Читать книгу Dyno Don: The Cars and Career of Dyno Don Nicholson - Doug Boyce - Страница 10

Don established his reputation nationally by taking Stock Eliminator at the 1961 NHRA Winternationals. He managed the feat in his 409-powered 1961 Impala that was built in a marathon three days. Don received the engine even before he had a car lined up. Bill Thomas, who had worked at Meads as the service manager before contracting with Chevrolet (and opening Bill Thomas Race Cars), arranged a pair of 409s to be shipped from Daytona where NASCAR’s Speedweek was being held. The second 409 went into the Roman Red Biscayne that Frank Sanders was preparing. Even though Service Chevrolet in Pasadena employed Don, it was Don Steves Chevrolet in La Habra that provided him with a 348 Impala to build on. Service Chevrolet wasn’t prepared to cough up a car. “They weren’t interested. Don Steves was kind of into performance at the time.”

As described in an old Motor Life magazine article, Don built his Chevy to the strict rules of the day; he honed the block, as opposed to going the legal .060-over bore route, and retained the factory-forged pistons. He set main bearing clearance at .003 inch and rod bearings at .0025 inch. The single Carter 4-barrel saw metering rods on the primary side reworked to enrich the mixture. The secondary jets were drilled out .003 inch. The advance curve was reworked an amount Don chose to keep to himself. Jerry Jardine built the Tri-Y headers on the 348 prior to the engine being swapped for the 409.

According to Jardine, the headers were welded up on the floor of Don’s Duarte home garage and fitted by trial and error. Jardine found that the primary tubes that were 1/8-inch smaller in diameter than the 1¾-inch exhaust port gave the best performance. The headers, as crude as they were, were said to be worth an additional 20 hp. Or 5 and 50, as Jardine advertised. That’s 5 mph and a .50 improvement in quarter-mile times compared to the stock exhaust manifolds. Backing the factory-rated 360-hp 409 was a 2.54–first gear BorgWarner and a 4:56 gear rear end. Getting the power to the ground was a set of 8.50x14 Firestone soft-compound Butyl tires or a pair of Casler cheaters.

When he prepared the car, Don raised the front suspension by 1.5 inches and lowered the rear 2 inches. In 1961, these mods were commonly accomplished with the help of heavy-duty springs, spring spacers, and a torch. It was felt that raising the front and lowering the rear helped weight transfer and plant the narrow rear tires. With only a day to go before the Winternationals, final details were buttoned up and the car was tuned. To loosen the new car suspension, Don had Hugh “Putzel” Osterman, who assisted Don on and off well into the decade, take the car out the night before and rack up 400 or 500 highway miles, while he himself caught some much needed z’s.

Les Ritchey’s 390-powered Ford Starliner had recorded a 13.33 at 106 mph, thanks in part to the newly released tri-carb setup. As good as the times were, they weren’t quite good enough for Don’s 409 Impala, which recorded a best of 13.29. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

The Winternationals, or the “Big Go West” as it was also called, kicked off at Pomona with time trials on Friday, February 17. Cars to beat included the 389 Pontiac of Mickey Thompson, driven by Pete Petrey; it was the quickest of the Pontiacs in the program. In addition, the Fords of Les Ritchey, Pete McCarroll, and Bud Harris were tough competition. McCarroll was running the recently released 3 x 2-barrel setup, giving the Ford a 375-horse rating. Frank Sanders, in the only other 409 car, proved to be Don’s toughest competition. Sanders defeated Don in Saturday’s final on a holeshot, 13.63 at 105.26 mph.

At the 1961 Winternationals, Don and his Impala took Mr. Stock Eliminator honors by defeating cars such as the 390-powered Ford of Bud Harris. Only two 409s made Pomona, the other being the Biscayne of Frank Sanders. Don had prepped the heads for Sanders’s 409, which won Super Stock class. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

The 50 fastest Stockers ran on Sunday for the Mr. Stock Eliminator crown. The cars consisted of S/S stick and automatic as well as A/S and B/S cars. Dyno Don defeated Ritchey in the semifinals before getting around Sanders in the final with a 13.59 at 105.88. Low ET of the meet went to Don, who tripped the clocks with a 13.25 at 107.27 mph.

Don should be recognized as the first of the Stock-class racers to go out on tour. Early in 1961, he was living in Duarte and reading all about the Hot Stockers back East (the Platts, Phil Bonner, Dave Strickler, and others), and he wondered how his Impala would measure up. Well, he’d find out soon enough.

