Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

This thread is awesome!
I just picked up 5 old corvettes with the same intentions of building a couple gassers. But my 34 ford is keeping me busy. But who knows after seeing these pics it's got my juices flowing! Here's a pic of the wrecks 56 57 60 61 and a 66.

 

WOW

 

A friend of mine just bought this ex-drag car out of Pennsylvania It will see the street in the spring of 2017 (yes that's a Challenger funny care in the background)

 

34 Ford. Great to see others wanting to build drag cars out of the early Vettes. Look like you have some pretty good projects ahead of you. I know of your predicament. I wish I could work on my early Vette projects on a more full time basis but many other distractions seem to get in the way. Such is life. Were any of them drag cars in their last life?

36 Couper looks like a really nice ex-drag car. Any history on the car?

 

No none were ex drag cars but maybe in the near future! Lol! I got all these car from a guy in Utah that was ready to let go of his collection. I was there buying 33 ford parts and I ended up with corvettes and a trailer load of fiberglass. My buddy and I nick named them itchy and sratchy lol! Anyways well see what becomes of them I actually have them for sale now as a whole bit thinking of keeping a couple and selling the rest. What a load!

 

FOUND THESE ON THE WEB TODAY SORRY IF THEY ARE REPOSTS

 

1966 427 Vette ads. Put them over there so everybody could enjoy. I will save them for a bit so if anyone wants them in HUGE size I mean HUGE I will have to email them to you. send me a PM

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...m-days-gone-by.428585/page-3918#post-11746572

 

A great find by a Ford fan Troublemaker427 located a lot more info on Dave MacDonald. Good reading on both sites.

http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery/closeups/corvettespecialriverside1.htm
http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery/closeups/corvettespecial2a.htm

Photos from the articles

Behold the Corvette Special - AKA Old Yeller V. Notice the custom six-set taillights. '61 Vettes were stock with two lights on the back.



Dave took to a wet track Saturday morning (2/10) and won the prelim race in the modified class. Rain ultimately washed out the afternoon sessions on Saturday and all of Sunday's (2/11) races and the event was cancelled. This was really unfortunate for Dave as Daniels Chevrolet of Colorado Springs had offered him a ride at the Daytona 3hr Enduro - which was held the same weekend as Riverside. Dave stayed loyal to his sponsor and friend Jim Simpson and declined the Daytona ride to run here at Riverside. Photo Dave Friedman





March 3-4, 1962 Riverside International Raceway - Dave MacDonald returns to Riverside to pit his one-of-a-kind lightweight Corvette Special against a loaded field of modifieds. This was a reschedule of the rained out Feb 10-11, races. (Jim Simpson)



Dave MacDonald prepares to move the Corvette Special to the track for a Saturday morning practice session with a mix of classes. Jim Simpson is behind the car.



This car was the collaborative creation of Dave MacDonald, Jim Simpson and Max Balchowsky and dubbed the Corvette Special. They used a mold of Jim Simpson's stock '62 Vette and manufactured a two-piece 1/16 inch figerglass shell to place over one of Max's custom built tube frame. The finished product was over 1000 lbs lighter, 17" shorter, 5" narrower and 4" smaller in height than a stock Corvette ... it was a work of art. Below photo is from Saturday 3/3 and Dave prepares to move the car to grid and battle a slew of Porsches, Maserati's, Ferrari's & Lotuses. Photo the MacDonald family




Car owner Bill Campbell (center) enters his tiny lightweight Special in this race. Hollywood stuntman Bob Harris (L) will be driving and that's movie star Dan Blocker from Bonanza fame sitting in the car. Photo Tam McPartland & Bill Campbell





Same 3/3 race and MacDonald continues to increase the lead in his orange Corvette Special. Note: While it looks like Dave is in a sweeping left hand turn he's actually in one of his full blown cross-lock righthanders! Photo Dave Friedman




Late in Saturday's (3/3) race Dave MacDonald drifts the Corvette Special through 9 and far out in front of the field.



Dave MacDonald flat out on Riverside's back straight goes on to win Saturday's race. Zora Arkus Duntov, legendary "Father of the Corvette" spoke with Dave many times about the Corvette Special, even coming to Dave's El Monte home one afternoon to discuss the car. The Corvette Special may well have provided inspiration for Zora's lightweight 1963 Corvette Grand Sport.



The Corvette Special shown here after the Saturday March 3rd race. The car was designed not just for speed on the track but in the pits as well. The entire front end was removeable for quick & easy mechanical adjustments. Photo John McCann.




