Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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I recently came across a coil front-torsion rear car that is either a sister or a copy of the Zink 52 posted below. Denny Moore once told my Father and me he had built a coil front rear torsion car. Through the years I had yet to find such a car Moore had built. The 52 shown below is set more to the back (2"?) than the car found. It could be a trial version going to the 52 I don't know. There are louvers everywhere on both cars and the cages are very similar. Does anybody remember such a car in the Tulsa area?

It has a 2" main rail. It was last sold with wide five hubs suggesting it had been a 6 cylinder modified as that is where wide fives usually ended up. It is black, has wing posts added.

At this moment the conspiracy theorist in me thinks this- The coil car was on the way out, someone needed the drivetrain, front axle etc. and sold it as a kit.. The braces (I call them 6 points) on the back of the cage are added on. Just in front of that vertical cage piece there is a brace that goes up to the cage then curls back into the top cage rail. I do not know if it originally came with a sprint tail.

This is Emmit's '78 car. The above is his '80 car I think. Pictures are from RFTP. This car does not appear to be a space frame. I don't know if the '80 car is. At this moment I'm assuming(you know the old saying about that word) the coil car is a design between these two cars. I can see the front bars, yet no space rail going just under the hood. Many times four bar cars were made out of 2" main rail cars by tying the bars into the front shock tubes. Also Emmit sits further in front of the rear end here than in the above car. This element is like the car I'll show tomorrow.

A little back story here as to the inquiry. 

First, this summer I learned a lot about the holes in my memory. I hate being wrong. BUT, I would rather look like an idiot and the truth be squared than look like a genius and be misleading. There are a few things I do not forget. Like the one time I met Denny Moore.

My Dad and I were at the Chili Bowl in '91 and we came across Denny as he was looking over a vintage midget he brought. Dad asked him about a coil front-rear torsion car they brought to Lawton one time. He wasn't sure if his memory was correct but Denny said yes, they did have such a car. He liked the idea of losing weight on the front and sending it to the back. This is one of those stories Dad and I go over once a year.

There was also a comment on the lack of chrome on the car in question. Denny said if a part came chromed, he would put it on, otherwise chroming didn't make it go faster. I  didn't see any chrome on this strange black car! This is all coming back to me as I'm writing it down.

Summary- similar cage, louvers galore,  no chrome, meeting Denny Moore. You cannot blame me too much for being curious.

While this is on my mind, I would like to bring up something. In this day and age it is easy to think cars of the past were a standard of perfection. The welds were pretty, the paint flawless, the chrome useable as a mirror.

I came across a story on an old AJ Watson sprinter that had been restored. This guy loved the car and really worked for months to get it back to firstday status. He didn't leave anything to chance and the chrome and paint bill showed it. He spent six months just mounting the body so it too would be right.

The big day came to debut it and he took it to a vintage meet. Everybody who was anybody in that area was there. The car drew admiring crowds and he was the envy of everyone. Then who should walk up but AJ Watson himself! They stood there a while talking about the car and sorting out the unanswered details. AJ was impressed by the work but then he mumbled- "We never built them this pretty".

Turns out this car had a cross spring front at one time. Just like everybody else I would think it started with a cross spring and then went to coils.

The one rule I learned lately is this-On these old cars, there is no hard set of rules for evolution. Try something new, if it doesn't work go back to the old. Sometimes the truth is less believable than fiction. But then, fiction is just too easy. Thus we push to find the facts and why they seem so surreal.

I came across an old Tulsa Speedway ad and this car looks more like the car I'm trying to ID

The roll cage braces are bent the same and the front roll cage tubes are more vertical here.

Just a guess, but that was probably the car Gene was killed in at Tulsa Fairgrounds Speedway?

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Could be. I'm not familiar with Gene Daniels story. I've heard of him but that's about it. The black car looks as if it has never had a bad wreck. Sometimes the cars come out looking fine though.

the 07 car that Gene Daniel was killed in was i believe a Howerton chassis and was raced later on as a 6 cyl car by Frank Piguet.  the night he was killed they pushed the car back to his pit area with a jeep.   inertia killed him so the car was basically intact.

"its useless to put on the brakes when you are upside 
down"   -Paul Newman

I will leave the above posts from this station to show how broad one needs to be when identifying a car.

This car was built by Alvin Bennett. It started out as a 6 cylinder car and ran with a v-8 for a short while only to return to a six later. I do not know if it was driven by Gene Daniels at any time.

i was talking about the 07 car from the pic..that Gene did drive....and fyi...i understand that Mike McClelland and Junior Taft also built several cars in this era.

"its useless to put on the brakes when you are upside 
down"   -Paul Newman

They may be 2 different cars. I try to get past the excitement of the hunt and the starry eyed ideas I get in my head and focus on the signature ways each builder bent tubing. Things get crazy sometimes. Many here thought the black car was a Jelly.

I have heard Howerton built a few cars and I need to get more aquainted with his work. Lately the Del Torrance super he drove has been an inspiration to keep in mind.Not to buy as I'm out of space but to emulate somehow with what I have. I am avoiding at all costs buying any more cars. I'm starting on my 4th roller now!

One of the Jelly cars did go to the Tulsa area. I believe it became the 1st #21 Ofixco car. But I've been wrong many times.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

There were several Jelly cars. I know he built the double roll bar style cage and he went to what was called a 'halo cage' like those of Grant King. Even Grant King had a few cages in this region.

It does seem like one of the early Offixco cars had a halo cage. Like the Jelly Wilhelm 24. Didn't someone restore that Offixco car? PA Martens maybe? I don't know. I saw one just like it at SFS in the late '90s.

Warren, you have provided us a site to have conversations that one used to have to wait years for. You don't have to remember everything.

My lesson has been these guys lived! There just wasn't a need to stop and write down everything as it happened. The hunt for the facts can hurt your pride but then the damage can be undone by a simple visit in the right barn or backyard. At some point we let the dead cars go and we save the ones left behind. However, there is a strong case being made to create new ones since they are hard to find and we haven't gotten over them. There is a whole pandoras box of combinations untouched.

There is a Offixco car in the Joplin, Mo. area, it is a car Tony Armstrong drove

Gene Daniels car was a Howerton Chassis. The 1979 JZS was also a Howerton Chassis. Terry Doss drove a Howerton also. I am sure there were a few more. I could be wrong.

mlcole