Hot Rod Memories in Ontario

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

RE: Hot Rod Memories in Ontario

will · WALKERTON, ONT

Bob, I do remember a dragster from Blenheim but the names escape me. Maybe not - was it A guy named Lang Chase?

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

Will That was the driver & one of the partners. So close. One more hint The orig car has been restored and was at last years E.L.T.A. Fall Mixer.

will · WALKERTON, ONT

How about guessing the combined ages of Dick Kirkpatrick, Sasquatch, Bob T & Will?

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

My guess is 275

Gazoo · BADEN, ONT

I haven't seen Don MacCallum's name up here yet. He was the first in the 9's in the SS/AA class.

Don MacCallum.jpg

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Re: ages: Now,, HOW are we going to get an honest answer to that???

Blenheim ??? geez?????????????????

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Remembered another car:

Ran Cayuga a lot, ugly thing nicknamed the "Maggot." (But won class many times.)

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

MacCallum was a major player in the SS/AA cars when they still somewhat resembled a orig .Super Stock hemi cuda. I believe he worked for Ray Barton but stayed in Canada when Barton moved south. i believe he also won Super Stock eliminator with that car which would be pretty tough to do. The fastest cars in the eliminator don't usualy do well. There are a lot of Canadian drag racers to be proud off. How about Linda Pleva/Mainway Ford 427 LTD

Gazoo · BADEN, ONT

Don stayed in Vankleek Hill, Ontario.He had a service station in Vankleek Hill, he then started his own machine shop, building engines for other racers when Barton went south.

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

O.K. i'm wore out. The top fuel car that claimed to be the first to run 200 m.p.h. on Canadian soil was the Renegade from Blenheim ont. owned by Skip Adair. Other partners were driver Lang Chase and Abby Rodell[spl/]. it wasn't as far feched as some think. The Adair Garage was where Garlits headquarted when in southern Ont. and did his maintance. Adairs car was a Garlits setup and tuneup. Did it run 200 first?

jarvis1 · COBBLE HILL, BC

will wrote:
poncho62 wrote:
Gary Beck was in the 70s.....

Was Frank Hawley who drove the Chi town Hustler funny car not from London?...
Yes poncho, Frank was originally from London. He also ran a drag racing school in Panoma California.

I think Frank Hawley's drag racing school was in Gainsville, Florida.

jarvis1 · COBBLE HILL, BC

Don Garlits was racing at Niagara then at Cayuga. He stayed at the Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton where the manager got the other customers to move their cars so Don could park his truck and trailer in the lot.

not as drunk as you thinkle peep I am · GTA, ONT

i saw garlits at cayuga maybe 25 years ago on an exhibition tour with one of his very early swamp rats. blew the early hemi on the line didnt have a spare and never made a pass. that had to suck for him.

will · WALKERTON, ONT

jarvis1 wrote:
will wrote:
poncho62 wrote:
Gary Beck was in the 70s.....

Was Frank Hawley who drove the Chi town Hustler funny car not from London?...
Yes poncho, Frank was originally from London. He also ran a drag racing school in Panoma California.
I think Frank Hawley's drag racing school was in Gainsville, Florida.

Frank may have had a place in Florida as well, but I did visit his set up in California. I think it was located in Pomona at the L A county fair grounds, close to the Drag Race Museum.

will · WALKERTON, ONT

sasquatch wrote:
Re: ages: Now,, HOW are we going to get an honest answer to that???

Blenheim ??? geez?????????????????

We are way too old to start being honest now. I like Bob T's number - 275. That is close enough for me.

will · WALKERTON, ONT

Skip Adair - Thanks Bob. This is a car I had totally forgotten about. Not sure about first to run 200, but it did run well.

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

The Gm car i posted about back a bit , and driven by another with a french sounding name was the 'Seaport Automotive " Corvette, driven by Louis Rivait from i think Chatham area.
Bought in the USA it was then owned by a Chapman ? That Small block was a screamer.
Not sure whatever became of the car. It was a crowd favourite with the wheels up launches cleaning the tires.

