History Old Time Philadelphia area Hot Rods + drags

I've been reading this blog since it started. I guess it's time to put my
memory's in. Started going to the drags in fall of 54 at Linden NJ.
One car could run at a time. 1/5 mile no ET clocks just mph clocks at
the end of the 1/4. The next year 1955 Allentown started at Convair
Field. One Sunday a month. It was great. Could run 2 at time with et
and MPH clocks. Lot of good stuff ran there. Mike Sforza use to come
down from NY.with his "Pride of the East" 32 coupe. Does any body
remember Slim Rieser from Norton Chevy? He was Parts Manger there.
He had 55 Chev. Ran A stock (No super stock in those days) really fast.
New fangled Chev. V8s. The whole gang from Kulps garage in Pendell
were there. Good times. Will talk more later

 

John,

Did you drag race at Langhorne? I have a cousin that raced in a stock class there in the mid 50's

 

Langhorne was 1/8 mile down center of the circle track.
It didn't stay open very long. I think it was later in the 50s
maybe 58 or 59. By then a lot of places were running. Lancaster,
York,Hatfield, Vineland used to run down one side of oval track
into the woods for a shut down. At night. It was wild. Similar to
Hatfield. When they started at Hatfield you would go around the
first turn of the track to shut down. That didn't work so good so
they make the run go straight out to the parking lot. Woodbine NJ
was another place that was open for a while. We used to run Lancaster
on Saturday Night then go York for Sunday afternoon then to Hatfield
for Sunday Night. Crazy Kids

 

Hey Mark, cousin Jake ran there in 64 - 65 with his 54 Ford, 292 w/trips. He never ran the 60 hi po there. My dad ran the 46 Ford with Edsel in it along with Jake. Some of the guys I remember: Herby S. w/64 390 Galaxie, Frank H. w/ 62 406 Galaxie, Gil S. w/ 55 chevy injected 327, Walt B. 58 chevy 348 trips (dad finally beat him) John L. with his home made single wheel steer Angel. All those guys had fun

 

a link for you guys from a video I posted earlier on youtube, still working on part II, some langhorne drags on there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV_3O7IxteE

 

Check out this clip from Langhorne;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szvE8O3MijE

 

I knew Slim from Norton .He also raced a 35 Chevy I don't know if this was before of after 55,

 

That was after the 55. The 55 was brand new and a power glide as I remember.
I think he ran C or B gas with that 34 chev. Remember he had front wheel covers
that didn't turn. Guess he had them hooked on to spindle some how.

 

bump

 

Anybody remember Lil Al Cravaro? He had a gold 39 pickup with a Caddy with a dragon
Painted on the the tail gate.He was a striper/Artist. He also did the Satan face on
the Satan coupe grill . Remember Bash Speed Shop on Green St when Jim the Painter
worked there. So many memorys

 

What happened to Goldy? He hasn't been around.

 

Yeah I wondered also as I PM'd him back in feb.
Hope everything is ok

 

I think I have Goldys phone number I will give Him a call to see if He is ok. He is friends with a cousin of mine I will e mail now

 

Tell him we miss his stories and pictures.

 

Some philly hot rods from the Pirrone/Ellershaw stable






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The Modifiers car club garage from the 50s as it looks today






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Anyone update us on member GOLDY ??
Chop36 was gonna ring to see if all is OK .

 

I saw Goldy recently posted on one of the classic funny car boards. I believe he said he had some surgery done and would be laid up for a bit. Hope he's ok now.

 

I have not been on the computer for a while because I've been busy building a new engine for the sprint car. I needed to get it done before I went into the hospital to get my hip replaced. Now I am out of the hospital and rehabilitating my new Titanium hip. I'll now have more time to punch the keys on the computer and answer some of the post replies. I am not driving yet so I had to miss the Modifiers race at Atco today because I didn't have a ride. Thanks for all of your concern and glad to be back. Goldy

 

Phew.... Nice to see your ok .
Look forward to your continuing knowledge .....stay well

 

You go Goldy!! Rehab and you will be ready to Hip Hop soon!! Pete

 

Eddie Woodland was from Frankfort Ave in (central?) Philly across from St. Bart's. I think he raced a '55 Chevy. I walked into the dining room one day and he was watching an Olds race on 8mm film. He had stacks of early hot rod magazines and talked of getting speed parts free/cheap because the vendors wanted them shown.
Sorry cannot be of more help and thanks for looking.

