Thunderbolt whereabouts?

[Rory McNeil]

I was aware of 2 "real" Thunderbolts that migrated into B.C. Canada in the mid 60`s, one was bought by Gary Wanless of Burnaby, the other was raced by the "Chilton & Dooley" team from Kelowna or Kamloops BC.I talked to Wanless several years ago, and he told me that he cut the car up when he was building a Cougar Funny Car in the late 60`s, and he had moved the Tbolts rear axle forerward about a foot before that. I had heard that one of the cars was origionally been Les Ritchys car, but I don`t know if the Wanless car was Bill Irelands or not. There was also a couple of Tbolts from Washington State, one was known as "Little Pete" and also had the wheelbase altered in the 60`s, as did the old "Shaker" Tbolt that was restored, and is owned by Jim Gonia from Washington. I recall one other Tbolt from the Vancouver Wa. /Portland area, but I believe that car had never been modified. It was supposedly sold a number of years ago.