing people to get info most of the time. Sometimes folks get lucky though. Best of luck trying to get the info.

Questions:
Why not contact the current owner and ask him to verify all past history. This NEEDS to be done in the course of a history research, of which this car, above all others is worthy of.

Did you know of a Pete Dalasandro in Michigan? Across the street from Roush and a GM factory guy from the Tech center. First to do big inch tall deck BBC's......????? Also did a lot of Off-shore boat racing?

What was the situation of purchasing the Silver Bullet?

Did you know the historical reputation of the car when you bought and sold it?

Why did you sell it?

Thanks for signing up and sharing your history here!

Why not contact the current owner and ask him to verify all past history. This NEEDS to be done in the course of a history research, of which this car, above all others is worthy of.
Did you know of a Pete Dalasandro in Michigan? Across the street from Roush and a GM factory guy from the Tech center. First to do big inch tall deck BBC's......????? Also did a lot of Off-shore boat racing?
What was the situation of purchasing the Silver Bullet?
Did you know the historical reputation of the car when you bought and sold it?
Why did you sell it?
!
Since I have started posting here, I have done some 'looking around' and have posted on a couple blog pages were they asked about this discrepancy, based on the gentlemen who claims to have an original bullet motor placed in a re-make 67 gtx (actually based on our link which I was going to thank you for:thumbsup. I also emailed greenval (link you posted) regarding his info/site and pasted a link to this thread. After recieving my email he then posted here on the thread, and emailed me back with info on Addison's neice. I even left a messages w/numbers he provided, either they are no longer good or, no chance to return the calls.

From everything I have gathered so far, it seems Mr. Sullivan is the legit owner of not only the bullet but several 67 hemi cars including at least one vert.

I haven't been able to contact him directly yet, but I am in the process through friends (L.Mancini /R.Mancini(former ss/as champ) T.Tiganelli (ss/aa ss/as and 3 other class cars) trying and ended up leaving messages as I couldn't reach anyone today, but hopefully I can get in touch with him at some point. I would think he would also be intersted in taliking to me and my experiences with the car (pics etc.) when I owned it.
Aside from that, and based on what I've seen/read recently, I would bet Mr. Sullivan has done his 'homework' on the car.

Yes, I agree it appears as some of the history (at least the era when I owned it and what I posted earlier regarding the car being cut up etc. is lost/or not talked about). and there does appear to be quite an interest out there today.

I knew the car belonged to J. Addison, there was only one around here that looked like that, and was set up that way, more importantly, Darious who had the car was a friend of Jim's. When I saw him (Darius) at the track one weekend and he said he would consider selling the car, I asked (somewhat kiddingly) how do I know it's Addison's'? He said because he had the title and it was signed off by Jim, which was true. (Darius was running the car in Bracket I and calling it "Underdog".)
When I took possession of the car and Darious gave me the title and it was indeed listed on the front as James Addison as the owner (no leans etc.) and on the back signed off by Jim.

The name "Dalasandro" sounds familiar, but I cannot honestly say I know him. In the boat world the only guy I really knew was "drag boat Eddie" (Ed Sobieski, hemi guy). I knew/known all the Mopar guys in town. All of the guys I mentoned in my first post are all SS/AA and AS guys, and I really knew very few chevy guys. (sorry guys, I know I am on Team Chevelle)

The actual purchasing of the car came about because the car I had was totaled on the way to a gig in Minn. I owned a 1970 red hemi cuda that I bought from a kid I went to school with and paid 1150. (and pissed and moaned the whole way). The only pic. I have of this car is how it looked after being totaled. I was in Indiana on the I-94, headed to the gig, and was hit in the ass by a trucker who fell asleep at the wheel. He did get out long enough for me to get his info and left the scene of the crime. Police showed up, and arrested him before he crossed into Chi. As a result of this, his insurance could not provide a hemi cuda' to my satisfaction and the suit paid pretty substantial which include loss of vehicle and injury. I was then on the hunt for another street rod.

I went to the track one weekend and ran into Darius and started talking to him about the car (siver bullet). I think he was already getting tired of what it takes to run the car every weekend (time and money) so selling it was not that far off for him. I started to think more seriously about it, and ended up buying the car. I ended up paying $2750. for the car complete, turn key, including both pigs, and all spare parts inc. a 426 max wedge). The original exhaust was not there, the hemi could have been any number of versions, but the car was the McCoy (all vins matched you name it, it was right.

Did I know the cars history?
Absolutely, I was a fan long before I owned it. I saw the car run many times in different forums. My freind was also a 'gopher boy' for the missle and Jim was always hanging out there with the car. The first time I saw it at the auto show in 71, Addison had a "for sale" sign on it and was asking $5000.00 cash! I was drooling, but 5k at that time was a lot to me. (post #24)

Did I know it was legendary?
Sure, but until I owned it, and had a hard time getting guys to want to run, did I realize just how legendary the car was. That was around other gear heads like myself but to not outsiders. (post #24)

In the world of dealers, it was not like an original hemi car, no original paint etc.etc., so to buyers interested in a factory muscle car there was not much interest. Aside from that, the 'want to be' hot rodder was left out as the car required someone who could really wrench on it, and maintain it. At the time not many seemed to have an interest in the car, and certainly nothing like what I am seeing today.

Why I sold it was in part due to space and "growing up?".
I was already renting the garage (one behind car in the pics.) and my parents house was across the street of which I was tying up their 2 1/2 car garage.

