The Banshee Firebird at the 1968 Autorama

Banshee Firebird in the loading dock at Detroit's Cobo Hall

Banshee Firebird arrived late for the 1968 Autorama. The owners are seen waiting for approval to move the car onto to the show floor. Note the snow underneath the car and the heavily-padded roll bar that extends through the roof.

I was in the basement loading dock at the 1968 Detroit Autorama, when these guys showed up with an injected Pontiac Firebird. The show was already open to the public and all of the other cars were set up in their displays.

Some of the officials pointed out that the owners had missed the deadline and attempted to prevent them from bringing the car into the auditorium. Cooler heads realized that the crowd was there to see cars, and the more cars the better. So the Firebird was allowed to join the other exhibits in the lower “overflow” area.

The Firebird looked to be freshly completed. The fact that the car arrived at Cobo Hall after the show opened to the public has always led me to believe the car was thrashed together to make the show.

The Pontiac was known as the Banshee. I’m not sure what class it was built for. It looks like a funny car, but it wouldn’t have been very competitive against the supercharged floppers on the match race circuit. It is possible it was intended for the NASCAR Ultra Stock class, where it would compete against cars like Wayne Gapp’s Super Cat Cougar.

Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wayne Gapp and the Super Cat Ultra-Stock Cougar


Super Cat of Wayne Gapp on display at 1968 Autorama in Detroit

Wayne Gapp got it done in 1968 with this gasoline Cougar Funny Car.

The last time we looked at Wayne Gapp, he was still running the Chargin’ Cyclone for the Hi-Risers. For 1968, however, Gapp went out on his own, campaigning the new Super Cat Mercury Cougar.

Gapp’s Cougar was another race car on display at the 1968 Detroit Autorama. Although flip-top funny cars were becoming the de-facto standard, Gapp’s new ride adopted the familiar tilt-forward front clip on a stock appearing factory shell.

When nearly all his contemporaries were embracing nitro and superchargers, Gapp bucked the system by building a new, gasoline powered funny car. The Cougar relied on the tried and true injected SOHC Ford 427, mounted in a tube frame. You cannot see them in this photo, but the injector tubes punched through the hood and were nearly as high as the car’s roof. I cannot say whether the body was shell was steel or fiberglass. I suspect it was a mixture of both.

Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Dennett Brothers B/G Chevelle Psycho

Psycho Chevelle

Another B/G entry at the 1968 Autorama was the Dennett Brothers and their modern 1965 Chevelle gasser.

Another gasser at the 1968 Detroit Autorama was this sanitary 1965 Chevelle.

Although I preferred the traditional Willys and Anglia gassers, there is no denying the Dennett Brothers B/G Chevelle was a head turner. Built from a 1965 Chevelle, the Psycho was powered by a fuel injected, 440 CI rat motor.

According to Draglist, the Westland, Michigan based Chevelle achieved a best of 10.19 at 135mph, which was hauling for a B/Gas coupe in the late ’60s. I wonder if the Dennett Brothers ever faced off with the Buckpasser Willys that I talked about a few weeks ago. The Buckpasser also ran B/G, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Dennett gang tangled with the Ohio based Buckpasser at some point.

Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Porcupine, Semi-Hemi, Mystery Rat Motor

The Chevrolet Big Block V-8 : AKA the Rat Motor

The Chevrolet Big Block V-8 is affectionately known as the rat motor to Chevy high performance fans.

One of the displays at the 1868 Detroit Autorama was this jewel-like big-block Chevy, AKA the Rat Motor. How did the big Chevy come to be known as a rat?

To a hot rodder or racer any Chevrolet big block V-8 is a rat motor. The slang term goes back over four decades and few enthusiasts will use any other term to identify the big Chevy power-plant.

Generally, the expression rat is less than complimentary. From James Cagney’s famous line “…that dirty, double-crossin’ rat” to the much-maligned rat finks of the fifties, calling someone or something a rat is the ultimate insult. When something is old, used up and falling apart, it is “ratty.”

