Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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This was taken from the Nance Catalog from at least 72/74 era. I have two about a year or so apart.

Sprint car fever bit Nance in the early 1970's and, together with his oldest son Carol, he put together his first sprint in 1972. It was a meticulously constructed black beauty which was successfully driven by Missouri's Eddie Leavitt. The Nance Speed Equipment was officially off the ground in 1973.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

the picture is the 1s/t sprint car built by nance , note the chrome plated bolt on roll cage. i think it was about 1972..... photo taken in front of the old nance speed eqpt. building the n with the number came some time later....

I took this picture of the Nance #1 at 1971 Knoxville Nationals.

Curt Grogan

I remember this beautiful car, though I never saw it in action...I think about '73 right around the time of the Hutch Nats. Fire....

So moving forward...does anyone remember a one-off Nance house sprinter constructed with an aluminum frame? (There may be another post in the forum, but I haven't found it yet.)

This car existed around 1988...I saw it on display @ Salt City Raceway...car had been banned by WoO...I'm thinking Jon Johnson was the driver...

At a casual glance, car looked the same as any other, but upon closer inspection, you could tell by the welds the frame was aluminum...I wish I knew the weight savings!

Jon Johnson did drive the car to a win at 81 Speedway in a DIRT South Super Series race. I'm not sure of the year. The race was for 410's, but I think Johnson and Nance ran a 360. Most of the other drivers in the field were from the Devil's Bowl Speedway area. Jon put it on them pretty good that night. Steve Perry ran a very distant second.

I read an article years later and Jon talked about how bad the car flexed that night. He had trouble keeping the front wheels on the ground.

Anybody have any photos of this car?

I wish I had pics to show here. But I don't.

JD Porter and I saw that car at Nances shop, and without an engine, you could easily pick up the frontend with one hand.

I visited with Shane Carson at the Wichita Vintage show last fall and when asked he said he still had one of the Nance aluminum frame cars. I wish he would get it out and run it some with our group.

There was also a Titanium frame that Mike Evans down in Texas just sold in this decade to some one in Wichita if I remember right. Now the question is was there titanium and aluminum or was it one and the same. I probably still have the flier that Mike sent me on a floppy (yes floppy) around here with photos. We ran it on the site back in the early days of the site.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

there were 2 aluminum frames built, one titanium .the titanium is owned by a man in wichita .at the time he bought it he wanted to restore it and loan it to the knoxville museum. i havn't checked lately if he has done anything with it. it is a roller..... i pickep up the alum frame easily while standing at the motor plate location....

I shot this at the 1976 Western World at Manzy.

I believe this is one of the Nance aluminum frames. To the best of my memory, it was driven by one of the Linder's, I'm thinkin' Jim.

www.teamwmotorsports.webs.com

So it was Fred, thanks for clearing that up.

I'm still pretty sure it was an aluminum frame, can you verify that?

www.teamwmotorsports.webs.com

Shane told me that he has the one that Fred Linder drove at Manzy. I don't know if it was 1976 or 1977 though.

Howdy!

Dunno anything about the car pictured, but it is not the same as the Nance car I saw...the car I saw was much more current, with the rollcage constructed w/ longitudinal runners incorporated into the frame rails, tied together with short transverse pieces, rather than two hoops tied together...I can't remember if it was a downtube car, though...

MJ

You guys are pretty close. There were 2 alum cars built. The first was Driven buy Fred Linder which he won quite a few races with. Shane Carson also drove the car and later on purchased it at the Auction when the business was closed down. The second one was built in the late 80's and Jon Johnson drove it with a 410 steel motor at 81 speedway. It was against all the Texas boys and they had 430 alum motors. Jon really skinned them that night. I hot lapped the car at 81 and it was without the nose wing, because Johnson had crunched it running into a lapped car. I could not keep the front end on the ground. I was supposed to race the car at Dodge City and the Mechanic wrapped it around the telephone pole in front of the shop before we left for the track. Car was destroyed and the mechanic was sent packin !

The Black car was actually the 2nd sprint car built. LaVern's first one was actually brown. I don't have a picture of it. My father built the black one. Grady was the driver, but Harold Leep, Dale Reed, Roy Bryant, Jan Opperman, were just a few of the drivers. We still have this car in our possesion and maybe someday it will be restored and rest at Knoxville where it belongs!

Racer1n,

Your response concerning the Nance alum cars is also confusing. Are you saying that the car Jon J drove and you hot lapped was an alum car and NOT the Titanium car?

The Linder / Carson car is pretty well documented. Shane owns it and it resides in Oregon.

Mike Evans of TX owned the Ti car and sold it to a man in Wichita. His name escapes me at this time.

I know this for sure: In Feb of 1979 Bones was showing myself and a freind around the Nance shops. We went in a storage building on the south side of the street and the bare frame of the alum car was leaning against the east wall. He commented that it had been outlawed with reference to "Knoxville".

Lets not let terminology in reference to alum and Ti cars cloud this wonderful story.

I can only vouch for one of these cars you guys are talking about- JD Porter will back me up on this

In 1987 JD Porter took me by the Nance shop when the Wichita NCRA show was rained out. I know it was 1987- infield accident at Hutch the next day, I was on the infield and at Hutch for my first time. I can tell more, but trust me - it WAS 1987.

I only went by the Nance shop one time ever- it was 1987

Laverne was in back and a bit bothered with me for taking pictures without permission. Carol was at the counter doing business.

Anyways JD and his parents, Laverne, and myself were looking at a complete roller awaiting the fresh Gearte on the floor next to it. The frame was red, the hood was off (but mymemory says it was red too). It was just another Nance sprinter to me UNTIL I WAS TOLD BY LAVERNE IT WAS "ALL ALUMINUM"! I leaned over and with ONE HAND grabbed the front bumper and picked the front of car off the ground! I WILL NOT FORGET THAT.

ABOUT TITANIUM AND NANCE IN 1987-

An actual paying customer was sitting with Laverne later in the shop and they were handling a 10-10 coupler. Laverne said it was titanium. I had known titanium bicycle frames were being sold already and was surprised titanium was now being used a little at Nance.

I asked if i could see the coupler, and since I hadn't asked permission, and he did not know what rock I had come from, or whom, Laverne just said "No".

I'm not always right about things, and get my stuff jumbled (enough to scare me)

But the car I saw at Nance in 1987 WAS ALUMINUM.

So many things happened to me that year, but traveling with the Porters from Lawton was a highlight of my life. The girlfriend I had in 1987, I am married to today. The car JD bought in 1987, I have it covered in Edmunds shaped skin today.

1987 was the last year of the Champ Dirt Car/Supermodified 100" car. Also the last year to have the infield pits at Hutch. Shane outrun Bob at Dallas in October.

It was 1987