My real baby was a purple 70 Duster that had originally purchased (in 71) and was going to be the real track car. The duster was an ongoing 10 year project before I actually had it fired and running. Along with that, in 77, I went down south and brought back a 69 GTX 440/6 pack, and already had a 65 furyI as a driver. Four cars was starting to be a lot for me to maintain not to mention space. When I had the duster finally back from being caged, tubbed, inc. 10% motor set back, etc. etc. motor/trans finally in, paint, and done deal, I decided I would start thinking about selling one of them.
One of the parts guys at the local Direct Connection warehouse started asking me about the car. He started to get serious and I thought this might work, especially since he really only wanted it as a roller. I thought keeping the the motor and trans would make decent spares for the race car. In fact near the end I actually was running the 426 max wedge (this was a petty stout max wedge)in it. I ended up selling it to him for 3400. as a roller (no motor/or trans). If memory serves, his name was Larry Henry.


Now for the sick part......("growing up?")
Somewhere around 81ish I fell for some girl and it became serious. In 84(approx.) it was "time to grow up , sell the toys, stop playing in clubs and with other girls, doing shows and settle down"
I ended up selling off ALL of the cars ...everything less my drums and tools.

Well when the cradle will rock....
In 1986-87ish I found that my little darlin' was doing some serious drugs, screwing the manager (who already shafted our band of some pretty reasonable change) and I threw her a$$ out.

So in the end,
I would have traded the nonsense, and the house etc. only to do what I always was comfortable with and loved..... I would rather have slept in the cars with my drums than the way it ended up.

BTW, when I got the car, on the left rear of the bumper there was a sticker it stated "And on the seventh day GOD created the HEMI"

Additonally, there are some things about that car (details never printed anywhere) that no-one would know...aside from who may actually own it now.

A lesson for all you young guys out there reading this !!

I always liked the 70 novas, 67ish -70 (bod style) chevelles and the 69 camaro.
Drums and hot rods was my life. I never loaded the tubs in the 67 ..but no back seat did provide girl room ! I can say there was a time when life was grand !, and I do have some good memories .....
The love thing jacked me pretty good, never before that did I have feelings for any chick, and I allowed it to influence my life....very stupid in retrospect and never again.
the cuda' was the best, bass drum in trunk (14x28) trunk lid in vertical position, back seat 2 floors 16x16 and 16x18 w/10x14 rack and front seat with trap case. I could barely see out of the 2 door mirrors, I can't even believe I used to drive around that way, now I have an 03 Yukon XL for this stuff.
For the longest time after allowing myself to make some poor decisions I had no desire to get another cool ride. Recently though, I have been getting the 'itch' again...the only downside is, prices these days are so astronomical compared to the day.

BTW, thanks to all for the words, good to see such interest and support from real gearheads/hot rodders

That is the toughest car ever built.

Oct 1st, 10, 3:06 PM
This car was featured on DREAM CAR GARAGE and driven around by the Canadian (show host and owner of the restoration shop) and the car was BEAUTIFUL. He was driving down the road, around 30mph (he said) and he hit the gas, the car HOPPED up and left two black marks, that looked about 20-30 feet long...I WAS HOOKED. That car, the way it sounded, looked and has 4 MUFFLERS...I wonder what it would sound like w/FlowMasters.

To say the least...awesome car. :thumbsup:

mseven
Oct 2nd, 10, 8:28 AM
I read it yesterday and was thinking the same thing. Saw that "greenval" was right on top of it. First post 2 1/2 years ago, second yesterday. Must have had his CP set up so new posts notified his email. Be nice if he liked TC so much that he became a reguilar, but I kinda doubt it.
Wonder if M. Stevens (mseven) still checks in from time to time. I'd like to know if anything ever came from the discrepancy.
I do check in over here from time to time....good board :beers:
Interestingly enough this year at the show I left a message for Harold Sullivan and the Mon. after he called me and we finally had a chance to talk....for a couple of hours in fact.
He asked me several questions including the condition of the car as I sold it and after I sold it. I gave him the complete run down including that the quarters were cut off and new ones installed, 2x3 square tube chassis rails etc.etc. (all installed by G. Kozak for the guy I sold the car to), and some other unique things that no one (aside from Jim and possibly himself) would have known. He confirmed that this was exactly how he bought/found the car. I also told him that I had been reading all these blogs regarding the original motor etc. and that when I sold it I had kept the original motor and the car was sold as a roller. I stated that all of those statements were balderdash and that there was no real way to determine any motor that was ever in the car. He agreed and felt that much of what was stated in various places was also incorrect info. He went on to say that he had heard that some "kid" had actually owned the car through that time period but was never confirmed...I mentioned that I was currently 56 he stated he is 62 (if I remember) ...I guess I was a kid at the time ..lol He went on to say that he that he was always a fan of of the car and also wanted to buy the car and at that time, but could not afford it.
Never the less, I shot him a couple of pics (just as posted here on Team Chevelle). He invited me to come over to his shop and check out the car anytime, the rest of his collection and in general just shoot the breeze about the car etc. Mr. Sullivan is a very amiable gentleman, and I will be giving him a call back soon. He asked if he could purchase any or all copies of the car when I owned it....I will be giving him a series of pictures.
As with all legends I suppose there will always be an amount of myth and talk....The car was cool...but to me, the fact is that it would have been just another modded out 67 belvedere if wasn't for the owner Jim Addison who put it on the map and built the reputation as "Michigan's fastest street driven car". I believe that some of this is the part that goes understated, as many just view the car.

