History Hot Rod History and Photos Dallas Texas 1949 on -Caddo Mills Drag Races

There is an article (ad) which mentions it in the thread about twin cam four cylinder engines. Started by Miller91 some years ago.

 

I think your friend is already on the thread, but here it is just in case he is not "Mitchbandini"

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/italian-dohc-fours-jewels-under-the-hood.363449/page-4
Post 97

 

Karl;
Mr Kirbys Bandini was on a longer wheelbased frame,,,not a stock Bandini,,,I'm not even sure the front axle assem was a Bandini,,,just the body panels were used,as evidensed in photos.look at the gap at the firewall to front fenders.

 

Thanks for the link. Yes it is Mitchbandini.

 

I grew up in the White Rock Lake area of Dallas from ~'51-'62. Garland Rd. runs along the south
side of the lake. About 5-7 miles east of the lake on Garland Rd. was The Prince of Hamburgers and
Charco's drive-ins. That's where everybody from Bryan Adams High cruised at night with girls and to
pick up drag races. We would head about 5 mi. further east to where a street called Santa Ana intersected
Garland Rd. It ran through an industrial district with no cross streets and was perfect for our drag races!
Don Ross (DRW Fab) was there. He went to school with us at Bryan Adams. WBRW32 was around too
but a few years older (right Bobby?). There is a cool book called "The Kingdom" that was written by a
guy in our class at BA named Caswell Dunlap(later to become a judge). That book takes you back in a
time machine to the days when "The Kingdom" was the White Rock area of Dallas. A very cool time!
Us street racers often went to Circle Drag Strip on Friday or Saturday nights. Caddo Mills on Sundays.
Cheers...Mickey Davison

 

hope this is not off topic! pics from caddo mills!

 

Great pic's from Caddo...Thanks!

 

Great photos Don.

 

Mickey,

My uncle was a "low life" in those Casa linda days. Jimmy Berry, class of '63 , same as Don Ross. He is a Chaparral also.

Hot rods are still going strong with the " old timers". The Chaparral car club has a bunch of good guys from "past and present" and still going strong with keeping traditions and putting hotrods on the road.

Thanks again to Karl for starting this thread. Also being a great hot rodder, historian, and a great President to the Chaparrals. Bob Wilson, and Tom Bitros are the best two Vice Presidents anybody could ever ask for, and both with hearts of gold. I am glad to be a life member.


MM
#8

 

Post up any Dallas or Texas related things you want.[/QUOTE]

I know that this is too new for this thread but though that it might be a good way to bump it. I can delete it if you want me too.
Here is my dad with the 40 Willys coupe that he built. This was around Houston in the mid 60s. It had a 327 with a Muncie 4 speed and he would shift it at 7200 RPMs

 

Kool car elgringo....

 

George Gilmore and His Willys are shown as in the entry log. This is one of the earliest Willys Gas style Drag cars that I have seen documentation of. The Sparks Bonney was earlier 1954 but was a lakes car that also ran the strip. It was a nose down stance and ran without fenders and had a slipstream profile.

 

I grew up in Oak Cliff and went to Sunset High School, we would go out to Yellow Belly before it opened to the public and roll the logs off the track to race, we would hang out at the Dairy Queen on Hampton and go down the side street next to it Glenfield Ave. till the end and take a left on Pierce St. and a right to run at the bean factory, it was a industrial park with no cross streets. the only thing out there at the time was Van Camp's Beans thus the name the bean factory, or we would go south on Hampton past Loop 12 or Ledbetter as it is now called to the Red Bird Air Port. The only thing out there then was A Fire Department station at the entrance to the airport. We event ran dragsters out there, the Fireman just stood and watched. Can't do that now.

 

Any new Dallas guys here??? Love to hear from any of you

 

BTTT for this awesome thread

 

I had read bits and pieces of this thread but not the whole thing at once until today when I met Bob, wbrw32 and we talked a while. Bob is a very nice guy and I think his memory is better than mine! Meeting him and reading this thread brings history alive Thanks Bob!

 

and Thanks to you too Bruce (manyoldcars)

 

Bob added a small detail that hasnt been mentioned in this thread. If I remember correctly he said that Vic Edelbrock and some of the other early manufacturers of speed equpment didnt have a 'business' like we think of businesses today. They had a foundry making parts. They didnt have a salesman force either. These guys would fly to Dallas and sell their parts to the store Bob worked for. Thats how Bob got to meet all the big names in person. Can you imagine Vic Edelbrock walking into a store near you?
Bob, correct me if I got any of this wrong. Its fascinating to learn how things were done back then.
I bet no one in the fifties would have ever thought that 50 years later all the things you guys did would be of interest to people, some who werent even born.

 

There was a lot of interesting people passing thru Custom Automotive in the early days.Thars where I meet Bobby in the late 50, and has been a best friend since.
The concrete recycling plant is still sitting on the starting line of the Old Circle Drag Strip over by Fun Zone

 

Wow Bobby, thanks for guiding me to this. I'll probably be up reading this till midnight! Really great stuff!

 

About 3 years ago, Gas Monkey Garage acquired a 32 Cabriolet from an estate sale out the McKinney/Farmersville way. It was sold by a widdow, and came with a spare race engine. The story was that the car supposedly ran at Caddo back in the day. It was a great car! I took a bunch of photos. They thankfully didn't go to crazy with the freshening up. They put an H&H engine in it, moderend up the interior, painted the dash and that's about it.
I wound up with the spare race engine that frankly was worn out. Relieved block, 3 5/16 cyls that are egg shaped pretty bad, don't remember the cam.

Here are some before and after pics. It may be the same car.

BEFORE / AS GAS MONKEY PURCHASED THE CAR





























AFTER

 

Really nice car. Looks the same in the b&w picture even down to the headlights. Has to be the same car.

 

Sure looks the same to me also

 

The remains of the Bob Berkshire special showed up sometime in 2016 so it definitely exists. These pictures were taken off of instagram. Would like to know more about it if anyone knows anything. Amazing how the old cars survived. The bodywork was made out of steel not aluminum as so many other cars were. Neat to see the lead in the body.

 

BigDTexasKid,
Can you supply any more information on Charlie Messers cabriolet? Thanks. Karl

 

Cool that it was found KK.....and on those Cabriolets - they weren't cheap when new and were low production.....so they are far and few between....most likely the same one and why it stayed in the area....do we know where it went after Richard sold it ?

 

I don't know myself. I am glad that Elrod posted these pictures and has kept up with the car. That made my day to see color pictures of the car as it is today. Another mystery solved.

 

Yes! Most Definitely! It's a Early Picture. Later in I was Told by Charlie it was In Grey Primer! Dereald


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Late getting to the party guys.
Moved to Texas in 55. I heard all about these guys growing up, but was kind of behind them in age.
Got hard into cars in the early 60's. DFW, it wasn't called that then, was a hot spot for hot rods!
The first I remember was Mike Motley's T. Got to crew on the car in my avitar in the late 60's, early 70's ( Norris Bros. T/F 440) As I recall, T-Bar chassis, 392, 4 hole Hilborns. It was a magic time to be here.
And yes, you could drive all the way around White Rock. It was a hot rod show every weekend there.
Graduated Bryan Adams in 66. Hey Bobby! How you been?