Читать книгу Dyno Don: The Cars and Career of Dyno Don Nicholson - Doug Boyce - Страница 11

Don had three cars at the first national event of the year, the NHRA Winternationals; a Super/Super Stock Bel Air, an A/FX Chevy II sedan, and a B/FX Chevy II station wagon. It appears that the sedan never competed, but both the Bel Air and wagon came up winners. The Super/Super Stock class was reserved for Detroit’s latest top-of-the-line, showroom-available performance offerings, such as Don’s 409/409 Bel Air. With the issues he had at Indy in 1961, Don ensured his 409 was built to a T; he installed .060-over ForgedTrue pistons with step seal rings, and he mic’d everything before putting it back together.

The winning records of Dyno’s cars meant that he never had an issue finding new owners when it was time to move them. David Heath of Owensboro, Kentucky, purchased Don’s 1961 and christened it the Kentucky Colonel. Note the Enderle bug catcher scoop still in use. (Photo Courtesy Jack Bleil)

Don found the opposition a little tougher this year, with stiff competition coming from Les Ritchey’s 406 Ford, the Mickey Thompson 421 Pontiac driven by Hayden Proffitt, and East Coast nemesis Dave Strickler and his similarly equipped 409 Bel Air. It was Strickler who eliminated Dyno Don during Saturday’s class runoffs in the too-close-to-call semifinal match. Strickler faced Hayden Proffitt in the final, losing to an unbelievable 12.52. In Sunday’s 50-car Mr. Stock Eliminator runoffs, Don defeated the Fords of Les Ritchey and Gas Ronda and the S/SA Pontiac of Whittier, California’s, Carol Cox. Meanwhile, Strickler, on his way to a final round appearance, did everyone a favor by defeating favorite, Hayden Proffitt, in the first round. With the twin white Chevys lined up for the final go, the flag went up and off they went on a clean start. Dyno Don took a slight holeshot lead and held off Strickler’s hard-charging 12.55 with a 12.84 at 109.22 mph. As proof that the sport of drag racing was still in its infancy, part of Don’s winnings included a color television donated by Mr. and Mrs. Sopps, owners of Sopps Car Wash in Los Angeles.

In a 1962 interview, Don discussed his driving technique with automotive journalist Roger Huntington. With the narrow 7-inch tires allotted to Stock, he came off the line at 3,000 rpm. Don stated that the higher (than most racers) revs gave him more flywheel inertia and torque to play with. When the flag went up, Don eased into the throttle and rode out the clutch. For him, this prevented bogging that he felt many cars suffered from. By the time he’s halfway through low gear, about 100 feet out, he was full throttle. Shift points came at 6,000 rpm, 6,500 with the new mid-season factory upgrades, which included intake, cam, and heads. These changes did not change the factory 409-hp rating. Don found that there were no performance gains above this. “Wild 7,000 rpm shift points didn’t do anything for my times. They just beat up the engine.” Chevrolet had released 409 upgrade parts in the spring (.480 lift cam, valve springs, etc.) and again in the fall. The late-season parts included high-port heads that worked in conjunction with a two-piece aluminum intake manifold and a .511-lift camshaft with a little more overlap. These parts were used in 1963 on the Z11 Impala and raised the advertised horsepower to 425.

At the 1962 NHRA Winternationals, Don parlayed a nice holeshot in the Mr. Stock Eliminator final to defeat Dave Strickler’s Old Reliable. A 12.84 against Strickler’s 12.55 did the trick. Don’s Chevy grabbed many track records through 1962, including the half-mile mark at Riverside, where he recorded a 133.90 mph. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

Could Dyno’s Winternationals-winning 409 Bel Air be the car that inspired the Beach Boys to pen their April 1962 hit song “409”? There is no doubt that it had to have been a contributing factor. After winning the NHRA winter meet, Don was runner-up to Bill “Maverick” Golden at the AHRA Winter Nationals, turning a best of 12.87 at 112.50 mph. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

In the shadow of Don’s Mr. Stock Eliminator winning Bel Air were a pair of fuel-injected, 327-powered Chevy II’s. Both cars were plain 100 series models in Ermine White. There was little difference between the new for 1962 Factory Experimental category and 1961’s Optional Super Stock category, it was still meant as a place for the Detroit manufacturers to showcase their limited-production high-performance cars and parts. This category consisted of classes A, B, and C, and each class was based upon a weight to cubic-inch factor. A/FX consisted of cars weighing 8 pounds or less for every cubic inch. B/FX consisted of cars weighing between 9.00 and 12.99 pounds, and C/FX cars that weighed more than 13 pounds per cubic inch. Don won class with the wagon, turning a 12.55 at 108.96 mph. Although it wasn’t until late 1964 that Chevrolet released the V-8 Chevy II option to the general public, by early 1962 it did offer over-the-counter kits for the do-it-yourselfer. Don completed the swap on his Chevy II’s with the help of Bill Thomas, whose factory ties helped him procure parts before their general release. Don’s Chevy IIs were showroom models pulled directly from the dealer’s lot. The Corvette mill was factory rated at 360 hp and featured a .060 overbore, Jardine fenderwell headers, and was backed by a Borg-Warner transmission. Single-leaf rear springs with track bars harnessed the power. Because the 100 series wagon (with the 327) weighed nearly bang-on to the B/FX minimum, there was no need to remove excess weight. As an example, the wagon retained the rear seat, windshield wiper motor, and heater but the coolant hoses weren’t plumbed. All indications are that the sedan was built in the same manner.

