Hi all, While going through some old photos I found some of a load of hemi motors and a new chassis research K-88 frame. It was 1987/1988 and I was looking over an add in the bargain news for about 8 hemi motors and parts, all for $500.00. With a phone call made and cash in hand my brother and I headed down to Derby, CT. We got there and found Chrysler, DeSoto and Dodge Hemis and parts. The deal was all or nothing, $500.00. The back story was a divorce, stuff left behind, house sold and now on moving day the stuff is going. We loaded up everything and headed out and back to Torrington. While on the way I spotted a dragster chassis sitting on the side of a garage. We stopped and talked to the owner who was cleaning out his garage and said he and his brother bought the chassis new in 1960 and never built the car. Some back and forth and seeing the truck load of hemis and he sold me the chassis for $100.00. The hemis consisted of enough parts to build a 440” 392, 4 bolt mains, aluminum rods, filled A1 block and built heads. Also an injected 325 dodge red ram. The rest was just stock stuff. I think that @nickthebandit bought the chassis and some of the 392 stuff and the injected 325 dodge went to Don Garlits when I was living in Gainesville. Cliff Ramsdell 150” TE448 Clutchflite, 301 SBC, 55-64 Chevy rearend.
i was about 3/4 way through your story when after ya loaded the dragster I thought then selma hayek was in my bathtub covered in 100 dollar bills holdin 2 PBR's ,,, then i woke up ,,, actually awsome score im 53 and pop and i built a altered in 82 ,ran it 10yrs , man i rember the want ads back then saw a SOHC ford for 1800 ,, man those were the days not so much for the prices but because the stuff was still around ,,, fabricator john miss you dad
Man... I haven't heard the name "Bargain News" in a long time. When I was a kid, I'd buy them with my own money and read them front-to-back. Man, you brought back some great memories!
Cliff, thanks for the mention. I later sold the dragster chassis to Fred Wise from Delaware. I don't know what he did with it after that.
Oh, to reminisce on 1986 prices and availability of Hemi stuff. This car was advertised in the paper for $5 grand. I called and talked to the owner, and found out it had 100 runs, 50 with a SBC, and 50 with the 331 Chrysler shown here, both engines ran Nitro. Back then, it was just an outdated race car, and not legal for NHRA, and was direct drive. It was a top of the line Junior Fuel Car, when built in 68. Fuller Chassis, Covell body, Keith Black engine. It had Cerney paint, and Kelly lettering. I passed on it, and a few months later, a friend and I bought it for 5,000 from the guy who bought it. We hustled, put a 6-71 on it, and ran it at the Nostalgia Nationals @ Fremont in '86. Oh yeah, it came with an enclosed trailer too !
@Marty Strode how true on the pricing in the 80’s. The TE-448 car was a basket case (literally, it was all piled into 3 roll around commercial laundry baskets) that I found in a garage in Bakersville, CT and bought it complete except a motor and including clutch’s, cans and headers for both SBC and Dodge Red Ram Hemi. Sold it to a guy at the Garlits show who was a friend of Dons and ran the same chassis Car back in the day called the “Giant Killer“ Your 5k purchase is great and that money won’t buy wall art today. I love those old front engine car’s and my boys always said I was nuts and there was no way they would straddle the transmission and differential in one. I’ll look for more pics. Cliff Ramsdell
Cliff, About the same time, my friend Tom Willford bought this Chassis Research FL 44 minus engine for $550.00, as I remember. It had been lengthened, but it was very simple to return it to it's original wheel base of 104". It had the V-8 Halibrand with Scotty designed floaters on the rear.
The Jalopy Journal
