Dave MacDonald and team owner Jim Simpson collaborated with legendary car builder Max Balchowsky (Old Yeller fame) to create a custom one-off lightweight undersized Corvette racer called the Corvette Special / Old Yeller X.

In September of 1961 MacDonald and sponsor, Jim Simpson, got together with famed “Old Yeller” builder and racer, Max Balchowsky.

 They set out to build a lightweight custom one-off Corvette. They started with one of Max’s 95-pound tube frame chassis, then made a mold of a stock ’61 Corvette body to use as a template. Then they poured a lightweight razor thin 1/16” fiberglass shell. 

After cutting the shell in two they went to work shaving and shaping until it was seventeen inches shorter, five inches narrower and four inches shorter in height than a stock Corvette. The entire headlight assembly was also molded into the fiberglass shell for additional weight savings. 

The finished car weighed just 1750 pounds — 1,200 pounds lighter than a stock Corvette

MacDonald entered 20 races in '61, taking 13 victories and three Second Place finishes. His last win of the year was in his lightweight, tube-frame Corvette Special. But 1962 was the year the spotlight really shined on MacDonald. While he didn't dominate the season, he did finish on the podium in 16 races, including 10 victories.

https://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery/closeups/corvettespecial2a.htm

https://www.facebook.com/groups/527146584145263

https://www.motortrend.com/features/vemp-1204-dave-macdonald-chevy-corvette-lengends/

http://www.corvettereport.com/vette-videos-the-great-dave-macdonald-in-action/

https://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1961/Del_Mar-1961-12-10-0000.jpg

https://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/known-for-his-cobra-wins-dave-macdonald-was-actually-a-corvette-guy/

In 1960 alone, its second year of competition, Old Yeller II was piloted by Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney, Bob Bondurant, and sports-car racing specialist Billy Krause.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-short-story-of-the-long-tail-of-the-hot-rod-that-beat-ferraris

Things I did not know, but just learned category, Max Balchowsky had served in WW2 as a B-24 belly turret gunner (thanks Kim! )

 

Max Balchowsky was born and raised in Fairmont, West Virginia. 

 His early training in mechanical engineering came when he worked in watch repair and bicycle shops at a young age.

 He served in World War II as a B-24 belly turret gunner in the European campaign and following injuries incurred while bailing out, served in the Burma campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Balchowsky

https://silodrome.com/documentary-max-balchowsky-story/

I've learned a little about Max, due to the fantastic innovations in constructing the Ol Yaller race cars... but nothing I'd read until now mentioned his time in WW2, so I looked at the first thing that popped up on Google, and it also mentioned the above, watch repair and bike shops. Huh! 

During World War II Balchowsky was a belly gunner in the turret of a B-24 Liberator. On a mission over Europe his bomber was .hit so hard by fighters and flack the crew had to abandon her. Making it as far back as France Balchowsky, wounded, was forced with the rest of the crew to bail out, France being friendly territory, thus avoiding possible capture by the enemy. Following a short recuperation period and regardless of his number of missions in Europe he was sent to the China-Burma-India theater, more specifically Burma. It was in the CBI where he finally finished out the war mainly participating in low-level bombing runs just like the Flying Tigers and the Fujiyama Foo-Foo only from an Army Air Force B-24 on Japanese ships not far from Haiphong Harbor and Hanoi in the Gulf of Tonkin right off the coast of Vietnam.

http://the-wanderling.com/chennault02.html

Google books has World War II Veterans in Motorsports By Art Evans

as refined a race car as anything from European manufacturers, Max Balchowsky's Ol' Yaller garage built cars were ugly, but splendid, race cars

running ahead of a Porsche Spyder

Chasing down a Ferrari Testarossa

How did the racing elite not realize they ought to have paid Max to build them a race car, instead of sending their money to Italy or Germany?

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/rarely-seen-vintage-photos-southern-california-road-racing-1950s-1960s/

1959 Old Yeller II at Goodwood 2013, with white walls. Ever wonder why there are whitewalls on this dominating innovative race car?

Max Balchowsky was one of first using a Durometer to check softness, and when studying tires found that the softest compound and happened to be Goodyear whitewalls that were made for station wagons.

Everyone was using hard tires worrying about "blowouts" in the 200 mile races of the day, but didn't have the traction for cornering that Max wanted.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/808547945893612/permalink/1699133900168341/

a legend, a mutt, and a winning race car that slapped around Ferraris and called them it's bitch (mutt, bitch, get it?) (These are the funny ones folks, tip your waitress)

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_106204-Balchowsky-Ol--Yaller.html

A rather ungainly machine, it featured a wide variety of components including an old Coca-Cola sign. Balchowsky was well aware that his new racer looked like and very much was a 'junkyard dog' so he painted it yellow and named it 'Old Yeller' after the famous hound in the Disney movie by the same name. On the insistence of Disney, he later renamed the cars 'Old Yaller'.

