Hello All!

I have been having some health problems over the past seven weeks.  This is why I have not posted anything new for some time.  I am getting much better and almost back to good health.  You can't keep this old guy down. 

 

Now, enough about that, let's get to the topic at hand.  I just completed building a '64 Dodge Super Stocker that is a replica of the one Dave Strickler drove back in the day.  Dave had driven Chevys before this, but when GM pulled out of racing in '63, he changed to driving Dodges for a few years.  Dave and team mate Bill Jenkins got sponsorship from Dodge and became know as "The Dodge Boys"  As most of the drivers of these 2 door HT body styles would find out, they not strong enough to handle the torque on them off the line.  Some of the Hemi powered cars even twisted the frames.  Dave's car ran a Max Wedge Engine.  Like other drivers, Dave changed to the 2 door Sedan body style still running in Super Stock.  He later changed the car to run A/FX.

 

As always, I hope that you enjoy looking at my photos, and comments are welcome.

 

 

 

Here is a photo of Dave Strickler's Super Stocker as it looked in the early '64 drag season.

 

 

 Here is the left side view.

 

 

 

This is a left rear shot.

 

 

Front view

 

 

Here is the Max Wedge Engine.

 

 

The final shot is the right side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently completed building another replica from this era of drag racing.  This time it is a Jr. Stocker.  The car was run by the team of Ott and Ryan out of Aberdeen, South Dakota.  There were quite a few Oldsmobiles from '49 thru '52 running around the country.  I remember either a '49 or '50 Olds Jr. Stocker that ran at Kil-Kare Drag Strip during the years I raced there.  The driver called himself "Hill Billy Duncan".  That car really ran well and was a regular class winner.  He would take the tops off his trophies and bolt them onto the hood, roof and trunk lid of his race car.  They looked like two rows of racing stripes going over the car.  I also remember the time I went to National Trails Drag Strip near Columbus, Ohio and the '56 Olds Jr. Stocker that blew my doors off my Mustang in the first round. 

 

As usual, I try to always provide a photo of the real car that I have built the replica of.  That is the first photo shown below.  I hope that you enjoy looking at my other photos.

 

 

I built this model using the Revell '50 Olds Coupe and modified the body converting it to a Sedan.  I was surprised that it was an easy conversion.  I plan on doing another Olds project in the future.  The next one will be to convert the Coupe to a 2 door Hardtop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi All!

I now it has been a while since my last posting.  I've had a lot of things going on like most of you.  Being retired does not always mean that you have extra time on your hands. 

 

Enough of that.  The subject is drag racing, especially during the "Glory Days".  I just finished building a replica of another one of the famous cars from that era.  This one is a 427 Cobra.  In the mid sixties, there were a few of these that were factory backed and some had other sponsorship.  The sponsor for this car was Baldwin-Motion, and the car was called "King Cobra"  When Baldwin-Motion Performance, Inc. took this car and added their touch, the outcome was fantastic.  The first time out, the car broke the national record by 2 seconds at a speed of 130+ mph.  That alone made this car very unique.  As with most of my models I try to post a photo of the real car for comparison.  I hope that you enjoy looking.  As usual, comments are welcome.

 

 

 

Here is my built replica of the original car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the years, the hobby has lost many great model builders.  The sad thing is that there have been many of them.  Another great was Bud Lefevre.  Bud built many drag cars and also was in drag racing.  I only had a few contacts with him, but the times were very enjoyable.  I once competed against him at a model contest in the drag racing class.  Bud won and I did not.  I was just honored to be able to say that I competed with him.  Some of our other connections were when I purchased some decals from him for one of my projects.  I wish that I could have gotten to know him better.  Like my best friend Jerry G. Kathe, Bud was very knowable on the topic of drag racing.  Here is a photo of Bud.

 

 

Here is a photo of his real drag car.

 

Bud built many fantastic Jr. Stock Drag Cars.  One of his most famous was a replica of George Cureton's "Tokyo Rose" National Champion G/SA Jr. Stocker.  Here is a photo of the real car.

 

 

Here is Bud's model.

 

 

Here are two more of his models.

 

 

As you can see, Bud was a great build.  He and I did have one thing in common when it came to some of the models we built.  We both enjoy building replicas of drag cars that not everyone else builds.  Not one of these models were totally kit produced.  The main difference being that he started with a production kit, but made many modifications.  The thing that stands out most are the decals he used to create his replicas.  I really enjoy doing that as well.  It is fun to put a model on a contest table that is different.

