1970 L78 nova

[WILMASBOYL78]

..and it's still going and going and.......

[PxTx]

Grumpy may not have sold cars, but he did offer street and race engine packages. I'm not sure how similar this would have been to a Motion Modified car. Anyone near Willow Grove PA hear of Billy Banks? He was a friend of my pop's who had a Jenkins prepared 327 in a 57 Chevy. This was in the mid-late 60's and it was all roller up. I think Billy later became involved with GTOs- something about a "Bobbin' Bear" race car seems to stick in my memory.

Paul T

[GTO_DON]

BOPPING BEAR

[Salvatore]

Don, Send me a PM or give a call when you can. Thanks, sam

[PxTx]

I thought I posted this last night, but it appears to have not made it on here. I appologize to those who feel the thread is too long from off topic posts.

The 57 with the Jenkins prepared 327 was running around NE Philadelphia in 1966 and was owned by Ted Swaggert. My pop then traded Ted his old 55 for the 57 in 1967. The Jenkins motor was painted flat black when all others in the area seemed to stay orange.

Grumpy said that he felt shiny oil leaks were easily spotted on the flat black color.

Billy Banks also had a 57 at this time which was fully rollered with dual quads. When I asked my pop who built it, he could not remember, but I did wake him out of bed last night to ask.

Jungle Jim Lieberman's old shop is about 3 miles from my house. I am mentioning all of these names because they were some of the better known Hot Rodders of thie time. Maybe Don or Sam or others may know of them.

The point to all of this is that a car with a Jenkins Prepared package or one done by Jungle Jim certainly could be comparable to a Motion built/tuned car (not a Baldwin/Motion though) regardless of where the car was purchased new.

Any other famous racers offer street performance packages?

Paul T

[Salvatore]

When was Jungle Jim in Glenside? West Chester I thought. sam

[JoeC]

I am also a Jenkins fan.
Bill Jenkins did build at least one street car. I ‘ve been trying to find out more info on it because I have the hood to it. The car was a 70 Camaro big block car that was set up to look like Grump’s 70 Pro Stock racecar. The racecar was split bumper front and the show car was a straight bumper. The hood is an all steel 1970 cowl induction prototype built by Chevy engineering in 1969 for the canselled 1970 LT2/ZL2 option. The car was used by Grumpy to meet contracted promotional commitments. He needed a second car because the racecar couldn’t be not make all the dates that were set for it.
Here is a pic of Grumpy with the 70 show car and his 68 and 69 car. The 70 show car was also used on at least one magazine cover. This show car was mostly a stock street car just made to look like a Pro Stocker. Engine may have been an old alum head 427 but Grumpy couldn’t remember when I asked him about it.

[Salvatore]

Jenkins couldn't remember where that car went? I am surprised. I really thought that that car went to Bruce Larson or Dave Strickler. I never have known it as a street car. Just a stock unit that was then converted to a Pro Stocker.

[JoeC]

When I went to Jenkins shop to pick up the hood I was trying to talk to him about it but he was very busy with phone calls. They let me wonder around the shop while I waited so I didn't mind.
He gave me documentation about the hood on Jenkins Competition letterhead paper but didn't tell me much about the car. I was wondering if it was a prototype car from Chevy with the hood on it but he said the hood came in a truck with some other parts Chevy sent him. He didn't think the car was ever raced but for some reason he took the hood off before the car left his shop. I never did get the whole story on the car. I was trying to find out if it was on loan from Chevy and went back to Chevy or if it was sold or what happened to it.

[PxTx]

Jungle Jim later moved to West Chester which is where he met his fate, but was originally from Willow Grove. My uncle used to pit for him on occasion in the 60's.

Abington, Willow Grove, Glenside, Roslyn, Hatboro are a string of towns which span only a few miles accross. Jim's first shop was on Old York Road in Abington. So it was about 3 miles from any of these places. I'll snap a picture next time I go by.