Don’s 1961 was the first Super Stocker to break 110 mph and the first to run consistently in the 12-second zone. Its Carter carb has reworked metering rods and the secondary jets are drilled .003. Tri-Y headers were the work of Jerry Jardine. Don blueprinted the engine. The factory clutch and flywheel were behind the 409. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

Don jumped at the chance when offered the opportunity to travel to Indiana for a match then head south to North Carolina. Don hit the road, flat towing his Chevy behind the 1957 Chevy of Ida and Jim Barth, who were Earl Wade’s “adopted” parents. At Henderson, North Carolina, Don drove through the 16-car field that included 13 Fords, 2 Chevrolets, and 1 Pontiac. Ronnie Sox was there but was unable to compete. The final round came down to Don and a local Ford.

Don later recalled, “There were no guard rails and the asphalt ended before the track did. The crowd had gotten so bad they were all over the track. I almost hit some a couple of times and I told the strip operator that I wasn’t going to run again unless he cleared the people off the track. It had gotten so you couldn’t even see the track for all the people. So the operator gets on the PA and tells the guy with the Ford, Dallas Parkinson, to go out there and clear the track off. So he comes out of the pits sideways, kicking up sand. I don’t know how he didn’t kill anyone. On his way back up the track, people were mad and throwing rocks and bottles at his car, breaking the windows out. He gets back to the pits and here come about a thousand people gunning for him. The track operator came out to the middle of the track and started shooting his shotgun in the air to stop them. They finally got them cleared out, and then I almost got ‘home town’ed.’ The guy jumped the flag and almost beat me. I fumbled second gear but still managed to catch him. To make it a big deal, the $600-dollar winnings was all in one-dollar bills in a wheelbarrow.” A wheelbarrow full of cash it was, plus an extra $200 dollars for showing. “Some of the Ford guys said the only reason I beat them was because I had a 4-speed and they didn’t. I told them I’d use first and fourth and they block off either second or third and I’d run them. I still got no takers.”

This photo was shot in early August at Jerry Jardine’s aunt’s home in Ohio. It was an eventful trip east that saw the tow car lose an axle in Virginia and jackknife in a rainstorm in Arizona. At the time the photo was shot, Don was in Detroit visiting with Chevrolet’s Vince Piggins, picking up parts, and hammering out a deal. The gentleman in the photo is Jerry Jardine. The 1955 Chevy tow car was later given to Dave McGrane on his 16th birthday. (Photo Courtesy Jerod Jardine)

It was while towing the Impala (on slicks) back up north for a match at the Detroit Dragway that the tow car lost control on the rain-soaked Virginia turnpike. The cars jackknifed, leading to the tow bar bracket tearing from the Impala’s frame. Don, who was attempting to catch some sleep in the back seat, woke in time to see the Impala leaving the road and rolling over in a shallow ditch, coming to a stop back on its wheels. The incident tore up the left front suspension and bent up the roof and many of the body panels. A wrecker was called to haul the Impala into Beckley, where the suspension was repaired at a Chevy dealer.

At the Nationals, Don is all smiles with helpers Jerry Jardine (left) and Turk after winning Stock. It was a fleeting moment of celebration; once in the tear down barn, the Chevy was disqualified on a technicality. (Photo Courtesy Nicholson Family Collection)

Don called Gil Kohn at Detroit and tried to beg out of the match, but Kohn wouldn’t hear of it. He had Garlits and Ivo lined up but Garlits bailed after getting burned in a fire. Kohn insisted that Don be there, as without him, there was no show. Kohn arranged to have a body shop straighten the Impala, doing what they could before the Sunday match. The car looked like crap but did manage to win the match, defeating the Ace Wilson Royal Pontiac driven by Jim Wangers in convincing fashion.

Back home, the Impala was repaired and repainted in preparation for a planned second trip east early in July to Easy Street Dragstrip near Newton Grove, North Carolina. This time, Jerry Jardine came along to assist Don. The pair borrowed Big John Mazmanian’s stubby trailer and loaded up Don’s 1955 Chev with spare parts. As Jardine recalls, “To balance the load [on the hitch], tools and spare parts, including a spare rear-end section, were tucked under the hood of the ‘61.”

“To make it a big deal, the $600-dollar winnings was all in one-dollar bills in a wheelbarrow.„

Don has often been credited as the father of the bleach box–style burnout, first using bleach to clean the tires. By trial and error, he found the best water/bleach mix for his Vogue (or Caslers) slicks was 50/50. People use to question the fact that he ran his 7-inch cheater slicks on 4-inch rims, without realizing the advantage it gave him by increasing the footprint.