On Sunday 3/4/62 Dave MacDonald and his Corvette Special engaged in a fierce race-long battle with Bob Harris. Below: Bob jumped out to the early lead as his tiny car was ideally suited to the Riverside course. Photo Dave Friedman




Sunday 3/4 race - On lap 3 MacDonald moves past Harris and drifts through turn 6 in the lead. Photo Dave Friedman






Sunday 3/4 - Harris tried mightily to catch MacDonald but on the final lap Bob's car gave out.




Dave MacDonald goes into turn 6 on the final lap



That's it for the first site to be continued

 

From the second link same car different photos.

The fabulous 1961 custom Corvette Special - aka Old Yeller V. This racer was a one-of-a-kind modified creation consisting of a tube-frame and two piece fiberglass body. The car was a collaborative effort between Dave MacDonald, Jim Simpson and Max Balchowsky and weighed a scant 1,750 lbs! This is the finished product but how the car came to life is detailed below.



The article below describes how Dave MacDonald and Carroll Shelby were shooting the breeze one day when Dave told Carroll he was thinking about running his stock Corvette in the upcoming 1961 LA Times Grand Prix at Riverside. Carroll told Dave he ought to consider teaming up with master car builder Max Balchowsky (of Old Yeller fame) and build a new modified racer to run in the GP. Seeds of the Corvette Special were planted

In the sixties, purpose built cars, or "Specials" as they were referred to, were common and came in all shapes and sizes. Dave could have chosen any number of available body types (Lotus, Cooper, etc) to skin his new Chevrolet powered racer but hewas adamant the new modified racer be a Corvette. But Dave & Jim felt a stock Corvette body was too heavy and would put him at a braking disadvantage in the turns.



Dave MacDonald, and race sponsor Jim Simpson, met Max Balchowsky at Hollywood Motors and they agreed to collaborate on a custom one-off racer that Dave would run on the modified circuit, while still running his production Corvette. Photo below is at Hollywood Motors and early in the build. Max (R) and Dave situating the drive train. You can clearly see the chalk outline Max drew on the garage floor as a guide to craft the tube frame for Dave's custom Corvette shell. The frame weighed just 95lbs and was basically a modified recreation of the Old Yeller MK IV frame. Photo courtesy ET Nagamatsu Archives




Max Balchowsky looks on while Dave MacDonald brands the 327ci Chevrolet powerplant with his patented mechanical genious. Photo courtesy ET Nagamatsu Archives



When Max built a car everything was custom made and the gas tank for the Corvette Special/Old Yeller V was no exception. In the background you can see shop MVP Ina Balchowsky working on Old Yeller III. Photo courtesy ET Nagamatsu Archives



hey installed a Morris-Minor torsion-bar which ran parallel to the frame and was fully adjustable. Shocks were Gabriel adjust-ables and the front brakes were 11" Pontiac drums with aluminum fins. Rear brakes were 12" Buick Alfins that supplied pre-mium stopping power. Initially installed was a Studebaker rear axle (later replaced with a Chevy II derivation) and Jardine headers. Dave experimented with set of cycle reverse cones added to the exhaust ends that actually gave the car such a potent power boost that they were left on permanently. The car was ultimately equipped with many Pontiac, Jaguar & Morris parts.




Zora Duntov helped Dave and Jim secure the latest masterpiece from Detroit - an all new 1962 327ci fuel-injected Chevrolet powerplant. Dave, Max and Jim all worked nonstop at Max's garage to meet their goal of debuting the racer at the prestigious LA Times Grand Prix on October 15, 1961.




Dave and Jim concluded the only solution was to fabricate their own lightweight custom Corvette shell. With help from friends Nat Reeder and Jim Burrel of Corvette Auto Body they used a stock '61 Corvette body as a template to create a mold from which they poured a custom, lightweight razor thin 1/16 inch fiberglass shell.





They then cut the shell in two and went to work shaving and shaping the final product. All said and done the new racer was 17inches shorter, 5 inches narrower and 4 inches smaller in height than a stock Corvette. They molded the entire headlight assembly into the fiberglass shell for additional weight savings and all in the car weighed just 1750lbs - 1,200lbs lighter than a stock Vette!




So the Special went back to Hollywood Motors but Max was unable to make the adjustments before the LA Times GP. The following is Jim Simpson's account of the events as he told the story at a 1992 racers reunion at Vicki MacDonald's (Dave's daughter) home in California. "Max, that rascal, he could have tweaked that frame, he had the time, but the truth is he had Bob Drake driving Old Yaller in the Times Grand Prix and Max knew our car was really fast, especially with Davey behind
the wheel! I think Max was just making excuses telling us he had his hands full prepping Old Yeller. Davey didn't care at all because he was also racing his new '62 stock Vette in the production race the day before the GP, and he won the damn thing! But I really wanted to give the GP a go in our car. Max and I joked about it years later but he still denied it, Jim said laughing.

