Joe Szabo

[Xplantdad]

That is so cool...Ken and Stefano...thanks for sharing...AWESOME!

[Stefano]

Ken,
Now that you provided the name I can see the old outline on the 1/4 panel "owners Joe Szabo & Ralph Richter".

There is a note on the aluminum dash panel, it says; "Think, is this trip absolutely necessary?"

[Chevy454]

That's hilarious, Stefano! Looks like old S/W guages? And was the bead rolled tin-work common back in the day? Is that something haning in the vacinity of where the rear view mirror used to be? Cool stuff...WAY out there for my tastes, but never a better time to learn!

[Stefano]

I'm not that up on these old race cars, but based on many that I have seen this one seems very advanced, IMO for the time. The bead rolled tin/aluminum is cutting edge. You caught the "Yenko" style SW gages. That pull handle where the rear view mirror would have been is for the parachute.

There is an aluminum water tank and electric pump in the trunk for its cooling system.

[kwhizz]

Wow.......Talk about memories.......Like I told Steve earlier......Ralph's family owned a machine shop around Southport and Addison and they bought one of the first Lakewood Scattershields that were made,when it was assembled to the block we found that the bore that located the trans was not concentric with the crankshaft......the assembled engine was set up on a boring mill and we bored the hole oversize and made a sleeve to center everything up........I also remember helping mount the fuel tank....we were also color co-ordinated at the track with pin striped Bell Bottoms and matching shirts ......I think the car survived better than the rest of the guy's........Danny Rush did most of the mechanical work on the car and the last time we were together was a year ago....the rest of the guy's I last had contact with in the early 70's...............I could go on and on......
Ken

[kwhizz]

Also ....Joe was friends with Austin Coil.....Austin at the time was a Chrysler mechanic and raced a gold Plymouth Hemi car......when he got involved with Farkonis and Minnick(that's another story)while they were building their first funny car we went over to Austins 2 car garage and watched him put the Chassis together....I remember they had the spindles chromed and when he tried to put them on they wouldn't fit because of the chrome buildup....And the rest is History.......

Ken

[Stefano]

Ken,
Do you remember what year Joe and Ralph bought the car, from the speed shop and what color it was before they had it painted?

[kwhizz]

Just from memory I'd say they bought it in 65......don't know about the color........

Ken

[Stefano]

Who was the speed shop and was it set up for a big block when they got it? Still 993 questions left to go.

[Casey Marks]

GREAT stuff guys !!!