Anyone cruising the streets of Charlotte in 1965 will remember Horace Hart's 409-425 horse 4-speed '56 Chevy. It was a beautiful black Bel Air HT. He had it set up for street racing (looked stock) and I don't believe he was ever beat with it in '63-'65. He had sold the engine and then the car by the time the big block 427 came out.
It's funny you just posted because I had time to kill in front of the TV tonight (my 1914 house doesn't do well in today's 90 degree heat...) I know I saw a color photo of that along with the b&w magazine photo shown above. I couldn't find it, but I did find this post: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tri-five-chevys-lets-see-em.206159/page-43#post-8973273 there are a few more photos a few posts down from it, in that thread. I'm not saying it's the very same car, but it is sort of an interesting coincidence... Gotta56forme/Scott
@gotta56forme Dang. How long did that take ?? Here's the full sized for you. Compare away ! Thanks for sleuthing for us all. Wow. So what do you think then ?
Spending Sundays at "The Pond" (San Fernando drag strip) exposed one to many high quality racers of the time. Another big hitter was the Scribner bros. and their similar '56. It seems the high quality guys copied one another on that rear radius shape.
I went to high school with Eric and watched that '56 evolve in the right direction, sometimes week to week. He 'inched up' on everything he did to that car (collecting data) to see if it worked or not. Pretty impressive for that time. Eric was one of those people we all like to be around. Every area around the country has it's own local hero, Rex Carson was ours. On the cutting edge of most things automotive. His work was subtle but solid. So I'm really not surprised the '56 (I'm just assuming this is the same car) looks and performed like it did.
Eric sold the 56 to Mike Tollack who put a 427 in it. I don’t remember Mike taking it to the strip, but he did drive and race it on the street around Glendale in the late sixties. He sold it because Uncle Sam was calling, where it went after that, I don’t know, but I believe i’ve seen it on Pinterest. Beautiful car!!
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