I got started drag racing with my partner, Jack Zills, with a 1957 Chevy 210 2 dr. in 1969. It took us two years to build this car with just about no resources. We were no different that a lot of other racers who had only a lot of desire and no money. This was before bracket racing in our area. We wanted to go F/Modified Production racing which we thought was pretty cool. We had read about Ralph Ridgeway's '55 Chevy and decided that's what we wanted to do. The following pictures were taken the week after we had painted the car with paint that was given us. Jack, unfortunately, is not in these photos.
Our pal Joe Chevez (left) and myself (right). We thought we were big time racers.
Check out the tow vehicle
Poor racers flat towed
This was a 1960 283 +.060" (292) Chevy that had ported 461 heads and 12.5:1 squeeze. We used an Engle TR-60 roller cam that had a "big" lift of .520 inch. We used stock 327 rods w/ Mr. Gasket rod bolts. The headers were from Jere Stahl. The power ran through a Hayes clutch setup to an aluminum case Borg Warner T-10. This power went to a '57 Pontiac rear axle with 5.57 gears. My brother-in-law, Ken Sanders, did all the welding we needed. He made the oil pan, the hood scoop, the clutch linkage, the seat brackets, and those wild valve cover breathers. 28 years later he was still doing my welding. We shifted this thing at 8,000 RPM. The only reason we didn't blow the rods out of it is because we didn't race it very long. We never got close to the 11.57 record, 12 flat was as fast as it went.