By August, Chevrolet was producing upgraded performance parts for the 409. The over-the-counter parts included larger valve heads, a longer duration high-lift camshaft, and a pair of deep-breathing Carter 4-barrel carburetors on an aluminum intake manifold. The parts brought the horsepower rating of the 409 up to an equal 409. Chevrolet slipped Don the parts, which were installed on his 409 prior to the NHRA Nationals on Labor Day weekend. It was after the Winternationals that Don’s tie with General Motors strengthened. He’d had indirect contact with Chevrolet but after the winters’ win, he had an open line to Vince Piggins. Even though cash and cars were not in the cards from the manufacturer, parts were generally there for the asking. With Don going through transmissions and weak-link third members, it proved to be a beneficial arrangement.

At Indy in September for the NHRA Nationals, the Stockers ran Saturday afternoon and stealing the show were the cars in Optional Super Stock (O/SS). The category was created in 1961 and designed specifically for limited-production cars or cars featuring high-performance parts made available after June 1, 1961, by Detroit’s Big Three. Leading the way in O/SS was the 368-horse Pontiac of Mickey Thompson, driven by Hayden Proffitt. Proffitt held the low ET and top speed with a 13.07 at 112.21. Close behind was Don with a 13.25 at 110.29 mph. Opening day eliminations saw Proffitt defeat Dave Strickler’s Biscayne for honors. Proffitt ran a phenomenal 12.55 during the meet and walked into Sunday’s 50-car Mr. Stock Eliminator as the favorite.

In mid-1961, Chevrolet released a twin 4-barrel option for the 409, bringing the horsepower rating up to an even 409. As noted by the cutouts in the hood, Don was running the Chevy in Optional Super Stock at this point. Note the deep-groove generator pulley and additional crankcase breathers, as well the lack of a heater. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

Don was ready to take on the world when he headed east in July. Prior to doing so, he won a Super Stock meet at Vaca Valley on July 8, setting the track record with a 13.21 at 108.42 mph. Don actually preferred to run a hose to the carbs rather than the Enderle scoop but was not allowed to do so at Indy. (Photo Courtesy Mike Strickler)

In an unorthodox semifinal’s move, precipitated by a burning desire to defeat his opponent, Al Eckstrand in the Ramchargers Dodge, Mickey Thompson replaced Proffitt behind the wheel of his Pontiac. Thompson and the Pontiac faithful’s hopes were dashed when the Pontiac got hung up in gear. The same thing happened the next round to Eckstrand when the 3-speed in his Dodge failed against Don. The final round came down to the O/SS cars of Dyno Don and the Passionate Poncho of Arnie “the Farmer” Beswick. Because of Eckstrand’s failed gear in the previous round, Don and Beswick agreed that the overall Stock Eliminator winner should come back to run in a best-of-three grudge race against the 413 Dodge. At the flag, Don and Beswick left bumper to bumper. On the top end, it was Don inching ahead for the win with a 13.37 at 108.69 mph. In the grudge race, Don lost the first round but came back to take the next two. As was usual, after the final race, the cars of both Beswick and Dyno Don were torn down for inspection. Both were disqualified.

Don’s reputation preceded him to the East Coast, and from day one the crowds began to gather. Seen here at Indy, fans wanted to know what made the baddest Chevy in the nation tick. As you can see, in 1961, the luxury of paved pits at Indy was still only a dream. (Photo Courtesy Mike Strickler)

As Don recalled, “They started picking on stuff. They pulled the valve springs off my heads. Took the shims from underneath and checked them in their little tester. They checked them at minimum height. I showed them how to check them at the stock height. Actually the springs were down on pressure because as the runs went on, they went away. The car started missing on me a little bit in the lights and was getting a little worse with each run. I was sure it was the valve springs going away. When we checked them, there was no problem. Then they started mic’ing the heads of the valves. I had never mic’d a head of a valve unless I was making a valve for something. I just pulled the valves out of the Chevrolet boxes and put them in the heads. There were some they found a few thousand over size. I was arguing with Farmer Dismuke, the tech inspector; Chevrolet didn’t say 1¹¹/₁₆, +/- 10, or 15 thousand as Chrysler, Pontiac, and most others did. They just had the size, no plus or minus. The valves were sitting right out on the edge, which was the way I did a valve job. We got that squared away and then they said the intake was matched. The factory or whoever made the castings for them had used a die grinder to clean off the burrs as opposed to using a hand scraper. I told them it wasn’t matched as it was out a 1/4-inch in spots.” It all got very ridiculous with Farmer arguing that Don had received special parts. Chevrolet’s Paul Prior, who was there, got involved, arguing the point along with Don. In the end, the disqualification stood with no reason given, and no discussion allowed.

