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.

Summer 2012 Tin Block Times

I teased you all with the back cover shot from the new issue of the TBT so I figured I had to post the front cover too.  Kudos to designer Dean Seavers for the killer job!

Lots of good stuff in this issue, including the tale of Doug Hayes' H and H Crosley dragster and Mike Grimes' amazing 'how-to' on converting a Homelite engine for use in your Crosley.  And then there's the classified ads... can't talk about the TBT without mentioning those.  Here's a taste of the 'For Sale' ads you non-members are missing!

Back on Track

Found this nice period shot of the Little Giant buried on a confusing Kodak picture-sharing site. Little Giant was a crowd-pleasing '51 Crosley B/Altered run by George Brazee from Watertown, Connecticut. The car took home plenty of trophies in its day and drag racing fans from the Northeast still remember it very well. Sadly the car hasn't been seen in decades and is presumed to be long gone.  I'm assuming the hood got swapped out for a '49 or '50 since it doesn't have the notch for the spinner.

I wish I knew more about the navigation of the site the photo is from - the Little Giant pic is in a KILLER slideshow of early and mid-sixties drag strip pics... but I can't figure out who took the pictures or posted them - hope they don't mind me using it here. If you have any fondness for early sixties hotrods be sure to set aside some time and check out the whole slideshow.

And a side note... wow, can't believe it's been almost three weeks since I made a post. I won't get into details, but life has been pretty hectic - some job changes and other stuff going on that's gotten me way off schedule. I think my life is sorta back on track so I think I can get back to my regular obsessive Crosleying....

Midwest Drag Race Footage 1958-60

Spotted 2 (maybe 3) Crosley-bodied drag cars in this flick posted on my fave Hotrod site, the HAMB.  Great fun 8mm footage from the Jurassic era of straight line motorsport.  First up (about one minute in) is an early Crosley sedan body sitting inside a full size frame that's sporting some real pizza cutters. At about six and a half minutes is the monster above - sadly we don't see the run.  One of the very last cars in the film is a highly modified white coupe that looks to me like a VERY chopped Crosley sedan... like mailslot windshield chopped.  I'm not 100% sure it started out as a Crosley, but it sure looks like it. I also don't know what else it could be...  Whole show is about 10 minutes - well worth it if you're fond of mid fifties middle America - check it out!