Even more rare than Don’s Chevy II wagon was his A/FX Chevy II sedan, captured here at Motor City Dragway in Michigan. Don hauled all three of his 1962 cars to Atlanta when he relocated there in April 1962. Like the wagon, power came by way of a fuel-injected 327. A 1961 “SS” emblem is on the lower fender. It’s unknown what became of this car. (Photo Courtesy John Marsh)

A 360-hp Corvette mill propelled Don’s Chevy II wagon to B/FX honors at the Winternationals in 1962. Don Steves supplied the car, which was built with over-the-counter GM parts. Don’s Top Stock–winning Bel Air is on the left. (Photo Courtesy Nicholson Family Collection)

Earl Wade was showing success of his own at the winter meet. Previously, Wade had pulled wrenches for John Mazmanian, helping him win AA/MSP at the 1961 Winternationals with his Corvette. Mazmanian had bought the Corvette new at Porter Chevrolet in Pasadena and the first thing he did was drive it over to Service Chevrolet and let Wade and Nicholson have at it. At the 1962 Winternationals, Wade himself won Street Eliminator while driving the A/SP injected Corvette of Mike Lenke. In total, there were eight class winners at the 1962 meet that had visited the dyno at Service Chevrolet. At a huge Super Stock meet at Fontana late in February, Don defeated Hugh “Putzel” Osterman, driving the Grassman-Osterman-Wade-Nicholson (as the records show) Corvette. Dyno, exhibiting skills that would take him far, read the track and flagman to perfection, and he cleaned Osterman’s clock with a 12.87 at 112.35 mph to a trailing 13.24 at 109.22.

There was no way that the Chevy II’s original 8.2 rear end would hold up to the injected 327, so in went a full-size housing carrying 4:56 gears. Note the class-required exhaust system. Present but difficult to see here are the metallic brake linings, a coil-over shock on the right side only, and a long traction arm. Rear wheels were 15 inches while the fronts were the original 13-inch wheels. (Photo © TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

Don’s dyno tuning helped at least eight class winners at the 1962 NHRA Winternationals. One was this fuelie Corvette owned by Brendan Grassman. Hugh Osterman drove the B/Sport Production class winner to a best of 12.70 at the Winternationals and took class with a 13.23 at 106 mph. Here, Osterman faces the 421 Tempest owned by Mickey Thompson and driven by Hayden Proffitt. (Photo Courtesy Robert Genat)

Within a couple of months of winning the Winternationals, Don took up a job offer from Nalley Chevrolet in Atlanta, Georgia, to run its dyno and the dealer’s speed shop. The move was a bit of a no-brainer for Don, as he looked to make a living drag racing and there was no better place than in the southeast, home of the big-dollar match races. The added bonus was that Nalley was headquarters for the Southern Engineering and Development Company (SEDCO), a front for Chevrolet’s clandestine racing program. Don’s wife and daughter waited until the end of the school year, when Cindy finished kindergarten, before joining him for the summer.

In July 1962, Chevrolet celebrated its 50th year in production. To commemorate the special occasion, it produced a limited run of 20 409-powered aluminum-nose Impalas via the Central Office Production Order (COPO). Don received one to race at the NHRA Nationals. It’s believed that either Don or Dave Strickler received the first car produced. Powering the Impalas was the late-season 409 with the good Z11 parts. Due to its limited production numbers and heavier weight, the car fell into B/FX. In the class final, Don’s yellow Impala defeated Dave Strickler’s Old Reliable III with a 12.93 to a 12.96. It’s questionable as to whether Don drove the car at all after the Nationals, instead focusing his attention on the lighter and quicker Bel Air. Fellow racer Hubert Platt, who worked alongside Don at Nalley, is known to have driven the car after the Nationals, match racing it through the end of the season.

Dyno Don’s reputation only grew greater when he moved East in the spring of 1962 and took up residence at Nalley Chevrolet, Atlanta’s largest Chevrolet dealership. People came from hundreds of miles around to have Don dynotune their car. Nalley promised Don the run of the dealer’s speed shop/tune up shop as well as a race car, which came in the form of a Z11 Impala in 1963. (Author’s Collection)

Don also drove the Bel Air at the Nationals but failed to repeat the previous year’s showing. Hayden Proffitt took Top Stock, defeating the Ramchargers’ Jim Thornton in the final. In a Robert Genat interview, Don states that Proffitt won that race because he was running at shipping weight rather than curb weight; the difference was 3,440 pounds versus 3,620 pounds.

