Gary Gabelich - "Plenty Boss, Man. Plenty Boss."

Unlike most car geeks, I wasn't much of a gearhead when I was a kid. No subscription to Hot Rod or CarToons, no shelf of carefully-constructed Revell car models, no posters of scantily-clad girls posing next to race cars. I certainly noticed old cars on the rare occasions that I saw them, and did have a passing interest in kid-candy like the Munsters Koach, but my Dad was so OVER being an auto mechanic by the time I came along that there was no romance under the hood. 

The only time I really remember being enthralled by a car as a kid was when we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats on a road trip. I was fascinated by the lunar landscape - and by the idea of cars going hundreds of miles an hour out there in the middle of nowhere. We stopped at a gas station in Wendover and I bought a postcard of the rocket-shaped car that then held the Land Speed Record: The Blue Flame, driven 622 miles an hour by Gary Gabelich. I still have that postcard.

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered last month that Gary Gabelich got his start in a Crosley.

World of Speed: Part III

After the initial shock of being at THE Bonneville Speedway you get acclimated pretty quickly.  It helps that almost everyone is so dang nice - even the folks who are having a really bad day.

World of Speed 2012: Part II

 

We drove out onto the salt flat, slowly crunching our way toward the line of brightly colored objects about a mile off.  As we approached the line the objects began to differentiate themselves: cars, trucks, motorhomes, motorcycles, trailers and people took shape.  Most of the vehicles were lined up in two lines that stretched for about a quarter mile each and terminated a couple hundred yards apart.

We parked, administered sunscreen and headed toward the nearest lineup.  Davide and Karin seemed slightly giddy, like they were not quite convinced that they were actually standing on the same salt that had borne Burt Munro, Malcolm Campbell and Craig Breedlove.  The weather was amazing- warm but not too hot, with heavy clouds that cut the brutal reflection off the salt and made for dramatic photo backdrops.

The speedways at Bonneville are usually two black lines on the salt that start very near each other but head slightly apart as they get further away; they would form a 'V' if you looked down from a plane.  One track is longer (five miles I think) for high speed runs and the other is shorter, for the slower (like under 150MPH or so) runs.  I say 'usually' because when the salt is just right the organizers sometimes add a third track a few miles away.  There were only two tracks this time out.

Better Late Than Never: World of Speed 2012

So I got WAY off track with my posts at the end of last year... I finished up the 2012 Meet report and then dropped into a wormhole of work.  I skipped some stuff.

The biggest thing I skipped was a whirlwind trip to World of Speed at Bonneville.

The Liebherr Crosley at Bonneville

I emailed Dale Liebherr a couple of weeks ago to let him know that I'd see him at the Salt Flats; five minutes later my phone rang.  "How'd you know we were going?" he wanted to know.  Dale and brother Rob were talking about the idea of building a Bonneville Crosley at the 2007 Minden meet.  Within a year they'd built most of a car, and thanks to the sharp eye (and camera phone) of John McKnight I knew they'd completed it and taken the car to El Mirage this spring- they failed tech inspection, (no tranny blanket) so the car didn't run there.   
I'd wondered why Dale and Rob had kept such a low profile with their car building.  Dale posts on the Crosley Yahoo group and is involved in club stuff, but hadn't mentioned anything about the car.  Turns out that they wanted to avoid letting the Evil Tweety team know that they'd have extra competition this year.   
Evil Tweety is the current J Production class record holder.  The 1971 Honda Z600 has been battling it out with Gerald Davenport's Crosley for salt supremacy for a decade now.  Boasting a very warmed-up motor, a computer-aided induction/timing system and a much 'cleaner' underside than a Crosley, Evil Tweety took the record back, and then broke the century mark a couple of years ago.  The current record is just over 103 MPH.  Team Liebherr didn't want Tweety to know that it was in their sights.
We called Dale from the salt and arranged to meet them at their pit.  Pits were arranged parallel to the Long Track starting at about the two mile mark and going to just about the four mile mark.  The Liebherrs had scored prime real estate at the three mile mark... just about optimum for watching the races.
The car is an almost stock-appearing 1947 sedan.  Dale bought the car from Bob Carson twenty years ago and it sat in the desert until after the 2007 meet.   Then they got to work.  Rob handled the bodywork and paint (and drives the car).   Production class rules do not allow modification of the body, and one of Dale and Rob's personal rules was that the car could not be modified in a way that could not be easily converted back to a correct restoration.  I'm fairly sure they are the only team on the salt with that thought in mind.  Even the stock wheelwells are intact- though sporting handmade 15 inch rims and racing rubber.   