Oct 2nd, 10, 11:38 AM
I remember hearing stories about that car when I was a kid from my older sisters' friends.
Can never get tired of hearing old muscle car street racing stories - especially when it's in your own area.

So if Im putting this together right, the guy that claims to have the original engine, Manuel,doesn't, because mseven pulled it out before he sold the car?

That's right. If I also understood Mseven correctly, he likely knows where that motor is today.
Pete K
Oct 2nd, 10, 10:27 PM
That's right. If I also understood Mseven correctly, he likely knows where that motor is today.

Just to clarify, the origional engine was not a hemi. No telling how many different hemi's were between the framerails when Addison owned it. Maybe only one, maybe more, Mseven kept the last engine in the car that Addison ran.

Mali Blu
Oct 3rd, 10, 12:02 AM
Just to clarify, the origional engine was not a hemi. No telling how many different hemi's were between the framerails when Addison owned it. Maybe only one, maybe more, Mseven kept the last engine in the car that Addison ran.I think when we talk about the cars engine, we are talking about the engine that was in it when Addison owned it. Thats the engine that made the car what it was, right?

Pete K
Oct 3rd, 10, 12:34 AM
I think when we talk about the cars engine, we are talking about the engine that was in it when Addison owned it. Thats the engine that made the car what it was, right?

That is the one I was referring to, Assuming Addison only ran 1 hemi.
AmericanMuscle
Oct 3rd, 10, 2:01 AM
WOW just read this thread and am blown away by this story. Thank You M. Seven
for sharing it with fellow car guys no matter what brand. Love storys from the
"Good old days"

 

I have contacted Layne at Greenval and he he redoing an upgrading his
excellent Silver Bullet resource site. It is up and running again now.

http://www.greenval.info/#!silver-bullet/cqsc

 

Greg Charney was a young dyno operator at Chrysler and a contemporary of Jimmy Addison's
at that time. Greg became the Super Stock eliminator at the 1971 NHRA Indy Nationals.

Greg is still out there with a low 10 second street driven '68 Dart. Here is a true story by Andy
Thomas about Greg, Jimmy Addison, Jim Wangers and others in early '70's Detroit Street Racing.
___________________________________________________________________________

