Bill Thomas Chevy II Fastback

[Milnersdaughter]

I had posted last night as well in a different forum about the Fastback and the Z-11. It's my dad's 70th birthday this weekend so I was doing some searches online about him and that is what brought me here.

Gordon Apker was a long time family friend of ours, we live nearby him. The article that he wrote, that you spoke of, didn't hold much truth as I was told and in the end it ended Apkers and my dad's friendship. Apker is a car collector but he was never a racer. LOL! I'll ask my dad where the car is now as Apker sold it. My dad still knows where it's at.

Today my mom brought over a bunch of pictures of the Fastback and of my dad working on the engine. I could post them later if anyone is interested.

My posts from the other forum:
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/show...0/fpart/2/vc/1

[Paul_S]

Mike, Sounds good, will look for the mag. I remember seeing some pics of the race years ago.

Paul

[Paul_S]

Mike, Great Article!

I believe the original short one I read was from a Canadian mag. Didn't know/remember there were two cars.

So after the Thomas car was built and appeared in two magazines, it returned to Thomas for big Pass-car brakes and 15" wheels (like Bad Bascom). Hopefully at that time they installed the heavy front springs and wonder if rears were done also as the Hard Top had the softest. Too bad this car was lost in a storage fire.

I do wonder if the Florida built car had the full V8 kit of components. Thomas was lacking a few items in the March '62 article (Chevy II Block, Oil Pan & HD Front Springs). The HD brakes had metallic linings but still stock size (9" x 2.25" Front & 9" x 1.75" Rear). It wasn't until '64 they increased to 9" x 2.5" F & 2" R.

Interesting that both were white cars.


Paul

[Basic GPa]

Paul,


So very glad you liked the article.


The story you may have seen on these cars appeared in the March 1963 issue of "Sports Car Graphic" magazine. It was written by Chuck Kelsey and only talked about his car. The "Hot Rod" and "Car Life" stories on the Kelsey car are posted earlier in this thread.


Peter Sachs remembers an article being published on his car during 1962. He thought it was in a British publication. We could never locate that article. If anyone knows more about it, please let me know.


There was a V8 Chevy II road raced in Canada by Fred Hayes with sponsorship from Comstock International. He was successful with the car, but as far as we could determine never raced outside of Canada.


Thanks again for your kind words.


Take care,


Mike