I voted for the 41 Willys because i`ve liked them forever but there`s something neat about a 40 especially a Filthy 40. Don
hello, here is my nomination for favorite willys. just about every piece was hand made by the owner: atts ono. he was a master craftsman and drag racing was in his veins. but, boy could he play basketball...wow. i was there to record the debut of his newly built 40 willys at lions in 1964. (at an all gassers meet) what a great car and person... enjoy the video jnaki
sorry about the final race, i was by the tower shooting and by the time the cars were ready to start or started, someone yelled at me to get off the dragstrip and back in the pits. so, it is a little jerky...
hello, our 40 willys (came to a tragic end) was a real early, raw version of a backyard build. his version 4 years later, still built in his backyard garage was the pinnacle of any build. eventually, ours would have been much nicer than just a primered car with black wheels, but at the time, we wanted to get it running first and establish our credentials. we did establish ourselves with other known gasser racers until our willys met its tragic end in august of 1960. atts ono was in our crew and helped me in the aftermath of the destruction on that night and the next deconstruction day. thanks, jnaki
Cool story. I have a poster on the wall in my shop that has the Atts Ono Willys, the J&J Muffler Bantam and a yellow dragster, all from the same era. I have always wondered who, what & when about that Willys. I was a Lions fence hanger for years and never saw it. If you can fill us in on the particulars of Atts' car please do so. More photos? Jnaki, have you posted any pictures of the car you ran? What happened to it?
There have been so many cool quarter mile cars over the years that it's hard to pin one down as my favorite. On the other hand the black 40 coupe of IIRC Gordon Chisenhall has got to be at the top of my favorites list for a street driver. Love those dual opening grilles. Having a hard time finding photos of it, goes way back, maybe 20 to 30 years.
hello, our car was built in a backyard garage that we converted from a game room. presently...56 years later i am on the search for photos/movies of our car. i remember that i took some, but the photos are missing. so, ever since i had our 58-60 lions films digitized, i have been on the hunt for those elusive photos/movies. our willys met its tragic ending on the night of august 13, 1960 in the final elimination race for c/gas. thanks for your interest, jnaki here is our story and search parameters: My brother and I built a 1940 Willys Coupe in the early 1960. After racing our 1958 black Chevy Impala in the A/Stock class almost every week at Lions, we thought it would be fun to build something faster. The 40 Willys was set up to run 6 Strombergs on the 283 SBC motor, Howard Cams flywheel, and LaSalle/Chevy adapter, (LaSalle trans, 4:11 Chevy rear) first and ran well at Lions. The Willys then had a full rebuild to 292 c.i. small block Chevy, Howard cam plus full kit, Jahns pistons, ported & polished heads, Joe Hunt Mag, with a 671 supercharger and 6 Strombergs on top. It was one of the first 671 kits available for SBC motors. The car was red primer, no insignias, Traction Master bars, and black rims with Bruce slicks. It ran in the C/Gas class with times in the 12:60’s et all day on August 13, 1960. We were in the finals at 9:00 pm against the class champion and my brother had a two car lead just past the tower. He was at least 3 cars ahead by the traps, when the clutch blew and exploded the Moon Tank in the cab. Later, my brother told me he tried putting out the fire with the on board extinguisher, it did not work as the fire was too strong. The car was on fire going through the traps and my brother jumped out going about 60 mph ( as told to us by the racers on the return road) The car immediately turned right and crashed into the chain link fence. We tried over 10 bottles of fire extinguishers to no avail. My brother was put into an ambulance and taken to the local hospital. He had 3 degree burns over 30% of his body and face. The car burned to a crisp, wedged into the chain link fence. (the next day, Atts Ono and I found shards of metal wedged into the dash, door, glove box, etc, The scattershield was nowhere to be found. There was a huge hole in the floor of the cab where the explosion had ripped open an escape route of flying pieces, the moon tank was melted away, the bolts were the only thing left, the glove box door was slightly melted from the heat.) We took the burned out car back to Atts Ono’s house for disassembly. Then after an all-day de-construction, we trailered the burned out car to a salvage yard near Lions dragstrip. I am trying to get together anything I can about my brother for his two sons. (He sadly passed away in 1992) He was a very quiet guy and his sons never knew of his car building, drag racing days. That was a silent period of his history that I want to show his two sons. If there are any photos or videos