Street Racing in Detroit 1968-1970, Part 1
by Andy Thomas

In June of 1968, I graduated from college and began working as a dyno engineer at Chrysler Engineering in Highland Park, Michigan. While in school, I had read a lot about the street scene up in Detroit and about the street racing out on Woodward Ave. When I bought a shiny new 383 Road Runner in the fall, I was able to cruise Woodward myself. I even had one of those North Woodward Timing Association decals on my vent window. These looked like an NHRA decal of the era, until you read what it said and noticed that one of the cars in the middle was a police car, with its light flashing. There wasn’t as much street racing on Woodward as I thought there would be, but still, for a boy from Tennessee who loved fast cars, to be able to drive a performance car on the famed Woodward Ave was a dream come true! The hot street action wasn’t on Woodward anymore, it was now out on I-696, northwest of Detroit.
The Howard Johnson restaurant, which was located where Evergreen crosses I-696 in the town of Southfield, was where they met. The first time I went there was in the fall of 1968. Jim Wangers, the Pontiac advertising genius, was there with a GTO Judge. I had read about him too. During the late 50’s and 60’s, he worked closely with Pontiac to give them a performance image. The GTO was the product of Wangers and Pontiac division manager John DeLorean, and started the big-block/intermediate wave of muscle cars from GM. The Judge was considered the ultimate GTO. I only went to Howard Johnson’s a few times that fall because it was getting so cold, but I really thought it was cool. And oh, if I only had a really fast car, you know?
In December, or maybe it was January of 1969, I bought a broken Street Hemi car for $850. When I was in college, my dream car was a 350HP, 327 Chevy II, two-door sedan. You know, a sleeper. Well, this Hemi car was a dark navy blue ’66 Belvedere I, two-door sedan, with a Hemi, a four-speed, a 4.10 Dana, and nothing else. A super sleeper! The #2 main bearing had spun, so I had to have the block align bored and had to replace many other engine parts that had been damaged. Most of the stuff, I got from people I knew at work. For instance, I got the crankshaft from Walt Ulrich for $75. Walt was building engines for Bobby Isaac’s NASCAR Dodge. Former Golden Commando driver, Forrest Pitcock, gave me a used set of 11:1 pistons. And Sam Dow, one of my roommates at the Chicken Ranch, came up with an experimental hydraulic Street Hemi camshaft.
In the spring, I went back to Howard Johnson’s again. Tom Hoover was there with his low-twelve, Hemi Coronet. Wangers was now working for Hurst Performance and had an AMC/Hurst SC/Rambler. The SC/Rambler was a little Rambler econo-sedan, with a warmed-over 390 engine in it. The car had a 70’s style Pro Stock hood scoop with a rectangular slot for an opening. When Hoover saw the car, he went over and right in front of Wangers made fun of it, calling the red, white, and blue car, a “Nash Mailbox”.
By the time I had the ’66 going, Wangers was bringing a gold and white Hurst/Olds. Although Wangers’ cars weren’t always the fastest cars at Howard Johnson’s on Thursday nights, they were probably the most raced. For Wangers it was a game. He wouldn’t waste his time running an obviously slow car, nor would he risk getting beat by an obviously fast one, like Jimmy Addison’s 480-something cube, Hemi powered ‘67 GTX. What Wangers delighted in was humiliating some guy with a decent performance car, with his deceptively quick, stock appearing cars.
When a couple of guys wanted to race, they would drive out on 696 and slow down to 20 mph. Each driver had a rider. The rider between the two drivers would roll down his window and ask if the drivers were ready, and then count one - two - three. The drivers would time it so that their foot would slam the floorboard on the three count. The cars would then run up to a hundred or so and then shut down.
Some guys would show up with slicks and would run from a stop. Greg Charney, who had a Max Wedge 440 powered ’65 Satellite, and Addison, drove their cars with wrinkle-wall slicks all the time. Both cars would run mid to high eleven’s through the mufflers (the next year, both cars were into the ten’s). But, since most of the guys were using street tires, most of the races on 696 were from a 20 mph roll.
When Wangers or Addison or some other fast car would go out, the Howard Johnson parking lot would empty, as everyone would rush out to watch the action. Some would go out ahead and park alongside the road, while others would line up behind the racers to watch. A lot of spontaneous racing would then follow. I got involved in some of these races, running some really slow cars. Even though the ’66 had Hemi emblems behind the front wheelwells, they were hard to see, and everyone assumed it as a 383. I would do like a three-quarter throttle launch, easily pulling out a few car lengths, then throttle back. When we would get back to Howard Johnson’s I’d open the hood and show them it was a Hemi. Hey, they never asked until it was over, right! It didn’t take long, though, before everyone knew that the “black” Belvedere sedan was a Hemi car. But that was OK by me, because I was after bigger game.
You see, I had my sights set on Jim Wangers Hurst/Olds. But I didn’t want to run him until I thought I could beat him. When the Olds would go out to run someone, I would get out as quickly as I could, to try to get behind him. That way, I would be able to see how my Hemi matched with the Olds, without actually running him. But I would get stuck several cars behind him. The guys between us were always much slower than Wangers and I had to part-throttle it. Finally, one night, I did manage to get right behind him. As soon as I saw the two cars start to accelerate, I floored it. When the Olds shut down, he had maybe six or seven car lengths on me and I had about the same on the guy who was racing Wangers. Obviously, I needed a little more oomph.
One afternoon, when Chrysler’s race group was having a test day at Detroit Dragway, Sam Dow and I took the ’66 down to see what it would do. I borrowed some cheater slicks from Greg Charney. I don’t remember the ET, but it went 106 mph. While a bunch of us were making passes with it, Sam was filling Tom Hoover in on the car. I was hoping Hoover might come up with a set of free headers for it, since he was a big supporter of street racing at Chrysler. Finally, he came over and told me that the reason the car was “so slow” was because of the cam Sam had given me. He asked if I’d like to try a Racer Brown mechanical cam in it. I said I would, and suggested that perhaps a set of headers might be a better first choice. Tom grinned and said he thought there might be some headers lying around the Woodward Garage.
The Woodward Garage was Chrysler’s race development garage, which was located on Woodward Ave near Chrysler Engineering in Highland Park. The next day, I stopped by after work to see Hoover. He gave me the cam and an old set of headers. The headers were apparently for an automatic car, though, because I had to move one of the tubes over a little, which went through part of the clutch linkage. But, hey, they were free! He also came up with a set of 1-11/16 X 1-11/16 inch AFBs and an intake manifold with the primaries bored out to match. The part-throttle was so rich on them, though, that I only got five mpg, instead of the normal twelve. After one quick tank of Sunoco 260, the old carbs went back on!
With the Racer Brown cam, it now wouldn’t idle below 1000 rpm, nor would it take full throttle below 2000, nor did it have much oomph below 3000, but boy, would it run on the top end! I saw 7100 rpm in top gear once and it was still accelerating! Back at Detroit Dragway, I found the performance improved considerably: 111 mph through the mufflers, 115 mph with the headers open.
