Dick Harrell drag car (new thread)

[JoeC]

Dick Harrell seems to be a popular subject. He worked with Bill Thomas, Nickey, Yenko, Fred Gibb, and others. here is an early pic of Dick getting some air under the front wheels. The FX drag cars looked "funny" with their altered wheel base and this started the Funny Car class.

[JoeC]

Here is a pic I posted before. It is an early SS Camaro small block 427 conversion. I think it started out as a Harrell/Nickey/Thomas car then became a Harrell/Yenko

[Stefano]

Sixtiesmuscle,
Is this the 'Garfinlke' Camaro that you were refering to?

Joe C,
Thanks for the pictures.

[IRONCLAD]

Joe,

I have always like the early Novas and had a 1965 SS with a 6 cylinder many years ago. It took a long time to find another one with a V-8 (283 Four-Door car). I swapped the engine, restored the car and enjoyed racing the unsuspected competion back then.

However, relating to the FX cars, I had always wanted to put a 327/360 Fuel Injection engine in mine (like the FX cars) but it was cost prohibitive at the time to purchase a Fuelie engine.

Rumor has it that this set-up in a Nova could beat the Vette. I would have like to see that. Thanks for pic and the memories.

[JoeC]

Mike Garfinkel had some type of deal to run this car with the Harrell Yenko name. Mike was an AHRA points champion in a Pontiac the year before. Not sure who owned the car.

[Stefano]

There are some interesting pictures in the 'Super Stock Drag Racing the Family sedan'.

Such as the fastback Bill Thomas Chevy II on page 156.

Dick Harrell lined up against a Richard Petty sponsored 10.0 sec Barracuda on page 150.

Lots of Harrell pics ect...

[JoeC]

here is a story about Dick H. from the draglist.com web site. Libby refers to a "genuine Z-16 Chevelle" that Dick had but I think it was really a early 64 Chevelle that Dick bought and dropped in his Z-11 427 motor in. I saw this car in Dick's scrap book when on display at the SCR when Dick's daughter was there.

"I first met Dick Harrell at Wes Jerde's speed shop in Kansas City in about early 1967. But I had seen him match racing at the Kansas City "old strip" (where the second NHRA Nationals were held). He ran a '63 Z-11, a '64 or '65 Chevy II with a Z-11 motor, and one of only two genuine Z-16 '65 Chevelles I have ever seen. That was the first of the 396 Chevelles, but I believe it had a 427 in it at the time. I am not sure this was his car (I never asked him), but he had it there just the same.

When Dick moved to Kansas City later that year to start his Dick Harrell Performance Center, I was offered a job there. I was on layoff at the time and jumped at it. I stayed there until late 1969. In that time I put a lot of 427s in a lot of Camaros, Chevy IIs ('68s were Chevy IIs and '69s became Novas), and a few Chevelles. (Read it in SS&DI July Œ68).

We also did a lot of custom machine work and built more than a few race cars, like Fred Gibb's ZL-1 Pro Stocker, for instance. I have often wondered what happened to that. I think it was the #1 ZL-1. I left Dick when he was getting ready to move the shop to Mission Kansas. This is a story about one of my experiences during that time (summer Œ68).

I had been racing my AHRA B/HR Œ55 Chevy at Kansas City the Saturday night all this started. Dick had a match race in Pittsburgh, Kansas, with the "old car" (his recently reacquired '67 Camaro) while Charlie Therwhanger had the "new car" (Dick's '68 flopper Camaro) in Union Grove (Great Lakes Dragway) at the "Olympics of Drag Racing." I got home about midnight from the drag strip and shortly after that the phone rings.

Dick says, "I need you to help me. Charlie has torn up the motor and I have the motor out of the old car now. I need you and Norm (I cannot remember his last name) to take it to him and help put it in the car so we can race tomorrow." I said, "No problem Dick. Be right there."

Well, making a long story short, we drove like a bat out of hell all night and got to the "HO-JOs" in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 8:30 Sunday morning. Sure enough, there was Charlie and Jerry (Stanger, I think) waiting for us. We set the motor in the car and I went to the room to take a shower and catch a few winks. Guess what? In the shower/bathtub, Charlie had overhauled the tranny the previous night! BIG mess! I went to get some breakfast instead.

At breakfast, I overheard other racers talking. Word was "Harrell's car is broke. Guess one of us will get a single first round." I looked around to see who was talking and it was the Jungle man himself talking to someone. (I donÃt remember who.) Just as I was finishing my coffee, Charlie fired the car in the parking lot. That got a LOT of attention, including the local cops, but it all worked out OK. Charlie had a good line of BS.

Needless to say, we got to the races on time. Charlie won the first round but lost second round to... I cannot remember who -- Schumacher's Stardust Cuda or maybe the Ramchargers car -- I am not sure. (Wonder why I can't remember? It has only been 32 years ago! HA!)

I crashed so hard I really don't remember the ride home, but the memory of the trip will never fade. Wish I knew whatever happened to or where Therwhanger is now. I would like to talk to him again. I still miss Dick and will never be able to thank him for all the memories I have, but I thought I would share this one with you.

Dave Libby

[Denis]

Here's a photo of the boys pulling out ZL1 #1's transmission in the Holiday Inn parking lot:

[JoeC]

Here is a part of a Tommy McNeely interview also from the draglist web site

"It was a time much different from today when "Sunday! “ Sunday! “ SUNDAY!" radio ads screamed of Ford against Chevy and Dodge against Pontiac. Tact and tactics were not part of getting paying customers through the gates and after all, early FX/FC races were slightly more of a circus act than spectators were used to. All the extraneous stuff was fun for the fans -- pie fights, putting on fire suits right out front, rosin, burnouts, and radio and PA shouting matches. Nobody wanted to lose or they didn't get paid as much or asked to go to more races. But the show was a huge part too.
There were times when a car was outclassed by its competition so the driver threw lead or cylinder heads in the trunk and went into big wheelstands -- the spectacular action of the wheelstand drew our attention away from a better performance. The "loser" ended up being the winner because he gained more ink and fans. It was exciting to watch.
"And scary too some times but we were too young to know the difference. I was 19 when I got the Falcon. I refer to Dickie and Hubert a lot because they were probably my greatest mentors at the time. One of the first things Dickie taught me was if you know you're going to lose, load the trunk and put it on the back bumper"

[Stefano]

There is also a picture ,in the mentioned book of Dick Harrell's 'Good Guys' 64 Chevelle running an 'old' Z11 430hp 427 (He must have pulled it from his '62 race car). Sponsorship on the car is by Bill Allen enterprises.