20 replies to this topic

[aportinga]

This Saturday!

http://www.mirpa.org...er-2011-Web.pdf

[Aero426]

We will be bringing this car from Milwaukee to the event. Stop by and say "Hi" if you are attending.

[S A Dunbar]

We will be bringing this car from Milwaukee to the event. Stop by and say "Hi" if you are attending.

I will!

[ellrosso]

Great pic - was there ever a more "out there" NASCAR. Would have loved to have seen them run in the flesh. Jim Abbott actually brought one out for the Melbourne Motor Show back in the day from memory.

[S A Dunbar]

Your car looked great yesterday at Meadowdale!

[S A Dunbar]

The Purple People Eater at Meadowdale - 9/17/2011

[E1pix]

Nice shots, SA and Aero, looks like fun, Guys! Wow, the 'Purple People Eater,' I remember that car as I'm old enough to. [anyone know when it was retired from competition?]

Aero, I'm glad to see you've gotten the 'Bird's restoration completed, looks fabulous!!!

[RA Historian]

Nice shots, SA and Aero, looks like fun, Guys! Wow, the 'Purple People Eater,' I remember that car as I'm old enough to. [anyone know when it was retired from competition?]

Nickey raced a total of three "PPE" Corvettes in the period 1958-59, two '58s and one '59. This car is the '59. After Nickey pulled the plug on its sports car racing, for the first of two or three times, at the end on 1959, it sold this car to Bud Gates, then to Bob Spooner, on to Marvin Schoenfeld, and so on. So it continued on after Nickey, but to be accurate, the Nickey Purple People Eater Corvettes were retired as such at the end of 1959.
Tom

[E1pix]

Thanks, RA. I knew of these cars but had no memories of them racing. This explains it, I was -1 when retired.

I either read about them or viewed than somewhere along the line. Very nice pieces of history for sure.

[Aero426]

Some additional pics from the Meadowdale show. It was well organized and I wish to compliment the MIRPA organizers for a job well done.

Here is Tom Simpson's McKee, fresh from a fine 2nd place run at Road America the previous week. It delightfully had those little rubber marks from tire bits splattering the body.



Beautiful Lotus Elite.



Behemoth Chrysler Imperial



Devin

[Aero426]

Shabby chic Auburn phaeton.




Craig Bielat's delightful early Lotus 7.


E-Type = yum! But close that bonnet. It would look so much better.


Aston Martin Ulster replica

Edited by Aero426, 21 September 2011 - 02:26.

[Aero426]

MiGi fiberglass replica in metallic green gel coat was so tacky, that I could not look away.


XK120 FHC was my favorite of the meet.


Quirky Saab anyone?


Next to the XK120, I wanted to drive this GTV home.


Variety is the spice of life!

Edited by Aero426, 21 September 2011 - 02:31.

[Aero426]

TVR getting some service on site.


Took a walk around the track during the day.


Ronnie Kaplan, Jim Jeffords, Don Devine.


Plenty of neat memorabilia to look at.


Where was this photo taken?

[Aero426]

Great looking UOP Shadow jacket.

Edited by Aero426, 21 September 2011 - 02:40.

[Aero426]

I snapped this one on the way out. For me, this photo made it worth the trip.


Had the proposed oval been completed for 1970-71, this car would have raced at Meadowdale.


The new paving and grass down the middle of the main straight took a little emotion away from this shot, but you get the idea.

Edited by Aero426, 21 September 2011 - 02:45.

[E1pix]

What an earned moment for you, Aero. Great shots!

What's the lineage of your car?

[Aero426]

What an earned moment for you, Aero. Great shots!

What's the lineage of your car?

Thank you. I only wish I had your camera and eye.

The car has a nice history. It was owned and driven by Ramo Stott of Iowa. Chrysler sponsored him primarily to race in the midwest, but he made trips south to Daytona and Talladega for the big money races.

The car won ARCA races in 1970 at Daytona and Talladega. It ran 8th in the 1970 Daytona 500 that year. In 1972, it won the stock car portion of the USAC Twin 200's at MIS. In between were several high results. It ran quite a bit at Milwaukee and the best it did there was a 2nd. After 1972, the car was parked and eventually sold in 1988 by Mr Stott completely intact. It has all the body panels it raced with, and amazingly for running 16 races, was never wrecked. About 20 years ago, it was cleaned up and repainted, but that is all that has been done.

[Aero426]

The original driver of the Superbird, Ramo Stott in 1972 and 2010. Ramo was the 1970 and '71 ARCA champion and also the 1976 Daytona 500 pole sitter.
He is a good man and recently helped me with a gear change on his old car in his own shop.

Edited by Aero426, 21 September 2011 - 04:47.

[E1pix]

Very, very cool, Aero!

I remember Ramo Stott, I saw both (or three, one in June?) USAC races at State Fair Park in 1972 and other years (my Grandpa ran the Lions stand outside of Turn 4), so that's why your car looks so familiar to me. What a great history!

[RA Historian]

Where was this photo taken?

In the Carousel at Road America, Sept. 1958. Jim Jeffords owned and occasionally raced the Corvette SR-2 that he had purchased over the winter of 1957-58 from Jerry Earl, the son of Harley. In the 1958 Road America 500 Jim was running in, I believe, fourth overall very late in the race when the SR-2 lost a wheel in the Carousel, as seen in the photo. Earlier in the year Jeffords had won an SCCA Regional overall at Milwaukee in the SR-2

I believe that was the last time Jim raced the SR-2, and he sold it to Bud Gates over the winter of 1958-59. For 1959, besides the Nickey Corvette, Jim also drove the Nickey Scarab, winning three major events, two USAC Road Racing Division races at Meadowdale, on the Memorial Day and Independence Day weekends, and an SCCA National at Buckley Field, just outside Denver.

Tom

[Aero426]

Thanks Tom. Everything looked right, but I had never seen the guard rail before. It sure looks different now that they leveled the outside embankment in recent years.