Dale handled the engine work, with assistance from knowledgeable sources like Don Baldocchi.  Again, class rules prohibit a larger displacement, but the engine sports all sorts of mods including Hilborn mechanical injection and a crank trigger ignition.  There is plenty more going on inside, but Dale is cagey on most of the details.  The mill connects to a Datsun 4 speed then back to a stock Crosley rear.  The office is clean, and with the addition of a substantial roll cage, even more compact than a regular Crosley.

Bonneville is about a mile above sea level- enough to give any car fits- but the constant atmospheric changes of the site are especially tough on cars that are built to run at utmost efficiency within very specific tolerances.  Temperature and humidity changes wreak havoc on carefully tuned systems, with conditions sometimes changing dramatically in the space of a few minutes.  These conditions are measured in 'actual' altitude... which ranged from about 5000-7000 feet just in the time we were there.  Early morning turned out to be the best time to run, with a recorded altitude of about 5000 feet.   In the end it turned out that Evil Tweety didn't need to be worried- the sedan's best runs were in the mid 80s.  Still, not bad for first-timers to the salt, and they're already looking forward to next year.

The Liebherrs were kind enough to let Liv and I join the crew for the day and we spent about six hours with them, riding in the catch car as Rob made runs, and hanging out in the pits while they debated timing changes, injection adjustments and speculated about the 'actual' altitude.  At the end of they day they even fed us delicious sausages and beer.

We had an amazing day, and Liv and I both can't wait to come back.  My big regret was that we never saw Gerald Davenport at all- it turned out that he had a sort of mobile pit trailer and was working over by the Special Track.. I assumed we'd run into him but it just never happened.  I also assumed we'd bump into John McKnight- the Liebherrs said he'd been by their pit several times, but he was scarce the day we were there.   Once the salt closed up for the night I found his number and gave him a call.  It turned out that he'd finally gotten a hotel room in Wendover after three days of sleeping in his car at the bend.  We went by his hotel and I finally got to meet John in person after 10+ years of email correspondence.   He was a great guy (and a wealth of Crosley engine info)... we visited for an hour or so and then Liv and I headed off to camp.   

All in all, this was one of the best days I've had in years.  Liv and I talked about what makes Bonneville so special... and decided that it's because everyone there is so committed.  No one accidentally ends up at Bonneville.  It's too far from anywhere else and too harsh an environment for the casual observer.  If you're at Bonneville, you're there for Bonneville.  It's a beautiful thing.

Special Alert for Crosley Racing Engines!

Dick Duncan is heading up a group of Crosley racing enthusiasts who are looking to have a run of high strength crankcase-to-block bolts specially made for use in high HP Crosley engines.   A group of Hmod racers had a set of these run five or so years ago, but they have been unobtainable for some time.  They're not cheap, but would be well worth the price if you're planning on turning 7500+ RPMs, like the Liebherr Bonneville Special above (Thanks to John McKnight for the photo!)

If you are interested in a set, the details (from Dick) are as follows: 

1) They will make any quantity we want, price depends on the quantity. 

2) The last order placed was in 2004 for 300 bolts, (30 sets @10 / engine), the price was $17 / bolt.

3)  The best estimate of current price is approximately $20 / bolt or $200 / set at the above quantity.

4)  The question is, how much individual interest is there in purchasing these sets. It appears that there are none from the two previous orders available for sale.   

5)  To firm the quoted price, we need an indication of who is interested in obtaining one or more sets. This needs to be a serious commitment so if you are interested at a price of up to say $250 / set let me know. As before, Don is not making any profit on this and sales tax will not be involved if we have them shipped outside CA.

6)  If you want to be involved in the proposed order, please contact me, Dick Duncan, by Email or phone and give me your name, number of sets you want (at up to $250 / set) and your phone number and Email address no later than Monday, June 22.            

7) We will use that list and count to get the firm quotation on price and delivery. Each person on the list will be advised of the quoted price and, assuming it is $250 or less per set, be asked to submit his firm order and a 50% non refundable  down payment. If we have anyone who decides they do not want to take delivery of their order, the excess product  will be put onEbay with a reserve price of 50% of the actual price. For the record, neither Don nor I are interested in paying for or stocking excess inventory or making money on this transaction. I am trying to fill my own and others needs and Don is being helpful as always. 

I hope this is not too complicated or confusing, it seems to me to be a reasonable way to work through the situation and solve a problem. Look forward to hearing from interested parties. Thanks for your patience and thanks to Don for his willingness to help out. I have it on good authority that there is no truth to the rumor that he is pulling the Panhard mill to install a hot Crosley. Please feel free to share this information with anyone who might have an interest, obviously, the larger the order the lower the price. 

Dick Duncan 

Email: MGVADick  at aol dot com 

Phone (925) 864-8309