Monday, March 15, 2021

great title "Black Whirlwind" and great claim "never beaten"



https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/nhra-junior-stock.201085/page-492#post-12989735

7 comments:

  1. I wonder if that is Douglas GA's (outside ATL GA) Anderson Pontiac?

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  2. No, it was Bill Knafel's Anderson Pontiac Akron, Ohio. A good friend, the late Bill Whittier from Apple Creek, OH bought it after Andersons were finished campaigning it. Bill drove the car in the street after changing the cast aluminum header to steel (because they would melt). Car had an aluminum front bumper & other trick factory stuff. He sold in '6 when he got married. I raced Bill's '60 Pontiac Ventura in NHRA competition in the late 60's.

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    1. aluminum headers? I don't think I've heard of those before... dang! Learning never stops! Thanks!

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    2. Yes, the Super-Duty 421 race engines had them.

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    3. Pictured in the photo are the late Arlen Vanke on the right (Hall of Fame Drag Racer) and Bill Knafel (dealership owner). Pontiac used cast aluminum headers/exhaust manifolds on their Super-Duty drag race cars.

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  3. C/SA wouldn't be a SD 421, therefor it wouldn't have aluminum exhaust manifolds.

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    1. wouldn't it have whatever the owner or crew chief put on it that would give an advantage? It's not a Pebble Beach concours, this was 1962... I expect that when painted the same as the iron manifolds that no one was bothering to use a magnet to check before allowing it to race

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