The other "UGLY" car i posted about that was called the "Maggot" was the white 49-50? studebaker of Pete,,,,,,,,? that ran one of the low stock classes.

Fordy Acres Car Farm · DORCHESTER, ONT

Just found this while surfing the WWW:

attachment.php?attachmentid=411940&d=1202779822

Dick Kirkpatrick · MILTON, ONTARIO

Total combined age has to be close to 300.
My guess is 295

I will post my age close to 75

Dick Kirkpatrick · MILTON, ONTARIO

will wrote:
Dick Kirkpatrick wrote:
What was the name of Bob Hayward's dragster?
When George Herbert ran the car I remember it was called the "Rickshaw"
I am not sure if the name was the same when Bob built and ran it.

Right you are Will, you must be almost as old as me.

will · WALKERTON, ONT

Yes Dick -- Almost. Loved this post. -- lot's of memories. -- for us old guys.

John

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Being Dick has been so Brazen and posted his almost age, add my almost 69 to the total.

Ok, Bob and Will, we're waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

We need a total here. Lol

will · WALKERTON, ONT

Oh dear - Why did I start this? Well since we are all telling the truth now I must confess I am on the plus side of 72 and enjoying the ride.
Your turn Bob?

John

jarvis1 · COBBLE HILL, BC

How about Tony Martino?

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

Sasquatch Louis Rivait is from Tilbury Ont. and is still with us. A diehard Ford man [ he drove for Westown Ford] he was hired by Chapman [from Chatham] because of his ability with a 4speed especialy during the wheelstands the car was famous for. Ironically the only N.H.R.A. record Louis ever held was in that car, a Chev. in D or E altered. All the cars he drove were competative. The car was restored to stock by Chapman after he quit racing.________ I'm the youngen 68

Ziggy · TRENTON, ONT

Fordy Acres Car Farm wrote:
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Sandy Elliot and the eye catching Pinto, Maverick and Mustang they campaigned up here and stateside - so I guess I'm mentioning it now. Lol! Does anyone know if they ever ran any of those beasts on the street?

There is a write up about Sandy Elliot and the Border Bandits in the last Canadian Hot Rods Nostalgia Collector Issue. It says that Jack Roush and Wayne Gapp bought the Pinto. Jack drove the car briefly before crashing it. Read somewhere else that Gapp totaled it in St. Louis in '73. There was a Pinto on kijiji a couple months ago. It was painted up and looked like Sandy's old Pinto. Now whether it was rebuilt or clone, I do not know.

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Ziggy, i saw that Pinto on kijiji also, not sure either if it is the original one. I think it had ran recently at St. Thomas, could be wrong, But JPB here will know.

Looks like we have a total age count here of 282 years,, (If these are the true ages!! Lol)

teejay99 · BELLE RIVER, ONT

Like Jack Benny , I'm , uh , 39 years old , every year ....yeah that's the ticket .

T

Dick Kirkpatrick · MILTON, ONTARIO

Those are the Porters that I am speaking of.

Jimmy built 6:71 gmc supercharged 302 chev (283 bored .125)
The problem was he made it chain driven and it always had problems.

Father Bernie was a genius machinist, he and I would get going on how we could change things in the FH fords that I was really into in the late 50's and he helped me degree a nascar mercury camshaft and help me engineer a log manifold for 6 stromberg 97's
That engine was in a 1950 ford and it would run with the power pack chevs and even beat the notorious Lloyd Young with his 348 58 chev in a race on Norwich Ave.
I couldn't even really get on it in first gear because it would blow the cluster gear out easily.
Always wanted to put a LaSalle or Lincoln Zephyr tranny in it but they cost $20 and that was a lot of money back then.
I got rear ended in a snow storm and the little ford was written off, I got the motor from the insurance people and we put the motor in a 50 Merc that my deceased brother Hugh had, I made a 4 barrel manifold for it and put on a rochester 4gc. That big merc would outrun nearly everything around Woodstock, Norwich and Tillsonburg.
We ran top end races against 56 Fords with the Thunderbird motors on the 401 highway which was not yet open, Woodstock to Ingersoll was a common race, and Hugh never got beat.

