History A History of the Anglia Gasser

Jerry Underwood’s Denver, Colorado based, A/Gas ’48 Anglia was never an underdog. A 427 big-block Chevy moved the English import swiftly downtrack.

 

Anyone know anything about this car? I sure would like to know more about it.

 

All-steel front end and unblown small-block Chevy power was the starting point for the Herrera & Sons ’48 Anglia. “Doug’s Headers” was original header firm founded by Doug Thorley.



The Jim Shores & Skip Hess ’48 Anglia used blown Chevy power to gain a reputation as an A/GS headliner. Wheels-up launches and big-noise were its trademark.



Jim Shores later ran a chopped-top, blown big-block Anglia called “Fireball Shores”. Still intact was the original car’s wheels-up launches.

 

Kohler Brothers’ “King Kong” started out as an unblown B/Gasser with injected, small-block Chevy power before adding blown big-block Chevy for A/GS.




Steve Korney’s “Goldfinger” was built for match racing but ran often in BB/Altered with blown Chrysler Hemi power.

 

Panella Brothers ran a Southern Cal trucking business, and ran this famous blown Chevy powered, B/GS Anglia, “Il Padrone” in Super Eliminator. Driver Ken Dondero was a master of 8,500 rpm, power-shifts with a modified, crash-box Muncie M-22 four-speed.



Al Mahoney RJ Potter




Al Mahoney



Al's Gasser



Bad Trip



Becker & Oconnell 6 cylinder gasser





inside



Betz & Robinson

 

out of one of my old Mags

 

Blairs Speed shop











Blue Fox. Anyone familiar with this one ? Could that be a Ford FE engine?

 

An all time favorite

Bob Panella Trucking. Note the tiny lightweight head lights,

 

BobbinBear



Carl Fumerelle The Mongoose



Casper



Classical gas











Crandall & Sandberg

 

Don Spangler



Eckard & Kirk



Eddie Flore Locomotion 4 door anglia



Extinction



Flora & Graham



Fossil


Fossil again

 

Four Horse Men













Gene Altizerizer SS



This time spelled Altizer?

 

Goldfinger this day as BB/A

 

A few of George Montgomery's HurstGasserPasser









Golddigger II



Heats On



again



Heffernan & Kaiser



again



Hicks & Son

 

Holeshot 6





again



Jack Holey's Wild Yellow Jack Get


Jennings & Miller



Jim Shores Fireball Shores vs Jack COONROD




another angle



Shores alone



Jim Sather




JJ Mihalko



Knob Hill Speed & Custom

 

Bell & Zalewski

 

Well is Kohler Brothers KING KONG day. Lots of photos of this one. Hard to keep them all together the sites have them under several names.




















If you think this was a popular car because of all the photos wait a minute and look below.

 

THIS has got to be the most popular Anglia I have found. The site had over FIFTY photos of the two cars.

That brings up the question is it the same car that used two different names or TWO different cars. See below.




vs King Kong




vs ford T bolt




Note the single wheelie BAR















Wait not done yet LOL

 

Same car

With NICE T bird tow car

 

Still the same doing some maintenance. Good suspension and disc brake shots











OK NAME change or sponsor added MIRROR GLAZE

 

THIS starts where the confusion sets in NEW NAME, NEW EXTRA CAR, or what?

Meet the Shore Hess SKIPPER'S CRITTER










Fake or what? No slicks wrinkles, jack or something just peaking out of the shadows in front of the wheel

 

I think the Shores & Hess car kind of went from injected small block, to blown small block, to blown big block, to Shores chopped blown big block, to Pittman Brothers blown Hemi, to crashed.

No one has said that was the history, just kind of what I've read between the lines.

The car was such an icon, that it would be worth restoring no matter what the condition -- if it hasn't been turned into Toyotas.

BTW I do think the suspension was updated more than once. I think Don Long had a lot to do with it.

 

I think Larry T has it exactly right! Shores and Hess, Skippers Critter, Fireball Shores, Pittman Brothers, Crashed!
All the same car, including the Don Long involvement. Sad ending for a great race car.

 

I do realize that assumptions will get you burned sometimes, but here's kind of the way I see the car going.

 

AWESOME stuff I knew one of our Hambers would know. Thanks to Larry T and Oldracer for the info.

 

BTW, Byron Stack (originator of Byron's Gasser Madness - RIP) was a crew member for Skip Hess. He said the car was originally built to do battle with Loper's Little Hoss Anglia, but he didn't think they ever ran against each other.

