Thanks for checking back with us on this last installment of our 3-part series where we take a look at certain people and the now-famous results they produced when someone else told them,
"Sorry... that can't be done." However, instead of focusing on a particular automotive dealership personality, this week we'll be focusing on three famous drag strip drivers and certain distinct aspects in relation to their careers.
The first two drag racing personalities need no introduction; Shirley Shahan and Malcolm Durham. Both drivers got their start in the mid-50's, except Shahan started as a spectator when her husband H.L. was involved as a driver with gas coupes, super stocks, and dragsters, as well as being a top mechanic. During an interview in December 1965, she said her start in racing was very simple; it was either go with him or stay home. Very soon after, she became interested in the sport and learned to drive competitively. By 1958, H.L. realized that Shirley was a much better driver than he was when they entered 50 drag races that year and she won them all.
By 1965, Shirley and H.L. wanted to take on a higher rung in the drag racing profession. With some financial backing from Chrysler, they purchased a Plymouth super stock. The story goes, it was around this time that she picked up the nickname, "Drag-On Lady" from a Chrysler public relations manager and would use that moniker throughout her career. By the next year, she became the first woman to win a major NHRA event - the 1966 Winternationals. The Shahans drove the super stock Plymouth and then a Hemi powered Dodge Dart over the course of several seasons winning numerous super stock crowns as well as fuel-injected match races.
While Shahan attained a good deal of success driving for Chrysler, by the early 70's she arguably became the most famous quarter mile driver for American Motors piloting an AMX S/S, as well as a Gremlin and Hornet after the couple was approached in early 1969 by AMC in an effort to jump-start the Kenosha Wisconsin manufacturer's image. It was another step forward in Shirley's career where she blew away the stereo-types as well as her competition.
The 1960's were also a time for breaking down barriers in regards to race. One of drag racing's first well known African-American drivers / mechanics was Malcolm Durham. Like Shahan, he got his start in racing in the mid-50's and by 1958 was winning regularly in the Washington D.C. area. By the early 60's, he was a mechanic for D.C. Hicks Chevrolet in Washington and drove the first 1963 Chevy Z-11 available in the area. That vehicle adorned the first of the "Strip Blazer" name that would grace numerous vehicles over the next decade. By the beginning of 1964, Durham became known as one of the best match-race drivers on the east coast.
When Chevrolet (and GM as a whole) dropped out of drag racing suddenly during the 1964 model year, Durham took the successful Z-11 engine he used in his 1963 Impala and stuffed it between the fenders of a new 1964 Chevelle. In a 1968 interview with Super Stock magazine, he said that race car, dubbed the Strip Blazer II, was his answer to the Ford Thunderbolt and competed in the A/FX class that the NHRA had to create to accommodate the flood of altered wheelbase vehicles. He gained national attention when he started beating the likes of Sox & Martin, Bill Jenkins, and Dave Strickler. He wasn't just a great driver - he used his mechanical know-how to creatively rework the Chevelle that included things like an 8-inch engine setback that went undetected by just about everyone.
By the late 60's, he helped break the 200-mph funny car speed barrier and was running deep into 7-second quarter mile times. He returned to the Pro Stock ranks by the mid 70's, until he got out of racing for a while so his son could attend college. He returned briefly in 1984 with a Pro Stock Camaro, but after a crash in 1985 in Rockingham, he officially retired. In 2001, he was recognized as one of the top-50 NHRA drivers of all time. Today, Malcolm Durham can often be seen with other professionals at nostalgic drag racing events.
Dick Harrell got his start in high performance & driving in the early 50's. After a tour of duty in
Korea, he returned stateside to the Carlsbad New Mexico area where his family owned a dairy
farm. He ran a ‘56 Chevy while earning money working in
the local potash mines and as a garage mechanic to keep his love for the
competitive sport of drag racing alive. On weekends, he would drive
his car 165 miles to El Paso, Texas or 280 miles to Amarillo to compete. By 1961, Dick began to travel across the Southwest, racing a
factory-backed 409 Chevrolet where he won almost every regional race in a
three-state area. By 1965, Harrell's driving abilities caught the attention of Nickey Chevrolet based out of Chicago. In 1966, Harrell piloted an altered wheelbase Hilborn-injected 427 big block Chevy II and was hailed as one of the sport’s top attractions.
By 1968, Herb Fox, an employee of Fred Gibb Chevrolet
in LaHarpe, Illinois, met Dick Harrell and formed a business association that would evolve and prove to be beneficial to both Gibbs and Harrell. That same year, Harrell moved his shop from New Mexico to Kansas City, Missouri. His shop specialized in converting and modifying Camaros, Chevelles, and the
newly introduced Big Block Nova. All of these vehicles could be purchased through
Harrell's dealership (among other Chevy dealers) with a 427 cubic inch engine with
modifications up to 500 horsepower. Another first for Harrell was
building and converting some 427 powered Novas with a special
competition 3-speed automatic transmission.