Those were the days.

When the Woodstock police got a new cruiser they arranged to meet me on the outskirts of town to see if they could catch me. They couldn't, so the next day they were out to my shop for a tuneup. lol

-- Edited by Dick Kirkpatrick on Monday 23rd of September 2013 09:22:40 PM

Gwillyville Kid · BRADFORD, ONT

i saw a photo of one of the "Hurst Hemi Under Glass" 'Cuda's that was supposed to have been sitting behind a barn in the Greater Chatham area. Car was rough or well worn but did not appear to be crashed. Anybody know Who, Where, Why?
Apparently it is the one that was restored, and was run for a few seasons but replaced with a '69 'Cuda in 1995.

My guess on the total age 426, but I could be off a little

the Kid

Dick Kirkpatrick · MILTON, ONTARIO

The way I heard it, I was not there, but Bob Hayward took his homemade dragster to the Nationals and the big boys (he beat most of them in eliminations) compared his car to a Rickshaw in China.

Next time out, the car had the name Rickshaw in Chinese stylized lettering.

Bob had a litttle chev coupe that he ran around Woodstock in, "looking" for trouble.
I don't know a lot about the chev inline sixes, but I do know he had a set of engine side plates and a valve cover doctored up to make everyone think it was the car 6 cylinder.
He would whip the **** out of power pack chevs etc. back in the late 50's

In 1958 was apprenticing for a mechanic at a garage in Burgessville under the tutelage of Ed McFarland and one day he had me stripping down a 235 chev engine and be damned if I could get the camshaft out of it.
This guy, who Ed seemed to know quite well, was just kind of standing there talking to Ed and watching me in my efforts. I finally realised that I had to loosed the jam nut and screw out a bolt holding the distributor in to get the cam out.
I finished stripping the motor down (it had to go to Porter Automotive in Eastwood to be boiled out an rebored, and when I got back from Eastwood I asked Ed "who was that guy earlier" and Ed told me it was Bob Hayward. I wanted to die because I knew about him and I said to Ed, |I wonder why he didn't tell me what I was doing wrong and Ed said well, Bob said he knew you would figure it out.
A year later I was formally introduced to him and we became close friends.

I

will · WALKERTON, ONT

Great story Dick. Bob was the true hot Rodder way back then!

282 - Just think of the stories we could tell, if we could only remember

John

Dick Kirkpatrick · MILTON, ONTARIO

Lots of guys wish they could remember what we remember, John.

I have been to the funerals of so many of my old friends in the last few years it is sickening.

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

Dick I'm sure it was a pleasure to know Bob Hayward. Few know his involment in drag racing. I understand the Rickshaw was runnerup in 'Top Eliminator' at the Nationals in Detroit. While the more powerful cars were spining their tires the 'Rickshaw' would just take off.I hope you will tell some of your personal recollections of early drag racing in southern Ontario drag racing because you were there and quite sucessful

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Agreed, Re: Stories from Dicks experiences:
You have a LOT to tell, we'd love to hear these.

I remember Jim porter, and his dad, i think Jim had a willys coupe at one time, and i remember his dad was into steam engines.

Ragtop · BELLE RIVER, ONT

I tried looking this up but can't find anything to back it up but I thought I'd share a memory of mine. My neighbour's buddy had a brand new Valiant two door with one of those Gerrighty(SP?) built slant sixes and a 4 speed. Quick little car. When he was visiting one time (I'm thinking this was 1961 or '62 or so and I was 14 or 15 years old) he took us to Detroit Dragway to watch a National event of some sort featuring a number of top fuel cars, two of which were TV Tommy and Big Daddy, I believe the final round came down to these two guys and Big won. Ivo wanted to show the crowd he could run quicker and faster than anyone had ever run at Detroit before and predicted that in the future all top fuel runs would be done by slipping the clutch and making a smokeless pass. The announcer kept going on and on about Tommy burning up a $200.00 clutch to do this! Ivo went over 200 MPH that pass and QUICK! I'm pretty sure no-one had run close to this mark (at Detroit anyway) before that. It was weird back then to see a dragster run that fast and quick without smoking the tires. I'll bet those car owners today wished their clutches cost $200.00!