His son (not Gary) had a 68-72 Nova P#% Str@@t and said his Dad still knew the local (Cherry Hill) speed shop owners.
owners.

 

Just checking in and thanks for your concerns. The hip is doing very well as I am walking without a cane and I am back to the races. Two weeks after surgery I was at Bridgeport Speedway using a walker. We were racing the Grandinetti sprint cars that I work on but I just stayed out of the way. Soon I am scheduled to be taking part in racing a Nitro Dragster at the NHRA Heritage Series Race at the famed Famosa raceway in Bakersfield Calif. I won't be keeping out of the way at Bakersfield.

 

Glad You are doing well !! marwyn

 

Glad to hear from you goldy! Hope to bump into you some time/ some where over the summer


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Nice to see you're getting back at it, Goldy.

With that Titanium hip and a carbon fiber hat you would be quite the rocket man.

 

Just checking in guys, been busy as usual with sprint cars and drag racing. We expect to be running the #134 AA/Fuel Coupe at the New England Hot Rod Reunion at Epping New Hampshire September 11 to 14. Last year we "Cackled" it on 90% Nitro. This year we are going to run it down the New England track, now that all the parts are certified for NHRA.

 

While researching the local newspaper (Doylestown Daily Intelligencer) for some family history I stumbled on this from April of 1958. Note they have spelled 'Vargo' as 'Fargo' !!

 

The story has been told before, how we built this fuel coupe in the eighties and ran it at tracks all over the Midwest and east coast then sold it in 1989. In 2013 Ted Brine found the coupe in Walt Austin's collection, and bought it back. Last year we cackled it at NEHHR and over the winter got all the pieces certified.
Early Thursday morning we pulled into New England Dragway and set up our pit. We knew that it was going to be a challenge to get the car to go down the track.
When we originally built this car Ted lived about ten minutes from me just outside of Philadelphia. Now Ted lives in Pittsburg about 5 1/2 hours away. Ted took the car to Pittsburg Raceway Park to try to get it ready for NEHHR but severe front end wobble prevented it from making a quarter mile run.
The plan was to take the coupe to Epping and I could help fix it there, if all failed , at least we could cackle it again. This coupe is a 1934 Ford five window coupe sitting on a 1934 Ford frame with the original type transverse buggy spring and shackles up front. We removed the hood, grille, side panels and fuel tank. I measured the caster, it was at 14 degrees. Then we removed the axle with spindles, radius rods, shocks, etc. Did I mention that it was raining ?
Next we disconnected the transverse leaf spring and shackles. The shackles were bent, so we straightened them with some help from Jake Crimmins. Thanks Jake !
After we reinstalled the axle assembly, I set the caster at 7 degrees and the toe in at 3/16th. We reinstalled the fuel tank and the grille shell. By the time we warmed up the engine and towed to the lanes it was 4:30 Friday and they closed the lanes early, they were supposed to be running till 5:00 pm. We needed that test run to determine if we fixed it with the changes we made.
Saturday we get it ready for our test run in the morning and instead we are called to go to a drivers meeting for Cackle Cars so we don't get to make the check out pass until the afternoon. We make the drive down the track run to check out the front end wobble. Good news, the wobble is gone. Bad news, we have to get it ready for the Cacklefest, instead of turning it around for another pass. I don't mean to disrespect the Cacklefest, I just rather race the car than cackle it.
Now that we waste time getting it ready to cackle, it rains again and we are done. Looks like Sunday is our only chance. Sunday morning we do the Caklefest thing and get back to our pit to get ready to run. Getting a run while they are running eliminations means waiting in line. When it is our turn, we fire it up. Drive through the water, Soft, Soft on the leave, gets a little loose at the eighth and pedals it. When Ted gets after it again, it smokes the tires a little. That was pretty much the end of the run. Nothing spectacular, just getting it from A to B on Nitro again for the first time in Twenty Five Years ! I guess we have the distinction of being a Nitro Cackle Car that actually makes runs.
Had we made more runs, we would be more prepared to get after it at the Bakersfield CHHR. But considering our age, and knowing that things can change in a hurry, We are going to Bakersfield anyway and burn up some more NITRO !

 

This is my first post to this great site and wanted to say I am enjoying this
post. I am now a 55 year old automotive instructor who grew up in south jersey and was going to Atco
at a very young age and seeing alot of the cars that are being shown in this post
I really enjoyed seeing the movie from the 60's at Atco. I also crewed on the Philadelphia Flyer F/C
in it's later years so it was neat seeing that. Thank you to all and keep them coming.