The Chevrolet big block is a marvel of engineering and is the most powerful automotive engine ever mass-produced by General Motors. How did such a masterpiece of automotive design come to known-by the unsavory term of rat?

Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dick Jesse’s Extreme Slant-Roof GTO Funny Car

Chopped top saw Dick Jesse's head poking through the roof of his GTO

Not many funny car drivers were positioned above the roof of their race cars, but that is exactly how Dick Jesse drove the 1967 version of his Mr. Unswitchable Pontiac GTO. In case anyone was wondering, the car was Pontiac powered.

Pay no attention to the man poking through this GTO’s roof. It’s just Dick Jesse and his “slightly” chopped Mr. Unswitchable extreme funny car.

When we last saw Jesse, he was running an altered wheelbase 1965 GTO, which was also known as Mr. Unswitchable. The ’65 edition was one of the earliest independent match racers and Jesse kept the heavy goat competitive as long as he could, adding a supercharger to the Pontiac 421.

Jesse built this ultra-radical GTO for the 1967 season. Starting with a brand-new 1967 GTO fresh from a Pontiac showroom, Jesse built a tube frame, altered the wheelbase and replaced the hood, front fenders and doors with light-weight fiberglass. The only sheet metal retained from the original GTO was the roof and rear quarter panels.
Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Buckpasser: B/G Willys Coupe

Buckpasser B/G Willys at 1968 Detroit Autorama

Pretty little B/G Willys Coupe: The Buckpasser appeared at the 1968 Detroit Autorama at Cobo Hall.


This trim little Willys coupe was on hand for the 1968 Detroit Autorama. Other than the Buckpasser name and the Shadowoods Auto Center lettering on the hood, this picture doesn’t provide much information on the little coupe.

Fortunately, Google is our friend. Typing “Buckpasser Willys” in the search field in Google resulted in a large page of gasser photos on the site called Gasser Madness.

There I found a photo of the Willys at National Trail Raceway, along with the information the car ran in the B/Gas category and was campaigned by “Tinney and Tignanelli.”
Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Connie Kalitta’s SOHC Ford Bounty Hunter Top Fuel Dragster

Connie Kalitta Bounty Hunter front engine dragster

Connie Kalitta's simple but fearsome front engine Ford powered dragster at the 1968 Autorama in Detroit.

Connie Kalitta had his Ford SOHC Top Fuel car on display at the 1968 Autorama. It’s amazing how simple this rig looks. Slingshot dragster chassis, with a minimum of body work and a huge Ford V-8 mounted in front of the driver.

This isn’t some cut-away display car, it is the complete dragster, ready to race. The chassis is from Logghe Stamping Company, and Kalitta carried the LSC sponsorship in 1968.

Kalitta was a Michigan native, and he gained fame (and fortune) campaigning his famous series of “Bounty Hunter” top fuel cars. Kalitta painted the names of all the big stars in the AA/FD ranks on the side of his cars. With great ceremony, he crossed the names off one-by-one after he defeated them in match races. This gimmick made him extremely popular with drag racing fans throughout the country.

Of course the Bounty-Hunter gig could only work if Kalitta could actually win against the drivers he displayed on his car. That wasn’t a problem, as Kalitta was a fairly consistent winner, both as a match-racer and in national event competition.

Like almost everyone else in the Top Fuel ranks, Kalitta started out running a 392 Chrysler power plant. Ford had originally created the SOHC V-8 to run in NASCAR stock cars. When NASCAR banned the big V-8 from the high-bank ovals, Ford had a surplus of ‘cammers available. Ford offered engines to several highly ranked dragster teams, including Greer-Black-Prudhomme and “Sneaky” Pete Robinson. Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dave Zackary’s Cadillac Eldorado Funny Car

Dave Zackary: The all steel, flip-top Eldorado Funny Car

It may look stock, but Dave Zackary campaigned this all steel, flip-top Eldorado Funny Car

Dave Zackary decided the drag racing world needed at least one Cadillac funny car. To that end, he created this one-of-a-kind Eldorado flopper.

