Randy Klein online article in national dargster

[Tom Moock]

WednesdayHDR
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Jan. 29, 2014
Oldie but Goodie
Written by Kevin McKenna


Oldie but Goodie


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Two weeks ago in The Sports Report, we featured Jim Zaskowski's '69 Z28 Camaro Stock car as part of an ongoing feature that spotlights some of the rare and desirable classic cars that regularly compete in NHRA Super Stock and Stock events. That article got a fair amount of positive feedback, which isn't surprising since I'm inclined to believe that almost everyone enjoys reading about a classic, American-built muscle car.

With that in mind, from time to time this year, I'm going to continue to feature some of the interesting cars and drivers that make up the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, and this week, I've got perhaps one of the rarest of all in Randall Klein's '56 Chevy Nomad Super Stocker.

Ironically, 1960s muscle cars are still fairly common in NHRA events, but pre-1960 vehicles have become increasingly rarer for a variety of reason's, including their competitiveness against newer entries, the lack of available performance parts, and their overall value in the collector market. For whatever reason, the cars that dominated the early days of NHRA Drag Racing made fewer and fewer appearances.

For those who are old enough to remember the Jr. Stock class, Klein's car will no doubt trigger a trip down memory lane, recalling a time when the performance cars of the day were raced in an environment that included very few obvious modifications. Times have certainly changed, and today's Super Stock cars feature a lot of sophisticated technology, however, Klein's car retains a very clean factory appearance.

Klein, of Lincoln, Neb., has owned his '56 Nomad since 1972, and the car has been raced frequently since its on-track debut during the 1983 season. Built in an era before big block engines, the car is equipped with a relatively small 265-cid small block Chevy, which features a very rare dual four-barrel carburetor setup.

"I raced a little in the 1960s, and I was also in a Nomad club," said Klein. "I had a '55 Nomad that was a rust bucket. I saw this car in the Omaha [Neb.] paper for $600, and I had to have it. Over the years, it has undergone many incarnations. I had a 454 [big block] and a four speed, and later on I ran it at Super Chevy events and bracket races before we got into Super Stock. I was racing a '67 Camaro in Super Street, but I've always liked class racing, and after a while, one of my friends said, 'I'll bet your Nomad would fit a Super Stock class,' and that's how we got to where we are now."

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The car was built by Ron Meek, who currently works for Jerry Haas Race Cars, and the engine was built by Klein's longtime partner, Ron Taylor, who campaigns a '57 Chevy Super Stocker. At first, the car was equipped with a single four-barrel carburetor and ran 12.30s in SS/PA. Later, Klein switched to a dual four-barrel setup and moved to SS/MA and SS/NA, where the car has run as quick as 11.13.

"There is an interesting story about the two four-barrel carburetors," said Klein. "We were in the staging lanes in Topeka one year, and Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins rode by on his scooter, and he quickly turned around and told us that our intake manifold was all wrong. I asked him if he could build one that was better, and he said, 'If you don't bug me, I'll tinker around with it.' It took a while, but he eventually built us an intake, and of course, it was better than what we'd been using. I was flattered that he took an interest in our stuff."

Although the car is more than a half-century old, it features a lot of modern technology beyond the engine, such as a complete four-link rear suspension, a three-speed transmission from A1, and a set of Lamb disc brakes.

Klein not only takes pride in the performance of his car, but he's also a driver who strives to win races, and to that end, he's had a fair amount of success, including seven Lucas Oil Series wins, a pair of Division 5 championships, two appearances in the JEGS Allstars event, and a pair of top-10 finishes in the national points standings.

Klein admits that racing the car can be tricky for a couple of reasons. First off, it runs in one of the lower Super Stock classes, which means that he is often chased by eight- and nine-second cars. Secondly, the car weighs 3,720 pounds, and in order to get all that weight up and moving, he uses an extremely short 6:83 rear-end gear ratio, which, combined with a 9-inch wide rear slick, can sometimes lead to tire spin.

"When it hooks, the car is very consistent, but anytime we have a marginal track, it's susceptible to tire spin," said Klein. "With that much gear, we also go through the lights at 9,500 rpm, so that little engine is screaming. Still, this car is a lot of fun to drive, and we've had some good success with it."

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Since it is one of the few remaining vintage "tri-five" Chevy entries still competing in NHRA events, Klein acknowledges that his Nomad is a "people magnet" anytime it appears in public.

"I get a lot of people from that generation, and almost everyone says they used to own one," he said. "I even had one lady tell me that she was born in a Nomad like this one. I also had a guy in Houston one time ask me if it was a 'real' Nomad, and I told him that it was actually an El Camino that we fixed up. It seems like the younger guys like the new cars, like the Cobalts and Camaros, but the older guys still love the '50s stuff."

In recent years, Klein's racing schedule has primarily included local combo events and a handful of NHRA Lucas Oil Series appearances, but he's planning to expand that this season and hopes to compete in the upcoming Class Nationals event in Columbus and the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indy.

"I'm 65 now, and I can't do all-nighters anymore, but we do want to maybe have one last go-round with this car," said Klein. "We've got a good engine going together, and I want to get out a bit more. At some point, I'm going to sell the car, and I've even contacted a few museums, so we'll see where that goes, but the market is still pretty tough. It's a valuable car, and I couldn't see myself just giving it away. I figure that if I race a bit more this year and have some success that will be some good publicity, and that will help when I do decide to sell it."

Kevin McKenna can be reached at kmckenna@nhra.com