I am still trying to figure out how to post pics, this one is evidently small enough as is to go. It is a very cool pic thought someone might wanna see it.
This was taken early 60's at Rockford (Illinois) Dragway. At sometime before this he ran an early Olds engine that was built by Chris Karamesines. Chris drove the car once and then told Gabby "You have to be nuts to drive something like that"
Tom didn't that thing run in AAFA before they banned that class? I remember watching him at the Grove. He pitted next to us sometimes. The suds would really flow then. B B
He prolly should have, even watching it go down the strip was scarry as hell, it was all over the track. Never saw him crash though. Wonder if he is still around?? B B
No shots of the Olds that was in that car, but the site does have maybe four pics of 394 Olds-powered rides. Look at all the photos and captions carefully, and go through all the pages on the site.
The car in the picture is mid to late 60's. This one is a Powers and Riley chassis built in '66. Gabby was impressed with how straight our car ran and had P & R build the chassis for him.
That must be a popular photo. I have the same one up on my wall. Im always on the look for stuff from Rockford Dragway. Everything on Ebay is all that junk from the west coast. Jim
Wasn't Gabby voted into the NHRA Hall of Fame 2 years ago at BG ? Very kool altered... Not too many sedans running back then, usually the were 'T' roadsters, etc....
Heard he made the Seneca Reunion with the car back in '05 or '06 and I missed it. Used to watch him run at US 30 back in the mid-'60s.
Well, you've only made 4 posts since joining a year and a half ago (all of them yesterday), so that makes you an FNG still - that's all. And you never did an intro as required by the forum either so what do you expect http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44274
A friend of mine bought that car from Gabby. He once tried to make a pass on the street with it with the blown hemi but the cops showed up just as he cleared the motor out. He later put a 340 in it and even drove it up to Dukes Drive Inn. Don Garlits wanted him to donate it to his museum but he later sold it to a friend of Gabbys who wanted to restore it. It was candy apple red when my buddy owned it.
I read an article about this car a long time ago. They said he retired the car after a 200+ mph blast and the crew could read the logos on the sides of the car from the starting line while it was in the lights!
So is the 50's version of this car with the Olds engine the Bench Mark the PPE should be compared too? Larry T