History Stock-S/S-F/X 1959-1966

Crivelli Chevrolet..

 

Lindholm & James

 

I had a conversation with Art Carr a while back about the T-bolts with auto transmissions. He had one and removed the Lincoln trans and replaced with one of His smaller Ford's he had beafed up. Beat theirs every time. Their engineers could not figure it out as the could not see it as it was not up in the air. When they did find out they were po'ed and I don't know why. Art did have a way with converters back then and kept it to himself.

 

That shot of the Gas Ronda car looks to be one from later in the season,Loudbang.
The cars started the season with roll-up windows,but soon they were running a GT-350R style arrangement,with lexan in aluminium channel,raised and lowered with a seatbelt strap.
Most cars also ended the season with the quarter panel air extractor vents replaced with a piece of pop riveted aluminum like the GT-350r's,but the Russ Davis/Gas Ronda car never got that treatment.
It's got to be the prettiest of the A/FX cars for that year,in my opinion,with the Tasca car running a close second.
The Tasca car must have had some serious mojo,cause it was a real looker in its next guise as the "Bowani II" car also.

Scott


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posted by swi66 in the vintage thread.

Hell of a shot and VERY big when you click on it.

 

Grand Spaulding Mr Norm Hustler!





From Bangkok Dean
Wild Child

 

From Bangkok Dean


One of the first

 

Look for a Dyno Don book come July. Available to preorder now from everywhere books are sold... https://www.amazon.com/Dyno-Don-Car...=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516375879&sr=1-8

 

Neat picture, LB.
However , it doesn't fit within the parameters of this thread. It has to be from 1972 or later.
BTW, I believe this is Gene Bichelmeier , Div 5 Hall of Famer. He still races the car once in a while.

 

Heres out 63-409 we still race it--See us at the Detroit Dragway reunion at Milan Dragway on June 9--going to be a great show

 

You going to make Bowling Green also?
That car will fit right in.

 

Going to try to make bowling green--new job hard to get away for a long weekend......................

 

So you are saying that everyone that posts a photo of the 1932 ford taken yesterday are wrong or all the 55 chevies at meltdown ?? It's still a 55 chevy

 

Cal Van

 

WHERE WERE YOU IN SIXTY-TWO?

If you were born in 1962 you would be 56 years old now. If you were 23 years old in 1962, you would be 79. I will be 79 on April 2nd.

First of all, I am not a historian. I think of a historian as someone that studies the past and reports on it. I have not studied the past, I was there and I’m just reporting what I saw.

There is always a lot of talk about “nostalgia” and about “The Glory Years of Super Stock drag racing”. In my opinion, there were no “Glory Years” (plural) when it came to Super Stock, there was only one Glory Year. 1962.

1962 was a pivotal year in “Super Stock” drag racing. It was probably the ONLY year in which the factory produced drag race cars could be purchased by anyone off the showroom floor, driven on the street and taken down to the local drag strip and raced. These were cars that were not designed or specially modified just for racing, although they were high performance cars. These were cars that you could purchase without “knowing somebody”. These were cars the factory produced in some quantity, not just a dozen cars built exclusively for competition. It never really happened prior to 1962 and it was over by 1963.

And the interesting thing is that all the major brands, Chevy, Ford, Pontiac, Dodge and Plymouth participated in this unique and one time phenomenon in 1962. The Chevy 409, the Pontiac 421, the Ford 406, and the Dodge and Plymouth 413’s, all available at your friendly new car dealers.

1961 was the first year for the Super Stock (S/S) class in drag racing, it was introduced by the NHRA at the Winternationals. Stock classes did exist prior to 1961 but the top class was A/Stock (A/S). The rules for the Super Stock class were new and like anything new, there are always some issues or inconsistencies, such as what actually constituted a “production car”. For instance, in 1961, the Chevy 409 engine was factory installed in only 142 cars. Many racers purchased a 1961 Chevy with a 283 or 348 engine, and purchased the 409 engine separately over the counter at a Chevy dealer, and installed it themselves. That’s exactly what Dyno Don Nicholson did. His original white 1961 “bubble top” was originally equipped with the 348 engine, and Don did an engine swap.

Like the Chevy 409, Pontiac introduced the 421 Super Duty engine in 1961, as a “dealer installed option”, although it was never installed in a vehicle at the factory. That was accepted by NHRA in 1961. But all that changed in 1962.

In 1962, NHRA rules mandated that all the engines had to have been factory installed. The Rulebook was cleaned up, no more add-on hood scoops. If there were to be any hood scoops, they had to be part of the car when it was first manufactured. The Super Stock class went back to being factory assembled, showroom cars.

Chevy produced 8,909 cars with 409 engines in 1962, cars that anyone could purchase from your local Chevy dealer.

In the Chevy camp in 1962, racers like Hayden Proffitt, Butch Leal, Ronnie Sox, Dyno Don Nicholson, Dave Strickler and hundreds of other guys were drag racing with the Chevy 409, the same basic car that anyone could purchase at your local Chevy dealer. Of course, the serious racers “blue printed” their engines and modified the cars for racing in NHRA Super Stock, right up to the allowable modifications for the class. But anyone else could do it too. It didn’t take a lot to change over to the Atlas Bucron rear tires and add some exhaust cut-outs, and some 4:11 or 4:56 gears. Anyone could make these modifications and race at the local drag strips on Sunday, with a reasonable chance of winning the S/S class.

