Contents
p.43 Bob Bondurant
p.22 1932 Deuce Coupe & 1951 Ford
p.67 Will Shiers’ Discoveries Road Trip Special Part Two
p.28 Russo’s Rat p.49 1958 Buick Super
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p.55 1947 Super Six
p.61 Eagles
Regulars 6 12 14 16 18
News Letters Tony Oksien Across the Pond From Here to Obscurity 20 Subscription Offer 94 Reviews 96 Merchandise 100 Drive Buy 104 Events & Cruises 111 Service Directory 117 Private Classifieds 130 Next Month & Credits
Features p.38 1960 Mercury Monterey
p.33 Cars & Girls
22 Rod & Custom 28 Russo’s Rat 33 Vintage Auto Show Glamour Girls 38 1960 Mercury Monterey 43 Bob Bondurant 49 1958 Buick Super 55 1947 Hudson Super Six 61 Music: The Eagles 67 Discoveries Road Trip Special 74 Chryslers at Brooklands 78 Tech: Karl’s Kar Klinic 83 American Speedfest 84 AACI Summer Nationals, Billing 89 Beaulieu Rod & Custom Show 100 Drive Buy Special Roush Mustang
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Words: Mike Renaut Photography: Matt Richardson
’32 Deuce Coupe & ’51 Ford
Classic American took a trip over to Valley Gas Speed Shop to see what they were up to, and found them in the process of finishing two tasty Fords…
T
ucked away behind a dealership servicing modern Volkswagens is not really where you’d expect to find one of the UK’s premiere hot rod and custom car constructors but once you arrive at the door of Valley Gas’ 4000 square feet of workshop there’s no doubt you’re in the right place. The first thing you’ll usually spot is proprietor Jimmy Hibberd’s white 1952 Ford sedan delivery and there’s a good chance it’ll be surrounded on all sides by a variety of American metal. When we called in there was a ’68 Mustang and a ’69 Firebird being worked on in the sunshine. But the other cars we’d come for were inside. ❯
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The Chevelle today.
Racing back in the day...
Words: Nigel Boothman Photography: Mike Key
For this car, life has been a series of many short journeys, each a quarter of a mile long. But it’s also been a tale of triumph, breakdown, neglect and resurrection – and it’s not finished yet.
F
or those with long memories of tyresmoking days at UK dragstrips, this ’69 Chevelle may be familiar, or it would be if it were still in its earlier paint scheme – it’s called Russo’s Rat. It’s been owned since 2000 by Chris Goodale of Wisbech American Street Performance, the parts supplier and speed shop. For a short while about 30 years ago, it was also Mickey’s Mouse, but more of that later. Back in 1969 it was ordered as an SS396, either in L78 or L89 form, by a man called Frank Russo in New York state. The engine, a big-block Chevrolet V8, is commonly given the nickname of ‘rat motor’ by Bowtie fans, hence ‘Russo’s Rat’. Why are Chevy big-blocks called rat motors? Because they’re bigger than the small blocks,
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which were nicknamed mouse motors. Why? Because they’re so timid and tiny and quiet, or perhaps more likely because the first 265cu in versions were smaller in capacity and external size than most other ohv V8s they were beating on American racetracks from the mid-Fifties. A cartoon character called Mighty Mouse may also have come into it, but we’re getting off the point. Mr Russo’s SS396 would have been a pretty big, nasty rat, making all of 375bhp (and perhaps more, if Chevrolet dared to tell the truth) from a very trick aluminium-headed engine adding a whacking $650 to the SS396 base price. It seems to have been bought to race. Pretty much everyone ordering such an expensive engine package would have had an eye on the
strip, but Frank Russo was doing it seriously. He was straight off to successful competition, as shown by the Class Win sticker the car still wears from Dover dragstrip in Wingdale, NY, in 1969. The car was originally blue but was soon repainted in Russo’s preferred red-orange-yellow fade away, with the obligatory rash of strip stickers soon adding to the look. What else Russo did to the car isn’t known in detail, but some decent tweaks and a fair whack of driving talent delivered enough wins to allow him to buy a wheel-standing Plymouth Duster pro-stocker built by Sox & Martin with the prize money. This eye-opening fact appeared in a magazine interview with Richard Smith, a Brit ex-pat who bought and imported Russo’s Rat in 1973. He ran
Dick’s Place? Any clues?
