Classic Acid - Dodge Challenger

I was reminded of today's photograph by Geoffrey Horton at the 2008 Danville Concours d'Elegance yesterday by my response to a blog about movies beginning with the letter V by Chief 187. One of my all time favorite movies is "Vanishing Point" (1971) which features a white Dodge Challenger in the 'maximum trip at maximum speed'.



I believe the #77 Dodge 'Classic Wax' Challenger seen here is owned by Ken Epsman was originally prepared by Dan Gurney's All American Racers for the 1970 Trans Am championship and driven by Sam Posey.

Back then teams would acid dip their cars to make them lighter and allegedly after this car had passed tech inspection at the first race of the season at Laguna Seca the team offered the Chief Technical Inspector a beer, who then relaxed, resting his elbow on the roof of this car which dimpled in as a result of having spent a little too much time in the acid bath.

The Technical Inspector promptly informed the team that they could no longer run until the roof had been replaced. Within an hour the roof of a brand new Challenger in a Monterey Dodge Dealers show room was being torched off before replacing the offending dimpled roof.

Sam drove the 3200 lb 460 hp car to 6th place in the race and claimed 4th place in the championship standings at the end of the season.

My thanks to Chief 187, Geoffrey Horton and to the Historic Trans Am website.

Thanks for joining me on today's 'Acid Bath' edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Shoestring Winner - Epperly Belond Exhaust Special

Today's photograph by Ed Arnaudin of the two time winning Belond Exhaust Special, seen here with Sam Hanks at the wheel, was taken in 1982.



The success of the Belond Exhaust Special is a testament to three men who persevered, (Gordon) Howard Gilbert a 1949 Indy 500 winning mechanic with the Blue Crown Spark Plug Special team, Howard's neighbour George Salih a foreman at Meyer & Drake which produced the prevalent 16 valve twin cam 4 cylinder Offenhauser 'Offy' engine and Sam Hanks a driver who after 12 races at the Brickyard had yet to win his first Indy 500.

Salih and Gilbert came up with the brilliant idea of replicating the best features of the 1952 Pole Winning Cummins Diesel Special but without the bulk of the 3,100 lbs diesel powered vehicle.

In 1952 Frank Curtis built two cars with the engines inclined the Cummins Diesel with its engine inclined 5 degrees off horizontal and The Fuel Injector Special belonging to Howard Keck with the engine inclined 36 degrees.

Gilbert and Salih decided to build their car with a compromise between the two '52 Kurtis Kraft chassis with the engine inclined at 18 degrees off horizontal which decreased the frontal area and lowered the centre of gravity of their car without inducing the lubrication problems that would accrue by inclining the engine at 5 degrees from horizontal, the Cummins diesel was not capable of the high crankshaft revolutions of the gas powered Offenhauser and so was easier to keep lubricated at 5 degrees from horizontal.

In order to build their engine Salih obtained cosmetically flawed Offenhauser parts on credit, and both took out mortgages on their homes to build the chassis, an operation that took place during nights and weekends between day jobs.

Having completed their chassis Quin Epperly built the bodywork in exchange for part ownership, the car is officially known as an Epperly. Exhaust manufacturer Belond got the naming rights for $2500 in sponsorship.

A contingency fund was secured for the #9 Belond Exhaust Special by equipping it with British Blue Lodge Spark Plugs as against the Champion items used by everyone else taking part in the 1957 Indy 500.

Salih got 1953 AAA Champ and 12 time Indy 500 veteran, Sam Hanks, with whom he had worked in 1956, to drive what at the time was the lowest and smallest vehicle of it's type to a debut victory, at a record speed of 135 mph, whereupon Hanks immediately announced his retirement from racing.

The Belond Special became the first car to head to victory lane twice with different drivers in 1958 when 3 time champ Jimmy Bryan repeated Hanks achievement. In 1959 Bryan retired the Belond Special with a broken engine after just one lap.

Gilbert and Salih continued building cars until 1967, Jimmy Bryan died soon after the linked photo was taken as a result of injuries sustained in an accident at Langhorne in 1960.

Howard Gilbert built further vehicles until 1970 scoring a shock win with George Follmer at the wheel of a stock block Chevy powered Cheetah at Phoenix, in the Jimmy Bryan 150.

From 1970 to 1990 Howard built engines for AJ Foyt which took 25 champ car wins including the 1977 Indy 500, fourth victories at Indy for Gilbert and Foyt, along with USAC championships in 1975 and 1979.

With thanks to Steve Arnaudin for scanning his Dad's photos to B² and Kevin Triplett for additional information.

Hope you have enjoyed the Belond Exhaust Special edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Sunday Best - Triumph Vitesse

Yesterday, like to day, there was no racing going on locally, but it would have been criminal not to go out and enjoy the fresh autumn air and unbelievably bright sunshine that turns the world of photographers such as my self into a super illuminated paradise.



So I headed out to my local track Castle Combe where there was an event billed as a 'Mini Festival', there were hundreds of the cute critters in a variety of states of tune to be seen and I'll post pictures of them in due course, because the vehicle that leapt out at me as the subject for today's blog was this convertible Triumph Vitesse MKII.



The 1968 - 71 Triumph Vitesse 2 originally featured a 104 hp 6 cylinder 2 litre / 122 CUI engine with two carburettors which gave it a 0 - 60 mph performance time of 11 seconds. As can be seen above this 1968 model has been upgraded with triple carburettors.



The Vitesse was outsold, in the UK, by its smaller 4 cylinder sibling the Herald, at a rate of 10 to 1, and was no match for the cheaper Ford Mustang in the US, however as is the way of these things the Vitesse has a strong following amongst aficionados of performance convertibles.

Slightly off topic, I tuned into JTV to watch the Nationwide NASCAR race at Dover last night just in time to see Kyle Busch taking his victory bow in a cloud of smoke of his own making, congratulations to Kyle on winning his 11th Nationwide race of the season thereby beating the Sam Ard's record of 10 wins which he set in 1983.

Further off topic, I see Kevin Harvick took the NASCAR 'have at 'em' policy to heart during practice for the Dover Cup race ! Much as I'd like to see Kevin take the Cup home at Miami Homestead, these actions do not inspire me, sitting in the peanut gallery, with confidence about his chances.

These play ground antics probably make great headlines and are sure to provoke a further on track response from "Dangerous 'I am owed four cups' Denny" Hamlin, I just hope they are not a distraction from the real job in hand for Kevin, which is to make sure he beats Jimmy Johnson in the infernal #48 to the big trophy at the end of the season.

Looking forward to tonight's race at Dover hope to catch some of you on Rowdy Chat.

Look forward to to hearing from you all, 'y'all come back now ! Hear !