This is where our story takes a turn - to the extremely rare and brutal 1968 Harrell-built 427 Chevy Novas. Fred Gibb realized Chevrolet was doing a good job in NHRA drag racing, holding
it's own in the competition against both Ford and Chrysler with the stick
shift classes, but only Ford and Chrysler were the main competition in
the automatic classes. The car chosen to overcome this problem was the newly introduced L-78 396 big block Nova.
The transmission would be a completely re-designed Turbo Hydramatric 400
for competition purposes. Fifty cars were built for Gibb in the first two weeks of July 1968. Gibb kept one of these cars for himself to race. He began advertising
the rest of them and sold several through his dealership. However, Dick Harrell
would get some of these Novas for upgrades and 427 conversions, to be sold
through the network of Chevrolet Dealers he had established. This is how
some of these Gibb COPO cars wound up being Harrell built COPO Novas. Confused yet?
Regardless of how these muscle cars came down the pike, Harrell-built 427 SS Novas had a reputation of being faster and more brutal than other COPO vehicles offered through Yenko, Nickey, Dana, or even Gibb Chevrolet. Former Harrell technician Dave Libby remembers these cars. Looking back in hindsight, Libby mentioned that building and selling these Novas was ...
"probably not the brightest idea on the planet. They were brutally fast." Libby also went on to say, in almost all cases, the cars were modified further beyond the COPO specs outlined by GM.
"One Tripoli Turquoise Nova has an L-88 short block in it, another dark blue model has a Bill Thomas 505 cam and other internal modifications. These Novas left the Harrell dealership in excess of 600 horsepower." Bill Thomas himself, who owned and ran the largest Chevrolet mail-order parts dealership in the country during that time when linked up with Nickey Chevrolet, even had the chance to test drive one of Harrell's Novas in the fall of 1968;
"The one I drove was Matador Red, had headers, a 950 Holley, and other mods. The results kinda tore your head off..."
Ah, the late 1960's... times like these will never be repeated.
Until next time, peace out.
Dave
If you're old enough to remember the sixties and/or the early seventies, and you were under the age of twelve at any point during that time frame, can you recall anything cool but dangerous - let me clarify; what is considered "dangerous" in today's society - that you experienced in an automobile? One example that came to mind recently, I was going through some old photos taken back around 1970 (note: not the one on left) when I lived in northern New Jersey. We had a cool neighbor named Jerry that lived
down the street who had a 1962 Chevy C-10 (he also had a 1957 Chevy that he built into an altered wheelbase drag car - that's why he was cool). With the company of his wife and about 8-10 kids from our block piled in the bed of the truck, we all trekked the mile or so almost every Sunday evening in the summer to go down to the local ice cream stand. Jerry drove - his wife Louise, tried to keep some resemblance of order. We all just laughed. Other neighbors used to wave at all of us as we cruised by. We thought nothing of it. Were we crazy, or was it a safer time with less cars and maniacs on the road, or were we just plain stupid? Try the kids in the pickup bed today, someone will call 9-1-1 on you and if you're caught, you'll probably end up doing jail time.
This also got me to thinking, just how on Earth did we survive as kids, or taking it further, how did people in general survive some of the muscle car offerings during this era as well as the heroes of drag racing when they got their start back in the 1950's? Another example from my childhood, was the 1967 Dodge Dart my Aunt Bea owned. It was a snazzy 2-door GT model with a 273 small block V-8 and bucket seats. Ah, those seats - not only were they vinyl, but they had these metal medallions sewn into the seats smack dab in the middle of where one would sit. In the summer time, the hot vinyl would burn your legs, but those medallions were like branding irons. It didn't matter that the car had A/C or if the windows were rolled down. The damage would already be done.
Do I miss the old days? Yeah, sometimes I do. But I also realize the advances that we've made in the automotive world, not just in the arenas of muscle cars, drag racing, and speed parts. While I'll be the first to admit that you should turn in your drivers license and car keys if you think GM's new option for some 2017 models dubbed the "rear seat reminder" is the best thing since sliced bread. This is a message that will appear on the dash accompanied by an audible alarm reminding you to check the vehicle's rear seat so as not to leave your kids or dog in a stifling hot car. However, two years ago, I was following a co-worker one time when we both worked for a fleet vehicle company and a new Subaru cut him off at a plaza entrance leaving him no time to stop in the brand new Toyota Avalon he was driving and thus broad-siding the Subaru at 40 mph. All the air bags went off in both cars and both drivers walked away from the accident without a bruise or a scratch. That's saying something. Fifty years ago, both would have probably died, or at minimum, severely injured. Time marches on - and there is good in this modern stuff we call technology.
