108 replies to this topic

[Porsche718]

Congrats layabout. Hope you enjoy the car for many years

[Claudio Navonne]

Friends, this is a little out of the scope of this thread, but I feel like thanking you all for your commitment to each of the topics covered in this forum. I am a simple reader (the language barrier prevents me from participating more actively), but as a motorsport enthusiast I subscribe to almost every topic, and I follow them closely. Here I learn a lot about our passion. Thank you again.

[raceannouncer2003]

Layabout - I've sent you a pm.

 

Vince H.

[Lee Nicolle]

No, I wrote that in error & corrected it in Post# 4. It's a Ford rear end, modified to take Chrysler halfshafts.

 

As an aside, the nice thing about the SCG article is that the author details the build & confirms that the rear end in the car is the original. Likewise on the Healey brakes, Triumph pedals, etc., etc. The author (who is also the cutaway artist) even mentions that he recently did a very similar car---the Old Yeller IV---the very first car we thought this might be! The fact is, we are certain there's some connection to Balchowsky. He built Dave MacDonald's Corvette Special (https://www.davemacd...tespecial2a.htm) & there's some similarity between it & the Hawaiian Special. And then there are the Bizzarini wheels that we suspect came from Balchowsky...

I presume that diff to be a Ford Freighter, not the earlier smaller V8?

[StanBarrett2]

Friends, this is a little out of the scope of this thread, but I feel like thanking you all for your commitment to each of the topics covered in this forum. I am a simple reader (the language barrier prevents me from participating more actively), but as a motorsport enthusiast I subscribe to almost every topic, and I follow them closely. Here I learn a lot about our passion. Thank you again.

Welcome Claudio,  I've read your post a few times and can't find anything pointing to a language barrier.

Your English is way better than my Brazilian.    Oeps !   Spanish

Edited by StanBarrett2, 13 August 2018 - 09:23.

[Joe Bosworth]

Just to sure that historical facts don't get mis-quoted in the future as having come from TNF, let me clarify the SCCA designations in the time of the Hawaiian Special.  The SCCA dominated all US racing except for some in California run under the Cal Club rules and a bit run by USAC to include both pro and amateur drivers, much against SCCA ego driven tideas.

 

SCCA used a two letter class structure throuugh out the 1950s.

 

The second letter was P for production and M for modified.  They were somewhat loose with the difference but it was loosely based on production numbers.

 

The first letter was engine capacity based:

H class sarted as up to 750 cc but eventually was increased to 850 cc

G class was up 1100 cc

F class started as 1500 cc but eventually grew to 1600 cc

E class was for up to 2000 cc

D class was (from memory) 3 liter for M and mostly set for Austin Healeys in P

C, B and A by memory became fuzzy to suit various American V8s versus what the Italians were doing.

 

About 1959 or 1960 SCCA gave up on engine capacities fro the Ps and went to  performance basis (as perceived by themselves). All rather messy but that made little difference to me as I was set into modofieds and open wheelers.  By the 1970s the open wheelers were FA, FB, FC, FJ, FF, FV all generally following FIA standards.

 

All from memory as going and digging out my old rule books is too much work.

 

If I sound critical of the SCCA you ought to wind me up to CAMS. 

[layabout]

Thanks to TNFer StanBarrett2 (see his posts in this thread), I now have  beautifully 'knitted' together example of the Hawaiian Corvette Special cutaway originally done by Bob Thatcher. Apparently StanBarrett2 likes cutaways as much as anybody. Here goes...

 

Edited by layabout, 23 August 2018 - 15:40.

[Gary Jarlson]

It's interesting that in "Viva Las Vegas" most of the race cars are LHD (including two Ol' Yallers). There are only a couple of RHD cars. The Elva that Presley drives.......and this blue thing .....

 

 

 

and could those wheels be something similar to Bizzarrinis?

 

 

It's not exactly the same as our mystery car ..... but?

I'm almost certain the light blue mystery car is a Jomar (chassis 7C103) that was run in local sports car races by Frankie Newman, who owned a dealership concentrating on used sports cars in Las Vegas. I wrangled some local cars for the Viva Las Vegas production company (see the cars of Viva Las Vegas thread) and I imagine I got Frankie to bring his Jomar out since the gig paid $100 a day--a lot of money in the early '60s.

[Porsche718]

Your thinking is correct, but our assumption is that the wheels were a later addition, as is the aluminum body. Earlier photos show wire wheels. In fact wires on the front & Campagnolos on the rear while filming Love Bug in @1968. Max Balchowsky took possession of the two Bizzarrinis that were destroyed at Sebring in 1965 described herein: http://mycarquest.co...965-part-2.html

 

This would be one of the cars.

 

1965 Sebring 12 Hour. The Charlie Rainville/Mike Gammino Bizzarini that lost an argument with the Mercedes-Benz bridge.

 

 

 

Edit: Gammino walked away unscathed!

Edited by Porsche718, 27 September 2023 - 01:42.