As the weather got warmer, the Thursday night races got bigger. Although many of the racers would patronize Howard Johnson’s, it got to the point where it was hurting business to have the parking lot full of loud cars and a large group of people milling around. The Southfield Police started coming down and running us off. About the third time this happened, a Chrysler engineer was relieving himself in a dark spot behind Howard Johnson’s. As one of the police cars pulled in, the headlights shined right on this guy, “exposing” him. To show they were really serous about us, the police wrote him up for indecent exposure (the judge through the case out). The lieutenant that came, told us that if we wanted a place to park and talk, we could use the parking lot on the north side of the Southfield Civic Center, just a half-mile up Evergreen. And, with a grin, he added that if we wanted to do “anything else”, to go outside of the Southfield City limits to do it. We agreed to that, a promise we kept. Actually, we policed ourselves, not allowing burnouts or other activity that might draw attention to us while at the civic center. Everyone slowly idled in and out of the parking lot and up and down Evergreen.
Now that the Belvedere was running a lot better, I was looking for someone who thought they were fast, to blow away. Sort of like what Wangers was doing. One Thursday night, about midnight, some Ford engineers showed up with a nice, new 428 Mustang. I had Dave Millerick, another Chrysler engineer, go over and check the Mustang out. One of the Ford guys eventually came over and asked what I was running. I lifted the hood and showed him. It appeared stock, except of course, for the headers. As nonchalantly as he could, he asked if I had run it at the dragstrip. With a show of pride, I told him it had gone 106 mph (I didn’t lie, remember, it HAD gone 106!). His eyebrows and the corners of his mouth simultaneously moved up slightly, which told me that he believed my story. He went over to talk to the other Ford engineer for a few minutes, then came back and asked if I’d like to run the Mustang. (Incidentally, although I was 23 at the time, I could easily pass for 16. No one would even have thought I was a Chrysler engineer.) As we started to get in our cars, they noticed that my rider and I were both small, and said that it wasn’t fair, since that gave us about a hundred pound weight advantage. I only weighed about 135 pounds and my rider, Tim Clark, weighed even less. No one had noticed this advantage before. I guess only an engineer would. I was anxious to put these guys away, so I pointed to Dave Millerick, who was probably more than a hundred pounds heavier than Tim, and asked if he would be OK. They grinned and said he would do.
As I said before, Dave had checked the Mustang out for me. They told him it was basically a stock 428 with dual quads, cam, headers, and gears. This was typical for the more serious cars that came out. On the three count, both cars accelerated at exactly the same rate. That is, until the Mustang got forth, at about 75 or 80. After that, Hemi “horse” power took over. I grabbed forth at 90 and by 110, when he ran out of gear, I had him by two or three car lengths. After we got back to the civic center, the Ford guy came over again and told me, with an “I just got suck in” look on his face, that the Hemi could do better than 106 mph!
Boy, I was really pumped now! The next week, I told Tim that we just had to get behind Wangers again. There wouldn’t be any six or seven car lengths this time! I was wandering around, talking to people, and just plain not paying attention to what was going on, when Tim ran over and told me that Wangers had just pulled out. Already, there were a lot of cars going down Evergreen, toward 696. By the time we got on 696, I couldn’t even see Wangers Olds. I speeded up and started cutting back and forth across lanes, cutting people off, in my effort to catch the Olds. Tim, already complaining because I had removed the heater from the car over the weekend, to save a little more weight, was jumping around on the seat, saying naughty things about my driving ability. Those that were getting cut off were doing the same, but with hand signals and flashing headlights!
For the first two miles, west of the Evergreen exit, 696 was three or four lanes wide, I forget, after which it split with two lanes going right as Northwestern Highway and two lanes going left as I-696. A mile or so past this split is where we raced. Back then, this was a dark and lonely stretch of road, late at night. As we got to the split, I was in the far left-hand lane and there were still two cars between us and the Olds. Determined to get behind Wangers, I pulled over on the left shoulder and with Tim spouting naughty words at an ever increasing rate, mashed the loud pedal. With a shower of dirt and gravel, we flew past the two cars. The cars had speeded up, to try to keep me from passing them, so we were all going quite fast as I cut in front. Because Wangers was slowing down for his race, I had to brake REAL hard. The two guys I had passed, smoked there tires trying not to rearend me. Fortunately, no one hit anyone. At this point, Tim made a few more unkind remarks.
The Olds was in the left lane, with me following about a car length behind. When I saw the Olds start to accelerate, I slammed the accelerator to the floor. Despite the slight head start that the Wangers car had gotten, I was able to stay with them, dropping back only a car length or so by the time they shutdown. The car Wangers had been racing, as well as the cars behind me, were now way, way behind. As the gold and white car slowed, it moved over to the right-hand lane. Wangers and his driver (Wangers always rode shotgun) were both looking back at us as they continued to slow down to 20 mph. Yes, they wanted to run us! Man, was I really excited now!
Tim rolled down his window as we got even with Wangers. On the three count, I floored it. The blond-headed kid, who drove for Wangers, jumped the start slightly and had a fender on me. As with the Mustang, we accelerated at exactly the same rate, initially. The Olds had an automatic in it and didn’t seem to lose ground during shifts. Shifting as hard as I could, I was dropping back a couple of feet with each shift. By the time I got fourth gear, my front bumper was even with his rear tire. But, that Hemi top-end charge was reeling the Hurst/Olds in, BIG TIME! I would have easily had him by a half-car by 110, except that they shutdown as my bumper got even with the door.
Back at the civic center, Tim and I went over and asked why they had shutdown so soon. The kid claimed that the quarter-mile was over. Tim pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that not only had he jumped the start, but he had shutdown at about a 100, when he knew good and well his car would go a lot faster than that in the quarter-mile. They refused a rematch, saying they had beaten us. I went back over to my car and a little while later Wangers came over, with an “I just got beat” look on his face. Neither of us said anything about the outcome of the race. We both knew who had the faster car! He only said, “You must have tuned it up”, remembering how I had dropped six or seven car lengths behind, a few weeks before. I told him that I had put some headers on it and that they had really perked it up, not mentioning anything about the Racer Brown cam. Wangers just nodded.
“140 Miles an Hour on I-696” read the byline to a front page story in the August 24th, Detroit Free Press newspaper. The story told about how “auto engineers” were out racing on I-696, under the nose of the Southfield Police Department, which was on the other side of the civic center complex from where we gathered. The article concluded with, “The meetings were initiated by some of the original proponents of performance cars. Many of those persons are now auto performance engineers and executives with the Detroit automakers”. A pretty good description of Tom Hoover and Jim Wangers, wouldn’t you say?
As you may have guessed already, the next Thursday night, the police lieutenant who had directed us to the civic center parking lot a few months before, was there to meet us. He thanked us for keeping our promise and being an orderly, law abiding group while in Southfield. He then told us that due to the bad publicity, he could no longer let us meet anywhere in Southfield that we did not have written permission to meet, emphasizing that arrests would be made. We understood.
Well…….I guess I really wasn’t too disappointed, though. After all, I’d beaten Jim Wangers, the legend of Woodward Avenue, at his own game!