“They cut up the dashboard, cut out the bottoms of the ashtrays, and whatever to get the weight out.„

“It took us a while to catch on. That’s why Proffitt’s Bel Air car ran so good. Bill Thomas helped build that car. It was a frame-off. They cut up the dashboard, cut out the bottoms of the ashtrays, and whatever to get the weight out. I couldn’t believe the NHRA allowed them to get away with that [aluminum] dash. [Stock] those things are heavy with that big pot metal casting.”

Earl Wade and Dyno Don have reason to be all smiles as they pose proudly with the Bel Air at Vineland, New Jersey, in June 1962. The Chevy was rarely beaten. It was torn down because of official protest 18 different times in 1962; each time it was found to be legal. (Photo Courtesy Nicholson Family Collection)

Hubert Platt left Nalley at the end of 1962, quitting to become a full-time drag racer. Before doing so, he hauled Dyno’s 1962 Bel Air down to Tampa on November 22 for an eight-car Super Stock show and proceeded to clean house, defeating Dave Heath in Dyno’s old 1961 Chevy and Don Garlits, who made a rare appearance in his new 1963 Dodge, among others. It was Garlits who fell to Platt in the final as the Dodge proved to be no match for the well-tuned, bored, and stroked Chevy that recorded an 11.77. Jerry Jardine recalled a little trick that Dyno had performed on the match-race engine; he left the two front cylinders of the 409 at stock bore and stroke while all of the other cylinders were enlarged.

Even with the aluminum front clip dropping approximately 125 pounds, and without frills such as heater or radio, the 409 Impala still weighed in at close to 3,400 pounds. Reportedly, 18 to 20 of these “lightweights” were built; only two are known to remain. Backing the 409-hp mill was a Hurst-equipped BorgWarner 4-speed. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

“We built headers so that the way they were plumbed, it was nearly impossible to access the plugs for P & G measurement.” Topping the big-cubic-inch match-race mill were the late-season Z11 parts. In addition, the Bel Air received lightweight aluminum front-end panels. Ed Schartman, who came to work for Don in 1963, raced the Bel Air as late as the spring of 1964. Eventually, the well-worn and stripped car ran 10-second times.

The B/FX class final boiled down to the two fastest-running Chevy Impalas in the nation: Dyno Don’s and the Old Reliable III of Dave Strickler. Don took a slight holeshot lead and hammered through the 4-speed to take the win with a 12.39. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

Under darkening Indiana skies, the B/FX class final gets under way. While Strickler’s Impala carried Ermine White paint, Don’s Impala appears to wear GM Golden Yellow. Note the OEM steel wheels; aftermarket wheels were just coming into vogue in 1962 and still weren’t class legal. (Photo Courtesy Mike Strickler)

After the Nationals, Hubert Platt took over the controls of the Impala. Working alongside Don at Nalley, Platt had stated that “sometimes we’d drive each other’s cars.” Platt raced the Impala through the remainder of 1962 as the Bounty Hunter before getting a 1963 Z11 Chevy and striking out on his own. The 1962 was sold to a wealthy businessman in Atlanta, and its whereabouts today is unknown. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

Those Mopars back East had nothing on Don’s Chevy. Dyno’s move East in 1962 was based on economics. The West Coast–tracks were paying $25 war bonds (worth $17 according to Don) to the Stockers. In the East and the South, he could make $600 and up for a match race. Great money, considering maintenance on the car was next to nil. (Photo Courtesy Robert Genat)

At the NHRA Nationals in 1963, the aluminum front clip and Z11 engine parts put the Bel Air in B/FX. This photo was shot at the 500 Shopping Center in Indianapolis, where pre-race inspection was carried out. Cut rear coils and stiffer springs up front gave the Chevy its stance. Don used a stiffer coil spring on the left rear to help load the right side upon acceleration. (Photo Courtesy Jack Bleil)

Ken Simpson became the new owner of the Bel Air when Don finally parted with the car sometime in 1965. The historic piece was wrecked by its third owner in Alabama and was scrapped around 1974. The Chevy II wagon was sold and raced out of Florida for a couple season’s before disappearing. What became of the Chevy II sedan is still unknown.

Ken Simpson became the second owner of Don’s Bel Air, seen here in 1965. All indications are that Don last drove the car at the Nationals in 1963. By its third owner, the Chevy was wrecked; it was finally scrapped in 1974. (Author’s Collection)

Ed Schartman is caught coming hard off the line at Cecil County where, in the spring of 1964, the Chevy was competing in A/Modified Production. At this point, the Chevy was running Z11 parts and aluminum front body panels. Note the body relocation, long traction arm, added hood blister, and aluminum 1963 front bumper. (Photo Courtesy John Durand)