friend's vintage dirt race car build "Bringing Back an Old Friend" ( dial up death )

['73 H1 Triple]

A few years ago my friend Dave built an exact copy of the dirt car he raced at Flemington Speedway in the early 80s. He was asked to write an article Vintage Oval Racing magazine and he said I could post it.

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Bringing Back an Old Friend
by Dave Spurlin


Have you ever had something you sold and shouldn’t have and kicked yourself in the butt ever since? I sure have… a couple of times. Some people may think I’m living in the past but actually I’ve reached the age where I know what I’ve enjoyed the most in my life and you just can’t go out and get another one and have that same feeling. Sometimes there’s a bond you just can’t duplicate when you’ve built or created something in the past… unless you do it again! So that’s what I did! The key for me was to make it the same and not just similar. If not, it wouldn’t feel the same and just end up being a big waste of time and money. For safety’s sake, I updated the brakes since my original ones were so poor. As long as the car runs on the track, I will keep it that way. An alternator was also added to extend the battery life rather than my budget!

Here I am in 1981 standing proud as a peacock (and maybe a little awkward!) at my favorite place of all time… Flemington Speedway, with my favorite car. It was a 1980 Bob Fisher chassis utilizing the running gear and coupe body from my car the year before only this one looked and ran much better! I was very proud of myself for what I had accomplished at age 25 on $7.00 an hour without any financial backing. I had to make or repair almost everything I used in those days. This was more than just a racecar to me; it was a part of me. Unfortunately due to personal reasons, I sold out at the end of the season. I regretted it ever since, and would have given anything to have it sitting on blocks and re-live the many memories. It has bothered me for years!



About 20 years later I heard of the Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club in New Jersey and went to a couple of their exhibitions. I really liked looking at their cars and had much more interest in them than the current racecars on the track. Once I saw the club occasionally had track time as well as display time the wheels in my head started turning. When I stopped driving, I also stopped going to the races regularly. It was easier that way and didn’t remind me of the mistake I had made so many years ago by selling such an important part of me. Now I saw an opportunity to have one of my cars back and a place to run and display it. This was my favorite car so the choice was made! I went into this project with a strong passion which kept me going in spite of all of the roadblocks I encountered.

I knew my original car was badly wrecked a couple of times by the next owner, but I still tracked him down hoping to find at least the hood and body. He wouldn’t even return my calls so I knew I would have to take a different path… a much more difficult path since everything original was now lost forever. But I was on a mission and nothing could stop me!

It took some talking but eventually I motivated Bob Fisher (the chassis builder) to bend the tubing and guide me through the process with his sketches, our fading memories, and plenty of pictures I had of the original car. Now all I had to do was find all of the vintage parts including the body, hood, headers, etc… Thank God I still had the passion; I apparently was going to need it!

It took about a year and a half to find all the parts I had to acquire. The Internet was a big help but it still wasn’t easy. Each part had to be the right one to keep the car authentic to the original and not just similar. Safety and reliability were the only things I would improve on.

The body was hard to locate but I eventually found one in Oklahoma! I told him where to cut it and had it shipped to my door! The shipping cost me more than the body, but it was the correct one! Nothing else would do!



I had a terrible time finding a hood. My hood had a round cowl like a sprint car which my dashboard fit nicely into, so that was a must. I would have made a mold if I had to, but luckily things worked out differently. I was leaving inquiries all over the Internet asking for leads when I received an email from Tom Gelston in Connecticut. He had just finished restoring an original Pancho Carter sprint car and knew of Ralph Prueitt near York, Pennsylvania who had many different types of molds. Tom suggested I give him a call. Ralph wasn’t too far from here so I called him and stopped by to look around. Believe it or not… in the 2nd story of his old garage covered with years of dust and pigeon droppings was a mold for a hood and nose! I couldn’t believe it and couldn’t order a set fast enough! I was on my way now! This was a major breakthrough!

