55 210 Gasser Barn Find
 

My uncle built this car with his dad back in '66 and raced it in E/Gas at Osceola Dragway and US131 Dragway for a year or so before selling it to build an Anglia. Several months ago one of his friends called him and told him there was a photo of his old gasser on a website and the owner was looking for history on the car. The car had been stored in a barn near Three Rivers MI for over 50 years. The long-time owner had recently died and the estate sold the car. My uncle had been told years ago that the car was destroyed in a racing accident and didn't know it was around anymore. Anyway, he contacted the current owner and went up to look and it and gave the owner some vintage pictures of it. Several weeks later he got a call from the current owner who offered to sell it back to him, so he bought it back. It was really dirty and had apparently been serving as a home for squirrels and mice. After spending some time cleaning it up it doesn't look as bad as he thought it was. It still has the Poppy Red paintjob that was on it 60 years ago, although some of the lettering has been painted over. At some point in time the Grump Lump was added, the rear quarters were radiused and the 3-point roll bar was replaced by a crude 6-point cage. The plan is to return it to how it looked when he had it back in '66 but make it street legal so he can drive it.

That right there represents my early teenage dreams, like this one I built about 1964.

So cool that your Uncle got it back in great condition!! :beers:

The door panel would suggest it originally had a DelRay interior too.

Congrats!! And thank you for all the great pix you post here!!

Very cool car and story. I love it !

Fantastic story! Congratulations to your uncle....

What a great story and one SUPER cool race car.

Congrats!!!!


Paul

Pretty cool car. I've been looking for one of those Moroso hood scoops for my Camaro.

very cool and good to get it back. Also, that roll bar is not as crude as you say. Its tied to the frame on both ends which is a lot better than many which were merely welded on or bolted to the floor .

That is great and yes, thank you so much for all your picture posts and narratives.

So cool!!! Great story!!

Awesome!

----Love Tri-Five gassers, especially 55 DelRay 2-door posts with the two tone black and white interior! This one is very cool....Bill S

congrats on the car -

That's really cool it came back around! Post some pictures of it's early life please!

I'll have to take pictures of the pictures he showed me. It looks the same as it did back then with the exception of the scoop, enlarged rear wheel wells and the roll cage. It also had Love & Love painted on the doors. He even showed me a receipt he still has for the American Racing front wheels.

One of his friends posted these on Facebook. He showed me a whole envelope full of pictures of it when I was at his house on Sunday. He was more interested in me taking some as found pictures of it before they start working on it.

Awesome ending and plan for the car. Best of luck and keep us posted!

Subscribed big time!
.....that '63 Impala looks worked, but I pulled a 3500lb boat with mine back in the day, a 283 2 barrel, glide.

Nice ending to the story. BUT that is NOT a "GRUMP LUMP" hood scoop. That is a "MOPAR" hood scope on the car. GRUMP LUMP only had the opening in the front on the bottom of the front scoop.

Very cool story!

Great pictures!!!! So cool!!!

this car, is in it's original form is so representative of what neighborhood guys actually raced back in the day. No hogged out wheelwells, whitewalls, a-arms still in place and a small hood scoop. I dig the red painted drums in back and simple lettering. Love it.

Very, very cool.

So, did the car have a 283 ci engine when it was raced? What did it run in the 1/4 mile?
In one of the pics, does the right front fender look like it says 283?

----I noticed that the 55 has a tilt front clip in the 1st set of pics, but the in the last pics the hood and fenders are still on the car. wish it was still like it was in the early pics as it is very cool!....Bill S

I believe it had a 283 in it with dual fours. His friend has a hot 283 that they plan to put in it and my uncle showed me an aluminum intake with dual fours that he is going to put on it. He had a three-point roll bar in it, but he said it wasn't fast enough to need a roll bar legally. He didn't say what it ran in the 1/4. I think he only raced it for two years before he sold it. He would have been in his early 20's at the time.

He had that fiberglass frontend made for it. It is well built and has inner fenders. It has the fiberglass frontend in the black and white photo. The two color photos in the second set of pictures are how it was when he first started racing it. He said he didn't pull it with the 63 Impala for very long. The black and white photo was taken later. By then it had the fiberglass frontend, the front suspension had been raised up, it had the Moon tank on the front, and it had the fender well headers on it.