History Bonneville Record Car / NEED HELP!

Josh (@Hyfire) -

A1) The speeds are typically slower @ El Mirage due to the much shorter race course ... more so than the surface, temperature, & altitude of the race course.

A2) Not sure about "back then" ... but would guess runs were held on Saturday and/or Sunday,

A3) Van Nuys hot rodders Harold Johansen Jr., Jimmy Khougaz, Ben Harper, and Don Clark & Clem Tebow (of C-T Automotive fame) formed the Road Masters car club and affiliated themselves with the S.C.T.A. in 1949 ... The club was disbanded in the late '60s

 

Any more news, Josh?

 

Great stuff! Love how you're adding to the archive of historic material along with preserving and sympathetically restoring the car to running condition.

That Bob D'Olivo photo looks like the one used in the Grant Piston Ring ad.

 

Ran across in a a copy of the January 1962 Cars magazine a very short two page article on Norm's 1960 Dodge Phoenix with the blown 450 ci wedge motor. Photos were not very good but I did scan and enhance the best ones.

 

I am Doug Lovegrove's granddaughter and would be happy to answer any questions you have about him or if there is anything I could ask him!

 

Hi. any updates? Taken it for a drive yet?

 

Super Find !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4TTRUK

 

Josh (@Hyfire) - Great stuff! ... Thanks for keeping this thread alive!


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

any progresse, cool need to see more

 

What a great post ! So much history, it almost makes you think you wer there !

 

Hyfire, Just saw your thread,don't know how I missed it. Back in '62 I bought a '56 300B
and fell in love with Chrysler letter cars. It was white with a saddle interior, but what
stumped me was the standard shift gear box. I didn't find out until 2010 that Chrysler
only produced 8 standard shift 300 B's. I should have kept it,because it's way out of my
price range today. To be truthful ,when I was a lot younger the 300 'B was only one of
the cars I should have held on to. Being older and wiser I do know all about hind sight
being 20/20.
God luck and much enjoyment with your 300'D.

...................Jack

 

Hyfire,
Cool car, nice find.
It was standard practice for Chrysler to run the fuel line inside the front frame rails on the big "C" body cars (the ones with the boxed bolt on frames, not unibody sheet metal affairs) from at least the early 60s through the mid 70s. The later cars used a steel line that entered the frame at the end of the rail, behind the trans crossmember and exited at the front, near the fuel pump. Worked out great until the frame rail filled with junk and rotted the steel line out. I changed a lot of those steel lines when I worked at the gas station in the early 70s. Gene

 

Chrysler 300 club, WPC museum.

 

Maybe Chrysler started doing the fuel line inside the frame after they saw what your guy did? Wouldn't be the first time something from racing turned up in production cars. Gene

 

Here's the pic used for Ad in early 60's Hot Rod mag.

 

Hyfire, what a fantastic car and history!
What a great job on the documenting and revival.
What happened to the videos? They say "removed by owner"...

As for the curb feelers you mentioned more than a couple times, here's a thought.
You mention he had a good sense of humor and played the "old man" bit to others. I wonder if he had them on the car to keep this image going.

 

Nothing low quality about the photo shown. Car looks eminently restorable to its record condition. Hard to imagine it was ever on salt, unless it was a rainless year.

 

I have had more than one Bonneville racer that knew Norm Thatcher very well say he never drove fast on the street, curb feelers are not a far stretch.

 

Just came across this thread as the weather in the Northeast is not user friendly unless you're indoors. I'm now subscribed waiting to see the video of the first drive down the road. Nice find and I appreciate your due diligence in researching and preparing the car for a drive. Nice job!!

 

I would suggest you contact both of the Chrysler 300 clubs... Not only might they have real history on this car but I am SURE they would welcome you with "Open Arms"!! NICE FIND!!!

 

It sure as hell dose. Have you contacted them, how did it get to MN??

 

This article on Norm is taken from the 1964 Bonneville Speed Week program.

 

Here is a list of the records set in 1963 that were in the 1964 program.

 

This is ridiculous! Just amazing. Go ahead and play your numbers!

Congrats!

 

THAT IS CAR IS AWESOME! great piece of history.

 

Amazing that you were able to acquire that tag! So will it go on the car?

Congratulations, and please keep the updates coming. Thanks for sharing the experience!

 

Jmo, Hyfire, but I would keep it with the documentation and not drill any more holes in your museum piece. If I haven't mentioned it already, Nice Car!

 

Assume it was never previously mounted in the car?

That's a hard one. I would be tempted to attach it to the car in an appropriate location just to ensure that in the future it does not become separated from the car again.

 

If you have a number of timing tags for that car mount them on a plaque that can attach to the dash using existing fasteners so as not to hurt the originality of the interior. s55mercury66 is absolutely right, you do not want to be drilling holes in your museum piece.