He was shocked. I later became pals with a lot of Chicago's finest. In the next few years, I tuned many of their Chevys and Mopars. I still am friends with many to this very day through our life-long love of super Chevys. I cannot divulge the street racing cop's name. Word was, no one had ever outrun his '56. I promised I would never tell. Well, you win some and you lose some. I have not talked to him since 1966. I hope he is still around. He learned how easy it is to get your fanny handed to you.
A month later during the Christmas holiday, a guy in a maroon 19631/2 425hp 427 Ford Galaxie was after me. The weather was cold, but there was no snow on the ground. To be honest, I did not think my 12.80 - 12.90 e.t. '62 could beat his big, bad '631/2 427. I figured my '62 could run mid 13s through the mufflers on the Bucron tires. A friend of mine had a similar Ford with 4.10:1 gears and the ashtray used to rocket out of the dash and onto the front bench seat on every 1-2 powershift. The glovebox door would also bang open.
Well, on a Saturday night, he was waiting outside a rock 'n' roll dance place. It was out in the boonies on a four-lane country road. I was with two pals: 6'3", 295-pound Bill Smith and 6'2", 225-pound Wayne Seitman. I was 6'5",190 pounds. Well, with 520 extra pounds on board, I fully expected to get dusted. But guess who won? After five runs, my 409 was 5 wins and 0 losses. Each win was by about three feet-per-gear. The '62 ever so slightly pulled away. I figured he probably had a 3.55:1 gear. I later heard he traded his Ford on a little MGA sporty car. When the word got around town that my '62 409 dusted this '631/2 427 no one ever challenged me when I was home-and that was good. I never liked street racing. Neither did the area cops, all of whom I got along with great. My '62 was then garaged again.
Early 1965
I drove another beater (this time a $35 '49 Ford four-door flathead with four snow tires) in college. I even painted it brown with a paintbrush. From reading the championship-winning 409 stories, I pulled the '62's engine over a weekend in April at a friend's machine shop. I thought the '62 409 SS would make a great C/Stock or D/Stock NADS/UDRA class car. Rules were different than NHRA. Over a few months, I installed 12.5:1 forged pistons-first an Isky, then a Sig Erson 990B camshaft, a Du-Coil ignition with a new space-age spark amplifier, Mondello ported heads, and Doug's fenderwell tri-Y headers.
All my many prior super-tuning and college jobs paid for the parts. I remember that the total rebuild was not much over $500-$600. The clutch assembly was a 15-pound aluminum flywheel with a special E&R pressure plate and disc. My recap slicks were 12 inches wide. I had to install them deflated, then pump them up with a portable air tank. Once inflated, there were no clearance problems. I also ran 90/10 front shocks (no front anti-roll bar) and Air Lift airbags in the rear. Without the airbags, I could snap an axle in 10 runs or less (usually the left axle). With the airbags, I could go 15-to-20 runs. Used axles with straight splines were $1.00 each.
When the car did not break an axle, it was undefeated in class in 1965. It won a lot of regular weekend races plus two hot ones at Union Grove and Rockford. I have never remembered many of the runs or even who the competition was. I always focused on driving. The car was in the 12.30s and 12.40s at Union Grove with the Isky camshaft. Prior to Rockford, I installed the Erson 990B camshaft at the recommendation of Tom Jacobson at Gledhill Chevrolet in Southern California.