 

After Bud had passed away, Spotlight Hobbies held a "Build Off" in his memory.  The object was to build a model that would best represent Bud and a model that he may have built.  I was honored when my entry won the top model picked for this.  Here is a photo of that model.  I used Bud's idea to build this replica.  I designed my own decals with my computer system and printed them for this project.





 

This is a replica of Jere Stahl's D/S Jr. Stock drag car that he ran back in the '60's.  Since I built this car, my wife and I have had the honor of meeting Jere and his wife.  They are wonderful people.

At the beginning of this blog, I talked about my best friend Jerry G. Kathie.  Jerry was not only my friend, but a person that was very willing to share model building techniques.  In return, I was the same to him.  I can not begin to tell you the hours we spent together building models.  When our wives wanted to go shopping, or do other girl things, we would get together and build models.  If Jerry was doing something on a project that was different, he would share with me how to do it.  Likewise, I would do the same with him.  Most of the models we built during these times were ones that we were going to enter into contests knowing that we would be competing against each other.  Fellow modelers could not believe that we were like that, or that one did not got angry if the other beat them in a contest.  It was almost funny how things went during the contest season.  We would go to a contest in Cincinnati, Ohio where Jerry would win first place in the drag racing class, and I would win second.  We would take the same models to a contest in Indianapolis, Indiana were I would win first place and Jerry would win second in the drag racing class.  The next contest would be the reverse with Jerry winning first place and me taking second.  This happened so much that we would tease each other before walking into a contest and guess the results.  In many cases we were right.  When we went to long distance contest sites, we went as a group of four.  The wives would go along and we would make a weekend mini trip.  One day we would do whatever the wives wanted to do and the other day we would go to a model contest.  Those were great times that we had that my wife and I will never forget.

 

This is a picture of Jerry that was in an article that I wrote about him after he passed away.  It was published in the January, 1995 issue of "Plastic Fanatic".  Jerry was a huge Mopar fan.  At one time, he had built 10 or 12 Sox and Martin drag cars along.  The following photos are of some of the models that I bought from his collection after his passing.  I stay with the topic of this blog, and mainly post his drag racing models. 

 

 

Most of Jerry's Sox and Martin cars were purchased by a collector from Canada, however I did get these two. These were two of his prize winning models.

 

 

This is a replica of one of the many Rod Shop drag cars.  Back in the day, Rod Shop sponsored a large team of cars.

 

 

These are replicas of two of the cars raced by Wally Booth.  Wally was a big name back in the day.

 

 

Most people remember the '69 AMX that Shirley Shahan drove in Super Stock class.  Here is a replica of the Hornet that she drove later.

 

This is a replica of a Cougar Super Stocker driven by Don Nicholson.  This was another rare car.









 

Here are two of Jerry's Funny Car models.  Like the other models, these were prize winners too.  I hope that you enjoy looking at these models.

 





 

 





Here is a Super Stocker that ran at the beginning of the '65 season.  Like others in this class, some of the drivers and teams started out racing Super Stock cars and then converted to altered wheelbase cars.  As you may or may not know, the FX cars were the forerunners of the Funny Cars.  The following photos are of the real car and the replica that I built.  In addition, if you look at the timing tower in the background, you will see where I got some of the reference information for the diorama shown at the beginning of my blog.  Once again, thank you for looking and please feel free to make comments.

 

 

 

 

 

Another class that was very popular during this time period was Modified Production.  This class was a step up from the Jr. Stockers which were basically factory stock with only minor modifications.  The Modified Production cars took factory stock offered engines that usually had one carburetor and replaced the manifold with a duel carburetor setup.  They were also permitted to run open exhaust headers.  There were also other changes that were permitted compared to stock classes.  One of the more popular drivers in this class was Paul Belvins.  He was a National Record Holder in G/MP class.

 

 

 





 



 

 

 

 



 



I really enjoy building replicas of drag cars that not everyone else builds.  Whenever I can buy aftermarket decals or make my own, I will try to do that.  Here is an example of such a build.  I purchased the decals many years ago and then started doing an internet search to look for photos of the real car. 

 

 

 

 

Here is another example of a car using aftermarket decals to replicate a '60's Gasser.  This was how the car looked before they had the Rod Shop sponsor.

 



 

 

 

 

Here is one more.  This is a Gasser driven by Paul Frost of Dayton, Ohio.  The car was sponsored by Brockman's Speed Shop.