durand mortenson
Gold $$ Contributor
A guy came buy the house wanting to know if I could make him a pair of spindle hubs for towing. He brought this little race car with him that he had built for his son.
Those little Chevys would really spin with their short stroke. With my race motor I was always checking the rod journals and changing bearings.'Way back when', late 50s early 60s, there was a man here, in the NW, racing a '55 Chev, don't remember if it had 265 or 283 cu. inch motor. The story was it had a 'Racer Brown' cam, meant to be used in a limited class hydroplane. Of course the motor had pistons, headers, carburation, everything done right, and 4.56 gears. He was very knowledgeable, worked as a mechanic, a frequent winner and well respected. The tachometer he used, maybe because of limited availability only went to 8,000 RPM. So the story was he turned the motor to 8K , count to three, then shift. He thought that he was getting about 10K RPM out of that Chevy motor. Some said he would lift the left front tire off the ground, the first wheely I remember. One thing I know for a fact is he, like many others at the time, he
drove the car to work daily. It was the only car in the family. The shop he worked in was broke into, the only thing stolen was his tool box, shortly after, he disappeared. I was hired, a real rookie, about 20 yrs. old. It helped pay for college, I certainly didn't replace him. My brother saw him about 20 years later, at 'the drags' in Florida. My brother managed and 'wrenched' the Bubble Up car '240 Gordy' Bonin drove.
I knew a man that designed cams for Howard, 6 cylinder Chev and GMC. Sig Erson worked for Isky before starting his own company. The Duntov cams that Chevy used were made by or designed by Zora August Duntov, also of Ardun overhead valve heads for Ford flat heads. I think I'm remembering this all correctly.Those little Chevys would really spin with their short stroke. With my race motor I was always checking the rod journals and changing bearings.
Racer Brown, Howard, Crane, Sig Erson, Harmon Collins, Chet Herbert, Isky and Ed Winfield were all making cams back then. I think Winfield was the oldest. Some of the cam specs were done inhouse and then farmed out to a cam grinder to be later sold under your name.
Mort
Bitchin Camaro by The Dead Milkmen!Dave, when is the last time you heard a song written about a Camaro?
Mort
You got it.I knew a man that designed cams for Howard, 6 cylinder Chev and GMC. Sig Erson worked for Isky before starting his own company. The Duntov cams that Chevy used were made by or designed by Zora August Duntov, also of Ardun overhead valve heads for Ford flat heads. I think I'm remembering this all correctly.
I remember those pumps.Better yet, the days when I could drive my 68 Hemi Road Runner (puchased at the Plymouth dealer's for $1650 in August of 1970) to the drag strip and run it for $5. Ahhhhh, the days of .36-cent a gallon of Sunoco 320. You old guys may remember the Sunoco "dial an octane" pumps with a dial on the front...?
ISS
Driving a car that nice is a pleasure. I used to enjoy taking a day for a detail cleaning. It was a must before a road trip with the Corvette club.While not a race car, this is Kinda in the spirit of this thread.
We had a beautiful day last Sunday so I detailed the Malibu.
I drove it around the block, nailed it a few times just to remind me why I like big blocks.View attachment 1502583