old photos 55 chevy and toyota

[rookieshooter]

Just going thru my old album and came across two old cars that I wished I still had. I was a younger man then. The only way of accessing the latest news on off-roading or Hot Rodding was to wait each month for the latest magazines. No computers, forums, chat rooms, at least I did not have one or any of my friends. I have no scanner so these are pics of pics.

This was taken in 1968. This is my friend John who was my partner in this 55 chevy drag car. We are relocating the engine further back in the body for better weight transfer. That is an Edelbrock tunnel ram manifold with 2 Hollies. The 55 had a one piece fiberglass tilt front end, all plexiglass windows, one fiberglass seat, fiberglass doors, straight axel front end and a 59 Olds 31 spline rear with a 5.38

How do you like that overflow catch can?

A much younger rookieshooter with hair HA HA Those are American Mags. 1971?

This was the engine that we broke into the 9 second et's this was again in the early 70's All motor as they say now. Just pump gas.

Here she is caring the front wheels, you can see the straight axel. We had to cut the plexiglass window and box around the fuel injection stacks because of the engine setback.

Here is a 1 week old 1973 toyota land cruiser fresh off the show room floor. This was my first 4x4

Here it is with a metal top that I made for it. In the front seat was the best hunting partner I ever had.

 

[XplorerKid]

lovin that '55, and the LC looks nice too!

 

[TheFox88]

Why would you get rid of those? I bet you have some great memories though.

 

[rookieshooter]

Forgot to add this pic. This was taken at Buds creek Md. Now IMR Thanks guys The 55 was so hard to keep competitive with out some major sponsers. The Last major race was the Spring Nationals at Bristol TN.

 

[snocross1985]

nice lookin drag car. Also looks like a faithful companion you had there in the yota.

 

[rookieshooter]

I see there is some interest in these old pics. I found the last two remaining of the "55" I promise there won't be anymore. I just hope that someday someone else would like to show some of their better rides that they had 30+ years later......It does the soul good.

I'm running against a fuel bike. I got to leave first, you can see just a little smoke under the rear slick. I had no front brakes just the rear stock Olds.

This is the only pic I have of the flip front end. This is one of my crew members cooling the radiator after a run. Our sponcer put his name on the door. A little info on the engine it was a sleeved 427 bored out to the max. and then D-stroked back to a 430 CI. It had the same rod to bore ratio as a 302. Crower fuel injected and dynoed at over 700 HP. The 55 tiped the scales around 2000+ pounds. It was a handful to drive with a Muncy M22 crash box 4 speed. I grinded every other tooth off the shifting gears inside the tranny and slamed the gears with no clutch if the drag race was that close if not then the clutch was just tapped slightly. I know guys on this site have fast or faster cars and I would like to see yours also.