True Class War: Pros, Cons, and Why

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by 1664SSJA

Somebody better in the know than me might be able to clear something up for me.

I seem to remember that there WAS a CORVETTE that could have run with the AH cars, but it was not allowed in and then they made some change in the rules to keep that Corvette, ( and probably any others out) keeping it just all Hemi cars.

Am I right? And who was the Corvette??????

Mark

There were TWO 1967 L-88 Corvettes from Tennessee. One was from Murfreesboro, owned and driven by Tony Rhodes. The other was from the Nashville area, owned by Scott Wilcox, and often driven by Mike Lynch. Both ran SS/A. Tony Rhodes still has his car, just like it last ran. Not sure where Scott Wilcox's car went, but I'm sure some of the local SS racers like Jimmy Bridges and Kenny Schindler will know.

I was told by an NHRA official that some of the Mopar guys went to NHRA and complained that not enough 1967 L-88 Corvettes were built. NHRA gave the Corvette guys a year to come up with documentation, but GM said only 36 were built and sold in 1967. I think the story is also posted some where on class racer, but I could not find it when I searched for it.

At one time, not long ago, there were at least two, and possibly three, REAL 1967 L-88 Corvettes within 50-100 miles of here. One is of somewhat questionable heritage, but the other two were very real. Seems odd that there would be only 36 built, but two would be within 100 miles of each other. But GM provided documentation for only 36, so that appears to be it.

Back before any real Super Stock cars had run a legal eight second pass in qualifying or competition, there were a couple of articles about the "race to the eights". Mostly there were Hemi cars in the articles, but one article had a side bar featuring Tony Rhodes black SS/A 67 Corvette calling him the "dark horse".

[a2race]

you mean these two? notice the lettering on the door of the wilcox car.....interesting.....adam

[Ronnie Smith Jr]

I think Noel Davis bought Scott's Corvette some years back. Dad bought Scott's Chevy II in 87 or 88. You can see the back of the Chevy II in the pic above. Must have been prior to Dad purchasing the car. We campaigned it for a few years and then sold it. I believe Tony Rhodes has it now and put an auto in it. I have not seen either of the cars on the track in a few years.

For what it's worth...

Ronnie, Jr.

[Alan Roehrich]

Tony Jr. does have a 2 door post Chevy II he's running in Super Stock. Tony Sr. still has the Corvette, he's had it for as long as I can remember, I doubt he'll sell it.

I was thinking there were two Chevy II's at one time. And Jimmy Bridges had a SS/E Camaro. They were all painted the same or at least very similar.

I had heard Noel bought the Corvette as well. I don't know. There were several of those cars around here. I think Mike Robinson had two or three, at one time he had a 63 that he ran in F/Gas. And Jimmy has got a 66 he runs in SS/B.

[Ronnie Smith Jr]

Yep, that would be it, the post car. After thinking about it for awhile, I'm certain Noel bought the Corvette. Looking back at the pic above, that may be after Dad bought the Chevy 2. I see a yellow water spray can and I believe we used to have a yellow one. Memory is not as good as it used to be. Damn, it's been 20 years now

I also remember Jimmy's SS/E Camaro as well.

[Lynn A McCarty]

Instead of showing up for 2-3 days of boring practice, we should line up and run heads up class against class, then index against index. If NHRA doesnt want to organize it, get out our 5-cent CPU's(pencil) and do it ourselves!

[chris ok]

just a question from a fan.
do any hemi cars other than the 1968 darts and barracudas fit in SS/AA ?
I know about the SS/AH now but are there any other model hemi cars that run in it. thanks, chris

[Conway Witten]

How many real HEMI cars were really made available to the public the HEMI guys at like that there was really a little old lady from Pasadena? I bet unless your name was Sox, Landy,or Vanke you couldn't get a smell of one. They were basically concept cars made legal just for drag racing just like Thunderbolts, L-88 and LS-7 Corvette, so really there is no difference. But why should NHRA care now? Chevrolet never made an aluminum open chamber headed 396/375 but it's OK now? Ford never made 428 Cobra Jets with Titanium valves but it's OK now? Ford can be represented by Shelby GT-500s but you can't run a YENKO Camaro of Corvette? Why not make all Muscle Car era cars legal for Super Stock or Stock?

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Conway Witten

How many real HEMI cars were really made available to the public the HEMI guys at like that there was really a little old lady from Pasadena? I bet unless your name was Sox, Landy,or Vanke you couldn't get a smell of one. They were basically concept cars made legal just for drag racing just like Thunderbolts, L-88 and LS-7 Corvette, so really there is no difference. But why should NHRA care now? Chevrolet never made an aluminum open chamber headed 396/375 but it's OK now? Ford never made 428 Cobra Jets with Titanium valves but it's OK now? Ford can be represented by Shelby GT-500s but you can't run a YENKO Camaro of Corvette? Why not make all Muscle Car era cars legal for Super Stock or Stock?

Not all of the hemis went to big time racers.Local good guy (Queens N.Y.) racer George Baptiste has raced one since new.George is now 72 I think and has parked the car.If anyone sees him ask him about the way he concealed the ownership of the car from his wife.George is a real gentleman and a pleasure to talk to about the old days.

Ed F.

[Wade_Owens]

I took the 1st photo at an IHRA race in St Louis quite a few years ago. It was around 1992 or 3. I really dont remember much about the car, other than it was all over the track, and I never seen it run again...

Wade O