Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: More from Mickey Thompson... Continue reading the Original Blog Post
That is amazing! One of my speed idols from back in the day of junior high. It was so cool to see and hear him. Thanks for sharing!
Here's a (degraded) COLOR version of the footage used in the "ADVENTURE TOMORROW - The Fastest Man on Wheels" (B&W) television broadcast:
Thanks for sharing! Does anybody have a picture of the 1960 Pontiac wagon push starting Challenger I???
Though I often see him using a ‘59, in the video they're using mostly a '60. The top image you posted is of Challenger in 1959, when it was light blue & before he added the blowers.
I read his book Challenger back when it first came out in the 60's It tells pretty much his history of hot rodding all up through when he made the record runs. A part that has always stuck with me was that back in the early days he would go around behind shops in the evening and scavenge their scrap bins and piles for pistons and parts he could use in the engine he was racing with. His wife bought him a boring bar so he could fit the different size pistons in the blocks. That concept of an engine having pistons with different bore sizes would blow minds now.
Hey JB, Nice story on Mickey Thompson. He was a very creative automotive genius and his ideas were right on the money on most things that his shop put together in all aspects of car racing. With the accolades of the recent trials and tribulations of Danny Thompson at Bonneville, it brought up the memories of early Mickey Thompson from back in the 1959-61 era Long Beach. My brother and I had history with Lions, Mickey Thompson and his Westside Long Beach shop. It was a bicycle ride close to our home on the Westside. As manager of Lions, he saw us racing the 58 black Impala almost weekly for a couple of years. Then as we built the 40 Willys with the SBC, then the SBC with a 671, he began to take notice of these two brothers that always showed up at Lions. We also showed up at his neighborhood shop with the Impala and one day showed them the nearly finished 1940 Willys Coupe. He was very popular at Lions, the local newspapers, and his exploits as a supporter of Pontiac motors of all kinds. His racing ideas were one of a kind, while his shop had some terrific mechanics and cars that rolled out of the doors. It is fitting to write about him on a Saturday post as that was “THE” day for all of us hot rod/drag race guys/girls to enjoy racing and having fun. We were devastated when we read about his passing years later and the multiple stories that filled the papers for months. Our association with his company was only an inkling of what he had his fingers into at the time from 1959-62. Who would have thought that he would approach a couple of neighborhood brothers about a special project to showcase our Impala and his Pontiac motor builds. Jnaki When the Impala/Pontiac story unfolded and had its ending, we were sad. But we realized that no more creativity would be forthcoming from that camp for quite some time. 671 Pontiac motor This is what Mickey Thompson’s Shop in Long Beach wanted to put in our 58 Impala for the Gas Coupe and Sedan class, but use it as a daily driver, school, work, race on the weekends, etc. Would it have worked? A Street sleeper? Not with this set up showing. Jnaki Well, that scenario did not work out as my brother said, “No, that 58 Impala was going to be a race car built to drive on the street. It was not going to be a reliable daily driver.” He needed it for going to the doctor and rehab, my mom needed it once a week for shopping, I was the daily driver of the 58 Impala, and thought that set up would have been wonderful…But, it remained as is, without that huge motor sticking out of the engine compartment. I, instantly, could see my mom driving that motor set up to the shopping mall or to buy groceries. What a sight that would be…! ASIDE: Within a year, more of these “hybrids” started showing up at the So Cal dragstrips in the Gas Coupe and Sedan classes. Stock bodied Pontiac, Chevy, Ford cars with huge motors sticking out of the engine compartment. The weight vs horsepower, an interesting combination...for sure. Streetable? That remained to be seen, but we were grateful to the Mickey Thompson Shop for offering that choice of builds for our 58 Impala. The “what if” scenarios were abundant for many years and were the topic of family discussions annually. The hot topic would have certainly been… cruising around our famous Bixby Knolls drive in parking lot and local Cherry Avenue Drags. What an impression that would have been back then. Our 1940 Willys 671/SBC already made a hit at the drive in, now a year later, this would have pushed the limits through the roof. Here is a story I wrote about Mickey Thompson a year ago in a HAMB thread. Hello, We lived about three blocks from Mickey Thompson’s Shop on the Westside of Long Beach in 1956-60. We knew the shop manager because we used to go to that shop to get our weekly Drag News and see what was happening over there. There was always something new going on all of the time. New parts, hot rod talk, build ideas, were all topics of conversation in the “stand around” shop visits. From 58-60, they also knew us from driving the 58 Chevy Impala at Lions Dragstrip. They had seen it racing and winning trophies at Lions in the A/Stock class. But, by 1960-61, we had a Racer Brown Cam, 4:56 gears and a new C&O Stick Hydro in the Impala. They were impressed that we used that Impala for a tow vehicle for our 40 Willys Coupe in 1960. We were backyard hot rodders, they were the pros. But, they still liked our set up in the Impala. When we had the 40 Willys in the carburetor SBC version (initial build in early 1960) they liked the set up we had built. Plus, it was instant recognition that the black 58 Chevy Impala was the tow car and always lined up behind the Willys when it was ready to race at Lions on the starting line. So, after many runs a Lions with the carburetor SBC version and then the 671 larger SBC rebuild, they were totally impressed with our attempt to win in the C/Gas coupe class. We had driven the Willys over to the shop a couple of times and also towed it over when we got the 671 set up later with the 58 Impala. Several months after our accident with our 40 Willys at Lions, my brother and I got a call from the shop manager at Mickey Thompson’s Shop in Long Beach. He had a proposal for us. How would we like to have a 671 blown Pontiac Motor installed in our 58 Impala? It would be an easy install as the motor would hook up to the C&O transmission easily and they would do all of the conversion work. They would have two 4 barrels in place of the Hilborn Two Port Injectors. Since this Impala was our daily driver, it had to be reliable on the street. We were sure they could have figured out how to make the Hilborn Two Port unit work for the street, but dual quads would be easier to adjust. Why??? They wanted to experiment with the Pontiac Motor on the street and the drags. The idea was to show everyone that these motors were reliable in all sorts of race cars and street cars. The shop had a multitude of race cars for all types of racing, from drag racing, to Bonneville speed runs, and to Indy cars. This was going to be a one of a kind racer/street cruiser/daily driver to school and work.
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