Below are pics courtesy of Carl Wassink. This is how the car looked while owned by second owner Jay Parsons back in the late '70s. The pictures were taken by Carl as it was being picked up in Arroyo Grande after being purchased by the third owner Tom McIntyre. Tom's friend Fred Galloway is the guy in the white shirt helping to get the car loaded up. Fred would later purchase one of the '69 Penske Camaros and vintage race it.
Here are Jay's recollections after seeing the photos...
"Sig installed the Stahl headers when he owned the car, (and do I wish that they had never left my posession now). They were flawless when the car was sold. I had beadblasted and painted them that ostentatious VHT blue that was so attractive with the red. Much prettier when the car was actually Sig's yellow. The red was a 1980's Jay addition, which came about when I invested in, yes, 10,000 quarts of Porsche and Volkswagen leftover dealership colors. Oddly enough, the paint wasnt quite the hot mover, as my partner had intended, and a substantial number of my cars and trucks became various shades of Porsche/Volks reds with a virtual plethora of so many lacquers, and synthetics to choose from. No idea which color ended up on the A/S, but as you can tell from Carl's photos, not the anticipated beauty envisioned.
My friend Jim Hutcherson, who owned Vintage Auto Sales in Pismo, kinda brokered that big sale, as it was, the car was trailered to Pismo (Carls photos), where it sat in the Vintage glass showroom until (presumably) Tom took possession later. Carl is a photographer, presumably a friend of Tom, and may have been instrumental in it's sale, but he never owned or drove the car. If memory serves me correct, the sale price was $ 2,500.00, at least on my end.
Just for informational purposes, the rear axle was a 12 bolt as received from Sig with a Detroit Locker and 4.10 gears. The Detroit had no internal axle retention devices, but rather used a (presumably Detroit produced) small Torrington radial bearing as an outboard side thrust and axle retention, which were in shreds when I first discovered them upon routine inspection about 2 days before my first trip to Riverside. Quickly I assembled a Moroso HD 12 bolt posi, and got rid of the Locker and those crunchy axles, and returned to the Chevy internal "C" clip retainer system, which never gave me problems. It would be my personal opinion that the Moroso (drag racing) posi probably should not have been used for road racing. It would be my personal opinion that it was set up with extra plates, and extra tension for drag racing, and when entering corners, would sometimes unload, unpredictably, causing some truly unique of off- road excursions. This is my sole opinion, and certainly subject to review. The M-22 and Hurst SuperShifter, terribly reliable, and untouched, as were the JL-8 brakes all around.
The engine, however was, touched, that is. The first trip to Riverside, driver school, the lines, and apexes, braking, corner workers, flagman, hand signals, station wagon session, etc taught by Tom Douglass, if I recall, however I do not recall explicit instruction with regards to dubious throttle application, and sans rev-limiter, in those days. The unfortunate outcome of Sunday session was a very nasty dent in the top of the front crossmember, and very nice big hole thru that Z-28 oil pan, some very flatsided tires from the spin in the middle of 9. Cool how that worked, just going round and round, motor locked up, yet plenty of oil to cushion the spin to the infield. Poor bastards that followed me, sorry didnt expect that one. So back to the shop for a new bottom end. We were a bit short of 3 inch crankshafts, but had a really nice nitrided 3.5 with corresponding TRW pistons, so in she went with newish block, newish reworked rods and everything else bottom end, balanced, and buttoned back together, and back to Riverside for my second Driver Training session. Donated Speedatron ignition replaced that funky mag pulse, and Speedatron had a rev limiter which was set at a conservative 7500 or so, as I recall.
I was, and still am, so honored to have had my second session piloted by the legendary Dick Guldstrand as my instructor. What a cool guy, and what an honor! Probably, by far, the most valuable training I received was from John Bauer, and he wasnt even at the track. Those days John kinda stopped by our shop occasionally, and at that time he drove and owned one of the ex Penske Javelins, which he ran in A/Sedan. John really could drive, and he knew Riverside, and he taught me more about how to drive Riverside at our machine shop in San Luis, without a station wagon even. I had no idea, not a clue, that a car could go thru the Esses that fast. You talk about PuckerTime. Of course there was turn 6, and that left front fender issue,... John's advice, good as it was, may not quite have taken into account that I was, say maybe 50 cubic inches over the 305 A/S limit he had been accustomed to running, hmm, maybe............Perhaps one should properly conclude that all those extra cubic inches probably was not the smartest way to learn how to drive a race car. John later went on to an IMSA Championship win driving German Auto Porsche, and I am forever indebted for that which he taught me.
And Sig, I am deeply indebted to you, those many years ago, for giving me a chance to do the most fun thing I ever did."
