Dave & Ben Wenzel 1967 Z28 Drag Raced on Day 1

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Steve Shauger

Dave & Ben Wenzel need no introduction to those passionate in drag racing and love Z28's. Duo have obtained many records in this car, spanning 55 years and are true legends. This article reflects the intimate details on how they made their car competitive in the early years. At least some intimate details...

I'm reminded of a story:

Some of you know my Dad was a diemaker at Chevrolet Flint Manufacturing (Pressed Metal Division), which is where they would make oil pans, rocker arms, valve covers, radiator supports, air cleaners, etc. As a result, one of the things Dad used to do was make special parts for Duntov. If Zora had something unique, like an air cleaner or special oil pan or something, he would call up to Flint (since that was where the base part was made) and ask for the die room to whip it up. He would ask for Dad, specifically, to make the parts for him ("...I van da skeeny diemaker to make deese...")

One time Duntov was doing a study on valvetrain geometry on small block Chevies, for wear vs lift, so he requested (via a sketch on a napkin) a batch of rocker arms to be made in various ratios: I think they started as low as 1.2:1, then incrementing up through 1.50, maybe 1.55, 1.60 and finishing up with a 1.65 or maybe even 1.70:1 ratio. He asked for 100 pcs of each, so Dad would run 100 for Engineering (to ship to the Tech Center) , and then 100 of the good ones for himself (and stick them in his locker).

Our paths would cross with Dave and Ben on occasion. Dad happened to see them up at Tri City one time, so he handed them a bag of these high ratio rocker arms and said "here, try these".

They looked at him like "what is this?"

Dad said "...just try them".

They did, and as far as I know if they got protested, torn down and the cam checked but were declared legal. Nobody ever did notice these special but production looking rocker arms that they were running.

K