[Wichita-SCCA] Phrog sponsorship!
Greg Laws
GLaws at cox.net
Fri Oct 13 07:19:56 EDT 2006
Hi Lonnie,
What wonderful stories and memories! Your Uncle Gordon sounds like just the sort of Uncle that I should have had but didn't. Instead my immediate family was of the conservative, pillar-of-the-community type and the extended families on both sides lived far away in either Minnesota/Michigan or Oregon. The closest that I came to being related to anyone interesting was my cousin Terry Pease in Minnesota. He was (and is) a year older than I. In his mid-teen years he built a chopped & channeled early Ford with a flat head mill. He actually took me (the geeky, immature younger cousin from far away) for a ride in it once. I remember sitting flat on a bare plywood floor with no head room, no seats or seat belts, and a very stiff ride as the rear suspension consisted of a single coil spring cut in half with each half welded onto either end of the Chevy rear axle housing. No shock absorbers as I remember, but total suspension travel was only about 1/4" anyway so it didn't matter. The flathead V8 had a sound very different than anything that I had ever heard before and it pulled HARD in this crackerbox car that couldn't have weighed more than 1400 lbs. I was awed! Terry had left the useless 3-speed column shifter lever on the steering column while he actually shifted the 4-speed transmission with a floor shifter. The reason was that he had fun passing people at high speeds or engaging in top-end street races with the "shift lever" on the column pulled up into the 2nd gear position where his victim could easily see it. This gave the impression that he was still in 2nd and hadn't shifted to 3rd yet! Later on I heard that he wrecked the car while turning at an ordinary street corner when a single small bolt that apparently was securing the entire front split-wishbone suspension snapped off. His dad, a mechanical engineer and father of nine kids, just shrugged and said that it was a good learning experience for the boy. In spite of it all Terry went on to be a union pipe fitter and with an income considerably higher than I ever achieved he continued to pursue his love of drag racing with a beautiful 1953 Thames Panel Truck with blown Chrysler hemi, possibly on nitro. It runs in the low 7s I believe. I heard that he retired recently but still drag races. Haven't seen him in decades.
The other end of the spectrum was my dad, a college teacher and pillar of the community. He remains a warm, creative, interesting and supportive sort of fellow even at the age of 88 but he was never a car guy. His only new car was a sandy-tan 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne station wagon (a full sized car) with 283 2-bbl, PowerGlide and only minimum options. The highlight was air conditioning, considered to be a pricey option not purchased by most folks then. I learned to drive with this car. Later on it had several adventures in my hands that I have yet to tell my folks about, but I digress. In early 1964 when I was a high school junior he took me out on the highway to practice passing other cars. When I finally got enough nerve, and three miles clearance, to pass a lumbering truck I punched the throttle to the floor and it bogged its way out onto the highway in high gear (of two, low & high, in a PowerGlide). I wasn't the a storehouse of automotive knowledge that I am now but even then I knew that it was supposed to kick down into passing gear. I lifted and then kicked it again. The transmission dropped to low and the engine screamed as it quickly pulled to 70 mph. My dad freaked out! His foot slammed to the passenger floor searching for that imaginary brake pedal and he clamped one hand to the dash with the other to the door's arm rest. His body was stiff and braced. We safely got around the truck and he slowly recovered himself while I quickly and with some alarm explained to him about the presence of passing gear in a PowerGlide. He had owned the car for four years and had never known that it would do that!
Enjoy,
Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: Lonnie Heston
To: Wichita Region SCCA.
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Wichita-SCCA] Phrog sponsorship!
Yeah, Greg, I remember you mentioned the Nashville event. Pretty cool. I'm glad the Phrog is getting some help.
I was born in Memphis, and have (or had) a lot of relatives in the Nashville area.
My grandma made bathtub beer during prohibition, and still made some to sell afterward. The town my mom was born in is under one of the TVA lakes. They moved closer to Nashville about the time I was born, and when my uncles got back from serving in Korea, they got into various car business - junkyard and mechanic work - except one who became an FDA egg grader. Mostly they collected '50s Caddys. (The big Caddy got some kind of Safest Car of the Year award). I remember when my Uncle Jimmy got one in pretty good condition and asked me to find the gas filler. I couldn't, but now I know it's behind a hinged taillight. I also remember one that arrived at his salvage yard, no questions asked, no papers, '36 Cadillac V8 with large bullet holes. My uncle called it Capone, but wouldn't tell us any more. Last time I was there, it was still in his basement.
My Uncle Gordon once took me for a ride in his '60 Olds 88. It had a 390-something, and if you know what the Tennessee back hills country roads were like in the '60s - no shoulder, no side lines, and burma-shave signs for corner markers - an 80mph ride for several miles is quite a treat. My mom didn't like the way I was smiling when we got back and figured out something was up, so I didn't get to ride with him much. The ride did show me what big iron can do on a road course - for someone who grew up in '52 Chevys with a conservative dad driving - the g-forces were a huge thrill. A few months later Uncle Gordon had a six-pack before breakfast and wrapped the Olds around a tree. He wasn't hurt, and didn't care much because he won it playing cards. He eventually died of liver sclerosis.
Those were the days...
Lonnie
On 10/10/06, Greg Laws < GLaws at cox.net> wrote:
I am pleased to announce that the Phrog has a sponsor. "Sam the Mechanic" is Sam Stuckey from Halls Crossroads, TN. He is a sweet little guy who runs a small salvage yard / repair shop that specializes in Renault R9 and R11 spare parts plus GTA, Medallion, etc. I met him when my son-in-law and I made that wild trip to Nashville, TN in September, 2004. We met up with the Renault Owner's club and went to the Lane Motor Museum where we saw Sam Posey and the Caldwell D7 Can-Am car. Actually sat in it as a matter of fact. The same weekend we also ran the Phrog in a local solo event at the Nashville speedway.
Anyway, I gave Sam a ride in the Phrog at the local solo event and also gave him a collector's item of a wooden-rim race car steering wheel with a Renault center emblem. Ever since then Sam has been the Phrog's number one fan. Tonight I called him to send me a GTA transaxle to replace the one that I blew up at Strother Field. Sam offered to donate the transaxle free if I would pay the freight and put his name on the car as sponsor. Wow.
Look for a large yellow decal somewhere on the car proudly displaying the fact that "Sam the Mechanic" is a sponsor of the Phrog.
I've had help from Jim Caywood (owner of the now-defunct Autobody Specialists body shop), Auto Techs Frame & Body, and now from Sam Stuckey in Tennessee. Life is good when you own a Renault!
Enjoy,
Greg Laws
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