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Old Pan American pics (2nd set from other thread)


NickHolt

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  • 4 months later...
Those are some pretty clean lookin' straight race cars.

Uh yeah! Can you believe anyone would try to run a Houston "Bronco" Stock Car against those guys. Man look at those tires, and I'm not talking about the T-Bird pictured. As low as some of those rear ends are, some of those cars must have had bent frames. But they were plenty fast from what I saw. Yes they were.

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  • 1 month later...
Wonder if the T-bird was running a 427?

 

No, it would have been a 292, (edit - or at most a 352). At any rate I think the block had to be of the stock-type for the year, if not the orginal displacement also.

 

As far as the bent frames, they would only have been the result of accidents. The rear lowering was through lowering blocks, de-arched springs and long, reverse shackles. In the front it was cut springs, deepened spring pockets, jack bolts and modified lower a-frames.

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Bobby,

I was just kidding about bent frames, because those '55-'57 Chevys are so low they must be close to bottoming out on the right rear. Unless the frame was Z'd. In any event, those were some great stock cars and drivers, and I love those pictures. But, I haven't seen that winged Ford that Waldo Harper drove. Hint, hint.

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RE

 

Thinking about this reminded me of a bit of trivia. The team I used to crew on had at one time a '57 Chevy and a trailer, before upgrading to a new car and a transporter. It was not possible to just drive the car on and off the trailer, as the headers would seriously interfere with the trailer at the transition with the ramps. The solution was to put the floor jack under the trailer tongue and jack up the front of the trailer and back of the truck until the trailer was at the same angle as the ramps.

 

The trailer itself was made from the ramps from a drive-on garage lift, no springs, with the heaviest ramps you can imagine!

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I have seen a lot of the "grease rack" trailers. I have seen the loading/trailer problem at a lot of tracks. Luckily most tracks have small ditches or waves in the grass. Just find one of these to your liking, back up to it and unload. I said it before and I'll say it again,"racecar guys find lots of ways to do it"!! :D:D

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 years later...
  • 4 months later...
Wonder if the T-bird was running a 427?

 

No, it would have been a 292, (edit - or at most a 352). At any rate I think the block had to be of the stock-type for the year, if not the orginal displacement also.

 

As far as the bent frames, they would only have been the result of accidents. The rear lowering was through lowering blocks, de-arched springs and long, reverse shackles. In the front it was cut springs, deepened spring pockets, jack bolts and modified lower a-frames.

 

292 / 312's (the old Y-Block) was the motor up to the 57 T-Bird. The 58 & 59 (and I think it was still the base motor for the 60) was the FE Block 352. They had a sticker on the air box saying almost 300 HP. Best I remember.

 

Those were heavy cars. My mom's old 58 even had coils in the rear. Pretty sure I had a HS buddy whose Mom's 60 had leafs in the rear.

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  • 1 month later...

Trailer?? That was for the high dollar people.lol My dad used a tow bar with our 69 Dodge station wagon. I showed him some of these pics last December and he really enjoyed looking at them. Sadly, he passed this last friday the 6th of April. Another Pan American racer gone and our biggest race fan. Going to the races won't be the same this year without him. Rest in peace pops, you were always a winner with me.

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