Dick Harrell drag car (new thread)

[JoeC]

Dave,
here is an early picture of the 64 Chevelle with the Z-11 engine. I took this picture of a picture in Valerie's scrap book.
So you remember doing a lot of 427 conversions at the shop on Hickman Mills drive in KC on Camaros, Chevelles, and Novas?

[davenkc]

Joe,
Yes I have seen that pic before. Here is the pic I mentioned. That pic has the front fender obscured by reflected sun or something.

Yes originally there was 2 of us who did the conversions, myself and a fellow named Danny O'Shay. As I have mentioned I personally did all 4 of the Chevelle 427 conversions (the other red one was sold to my brother as a 396/375 and a week later recieved a 427 after the 396 spun a front main.So in reality I did all 5 of those. It is hard to put a # on the Camaros and Chevylls (68s were chevyll). But I put in 10-12 hours a day for nearly 3 years.I would do it again in a heartbeat. Early on when Dick learned of my passion for the funny cars I was allowed to learn the work side of them (not just watching them). I would not trade those times and memories for ANYTHING! Few people had the chance to do what I did and will be forever grateful to Mr.Chevrolet for that chance.
Dave

[davenkc]

Stefano,
Aginst my better judgement I will comment on Tim's car
First and foremost I will not make any guesses on its past history, based on my observations of it at the reunion I will venture an opinion (stress opinion).
First in regard to the chassis. My first impression was it was a home made bracket racer. However Craig who I was with there observed it was very near in design to an early Tom Smith (Wolverine Chassis ) a builder of some renoun in the late 60's. He stated the slightly offset driver location and rec.tube lower frame rail being consistant with his design. Not being familiar with that I take his word for it. But that by no means is any proof of anything.
As far as the body goes I for one think it is a VERY good one considering it's age. I for one would be very happy to have it beside the 71 Camaro f/c body in my back yard. That being said the possibility of tracing a body back is at the very best marginal. There were funny cars everywhere all over the country. Unlike "real cars" there is no paperwork no serial numbers nothing only he said she said to rely on
so if I have made any point I hope you understand. My statment that I would like to have it is just that, I would like to have it. But my racing days have passed years ago and I know it so I must be satisfied to just look and reflect on what I should have done.
best wishes to you and Tim.
Dave

[Stefano]

Dave,
I certainly don't know nnuch about funny cars, but I gew up down the road fronn Rick Roshto and Steve NNanhart. They ran a funny car called the Vixen. I used to hang out, with nny custonn built Shwinn chopper. I would listen to engine and watch the flannes it would through out of the headers, at dusk. you could hear the car throughout the neighborhood literally for nniles, Very fond nnennories indeed.

If there is a way to verify and validate who nnay have raced/built the car and if it does have sonne historical significance then I nnight be inclined to put a deal together with Copolocater.

[hvychev]

STEFANO! Get the M button fixed or postpone your next super car purchase and spend the C-Note for a new one!!!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Stefano]

I have nny priorities strait, everything and then sonne, plus a little nnore goes to sonne 'really neat cars' and a couple of 'super cars'.

Who needs nn's any way.

[menmyfcs]

Funny car bodies were made by a few people at the time. The one in Chicago was Fiberglass Ltd, Ron Peligrini. There were also a few chassis builders in that area.BTW. for you Chicago guys. The Funny car hang out in the late 60s and early 70s was the Phillips motel in think was 8750 S. Ciscero.That is where most of us stayed.Also Speed sport on 111th. None of which I knew to build the kind of car Tim has. I have 5 or 6 pictures of Tim's car's previous owner, Ken Peterson, prior to the eBay auction. Ken Peterson sent Valerie the pictures and she emailed them on to me. Peterson met Richard Schroeder while he was in Boise along with Mousie Marcellus, who was the partner of Wild Wille Borsch and still owns the Winged Express. Petersen told me that Mousie & Schroeder told him it might be a Dick Harrell car. When I saw both Richard and Mousie about 3 weeks later they said "NO WAY" did they say that. When the car went up for auction on Ebay, the auction was discussed on several of the race sites (i.e., Fuel Coupes), which all posts said no way was this a DH funny. I don't believe that Tim did not receive any help. He just asked people who may not have known. Kinda like asking the guy at Home Depot in the lumber dept how to build a computer. Please don't disregard the fact that Tim's car is still a darn nice find. J&E Fiberglass and Fiberglass Trends also made this type of body. If it were me I would just keep posting on sites and researching. The best way is to trace backwards. Start with Ken Peterson. If you need his contact information either can be obtained from myself or Valerie. The body may have never been with that car till a short time ago. Again, find out where Petersen got it and trace it back. I would say the Northwest to start. Now to send something that may answer a few other questions. As you can see someone scratched out the Sanders Auto name and the address; here is a dated Dick Harrell invoice. Please note that the invoice is an authenticated Dick Harrell handwriting for one of the Yenko conversion cars. Have fun with it!

[menmyfcs]

Now to send something that may answer a few other questions. As you can see someone scratched out the Sanders Auto name and the address; here is a dated Dick Harrell invoice. Please note that the invoice is an authenticated Dick Harrell handwriting for one of the Yenko conversion cars. Have fun with it!

[JoeC]

I believe that receipt is for Kevin's 67 Yenko Camaro #YS710. I have one very similar to that for my 67 Yenko Camaro #YS738. The second line reads "tuned headers Doug" maybe this is Doug Thorley Headers? The third line is hard to read but I think is "Dist Package" which may be for springs and weights to re-curve the distributor?
You guys think that is Dick Harrell's own handwriting? That would be great and make the receipts extra special to me.

[Jeff H]

Joe, that looks like it says "Inst Package" maybe for extra gauges. Great piece of documentation.