Mazmanian Willys at AMT

Photo session after AMT signed  a contract with John Mazmanian to build the model of this car.
Who: My lovely wife Charlene, me, & Jimmy Spar (younger brother to Bob & Don Spar, owners of B&M). Jimmy went on to become a very accomplished psychiatrist, something like the head of the UCLA psychiatric department?

This car was my first real experience with a Chrysler. I defeated this car, driven by Bones Balough, with my Olds powered 28 roadster at the Bakersfield Smokers meet in March of 64. (see photos) Bones built the engines and did a great job at it, he worked for Isky and ran the dyno. He had a lot of Gasser experience.  One of those guys I have a lot of respect for. A week or two following the Bakersfield meet Bones and John parted company and I got hired as the driver and trailer builder. I was strictly an Oldsmobile, Engle cam  guy, and knew very little, strike that, nothing about Chryslers. Dave Zeuschel was hired to build the engines with Dick Harryman as the tuner. Dave Zeuschel was a great engine builder, especially for Top Fuel and Top Gas dragsters, and this was one of his first attempts at a gasser engine. Let the learning curve begin, for all of us.

We were in Detroit for a match race at Detroit Dragway (don’t remember who with, possibly K.S. Pittman). The week following the match race we installed a brand spanking new 467” engine built by Dave for John and trucked to Detroit, getting ready for the Indy Nationals.  The car didn’t run good enough at Indy and I got beat by Doug Cook so Dave & I got fired shortly after with Dick Harryman taking over driving and tuning. He didn’t last very long and was replaced by Dick Bourgeois.  I drove for John from six months, learned a lot, but never did get the Willys in the winners circle at a major event.

I have a great story about a couple of dinners in Detroit but need a lot of space and time to cover it. (stay tuned as I’ll update this later)