that you have or know of floating around your friends from back in those days, that would be extremely helpful. Digitizing our old movies made me start this search and fill in that silent period of his racing history. Sadly, we lost all photos of our 40 Willys in the zillion house moves since then. In that last race, I thought it was Tom Sturm’s C/Gas modified Chevy. But no one can remember. I have talked to Eddy Grist of the Grist Family. He was on the return road with his family after his dad had just made a run in A/Gas. He saw the whole explosion, resulting fire and crash. It was something he will never forget as quoted to me recently. There were other families and racers on this return road, but they remain a mystery. If there are any contacts you may know, photographers that were there in 1960 (April to August), racers, families, drag strip staff, etc. someone may have taken some photos or movies. Please let me know. By the way, after our clutch explosion and resulting fire, the Lions safety committee made it a rule that no aluminum, Moon gas tank(s) would be allowed inside of the cab of any vehicle. Everyone had to move it in front or to the rear of the car. Our friend, Atts Ono, (who was instrumental in helping us get our car ready, was in our pit crew, and helped in the immediate tear down after the explosion) moved his Moon tank in front of the motor, out of the cab, in his own 40 Willys build, later. (I used to be a contributing editor for Street Rodder/Chopper Magazines from inception to 1975 when I drifted away from cars until recently. I have used up all of my old contacts from back in those days, so any help is appreciated.)
Wow, quite a story. 12.60s was pretty competitive in 1960. So sorry to hear that your brother was injured and has since passed. You guys and your contemporaries were heroes to me and my friends in those days. Yes, even the "little guys" with their home brewed race cars. You gave us all inspiration and the hope that we could come to Lions and run our cars some day. Clutch and transmission failures were always scary. I always had a scattershield on my cars (it helped that I worked at Wedge Eng. for a while). My car with a Clutch-flite had a scattershield and a trans blanket. My current '48 Austin gasser project was a victim of such an explosion (see photos). I'm guessing that is why it was parked and stored for many years. No idea who owned it or if they were hurt. Thanks for posting.
hello, wow, those photos are scary. we had a legal scattershield approved by the lions tech committee, a curved plate over the top and one below. they were popular then and led up to the full one piece coverage later. ours was no where to be found. the next day after the explosion and fire, atts ono and i went back to lions to get the burned out willys out of the fence and on to a trailer. what we found was really scary. a huge hole was in the floorboard. there were bits and pieces wedged into the dash in front of the driver, near the (melted) glove box and some pieces in the doors. when the clutch exploded, it went everywhere including the moon tank that was mounted on the floor of the passenger side. that is what started the massive fire. all that was left of that moon tank was a bolt or two on the floorboard. fire does bad things... if the moon tank was in another exterior position, we may have gotten out ok as the car would have come to a stop on the return road. but...&%$#* happens one good thing happened, the tech committee gave all racers two weeks to remove any moon tanks out of the cab and put it elsewhere. atts ono put his in front of the motor.
Edit I can't believe it, the car I'm thinking of still eludes me, but after thinking about it, the name Burns Waggoner comes to mind, seems he had some connection with the Chisenhall bunch (Vintage Air) San Antonio, Texas. Someone has to remember this Willys, black, big/little Halibrands, blown Hemi, it had the perfect stance too.
hello, not a barn find, but thanks to rruss here on the hamb for his happenstance movie from lions. i think this clip is our 40 willys at lions. it is primered, black wheels, and if you look closely underneath, it has what looks like traction master bars. the puzzling thing is that it is too blurry to identify what is sticking out of the hood as the car goes by the camera. but, my first impression was injector tubes, but no willys at the time had injector tubes sticking out. so, is it our car? my brother was a howard cam fanatic. he liked the old style actions of howard cam cars...backyard style builders, etc. so, we had a full race cam and kit, flywheel, trans adapter,etc. i cannot remember if he put those huge stickers on the rear window...but there was no other primered willys with black wheels during our lions days racing days...so, you be the judge...this is as close to the real car as possible...thanks rruss...he had no other photos of the car, so the search is still on for more photos or movies. yea...we are getting somewhere.... thank you, thank you... jnaki
The Jalopy Journal
