I decided to try this again since I see some having success at finding out info pertaining to their cars history. This board moves pretty fast so I may have to BTT it a few times. Back in Oct I aquired this 51 Henry J drag car that came from Lancaster, Ca. The scant bit of info I got with it was that it was raced from the early 60s to the mid 70s at various SoCal tracks and then in about 1975 it was refitted with a full cage and box tube chassis, but appears to have been mothballed before it was finished. The paint is old school pearl laquer and flakes off easily, judging by the style, was probably done around 1970. You can see at least 2 previous paint jobs underneath, unfortunately no signs of the previous colour combos, and I can't quite make out yet what the previous door lettering said. On the back you can just make out "Thanks to my wife" with the wife's name, which I can't make out, and 5 names of the crew, Bob, Joe, Brian, Frank,and one more. It has Vital Signs as a sponsor, Advanced Transmissions in Ontario, ca, and the remains of 'P.... Performance' on the pass. side, I was told this may have been 'Penny Performance'. I'd love to find out about it. Its currently being resurrected gasser style using an early Dodge wavy tube axle and a 500+ hp 440 with narrowed 12 bolt and ladder bars. The paint will stay as is for this season, maybe when I start sanding next year I'll uncover a little more. In the meanwhile, any clues?
I have seen it in pictures. I am thinking it was in an 80s SRM at one of the Nostalgia events? Fremont. Marcus or Samiyam may know.
I just checked my local phone book and there is a Advanced Transmission on Holt Blvd in Ontario, Ca. Just swap the area code 714 with 909. The phone number is the same 909 9843418. Hope you can find what you're looking for......
The car you have is probably the one that debuted in 1966 under the ownership of Grant Merideth; It was dubbed Snoopy and was powered by a blown 427 Ford Wedge for the local heads up AA/GS circuit that flourished in So-Cal at the time. Ken Ellis did the tin and maybe the chassis. It was clothed in black. The car later surfaced in 1969 under the guise of Soul to the Bone. Its new owner was an African American whose name escapes me at the moment. It was powered by a 428 Cobra Jet by then, repainted metallic red and ran Bracket 1, producing mid tens. There wasnt a lot of Henry J's in the So-Cal area. The others that come to mind didnt have the rear wheel arches cut as deep as the one described here and depcited in your posts. Also the tin work protruding near the windsheild is remenescent of Snoopy
Thanks, I'm gonna folow that up. I got hold of the shop manager at Advanced Transmission a couple months ago, unfortunately no one who works there now has been around long enough to know the car. The manager said he definitely recognized their old sticker, says he still has a few in his desk. I sent him the photos via e-mail and he said he would pin them up near the front desk in case any of their long time customers might remember it.
A search on "soul to the Bone" : http://iowahawk.typepad.com/bolus/2008/02/quarter-mile-so.html http://www.henryjcars.com/hjc36/garage/lost.html I've seen a website dedicated to Henry J drag cars. Find that and do some posting. Car history fascinates me. keep us updated.
I looked up Soul to the Bone and its apparently in the posession of a collector in the bay area. There seems to have been a lot of race cars named Snoopy from the same time period, VW bugs, funnys, altereds, it'll take a while to search through them all. Does anyone know if ther's an NHRA registry that would list the cars, owners, etc from each track for those years? That may at least narrow it down.
LOL...well looks like, at this point I am half wrong. I always thought the Soul to the Bone was a So-Cal by product based on the many times I saw the car run at Irwindale. Yes there were other cars dubbed Snoopy. The most regionally famous being Sheldon Kornblatts blown fuel Jag in and about the same era. Don Montgomery's gasser book has a few B&W shots of Snoopy Henry J . Get the book or contact him. He frequents this site, and may well add some contribution. There is also Gassermadness.com There was also a green Hnery J that ran B/Gas that was called Super Pickle. But I cant recall any specifics of the car. I look forward to some historical closure on this one.
Haha, me too, but its pretty cool finding all this other info as well. As you said, there were fewer HJs out west than in the east. Also, maybe this paint was done at the same time as the unfinished re-fit, it may have never raced like this and looked completely different. I may need to do a little sanding and see whats under it. One of the guys over at Moparts.com mentioned that in SoCal a lot of the HJs were raced as altereds, but I haven't run across any yet. Of course if it had been a consistent winner it might be easier to find. I did find a note about Grant Meredith leaving the gasser class to shoe for one of the early 70s funny cars. Maybe I'll have to trailer it down to one of the nostalgia events at Bakersfield and see if anyone says 'hey, thats my old car!'
I'm tryting to track down the history of a Henry J myself. I was just a kid on a bicycle when a Henry J, built in the gasser style of the day visited my neighborhood. It was red and had blue tinted sliding plexi-glass side windows. This was the car that gave me Henry J fever, and for nostaligia's sake I'd love to find a picture of it. The neighborhood I saw the car in was Kaywood Apartments in Mt. Rainier, MD back in the sixties. The hot car hangout in that day was The Mighty Mo drive-in restaurant a few blocks away and P.G. Customs Car Club was right behind that. If anyone knows of any history of that Henry J please holler.
I remember seeing it in some magazine in the early to mid 80's too. I was thinking maybe CarCraft since those are the ones I didn't keep. I clearly remember it though, but no history. Steven.
The Jalopy Journal
