Thanks for sharing this
We built more than 2 SOHC cars, and the man who did all of the front clip and chassis work is Bruce Eikelberger and we worked together a lot. He is still building in a shop out here by the way, for celebrities and so on. He would not re do one of these for anybody but we talked about it. He and I may do a few more. We did a lot of fun stuff.
He said...I could re do one in my sleep. I did some too, with him, you make special upper a arms, flip the inner fender panels, add perches. We had fixtures and patterns, look close at the pictures, they are cool parts.
You want to laugh,,,,,,that roll bar in Platt's car was a first,,,,,NHRA just made them mandatory in that era. Key fatal crashes played a part. Bruce recalls, that was the first year that we HAD to also add a roll bar.
Bruce built a few SOHC Comets and other Mustangs. Some real famous stuff that we may do an article about.
He built Larry Knapps' SOHC Mustang at the same time, I was there then. It is in some FORD Drag Team promotional literature that Bill Stroppe Jr has and which I remember. We are all happy to still see that car, from way back when, still going 9-0's or there abouts. It'll go faster.
We just did a visit concerning the other HMS SOHC cars and he recalls 8 more, and Hi Riser cars, more later. We did a lot of Drag Team work at HMS, we were just real quiet about it.
I have a whole bunch of Dyno Sheets from that era and found the Super Stock build sheets and specs recently, fun. Dyno Don was my favorite, he was up there plenty and we became good friends. He is very much missed. His SOHC Crew Chief and I also worked together, and we still talk often. He is retired on the ocean, did well. The stories about Don's SOHC Maverick's are so fun. That builder is still with us too.
That car hauler was in and out all of the time too, more stories for some day. We still have the Red one for the 64 High Riser Stock Cars shown in the Merc promotion materials. It pulled Drag cars too. It is at our shop. Hidden.
The intakes were short batch, Buddy Bar. Ford could get a lot out of that foundry, they were very helpful. As you know, the Weber intakes served as the base of some Drag Intakes too. Injector manifolds got adapted on others. I have access to examples but they have history and are not for sale, basically.
I knew were the patterns were for this intake and we went to dig them out. They had been ruined over time,
That is one thing we were lucky to have. A nice budget, to prototype short runs, cast them, machine them,,,,by hand with fixtures, dyno them, hand them out, then see who got what.
I have vivid memories or trick prototype parts getting on a truck back to Detroit, who spec'd them , and then their trick stuff coming off the truck for sponsored racers out here. Same deal with parts from race team 1,2,3.
The big deal was engine sponsorship. Without dropping more names, one Ford AFX Comet had a stack of spare heads that you could hardly count. About 8 feet wide, and about 4 feet high, plus a row of blocks
The top teams used the stuff for one or two races, then handed those parts to second tier teams.
For example, the Chrisman nitro SOHCs handed used parts to another neighbor, Dee Keaton. His Crew Chief is still in our shop and has a load of great SOHC Drag Team stories
We just lost Dee Keaton, rest his fine, fearless, fast soul. He had one fast nitro SOHC Comet then Cougar. They announced his name at the Re Union recently. RIP
My all time SOHC Ford backed race cars are easy,,,,,,Tommy Grove,,,,,his SOHC Funny cars were legend, epic and awesome. He is a true Ford hero to me and many more. His Going Thing Funny Car was so fast, and he had no fear at all.......none. He ran a SOHC on Fuel for 6 months and never took the heads off,,,,try that. They were a LOT tougher than many guys thought because they didn't know the tricks and blew them up.
Other favorites
Kalitta's Top Fuel cars.......Bruce, above, crewed for him a lot when he was out West... I recall his engine on our dynos. Look at his cowl on the Dragster, he has our red Holman Moody Stroppe decals, they are a red oval. I gave him a surviving pair a while back and he had the biggest grin.......
He told me,,,tell Bobby, I still have his tool chest I borrowed,,,that is funny... I told him, remember that worn our chassis you left up there, he says yes, I said, they cut it up and made Go Karts for the shop, we had races at lunch,,,He laughed
Other classic SOHCs to me,,,,
Prudhomme's Super Snake.....I saw that car run so many times, I have a picture of it in my home,,,,,one of them is coming back as we speak.....with a iron Pond block and aluminum heads.
Pete Robinson's Tinker Toy...he was awesome...Ford loved how he was always engineering race parts....you know, we built SOHC gear drives too. They were too expensive but tough. We upgraded to chrome moly chains....special run...
And Dyno Don's SOHC Mavericks....they were awesome awesome awesome.....and he loved to talk about them decades later.....
You know, you moved the cams between rounds some times,,,,,and the spread was one of a few tricks...so was having dis -similar cams
I just found some match race flyers we made for Dyno..., when he had his Nitro Comet......he laughed so hard when I gave him one in the 90s....it was a best of 3 race against Stone Woods and Cook. Maybe we should make a T Shirt or copies, we'll see
His back up car is coming back,,,,how neat.
Thanks guys
And of course thanks Jay for all that you do for so many of us