Street Racing in Detroit 1968-1970, Part 2
By Andy Thomas

In 1959, at age thirteen, I fell in love with engines and spent most of my time during the next nine years working on or reading about them and the cars they powered. It was only natural, I guess, that I would want to work for an automotive company. In June of 1968, after graduating from college, I began working as a dyno engineer at Chrysler Engineering in Highland Park, Michigan.
People who like to go fast tend to congregate together and it didn’t take long to find out who there in the Engine Lab liked to go fast. One of those was Greg Charney, a dyno operator. Greg had a ’65 Sport Satellite with a 383 and four-speed, which was set up as an NHRA stock drag car. Soon after meeting him, I went down to help him change headers and the clutch one weekend.
As a “reward” for my service, late one night we went over to a deserted dead-end section of Northline Road, south of Detroit. There was a house at the end of the dead-end, but nothing else in the three-quarter mile stretch back to the first cross street. That night Greg overwhelmed the six or seven cars that were there. With seven-inch cheater slicks and quarter-mile gearing, the 383 would launch so hard that the race was over in the first second.
There was a kid there with his Dad’s six-cylinder Fairlane, who was emulating Charney’s engine in the sky and drop the clutch launches. Each time, the Fairlane’s tires would chirp, and everyone would cheer and clap. This excited the kid and he kept doing it until a chunk of differential came through the back of the axle housing. About this time, we saw a car coming down the road toward us from the cross street. Suspecting that the people in the house at the dead-end may have notified the authorities, we all jumped into our cars and slowly drove out. Sure enough, it was the police. We never did find out what happened to the kid in the Fairlane!
I had never ridden in a car with slicks on it before and just couldn’t believe how HARD the Satellite would launch. I was also impressed with Greg’s driving ability. I had seen Ronnie Sox at the Spring Nationals in Bristol a couple of times, and could tell there was something different about how Sox could change gears. Greg, who has incredible reflexes and coordination, had this same quality.
This was toward the end of 1968. At this time, the fastest street cars in the Detroit area were just getting into the elevens (through the mufflers). Greg wanted to join this elite group. He had come up with a set of Max Wedge heads and cross-ram intake manifold, and wanted to put them on a 440 short-block. Since this was a low-buck operation, he was scrounging up parts wherever he could find them. One of the things he came up with was a set of production 440 pistons. The piston guys in the Engine Lab told him that there was no way those cast pistons would live in a 7000 rpm engine. He also had to mill some off the tops, to keep them from smacking the closed-chamber heads, which made the situation even worse. But, because of the tight budget, he couldn’t afford custom forged pistons, so in they went. Greg put about 700 quarter-mile runs on them before one finally let go. In the 1990’s I saw Chuck Willits, a retired Chrysler piston guy, and he was still shaking his head about those pistons!
When I first moved to Metro Detroit, I lived with three other Chrysler engineers in an old farm house on Lahser Road in Southfield, northwest of Detroit. Because of the chicken coop out back, our place was known around Chrysler Engineering as the Chicken Ranch. (During 1969, four street racers emerged from the Chicken Ranch garage, my own ’66 Hemi Belvedere, Sam Dow’s Hemi powered ’62 Dart, Ted Flack’s 440 6-bbl powered ’65 Sport Satellite, and Charney’s car.) Since Greg lived in an apartment and winter was setting in, we told him he could bring his car up to the Chicken Ranch and he could build it there. Immediately the 383 was removed, so it could be sold to help finance the Max 440.
By the time Greg had enough parts to assemble the engine, it was February or March. The only heat we had for our rickety old garage was a kerosene heater, which we fired up when we wanted to work on something. The problem was that when the air inside the garage was heated, water would condense on everything, especially metal engine parts. To counteract this, we would spray everything down with WD-40, which lifts the water off the metal and try to blow off as much of the water as we could. As the engine was being assembled, we squirted a mixture of STP and engine oil over the WD-40 and water.
Sometime in March, I believe, we stuck the engine in the Satellite. Greg and Sam Dow, one of the guys who lived there, took it out to “break it in”. They were gone a looong time! I was beginning to think that maybe I should go looking for them when I saw them walking up the driveway, with two-foot wide grins and a two-foot long piece of twisted driveshaft!
Greg had been doing holeshots and through the gear “tests” on the I-696 service drive. On the last one, when he hit fourth, the ball and trunnion on the front of the driveshaft separated. By the time he got the car stopped, the driveshaft had beaten itself into three pieces.
A few weeks later, after installing a hefty yoke-type driveshaft, Greg showed up at the Howard Johnson’s on the I-696 service drive, only about a mile from where the old shaft had let go. For several years now, this Howard Johnson’s restaurant had been the staging area for Detroit’s fastest street cars. They met on Thursday nights, beginning about 10 PM. Tom Hoover’s low-twelve, ’66 Hemi Coronet was the fastest car there for a couple of years. In 1968, I believe, a stroker big-block Camaro became the champ. To rectify this problem, Hoover managed to get a ’67 GTX test car in the hands of Jimmy Addison, along with enough parts to build a 480-something cubic-inch Hemi with a “Rat Roaster” intake, to regain the title for Chrysler. In ’69, Jimmy’s car, which later became known as the Silver Bullet, would run mid to high eleven’s through the mufflers. Now, this was before the big tube Super Turbo and Flowmaster types of mufflers we have today. Chrysler racers usually ran what we called Street Hemi mufflers, which used 2 ¼” tubes. Actually, these mufflers came on all the Chrysler performance B and E-body cars.
