Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

I talked to Donna Mae a couple of weeks ago. She is helping us with the nomination of Don Yenko to the Corvette hall of fame. She is the first woman SCCA national champ. I have some old pictures of her and can see why you would remember her.

Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

-------Yup!She got that 15 year old libido all fired up.
-------I do remember one of the Grand Sport roadsters in that race or maybe the next year.It was the Sunoco blue Penske car.It would come down the back straight(behind the pits)at what looked like 300MPH to my young mind,nose way in the air.Seemed to sort of jump all over the place.I now realize that this was a function of the poor aerodynamics.Then the brakes were applied(read slammed)for the hairpin before the start/finish.As the car came out of the hairpin and hit the throttle,it would lift the inside front tire off the ground for about 200ft.In the process it would pass all the little stuff in its way(read everything)lap after lap after lap.Awsome sight!
-------Years later I had the good fortune to be part of the restoration process on that very same Grand Sport........Bill S

Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

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The rope driveshaft and transmission-rear end set up were woefully inept for almost any use.I dont know of any racer that could keep one together,or make one run in as delivered condition

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One of the guys I race Pure Stock with recently rebuilt one of those setups for a car being done over at Scott Tieman's shop, and from what he described those setups are a NIGHTMARE. Anyone know anything about that 421 at Tieman's? He told me who's it was but forgot!

Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

I heard one was being restored. As I recall, It used the Tempest 2 sp auto trans in front of the transaxle then had a special case mounted behind the transaxle with another 2 sp auto trans making it a 4sp set-up. It could be set up to use a clutch or a AT converter. Had the starter mounted on it to. The "rope" drive was direct connected to the engine so it turned all the time it was running. The street car had this feature also. When it had some miles on it, the spinning drive shaft would vibrate the whole car when in neutral. These hot rod Tempest had great wt distribution and they even made a dragon wagon. Very cool factory race cars. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

Yep, that's it! As he was explaining the setup to me and what needed to be done it was all I could do to fathom the complexity. I think the owner's name of the car that was at Tieman's was "Randy" something?

Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

Bill,

Have you had the chance to read Paul Van Valkenburgh's book called "Chevrolet= Racing?: 14 Years of Raucous Silence! 1957-1970"? You'd love it if you haven't.

Actually, I'd recommend it to any site member that likes the old racing stuff. Not too much drag racing, but the book has extensive coverage of Duntov's early projects up through the Grand Sport program, Jim Hall's Chaparral operations, Penske/Donohue, Smokey Yunick, Yenko's Stinger program and the development of the Can-Am/ZL-1 engine... And even better, it was written by an insider. Van Valkenburgh was an insider at Chevrolet Research and Development as an aerodynamicist in competition vehicle dynamics.

Great stuff. I managed to find a 1972 first edition for a decent price, but they've done a recent reprint.

Re: Apology to Chevy Supercar purists
 

That is a great book. He messed up on the Yenko Stinger history but still great overall book to read. Smokey Y's books are great to and tell some of the story of "Chevy Racing". When I had Donna Mae on the phone I asked about Vinnce Piggins and the Chevy Racing underground and she said she remmembers engineers (in suit and tie) comming to the track dropping off special parts. Yenko, Grady Davis (Gulf Oil), and Zora, worked together (with many others) to dominiate SCCA B/Production winning 1961, 1962, 1963. Don had '62, 63 and should have had 61 but was suspendened so Dick Thompson took over and was 61 points champ. Gulf Oil spent big bucks on engine developement. They said it anyone had more HP then the Gulf Oil B/P Corvettes (61 62 63) they were cheating. Nickey Chevy/Jim Jeffords won B/P in the purple people eater Corvette before Don.