Since no one offered a fiberglass Eldo body shell, Zackary created his own one-piece body by welding together stock Cadillac sheet metal components. The resulting body was said to be much heavier than the fiberglass shells decorating his competitors, but Zackary could still boast he ran the quickest and fastest Cadillac Eldorado in the world.

Zackary also built the chassis, utilizing square tubing. The chassis rails consisted of long, straight pieces of tubing, only interrupted by a small dragster-style roll bar.

For power, Zackary started with an injected Chevy “rat-motor.” The heavy, steel body rendered that set-up uncompetitive, so Zackary upgraded to a blower, eventually trading the Chevy for a full-tilt Keith-Black Hemi.

Zackary displayed the Caddy at the ’68 Detroit Autorama, where I shot these photos. As you can see the Eldorado looks completely stock, with the exception of the blower poking through the hood.

I’m not sure which engine Zackary was running at the time, as they never raised the body while I was around. In addition to the oddity of being a Cadillac flip-top with a steel shell, the car was also noteworthy because the body was hinged at the front and raised from the rear.

Sadly, we will never know if Zackary could have made the Eldorado competitive against the ‘glass Comets, Mustangs, Novas and Barracudas that dominated the funny car scene in 1968. In September of that year, Zackary was killed when the car went out of control on a full throttle run at Lexington, Kentucky.

According to Dragstripdeaths, the Eldorado barrel-rolled in the lights. Reportedly, the roll bar failed and Zachary did not survive the crash.

Thus ended the life of the colorful figure who conceived the idea of a steel bodied, fliptop Eledorado funny car.

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Paul Stefansky’s Boss Hoss Mustang Funny Car

Rare notchback Mustang funny car driven by Paul Stefansky

Funny cars with Mustang Notchback body shells are fairly rare, but Paul Stefansky chose a notchback for his Boss Hoss fuel funny car

Last time around I explored Another Mustang Funny Car Mystery, in which I looked at an under construction car that looked suspiciously like Paul Stefansky’s Notch-back Mustang flopper.

Thanks to input from Daryl Huffman, we now know the car in question belonged to Tom Stanke and that the bodies on both Stanke’s car and the Boss Hoss came from Ford Styling. Ford used fiberglass mockups to demo the Mustang before the actual metal cars were built. According to Huffman (who knows more than a little about 1960s-era Ford and Mercury funny cars) Stefanky purchased the body shell for the Boss Hoss directly from Lee Iacocca.

If you compare this 1968 Detroit Autorama photo of the Boss Hoss with that of Stanke’s car, you will see that while the body shells are similar, the chassis are very different.

The chassis of the Boss Hoss appears to be a Logghe Brothers ladder frame, or at least a similar design. Power comes from an injected Ford SOHC V-8, the same power-plant used by the dominant Mercury Comets of Don Nicholson and Eddie Schartman in 1968.

Read More »

 
Posted in 1968 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Another Mustang Funny Car Mystery

Mystery Mustang at North Brothers Ford in 1967

This Mustang appeared briefly at North Brother's Ford in 1967. Who built it and what became of it?

Note: additional photos at the bottom of the post

What is about Mustang funny cars? Not too long ago, with the help of several Vintage-Nitro readers, I explored and solved the Mystery of the Competition + Mustang, which I believe is the original flip-top Mustang funny car. Going through my photo archives, I have discovered another mysterious Mustang flopper. Hopefully a reader will step forward to provide the story behind the strange case of the North Brothers Mustang.

In the fall of 1967, I was relaxing after a day of High School when one of my friends came over with some tantalizing news: “My brother was just up at North Brothers Ford. They’re building a flip-top funny car in the service area!”
Read More »

 
Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments
  • Get Vintage-Nitro by Email:


    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Get Vintage-Nitro by RSS:
  • Ads:

    Chaos Drag Racing Book
    We were the Ramchargers Book
  • Ads by Google:

  • Search Vintage-Nitro