Many of the other parts I found had stories as well. The correct Schroeder steering wheel I found was on a Baja dune buggy in California. A hard to find set of Stahl headers I had to cut and modify into the now unobtainable Hooker headers I used to run. My transmission came from a ’58 Chevy in Michigan and the spares came from various locations throughout the country. My original Accel BEI ignition was from a boat in California, and then there was the Schiefer aluminum flywheel etc… The list goes on and on! Everything was authentic. So now after a year and a half it was time to go see Bob Fisher and get started on the chassis… and the jig!

I decided this time as I built it, I would draw the prints on CAD to have it on record. This way I wouldn’t have to rely on sketches or my fading memory for the rest of my life if I ever needed to make anything over again at some point.

I built the car in stages. I’d come home with a truck load of tube-bent tubing and a handful of sketches with directions and I’d go back for more when I was done and ready to go to the next stage. I kept Bob up to date on my progress with many pictures and some phone calls to clarify the fine points.











And then it happened… a major setback. A drunk came crashing through my garage door ramming my ’39 Plymouth coupe into the racecar pushing it backwards into the back wall and knocking it off the foundation of the garage. Somehow the racecar didn’t get damaged as the body wasn’t permanently mounted yet and just fell forward. I can’t say that for anything else in the immediate vicinity though!



Here’s a look at the conditions I had to work under while they were fixing the garage. There it is under the tarp in the distance! I wasn’t allowed to work on any of the wrecked motorcycles or the Plymouth thanks to the insurance companies, so I just kept trudging along the best I could. I still had the passion despite all of this and actually it kept me from dwelling on all of the losses I had just incurred. This was a real hassle to say the least. I was still on a mission.



Now we’re back on track again!







My friend and neighbor Jerry Hangey handled the body work. We decided to leave a couple of the bullet holes in it just for the heck of it.









The powerplant is by Gary Bouc and the lettering was done by Scott Kania! She’s looking good!

['73 H1 Triple]

Here we are with our friend Jerry (my neighbor and body man) and his vintage dragster. What a great neighbor!







3 years later and life is good once again! Mission accomplished! This car came out so close to the original that the original rubrail hole in the door lined up with the tube in the cage… on both sides! I had an original door hanging on the wall to use as a template and to match the paint. When I drive this car I honestly can’t tell that this is not the original car except the brakes work! Lol! I will never, ever sell this car… you can count on that. I was really amazed how many hours it took to fabricate everything and how late I had to work at night… and hardly being able to get up in the morning to go to work! I’m tired just thinking about it, that’s where the passion came in handy! I finally have my car, my old friend back and have no regrets for selling the first one. Now I can go to the races again! Life is good!





(Leslie Spurlin photo at Bridgeport Speedway)

[MikeSP1]

BADASS!!!!!!! That beast looks amazing!

[was92v]

That is a great story! I loved watching dirt coupes and short track coupes back in the day.
In the 70's the dirt dobbers were still running them aound here. I missed them when they went away. The outlaw mods remind me of them, but different.

[HRCNICK11]

That looks like a old Gary Fedewa car right color and number.

My father is good friends with Gary Fedewa, I got to drive one of Garys vintage supermods last sumer. Its a old Sammy Sessions indy roadster made into a supermod. It was insanely fast 740hp and 1500 pounds. I was thinking it would be like a fast gokart. It was like trying to ride a busa on ice if you touched the gas the tires spun like crazy.

My father is working on a 60s supermod that he just bought. I can't wait till its done and I get to drive it.

[OneSickPsycho]

Should plate and street it.

[Quick281]

Great story, thanks for sharing. It is always fun to see people go way out of their way to make up for lost time after selling something they never should had sold.

Glad he wasn't in the garage when DUI dude came flying in. That would have just been tragic.

[Adeptus_Minor]

What an amazing job.
I envy people with the time, money, tools, space, and skills to build something like that.

[Gas Man]

2 words

BAD ASS

[Krabill]

Incredible story. Thanks for sharing.