 

OK, Here's the way I know the Shores & Hess story. It's a little involved so bear with me.

Skip Hess moved from his native Chicago to San Diego where he built a '32 Coupe with a 354" HEMI and raced it at Paradise Mesa. After getting a degree i Mechanical Engineering he sold the 32 and bought new 62 Vette which he set up for C/MSP with a Hilborn injected 375" small block, The car was known as Wildbeast and set the National Record. In '64 Skip met Jim Shores and they decided to build an Anglia to go after Johnny Loper's Lil Hoss that was setting records in A/G (unblown). So they had Don Long build the car and they off match racing it, first with an injected motor, and then the First Blown Small Block Chevy in an Anglia. It was Hilborn injected and backed by a 4 Speed Muncie. This combo was Not legal for NHRA but AHRA was fine with it. Skip wanted to run a B&M Hydro due to the unpredictability of the 4 speed with the short wheelbase and big power (The same issue my Blair's Speed Shop had). But JIm Shores wanted to stay with the 4 speed so the Shores and Hess Anglia became Skip Hess's Skipper's Critter. Jim teamed up with the Kohler Bros and the King Kong Anglia using a Blown small Block 4 speed combo in that car as well. The marriage only lasted a few months, but there are pictures of the Kohler Bros & Shores livery on the car. With the change to the B&M Skip set the A/GS record at 137.40 at Half Moon Bay raceway. Jim Shores was there and saw the error of his ways so he left the Kohler's and went back to being Shores & Hess. The Big Block Chevrolet had just come out and the Kohler's put a blown 396 in their car - Shores and Hess would do the same a week or so later. This is also when the name "Rat Motor" came into being, Skip had the legendary race car lettering guru Jack Burr paint "rat Motor" on the Injection Scoop as a poke at the HEMI guys who had always called the small block the mouse motor with the HEMI being the Elephant. With the swap to the BBC they also picked up the Meguiar's sponsorship. Within a couple of years Skip decided to leave drag racing leaving the car to Jim Shores to race at which time the name changed on the car to Fireball Shores and the Meguiar's Crest. Jim had the car chopped soon after. Skip came back to drag racing with help from Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen and Ford and built a Fiberglas Mustang A/GS car known as the Revell Kit Mustang. in 1968 Shores sold the car to the Pittman bros. (KS Pittman was also running a Willys). The Pittman bros rolled the car and it was parted out after that - a Sad end to a famous car. A cool side bar, in 1973 Skip, with the help of Drag Racer BIll Miller (who still runs a T/F Dragster) started a bicycle business and named it after his old buddy - Mongoose Bicycles. They sponsored McEwen's funny cars for 10 years

Now you can't really tell the Skipper's Critter story without the Kohler Bro's King Kong as well. The Kohler car also started off as an injected small block car and they were the first to put a then new 396 Chevy in an Anglia. With the SBC the car had won the Winternationals in A/G at 9.85 in 1966. When Jim Shores and Skip Hess had a spat, Jim went off to the rival Kohler team for a short time while it was still a SBC car. That "396" was really 427" and then soon 454 and because it wasn't NHRA legal for Gas they entered the 67 Winternationals in AA/Altered and won Super Eliminator against perennial favorite Hugh Tucker's 1928 Chevy AA/SR running 9.42 at 145.63. hey got the car down to 9.25 at 151.21 before the end of the season before selling it to Chuck and Joe Pacini (With help from older brother Larry) and they repainted it and named it Showdown. The Pacini's ran it quite successfully for a few years, although it became best known for its spectacular tranny explosion, until rule changes made the Gasser's obsolete.

So in 1976 they sold it to Paul Thompson of New York who made a street Rod out of it! In 77 he traded it to Chris O'Conner for another car. In 79 Chris sold it to Carlos Cedeno . In '84 Carlos trades it to Jack Leonard, but then in 1987 he gets it back in another trade and then figures out that it is the King Kong car - he subsequently restores it to it 1960's style.

 

[QUOTE="loudbang, post: 11900719, member: 226490"



Fake or what? No slicks wrinkles, jack or something just peaking out of the shadows in front of the wheel
[/QUOTE]
That head on shot is interesting as it is still under the Skippers Critter paint but is the Chop Top. That does not fit the generally accepted timeline for the car Hmmmmmm

The other shot is in the staging lanes. Can't remember if it was supposed to be a wheelie shot or just a "working on it" shot.