13s in his first season, but was soon into the 12s and looking for an 11, which must have been well within the car’s reach as it had a 427cu in engine built by Ralph Truppi and Tommy Kling by this point. Truppi-Kling built a few famously fast Chevelles and hot Chevy engines for discerning customers, so Frank Russo had blown up the original 396 inside four seasons and possibly other motors too. Chris has researched the car’s history pretty thoroughly over the years, but he’s still a bit mystified about the name change to Mickey’s Mouse, which appears to have happened around 1977. Does this imply a small-block V8 in place of the rat? Certainly, a later owner bought it as an engine-less roller in the early Eighties and
installed a small block V8. After a lot of hard years on the strip, the car was pretty much abandoned on a side street in London later on in the Eighties. Happily, it was bought and restored, though Chris says the fade-away paint wasn’t quite right. At least the lettering was re-done on the doors, and the car duly appeared in a magazine shoot in the early Nineties. From here, the history goes blank again until the car appears in orange with two white Daytona stripes. Chris saw it in this form in 1997 or ’98, and when it next came up for sale in 2000 from an owner in Surrey and Chris bought it. “It was in a fair state,” he remembers. “It still had its Seventies Lakewood bolt-in cage and had been converted to automatic. It had
two plastic racing seats and no back seats at all. I put a new interior in because my thing has always been proper street cars with a full interior… but with a really big engine.” We think you’re among friends here, Chris. “Apart from the interior, we did a whole lot to the front end of the car, which was totally disassembled, and elsewhere, there was a bit of old road sign making up part of a rear wing.” With new brakes and suspension and a full rebuild for the 454 rat motor that the car was running when Chris bought it, the car was back on the road, and back on the strip. But as is the way with drag racing, it wasn’t fast enough, so Chris bit the bullet and bought a 509cu in monster from America. This put the car into the
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The model wore a colour matching yellow and white hued mini-dress for the debut of the 1969 Pontiac Firebird at the Detroit Auto Show. Posing for a picture here complete with a hand-held microphone, she was no doubt telling onlookers the new changes made to the Poncho pony car for that year.
bly, this Fifties r body assem r passenger ca e times. th sle ry of e Ch g nc in ce ur no a display feat era and the in e th of n io sh Standing with iďŹ es the fa model exempl
y to match the displa Colour-coordinated with ses po l de mo s tie car, this late Six concept that was the El Gato Cougar ming 1970 Mercury co up the on sed ba ing a chopped Cougar and featur ny n from the sister po ke (ta top ck fastba or handles, do d ave sh ), ng car Musta r oke wheels (in large futuristic three-sp orked front rew h wit ng alo ) 16in diameter t included rolled and rear styling tha s Lime Moonmist. pans. The colour wa
In this February 8, 1964, photo, Buick model Janice Lynn Christensen poses with a new Wildcat convertible, complete with racing gloves, racing helmet and goggles. The Wildcat was available with the 340bhp 435cu in V8 engine .
ning An Asian model lea Daroo rt Da e dg Do the on 9, a I show car from 196 ation he George Barris cre t from did under contrac se Chrysler. A 17in no e of extension is just on the numerous to the modiďŹ cations given the all ved rvi su ich wh r, ca the years and is now in llector hands of Mopar co Steve Juliano.
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1971, press image is a lovely Pictured in this February 21, and fashionable boots s pant blonde with leather hot Milano at the 1971 Chicago posing with the Ford Mustang was a design concept from Auto Show. The sleek vehicle ios for a teaser of the new, the Ford Advanced Styling Stud two-seater sat some This s. tang Mus of line 1971 larger hatch decklid that rear ed hing a ured feat and 43in high lly. raised electrica
A fashionable model strikes a pose behind the of the 1969 Fo driver’s door rd show vehicl e called the Sc rambler, whic h is based on the Ranchero and a companion to another show car called the Super Cobra. Shaker-equip ped hood and distinctive sp lit-grille are among the fe atures, along with a pair of Rupp Roadst er his ‘n’ hers m ini-bikes in th e cargo area.