“As far as they were concerned, Beswick and I were just a couple of farm boys who didn’t know what we were doing and if we go out there and beat that big Mickey Thompson Pontiac, we must be cheating.” Don was prepared to sue but eventually cooled off and let it go. Beswick put it all down to politics. “They had their favorite.”

Rounding out Don’s trip was a match against the East Coast’s finest, Dave Strickler in the Old Reliable Chevy, at York US-30 on September 23. Also making an appearance was Arnie Beswick and his potent 389 Pontiac. It was quite a show put on by the three, with each reportedly making in the neighborhood of 20 runs by the end of the day. The hometown biased–news failed to report an overall winner, but you can be sure it wasn’t hometown favorite, Dave Strickler. Don was clearly the winner, running consistent 13.0s and low ET of the day with a 13.02. Strickler was close behind with a best of 13.05 and Beswick with a 13.09. Don had more than measured up to the best the east had to offer. To paraphrase Julius Caesar from long ago, Dyno Don came, he saw, and he conquered.

Don campaigned the Impala well into December while the finishing touches were being completed on his new 1962 Bel Air. In one of his last races in the Impala, Don won Stock Eliminator at Pomona on December 8. The Impala clocked a 12.74 at 112.64 mph for low ET and top speed in class. At the same event, Don also drove Dean Lowe’s A/SR in Competition but lost in the first round. At the end of the year, the Impala found a new owner in David Heath. Heath campaigned the car as the Kentucky Colonel, running S/S, B/Factory Experimental, and match racing the car through the next few seasons. The Impala seems to have disappeared after Heath sold it in 1965. It was last known to be in Muncie, Indiana, sporting blue paint.

Jerry Jardine

Jerry Jardine was a young teenager in the early 1950s with little more than cars on the brain. He had the ideal after-school job, working at Pearly’s Muffler Shop in Pasadena. It wasn’t long before the proprietor taught Jardine how to weld and he was forming exhaust work of his own.

Jardine had owned a few hot rods in his teens and by the time he finished high school he had saved enough for a new 1958 Impala powered by the all-new 315-horse 348. The cost was $400 dollars down and $88 dollars a month. On a trip to the dry lake of El Mirage with the Chevy, Jardine topped 140 mph. The first time out to the drags with the car was a trip to the old San Gabriel track, where Jardine defeated a number of the Les Ritchey Performance Unlimited cars, including the bored and stroked 354-ci Chevys disguised as injected 283s. The next day, Jardine drove out to Don Nicholson’s shop (which, in 1958, was located in Monrovia), looking for some help in making the Chevy go even faster.

Jardine recalled that Don said, “I don’t know why you bought that thing, it’ll never run.” Jardine proceeded to tell him how he just beat all of Les Ritchey’s cars and the 1957 Chevy that Don had tuned for Dave Fenn. “Don’s response was a surprised, ‘What?!’ Don was all over my car after that; rejetting the carbs, playing with the timing so the advance came in sooner, and upgrading the ignition.” This was the beginning of Don’s involvement with the 348–409-powered Chevys.

Jerry recalled that the only one who ever beat his 348 was Shirley Shahan. “I went up to Bakersfield one Sunday and had the class covered, running quicker than all the other cars. Shirley had a red 1958 Bel Air. I didn’t know they had any women running up there. Over her door was written ‘Red and Ready.’ The car was red and Shirley had red hair at the time. I was busy looking over at the car when the flagger gave the sign. Needless to say, I came in a late second.”

Jardine built his first headers in 1959, a pair of fenderwell Tri-Ys welded together on the floor of Don’s garage in Duarte. He adopted the Tri-Y design after looking at a cutaway drawing of a 1956 Maserati. Jardine was doing most of his work out of a sheet metal shop owned by a friend’s dad in Pasadena. An exploding aftermarket eventually allowed him to open his own place in Garden Grove around 1960. At its peak, Jardine Headers were producing roughly 100 sets of headers a day. By the late 1960s, fly-by-night header manufacturers had flooded the market and eventually killed the business. Jardine turned to building headers for motorcycles and saw a major boost in business when Tom McMullen at Chopper magazine gave him some positive ink. The bike business took off and became larger than the automotive business had ever been. By the end of 1972, Jardine no longer made headers for cars.

“We moved into a new building in 1973, 40,000 square feet and didn’t even put a lift in for cars.” Jardine Headers survives today in Casper, Wyoming, and is operated by Jerry’s son. And yes, once again the company does build headers for cars. Although he’s retired, Jardine likes to keep busy and builds the odd set.

Why a wagon? With tire width limited by rules, Don was well aware that the added rear weight aided traction. The B/FX winning School Bus, as Don pegged the Chevy II, helped with his decision to run the Comet wagon in 1964. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)