Photo below is the Corvette Special at its official debut race - The Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on 10/22/61. Photo Bob Rice from MotorBinder by Roy Spencer.



Laguna Seca was a disappointing debut as Dave went out on lap 2. He started 16th and had blasted to 6th as the lead cars came around start lap 2. Unfortunately Bob Bondurant, Dave Ridenour and Augie Pabst all collided back at the start as they diced into turn 1 and the crash resulted in Pabst's oil pan bursting and leaving "A sea of oil across the track". Jim Hall, Stirling Moss,
Charlie Parsons, Dick Thompson and Dave MacDonald all spun wildly through the slick mess but Dave got the worst of it sliding into the infield area and damaging the front suspension, he was out, as were Bondurant and Ridenour. Thompson, Moss, Parsons and Hall were able to return to the track as was Pabst after replacing his oil pan. Dave's high hopes for the Special's debut were dashed quickly. Photo Dave Friedman



to be continued

 

The saga of 00 continues

Lead cars come round for lap 2 and slide through Pabst's oil. Chuck Parsons is already in the dirt on the high side while Dick Thompson is just beginning to lose it. Dave MacDonald is sliding off track on the low side. Photo Dave Friedman





Dave MacDonald in Corvette Special at 1961 Pacific Grand Prix.MacDonald's Corvette continues sliding further off the course while Thompson's Maserati is in full spin. Photo Dave Friedman
MacDonald's Corvette continues sliding further off the course while Thompson's Maserati is in full spin. Photo Dave Friedman




Dave still off course and navigating his way back to the pits, the Corvette Special's much anticipated debut is over on lap 2.



After Laguna Seca Dave ran the Corvette Special here at Cotati on 11/12/61 and scored the first victory for the car. In an inter-view in the July issue of Today's Motor Sports magazine Dave said "Well, we won at Cotati but the car didn't handle at all, I couldn't even get it around a corner by oversteering it". But hey, developing a new race car is always a work in progress - and to go from chalk marks on the floor of Hollywood Motors to Cotati race winner in 2 1/2 months is an amazing feat.




Dave MacDonald taking his personal trophy queen - wife Sherry - on the Cotati victory lap.



After Cotati Dave painted the Corvette Special bright orange - Max was pushing for yellow like the rest of his cars but Dave's favorite color was orange, so orange it was. He also added a hood scoop from a 1957 T-Bird - sweet look! He then ran it at Del Mar on December 10, 1961 but unfortunately half way through the race the left rear tire vibrated loose and he was out. Photo Tam McPartland



According to race spectator Howard Macken, the left rear wheel flew off and made a long sweeping circle to come back around and smack the rear of Dave's resting car. The damage kept the car from running in Sunday's race. Photo Howard Macken.



The body damage from Del Mar had been partially repaired but sorting out the suspension ills was a work in progress. As far as going in a straight line? The car was fast! So on January 7th, 1962 Dave MacDonald and Jim Simpson towed the Corvette Special out to Riverside Raceway and entered the Top Eliminator division in the Southern California Timing Association (S.C.T.A.) annual speed event.




The Corvette Special was spectacular at this SCTA speed event, surprising most in attendance when Dave reached the Eliminator finals and clocked 139.36 mph in the half-mile against a stiff headwind.




The next race for the Corvette Special would be at Riverside, Feb 10-11 1962 and Dave & Jim took the car over to legendarycar builder Frank Kurtis to help sort it out its handling issues. Frank said he "Changed the setup so it would at least go around a corner" Dave said "Frank ultimately set it up to run like a production Corvette which was ok because he was used to that".So they hit Riverside and Dave stormed out to the lead and was a wire to wire winner in the Saturday morning prelim race. A
torrential downpour soon began hammering the track and the entire event was washed out and rescheduled for March 3,4. Davedid return in March and beat out a slew of Porsches, Lotuses, Elvas, Jags and Specials to sweep the weekend modified races.
After Riverside Dave took the Corvette Special, and his '62 A-Production Corvette to Stockton for the weekend races on April 14,15 1962. Dave won both races with his production Vette but the Corvette Special, along with Billy Krause's Birdcage
Maseratti and others, were denied entry into the modified race due to an already full field. Just as well, there was a nasty8-car pile up at the first turn on lap one! Photo below is from the Riverside races on March 3,4 1962.



After Riverside Dave MacDonald entered the Corvette Special in the modified go at Pomona on March 10, 1962. Heavy rains forced the cancellation of this event too. The car was ultimately sold to Hawaiian auto dealer/racer Pat Mathis in June 1962.
The next few photos are of Dave MacDonald & Jim Simpson saying goodbye to the car as they prepare to tow it to LAX and ship it to Pat in Hawaii.





