Pure Insanity
Chicago F amily is “ Nuts” Abo ut Nostalg ia
Story by John Gunnell
T
Drags
Robert Cole is used to doing things big. His North Shore Towing & Recycling is a family owned and operated firm that has diversified into a wide array of services like towing, auto wrecking and recycling, used auto parts and used car sales. North Shore is a place to get “hooked on cars”—a one stop shop for Illinois and Wisconsin residents.
he Cole family is nuts about nostalgia drag racing. Robert, David and Courtney Cole share driving chores on two really crazy drag racing machines called “Pure Insanity I” and “Pure Insanity II.” The first car is a ’65 Chevy Nova big-block. “Pure Insanity II” is a ‘32 Austin Bantam roadster that also has a big-cube motor. Both cars Also big are the Reher-Morrison-built big-block Chevy V8s that are big hits with nostalgia drag racing fans. Cole stuffs into his dragsters. The 509-cubic-inch monster “mills” have pushed the Nova down the quarter mile in 9.27 seconds at 142 mph, while the lighter fibreglass-bodied Bantam replica turns an 8.15-second quarter mile at 150 mph.
We ran into Cole, his son David, his daughter Courtney and their friend Mark Pappas at the Muscle Cars and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Ill. All three family members pilot the Pappas-Cole Motorsportssponsored drag machines. “We all race together at Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wis.,” said Bob. “We all belong to the Midwest Gassers. It’s a family thing for us; we’re out almost every weekend with the car.” Cole had John Beyer, who originally turned the Nova into a drag racing car, make most of the recent changes to it. North Shore Towing’s motto is “Get Hooked” and the Cole family really is hooked on fast cars. 34 MUSCLE CAR PLUS MAGAZINE OCT/NOV 2020
As the name Insanity I indicates, the Nova was Cole’s first racing car. It was built into a racing car back in the ‘60s, when it competed at U.S. 30 Dragstrip with small-block Chevy