Ragtop · BELLE RIVER, ONT

Here's a pic of Zorro2 same car as the earlier pic but with a body and some updates. I think this is with the Olds in it but it could be the Packard - I don't think I'd know a Packard Patrician V* if I sat on it.

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Great pic Ragtop!! Man, that was a LONG time ago now when you add up the years!! Lol

Thanks for posting that.

Dick Kirkpatrick · MILTON, ONTARIO

I think the packard had 4 separated exhaust ports, like the big block chevys.

Looks to me in that pic that the two middle exhausts are together, like a small block.

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Hard to see in the pic, but that rocker cover, along with the 3 pipes, looks like an olds block, probably a 371, that came out in 56, the packard engine for 57-58 was only a 289 Cu. In., according to my specs.
The packard engine previous to 56 was a bigger bore @ 4in., x 3 1/2 inch stroke, which puts it around 350.
The availability in those years of any aftermarket speed equipment would definetly be in favour of the Olds engine.

Ragtop · BELLE RIVER, ONT

Yeh it's not a small block - they never ran one of those in the dragster. The Olds was the normal motor in the car and the Packard was swapped in, maybe not every second weekend but occasionally. Bernie DesJardins raced Konnie Kiletta's full race '40 Willys at New Baltimore Mi. with the Packard motor in his A roadster and beat him, driving the roadster home. Olds motors had one exhaust port in the center of the head - not two close together like an SBC.

This note was written on the back of the picture above:

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Neat post Ragtop,, And yes the olds block would have had those three headers.
Interesting history for sure.

JPB · AYLMER, ONT

sasquatch wrote:
Ziggy, i saw that Pinto on kijiji also, not sure either if it is the original one. I think it had ran recently at St. Thomas, could be wrong, But JPB here will know.

Looks like we have a total age count here of 282 years,, (If these are the true ages!! Lol)

That one on kijiji is a clone.The real one is owned I believe by a fellow from the Chatham way. He has a tire shop and put on the CK(Chatham/Kent) Weekend @ Stthomas.his first name is Bob.

Ragtop · BELLE RIVER, ONT

The MAverick is in Windsor owned by a guy named Ivan

Bob T · BRANTFORD, ONT

The Maverick is really a Comet. It is the real deal. 1'st Pro Stock built by Poole ,was sold ,put on the street[ I believe painted black] was rescued by the current owner and restored.The Pinto owned by Bob Maxwell is a 'tribute' car. The 'real 'car was sold to Gapp & Roush' and Jack Roush crashed and destroyed the car.

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Right on Bob T, i had forgot that Gap and Roush ended up with that car after Barry Pooles accident.

Rochie · LONDON, ONT

Bob T, If ...and that's a BIG if, my memory serves, I thick Gay Peifer owned the car a long way back. I know that Ed or George Gramada
would know for sure.

shaggn · LONDON, ONT

Also a regular at ELTA bash,is Bill Heislers front engine car..Frank Hawley fuel car

Gwillyville Kid · BRADFORD, ONT

I wish I new how to add music to a posting. When I'm reading this I hear The King singing"Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind, Memories, sweetened thru the ages just like wine".

There was a beat up Firebird w/BBC out of the Corunna area Cliff somebody, it was lettered Captain Canuck. Strong 10 second car in 1970's.

John Shelley, Shelley's Marine & Machine, Sarnia, ran a 68/69 El Camino did awesome wheelstands in 1970's. He changed to a Model A or Deuce coupe. He sheared the input shaft on a Richmond 5 speed and never broke the staging lights at St. Thomas again in the 70's.

I was St. Thomas the day the new owner of the 1969 Hemi GTX convertible, the one that had been the John Petrie Pro Stock car, went on it's side about 3/4 track, off into the dirt between 2 small trees. No body hurt, never saw car again. Those 1969 Pro Stocks were really just next level Super Stockers. Park one beside a 2013 Pro-Stock and no one would believe they were in the same class.

Have not heard too much out of Sarnia area, I know there was stuff happening there.

the Kid