One of the regulars at Howard Johnson’s was Jim Wangers, the Pontiac advertising genius. During the late 50’s and 60’s, he worked closely with Pontiac to give them a performance image. The GTO was the creation of Wangers and Pontiac division manager John DeLorean. They considered the Judge to be the ultimate GTO. The first time I saw Wangers, in the late fall of 1968, he brought out an orange Judge. Although Wangers’ GTO wasn’t always the fastest car on Thursday nights, it surely was the most raced car. For Jim Wangers it was all a game. He wouldn’t waste his time running an obviously slow car, but on the other hand, he wouldn’t risk getting beat by an obviously fast one, like Addison’s GTX, which was driven in with eleven-inch slicks and idled at about 1500 rpm. What Wangers delighted in was humiliating some “stroke” with a worked over performance car.
In Detroit car-speak of the late 60’s, a “stroke” was a person who thought he knew something about cars, but didn’t. The kind of guy who would run a big cam with a stock exhaust system. Or, a big double-pumper and a single-plane intake with a stock torque converter and gearing. Or, all of the above in a 318 C-body. I’m exaggerating a little, but I think you get the idea.
When Charney showed up at Howard Johnson’s the first time with his Maxy 440, one of Wangers cronies came over and started interrogating him and his rider, Al Adams, the Chrysler engineer who developed the “J” torque converter. Now the car was far from being a sleeper. It was jacked up with super-stock springs, had seven-inch cheater slicks, and no back seat. Also, it had an Isky 1012B cam, so it didn’t idle too well. And it was kind of loud, with a three-inch H-pipe and three-inch truck mufflers. If that wasn’t enough, it had a super-stock deep oil pan that hung down four or five inches below the K-member. But it did still have the 383 emblem on the hood ornament. Greg and Al acted like a couple of strokes, explaining that the rough idle was due to a Crower race cam, etc, etc. They never opened the hood. Wangers bit and asked if they’d like to run the GTO. As nonchalantly as they could, they accepted.
The races at Howard Johnson’s were run like this. When two guys had decided to race, they would drive out on I-696 and slow down to 20 mph. Each driver had a rider. The rider between the two drivers would roll down his window and ask if the drivers were ready, then count one-two-three. The drivers would time it so that their foot would hit the floorboard on the three count. The cars would then run up to about a hundred or so and shut down. The 20 mph rolling start was used in Detroit because most guys were running street tires. Only a few, like Addison and Charney, would run from a standing start.
When Wangers or Addison or some other fast car would go out, the Howard Johnson parking lot would empty, as everyone would rush out to watch. Some would go out ahead and park alongside the road, while others would line up behind the racers. A lot of spontaneous racing would then follow.
When Charney lined up against the Judge, it was basically over at the three count. With quarter-mile gearing, the cross-ram 440 was right in its torque range at 20 mph in first gear. The Satellite jumped five or six car lengths ahead of the GTO immediately, and then continued to pull away. Jim Wangers had been snookered!
Wangers’ crony, who had arranged the defeat of the Judge, tried to save face a few weeks later, by arranging a race between the Satellite and a big-block ’67 Corvette. Since the ‘Vette had tall gearing, this race was also from a 20 mph roll. The 440 jumped out three or four car lengths immediately and maintained a slight lead until it ran out of gear at maybe 130. This is the only car that was able to get by the ’65. It certainly couldn’t be called a drag race defeat, though.
Charney later beat Wangers GTO again with his other car, a stone stock ’68 Hemi Road Runner. The RR had a four-speed and a 3.54 Dana. For street racing, he would sometimes put the cheater slicks from the Satellite on it. On a 20 mph roll start, he would slip the clutch with the engine revved up, and dump the clutch and floor the throttle on the three count. The car would leap out one full car length, like right now! Being super coordinated, Greg could do this so smoothly, that unless you were sitting in the car watching his feet, you didn’t know what had happened. I’m embarrassed to admit that I tried this a couple of times with my own four-speed Hemi car. I won’t say any more, except it increased my appreciation of Greg’s driving ability. Once the Thursday night crowd figured out what he was doing, they told him it was cheating.
It seems that no matter where we were going, or in which car, Greg always had to power shift into second. I learned really quick that when I was riding in the Road Runner, that unless I wanted my knee bonked during the one-two shift, I had to hold the glove compartment door closed. I let him drive my Hemi Belvedere once. Every time he got second, the exhaust pipe would pull out of the header reducer on the left side. Greg started fussing at me because I didn’t have a clamp holding it together. I told him, “Look, it never comes out when I drive it!”
The Chrysler race group had a test day at Detroit Dragway soon after Greg’s encounter with Wangers. Greg and I went down in the afternoon to see what his ’65 would do. My recollection is that it went 11.70’s at 117 with the headers open. Tom Hoover was there. He had already heard about how Greg and Al had put Wangers away and now was able to see the car perform first hand. I think he was as impressed with Greg’s driving ability as I was. He asked Greg if he would do some Max Wedge camshaft testing for the race group. A week or so later we came back for the whole day. The advantage of volunteering to do this testing was that the “best” camshaft stayed in the engine.
