Knafel Tempest 400 Magnum pics?

[gtoguru]

I believe Craig Dawson owns the original Old Brownie car. My buddy bought that car from Vanke and raced it for probably 15 years before selling it to Craig. I have never heard the story about wrecking the car. My buddy got the car sans aluminum front end and put a steel front end on it. He has another 63 Max Wedge Savoy at present. Small world. Yes that is the new tower at Quaker City. And yes I think it is uphill also.

[olredalert]

-----Thanks for the pics,Guru. Do you remember a guy from Seville area that used to call himself Mr.Mopower? Im betting you do. His name was Dick Molnar. How about a guy named Jerry Ferrell? Ran Corvettes at 42 and Quaker. I cant think of the guys name who built the clone,but Im pretty sure he was from right around Barberton. Wait,I do remember,I think it was Paul Suloff(SP). I remember him being pretty well known in Mopar circles...........Bill S

[gtoguru]

Yeah Suloff is a high roller and I last saw him give up the old Mopars in favor of a Viper. Vanke had already given permission to do the Old Brownie car so when Craig did the real car he painted it black. I am only familiar with the well known Mopar guys. We raced mainly at Norwalk and occaisonally went to 42 and Quaker City. I mostly just show my 69 GTO now but will race it every once in a while. Jim

[NCGuy68]

I attended the Mopar Nationals at Natinoal Trials (Newark, OH) back in the late 1990s. Vanke was there running nostalgic 413 and 440 wedge cars. Suloff was there and broke a axle in a Viper he was running.

Its my understanding that Paul Suloff is/was a engineer at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Akron.

As a side note..during Vankes' glory days with Chrysler his main helper/wrench was a guy by the name of Bob Hiner. Hiner was also associated with some pretty stout Camaros running with sponsorship from a local Chevy dealer. It may have been Marhoffer (sp) but I'am not certain.

Can anyone shed light on this?

[gtoguru]

Last time I saw Vanke he was running a 68 Hemi Dart. I have not been to any Mopar events for 2 years though.

[olredalert]

----Arlen was always a nice guy to me. He used to come up to my dads hardware store during the summer of 65 to pick up various stuff for the speed shop he and Russ spent their days at while trying to keep RC Industries going. They made a damn good bellhousing once the bugs were worked out. Arlen always had a good word. I was the punk 18 year old with the 64 Chevelle 283 powerpack. Russ was driving a brand new 65 Shelby Mustang. Dont know what Arlen drove every day at that time. He also must have done alot of his racing work elsewhere as I only infrequently saw his race cars.
----Saw Arlen and his Hemi-Dart at a show a couple of years ago and shot the breeze for about a half hour.Looked pretty good for someone older than me!......Bill S