The car won its first race by a margin of 13 seconds. Against an even stronger field, which included Phil Hill in a big Ferrari, Hauser scored back to back wins a few months later. Balchowsky also took turns behind the wheel of his creation. His greatest victory came at the 1958 Santa Barbara Labour Day races where he beat Richie Ginther in a Ferrari 250 TR.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/5400/Balchowsky-Old-Yeller-II.html

and it was used as the camera car in Herbie the Love Bug http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Max%20Balchowsky

1950 racing specials, including Old Yeller II

Six 1950s Specials all in a row. 1959 Old Yeller II,
1934 GMC truck-engined Tatum Special,
the 1949 Baldwin Special, powered by a flathead Mecury V8,
Bernard Juchli's 1955 Jaguar-powered Hagemann Special,
the 1949 Parkinson Special, also Jaguar powered,
and the 1952 Streets Manning Special: powered by another flathead Mercury V8.

Found on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tams-Old-Race-Car-Site/286135204869

I just learned that Max Bulchowsky used ol Yaller IV as a camera car in Herbie the Love Bug in 68

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/?fref=nf

From the movie Spinout, an Elvis movie

his character is a race car driver and musician. Natch. His driver is a 1929 Duesenburg Model J, it tows his Shelby AC Cobra 427

ove of several love interests for his character is the daughter of a rich guy, a very spoiled rich girl, and her daily driver is this nice Ferrari 250 GT

her dad has a race car business, and the gold car is the one he want's Elvis's character to drive in some big race

1965 McLaren

this blue car, oh nothing special. Just Max Balshowsky's Old Yaller mk IV

there are a half dozen cool cars in the race, not easy to get decent screen grabs of them though

the orange car, it's Bill Thomas's Cheetah 2

This movie featured CSX3002, 3011 and 3012 (427 competition Cobras), as well as CSX2203 and 2431 (289 Cobras)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/321577158048111/?fref=nf

Max Balchowsky's ol Yeller 7, 1961. (chassis tag on the next to last photo)

From left, Old Yeller IX, Old Yeller VIII, Old Yeller VII, and Old Yeller II. (Photo from Reagan Rulau) / information and photo from http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/MaxBalchowsky4.html


from Ron Cummings: "Old Yeller VII was sold as a bare rolling chassis to Don Kirby, a driver in northern New York state. He installed some sort of a body and a Chevrolet motor. The car was raced in east coast events as "Old Yeller VII". Max, at the time, claimed no knowledge of the car because it was sold only as a chassis.

 According to Reagan Rulau, Brock Yates and some friends later installed an Ambro plastic body that looks like a Birdcage Maserati. The car now races in that configuration."

 Ron Cummings located this ad for "Old Yaller VII". It appeared in Competition Press Oct. 27, 1962 Vol. 9 No. 8: "OLD YALLER Mk 7. Latest car built by Max Balchowsky. Corvette 327 fuel-injected engine completely rebuilt. New paint, concours con- dition, over $8000 invested. Don Kirby, Dreamland Park, Rochester 22, N. Y."

If you aren't familiar with why I'm a big fan of Max Balchowski, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/max-balchowsky-creator-of-old-yaller.html

where can you find Andy Granatelli, Bill Hickman, Bud Ekins, and a Max Balchowski prepped race car? In the Love Bug

The opening credits are over about 2 minutes of figure 8 races, and maybe circle dirt track races. How is that not cool?

reminds me why there aren't many 1950's cars around. a lot were demolished in races

driving in the movie were Bud Ekins, maybe best known for Steve McQueen stunt doubling... Bill Hickman for driving the black Charger in Bullitt... Max Bulchowsky for making a race car from junkyard parts and beating Ferraris, plus having a race car repair and tune up shop that was in Beverly Hills that Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Von Dutch hung out at.  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0049590/
You've never heard of Jesse Wayne, but he was a stunt man in every cool show there ever was in the 60's, 70's, and 80's... and was Mickey Rooney's and Mel Brooks stunt double too http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0915586/

the Riverside International Automotive Museum, not easy to find, but worth the time to tour

 the museum owns, and restores as well as repairs race cars.  This is the famous Gurney Eagle

 I'll go back and get better photos of the race cars one day, but the lesson you can get from looking at them is how fast design changed after the 70's. Not much is different pre 1960's from decade to decade, but as soon as wings and downforce came into play, a lot changed quick

 Above is a Vector. There were a couple of movies that had them featured... they were made in So Cal, but it wasn't a good business plan, they made them of expensive materials in some ways, liek carbon fiber, but the windows can't open, the interior is really cheap GM stuff like switches etc... and half way through building them, they could no longer get the engines they'd been using and switched to Lamborghini engines

 Tamerlane Thoughts blogspot toured here a year or two ago, and did a much better post about this collection of Maserati, the largest in So Cal I have no doubt

 Ol Yeller 3 ahead of the Cobras and european cars

 Great photos sometimes have great stories... like the above... that is a fridge or bbq grill... in place of the window netting you might be used to seeing. McCluskey arrived at the racetrack to learn that he'd be required to have some form of restraining material in the window... so he went and found what you see above, and put in it in time for the race. I love racing stories.

 Here is what driving to it looks like, that dead end above, well don't go that far. Take the left turn

 Past this building labeled 833

 Past this one labeled 815... it and the previous 833 will be on your right, as well as the museum below, and it blends into the surrounding builds really well. Why the camoflage? Don't know.

http://www.riversideinternational.org/