One of the early additions to the car was a set of eleven-inch slicks, in place of the cheater slicks. The seven-inchers just weren’t enough for the cross-rammed 440. As I said before, I had never ridden in a car with slicks, until this one. With the 383 and cheater slicks, the launch was awesome. Or at least that’s what I thought until the 440 and eleven-inchers went on it! I think the passenger seat must still have an impression of my backbone in it.
One evening, we went to the Baskin-Robbins in a shopping center near the Chicken Ranch. The parking lot had recently been repaved. As we were starting to leave, Greg pulled a holeshot. It felt particularly strong. Greg hopped out and let some air out of the slicks (I never saw the car with street tires on back), and tried another holeshot. This one was followed by a “kerclunk” in the front. As the car rolled to a stop, we looked at each other with our eyes and mouths wide open. Greg told me to get out and watch. Sure enough, the front wheels were coming off the pavement about three or four inches. This is the only blacktop we found that would carry the front wheels, and believe me, we tested every stretch of pavement in the Detroit area. Fresh concrete would work too, if the tire pressure was right.
By the summer of 1969, Greg was looking for ways to lighten the car some. He then caught wind of some fiberglass parts that some guy in Romeo, Michigan had. Romeo, which is about 30 miles north of Detroit, was a small farm town out in the middle of nowhere. So one day, Greg, Ted Flack, and myself drive up to Romeo. The guy had told us to come to the Sunoco station and he’d take us to see the parts. So when we get there, we all pile into this guy’s Dart. The thing is loud and raunchy sounding and has a manual shift, push-button Torqueflite in it. Every time the guy pushes a button, it’s like whiplash city. He takes us way out into the sticks and pulls in front of a big red barn. We all get out and look at each other, wondering what’s in the barn.
Well, the first thing I did after entering the barn was pinch my leg, to see if I was dreaming. There were cross-ram manifolds and carbs lying around everywhere and Hemi stuff hanging on the walls. And, now sit down for this one, a bare ’65 altered-wheelbase car, just parked there on the dirt and straw. And I’m thinking about what the guys at Howard Johnson’s would say if someone showed up with that one Thursday night! Greg got one front fender, a set of doors, a hood, and a trunk lid for his Satellite.
With the ‘glass parts and a Dana, that replaced the 8 ¾ axle, which seem to break daily, and some Hoover inspired engine improvements, the car was eventually capable of 11.57 at 121 mph. This was late 1969 or early 1970. About this time was when the piston broke in the 440. Rather than rebuild the Max 440, the car was turned into a Hemi powered A/MP racer, which would run 10.30’s at 133 mph. On two occasions, the three-inch exhaust system was reinstalled on the car during 1970, for street duty.
After that first wheelie in 1969, Greg and I had searched high and low for another piece of pavement that had the traction of that parking lot. One night, we went up to a new stretch of brushed concrete expressway, on M-59, just east of Pontiac, where we had heard some guys were meeting. The guys there just couldn’t believe how Greg could carry the front wheels that night. It was this same stretch of highway that he took the car to in Hemi powered, A/MP trim in 1970.
The first time, he had challenged a big-block Chevelle to a standing start drag race. Ted Flack was riding shotgun that night. The ‘glass doors on the car had Lexan windows that were permanently mounted in place. This presented a problem for street racing. Flack, who was between the drivers, couldn’t count down for the start. Finally, Greg told him to just tell the guy to start when he was ready, in essence giving the Chevelle a head start. Ted opened the door, hollered that message to the guy above the engine noise and slammed the ‘glass door shut. Greg put the engine in the sky and watched the Chevelle. As it started to move, Greg dropped the clutch and jammed the loud peddle to the floor. The twelve-inch slicks hooked, BIG TIME, and the Satellite immediately shot past the Chevelle. Ted says he had to look down to see the other car as they passed by!
Early in 1969, Jimmy Addison had become the undisputed king of the streets around Detroit. By the fall, though, Greg’s Satellite was just as quick, if not quicker. They had never run each other or at the same dragstrip at the same time, but both cars could run mid to high elevens through the mufflers. For 1970, Addison’s GTX was sporting a Pro Stock-style induction system with a pair of 4500 Holleys, and an amazingly quiet (for a race car), four Cadillac muffler exhaust system, and was now running 10.80’s. Of course the Satellite, now also Hemi powered, was going 10.30’s with open headers. Although Greg had never run it at the strip, with his three-inch street exhaust system, he felt he could take Jimmy. He and Jimmy decided to meet one night to see just who was the King.
They met up on M-59, at the Adams Road exit, not far from where Chrysler’s tech center is now located. Also, a big-block Camaro showed up. Greg and Jimmy always drove their cars “to the races”. Both cars were licensed and fully street legal. This Camaro had been trucked in and didn’t even have an exhaust system on it. As the two Chrysler street racers were getting ready for their “heat”, the Camaro was backing off the truck. Before Jimmy and Greg could get lined up, they saw a flashing blue light approaching, and both slowly drove away, leaving the guy in the Camaro to do the explaining!
Well, we’ll never know if the Satellite was King or not, because not too long after this it was sold, less the powertrain, to finance an A-990 Dodge, with which Greg won Super Stock Eliminator at the 1971 Indy Nationals. Greg’s been told that the Satellite was raced for a couple of years, then sat neglected behind someone’s house for a few more years, and finally was “pushed into a pond”. Oooh……..if only!