in the indeed different The times were much to so ’t sn wa is as Fifties. The emph ring this skimpy outfits du show skin with classy a ote om pr to but time, but rather with n hio fas ur glamo theme, by using g gloves. This lon d an ar we evening demonstrates the on the beautiful model s larless four door pil the opening of ougham, which Br o ad or Eld 1957 Cadillac tured $13,074 and fea cost a staggering mfort convenience co every imaginable time. t there was at the and power assis
The leggy blonde with the 1970 ‘Bunk ie Bird’ Ford Thunderbird shown here may not have known it at the time, but the T-Bird that she was standing with would go on to be one of the most uniqu e models in the history of the Thunderbird. Why? It was because of the large, protruding ‘Pontiac’ nose that was added to it during the rein of Semon E. ‘Bunkie’ Knudsen as President of FoMoCo, who came from GM and added his ‘ship’s prow’ front end.
ing AfricanA tall and strik stands el od m n America Ford Berline alongside the during the LTD show car season. This 1971 car show full-size Ford one-of-a-kind dau-style featured a lan design with of ro ck ba fast ows and nd wi r te ar no qu vinyl top ed ac pl lly unusua wn the do g in nn ru material area. r lla pi be sides of th veals a re sh fla The camera e hu t in pa metallic blue offset by the ly ce ni is ich wh stripe rubber. Firestone red
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News Date: June 15-16, 2013 Place: Billing Aquadrome, Northants Words & Photography: Ben Klemenzon
Event Report
E ON FA OR M
E ON FA OR M
OOK ★ EB C
OOK ★ EB C
★★★American Auto Club International★★★
Summer Open natiOnalS
The AACI must have been pleased as punch that the rainy weather that’s made Billing’s showfield into an unusable quagmire in previous years didn’t make an appearance this year. That fact – and improvement to the site’s drainage – meant a dry, pleasant showfield which filled up nicely with cars on the Sunday. It even seemed like the sun was going to make an appearance at one stage. This year the action took place down on the main showfield and although the numbers seem down on previous years, this is probably more symptomatic of a gloomy weather forecast and our country’s ongoing financial pain. There were plenty of cars to catch any red-blooded American car enthusiast’s attention, like the 1950 Buick which won our Car of the Year Heat and the beautiful 1956 Chrysler Windsor belonging to Ian Mclaren who made such a splash a few years back with his four-cylinder Pontiac LeMans (Remember that – a V8 motor sliced in half?). Causing quite a stir was Darren Layfield’s 1957 gold custom Chevrolet with its lowered suspension and 420bhp 350 motor – it even won STP’s Enginuity award. Celebrating Father’s Day was Classic American contributor Jonny Smith who wants it to be known that he hasn’t sold the
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Impala which we were following as a project (remember Project Beauty ’Pala?), but has a more pressing current project in the shape of a young family… ah yes, a story we’re all familiar with! Some cars attract American car fans like bees to honey, to and Simon Beckett’s 1951 Pontiac Catalina was one such car. Fresh in from Colorado, it had that attractive aged-patina look which comes with genuine old survivor cars. It even had the original leather interior. Simon was lucky enough to fly to Colorado, pick
1956 Chrysler Windsor.
the car up and do a road trip south to Texas where the car was put on a ship back home. Trophies were presented promptly at 3pm, which was perfect timing as it started to rain, so the cars were run through the marquee to get their trophies and ensure onlookers didn’t get wet. A nice touch to round off another weekend of chilling at Billing…
STP Enginuity Award Magnificent Mercury.
Ford F1 Pick-up belonging to Tony Molloy.
The second of our Enginuity awards in conjunction with STP/Armorall went to Darren Layfield’s stunning gold ’57 Chevy. The engine alone on this car was worthy of a prize, but the car as a whole attracted attention all weekend long. Darren drove the car to Billing all the way from Great Yarmouth. Watch out for a feature on this stunning vehicle in an upcoming issue of Classic American!
Darren Layfield with daughter Kayleigh.
1955 Ford Ranch Wagon belonging to Dudge Durant, stood with Josh. Classic American contributor Jonny Smith and family.
1951 Pontiac Catalina belonging to Simon Beckett.
Mark Humphries and ’69 Lincoln Mark III.
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Corvette at LeMans
Truck Life: ’13 Dodge Ram
1970 Dodge Coronet R/T
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