They swing by Paramount Chevrolet where Jim was head of sales, and take a few photos there.



Here you get a much better look at the '57 T-Bird hood scoop Dave added to the car after Cotati



to be continued

 

The final photos of this saga.

Jim Simpson (far right), Dave (to Jim's left) and Dave's father George (in suit) at the airport unloading the Corvette Special -Old Yeller V as the TWA crew prepares to ship it to Pat Mathis in Hawaii. An LAX customs official discovered a small amount of high-test fuel still in the gas tank and insisted it be drained. Dave and Jim argued that they didn't have the equipment to do that but the official was adamant. At last, throwing up his arms in frustration Dave fired up the huge engine and tore out onto
the airport runway at peak revs. For the next 10 minutes the whine of the jets were overcome by the Corvette Special's V8 fiercely echoing off the hanger walls as Dave burned rubber ... and the fuel! (Try that nowadays!)




Below is a letter from Corvette ace Red Faris to Dave MacDonald in July 1963. Red says the Corvette Special was also being used as a dragster on Hawaiian dragstrips.



Pat Mathis flew the Corvette Special back to the mainland in Sep '62 to have Dave drive it for him at the Reno GP in Nevada and the Northwest GP in Kent Washington. Photo below is from Reno and Dave MacDonald has the Corvette Special (#149) in front of Billy Krause's Birdcage Maserati (race winner) and Don Wester's Porsche 718 RSK. Dave was trailing leader Krause on lap 7 when he retired the car with rearend troubles.



Dave won Saturday's prelim event in the modified class.



This photo was from the following week at Kent and shows Dave MacDonald & Dan Gurney shooting the breeze before the race. Dan was entered in a Lotus 19. In this race Dave was running 3rd behind Gurney and Masten Gregory when he went out on lap 17 with mechanical troubles. It was the last time he ran the car. Photo MacDonald Family.



This historically significant custom beauty would be quite valuable today ... if its whereabouts were known. Unfortunately the last known sighting was out by the Honolulu Airport in 1969. Anyone have it in their barn?

 

Not finished but getting there. Looking for information on this car from the early 70's when it was green and raced at Bristol for sure.[

 

Two left over from NSRA

 

Great story, thanks for sharing it and all of the photos ! It would be awesome to find the car and restore/rescue it for the simple reason that so many famous personalities that were associated with it. I certainly hope that someone can shed some light on the special "Special" !

 

Thanks for the pictures and story of Dave. The world sure lost a great racer when he crashed at Indy!

 

At the suggestion of Fiasco Automotive owner Richard Johnson, an MG enthusiast, Ed Sigmon built this '53 roadster, pictured racing Doug Thorley in Jack Lufkin's Corvette at a mid-1960s Hot Rod Magazine Championships event in Riverside, Calif.

 

Jim Head raced a '55 Chevy in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, on the day he turned 16 on Sept. 5, 1964. He went on to race a C/Altered Bantam roadster and a number of small-block entries through the tail end of the 1970s. One of his earlier entries was a '57 Corvette pictured

 

I FOUND THIS IMAGE THIS MORNING WHEN I WAS LOOKING FOR SOME OLD IMAGES FROM MY HOMETOWN.

 

posted by Johnny Steele in the in motion thread

 

Very nice.
jp

 

By Gary Reynolds in the in motion thread.

rooman thinks it is:
Bones' J & J Muffler 'vette. Judging by the snow fence this could be from Indy in 1962 when Bones won in B/MSP. This engine later went into Mazmanian's Corvette and then the Willys.

 

I really like the old drag raced corvettes c1 and c2.

jp

 

Finally get around to some vette photos. A mixed bag today. Don't know anything about them site just had photos with no captions.

Corvette Hall of Famer Betty Skelton and the 1956 Daytona Corvette Pace Car.

 

From the "Drag Cars in Motion" thread

 

Beautiful sunny day today, so I took the Corvette out for a ride this morning.

 

Baron,
Car is looking really good.
jp

 

I have not checked this thread out for a while. Some great reads and pics posted since then. Thanks

 

OK I'm back after being distracted once again. Trying something new, found a bunch of old "Corvette News" mags online and I'm torn if this or the vintage thread is the best place for them. So this is a trial run because they are not really Vette Hod Rods. So yea or nay say all you vette fans if you want more after this first one or put the rest in the vintage shots thread?

1958 "Corvette News" mag

click on them and they get HUGE for easy reading

Love the bottom headline LOL