By 1963, the drag race Chevy’s such as the Z-11 were never seen in Chevy showrooms. They were in short supply and almost unavailable. GM’s decision to pull out of racing also didn’t help much but for all practical purposes, Chevy was done with Super Stock after 1962.

Over at the Pontiac dealers, the mighty Super Duty 421 could get the crowds excited. In 1962, these cars were available to anyone with the cash, from the factory, but in much smaller quantities than the Chevy 409’s. Only 180 Catalina sedans and 16 Grand Prix cars were factory produced with the 421SD engine. Well known Pontiac racers in 1962 included Arnie Beswick, Jess Tyree, Arlen Vanke, Harold Ramsey, Lloyd and Carol Cox and Don Gay. The other 170 plus showroom 421 SD Pontiacs were snatched up by people that just wanted a fast car or wanted to do some S/S drag racing with the big name racers.

In 1963, the famed “swiss cheese” Pontiacs were given to only a select few, and as race cars only, and never saw the inside of a Pontiac dealer showroom. Like Chevy, Pontiac never offered a true Super Stock car after 1962.

The new 1962 Dodge and Plymouth’s were an instant hit. They had been good performers in the past and competitive in 1960 and 1961, but were less than exciting style wise and didn’t attract a lot of showroom attention.

In 1962, Dodge and Plymouth dealers were selling their new models with a short- ram wedge 413 cubic inch engine, the majority of which were equipped with an efficient 3-speed Torqueflite automatic transmission. These cars, weighing in at a light (for the time) 3400 pounds could rattle off mid 13-second elapsed times and even high 12’s with the optional 4.56 rear end ratio. The stock headers even had a place for open exhaust when the customers decided to go drag racing. The 413 Max Wedge was available to any and all that wanted one. 214 Dodges and 298 Plymouths were produced by the factory with the 413 Max Wedge engine. Once more, drive it to the track, race, and drive it home. Hundreds of regular enthusiasts raced their Dodges and Plymouths at the local drag stirps successfully, along side Bud Faubel, Roger Lindamood, Al Ecstrand, The Ramchargers, Dick Landy, Bill “Maverick” Golden, and Tommy Grove.

By 1963, aluminum front clips had all but eliminated these cars from the legitimate “street ” car category.

And then there were the Fords.

If any one company was responsible for the “street n’ strip performance” phenomenon off the showroom floor, it had to be Ford. Ford actually released the first of their “serious” Super Stockers in 1960, a 352-inch High Performance engine. In NHRA competition, they raced in A/Stock, since Super Stock did not exist as an NHRA class until 1961.

In 1961, the Starliner could be had with an updated 390 inch engine with triple carbs, but in 1962, the 406 engine was available to all who desired it, right off the showroom floor. The power was there but the cars were a little heavy for drag racing but were popular on the street. Racers like Gas Rhonda, Les Ritchey, Len Richter, Bill Lawton (Tasca Ford) were well known Ford Super Stock racers, but after 1962, Ford never again produced a showroom available Super Stock car.

Ford, like most of the rest of the manufacturers, changed to a more “race only” configuration for 1963 with a special light weight Galaxie. Here again, the lightweight Galaxies were no longer street cars available in the show rooms.

1962 was really the first and last year that the multi carb, solid cam, big inch, “street n’ strip” cars were manufactured in Detroit and could be purchased directly from the local car dealers. Sure, you could still purchase cars with the big-inch engines after 1962, but they were watered-down for street use. They were not Super Stockers. 1962 was the TRUE Glory Year for the Super Stockers, before the words “emissions” and “crash testing” and “fuel mileage standards” got in the way of all the fun.

So, where were you in 1962? Yeah, I know, some of your parents weren’t even adults yet. But I remember it like it was yesterday. I wish I still had my old 409 bubble top to play around with. Heck, I wish I was 23 again too.

 

George you show up at a track I am at and I will let you wheel my 409 down the track.

 

You would probably be making a big mistake, lol...

 

Not sure you could be any harder on it than me.

 

I wasn't hard on 'em, I just broke 'em. I broke the trans once and the rear end twice, all replaced under warranty. After that, they told me to never come back to A. E. Nugent Chevrolet in L.A. again, lol...

 

Don't worry George Saltflats car has one of those easy pedal transmissions there is only two pedals in the car and it already has a olds rear end upgrade you should have no issues lol


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Jackson are you stalking me.

 

When I think back to the early 1960's, and breaking parts, we didn't have really powerful cars, compared to what is available today. And we only had 7-inch wide tires on asphalt drag strips, no concrete launch pads, and no such thing as "track prep". Breaking the trans on a 3400# 409 was usually the result of shifting issues (linkage, etc.) with the crappy floor shifter. The rear ends were just not strong enough I guess, either that or they were not set-up correctly at the factory. The funny thing is that after I had the last one installed (by the dealer), I never broke one again.

 

James I'm not stalking you we just have the same interests lol.

George you are correct about those rear ends I blew many of them up in my 59 chevy I finally just made a jig and put a 57 ford 9" in it and never had an issue after that plus I could put a lot more tire under it cause the rear was narrower


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Gammz are you stalking me lol


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Soiling myself on a daily basis.

 

This thread is the greatest.......It will take a while but looking forward to going though all the pages, too bad some pics are Xed out.

 

SPOT ON George.