Can't Be Done. On 2nd Thought, Maybe It Can Part 3

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