Those Great Specials...

[Ron Mann]

You can't think of hill climb cars without thinking of some of the memorable cars that ran. The "one off" specials…those cars that were built from scratch and built for speed, or meant to be! They usually had some interesting names and looks!

What are you favorite/memorable "specials"?

I found quite a few in my research, including this one...the "Flying Banana" note the two in line occupants of the car! It also has a license plate! Picture taken at an early Giant's Despair.

**I have ID'ed this car and driver as the Mercury Tandem driven by Kenneth Hill***

[Ron Mann]

Here is another interesting one! 1954 Giant's Despair, Lou Fageol ran this interesting Porsche based special in the C Modified class!

[Devil's Elbow Fan]

Great topic Ron!!

How about THE BLUE GOOSE.

My favorite was John Meyers Meyers Special. A pontiac powered beautiful special. He also had a "early" Meyer Special that was an open wheel car. Would like to see a pic of that one.

How about Bud Faust's Lotus with a Buick motor .

Oscar's Super Cooper with the Ford in it.

Not really a "true" special but reflected what was happening in SCCA at the time. Such as Shelby putting a Ford in an A C Bristol.

Keep the Specials coming!!

Rich

[Ron Mann]

we'll roll them out....I have quite a few up my sleeve!

[Ron Mann]

Here are a few of Rich's favs...don't have a shot of Faust's Lotus.

[Ron Mann]

another one that we have talked about before on here...Bill Rutan's "bathrub" Porsche powered VW! Bill still brings this one out now and then.

Here are two shots from Hershey...almost 40 years apart!

[Ron Mann]

Here is one that I had heard about...but just recently got a photo of it. The "Wertzville Cornpicker" of Gus Gosthnian. Photographed at Hershey....I believe this was a Renault based special!

I had two others that I wanted to post...Garnet Humelsine's "Goliath" & George Illiff's "Frispeti" but my files are too large...I'll see if I can correct that!

[Ron Mann]

Specials, through the years, have always been contenders for the FTD's and hill records. As a matter of fact, all current hill records are held by a Special.

This next one does not hold any hill records…but it still holds Special 2 records at Pagoda, Giant's & Rose Valley. It was called the Bandit, a Mazda powered open wheeled special driven by Jerry Kieft of Ohio. In an exchange with Jerry he states that he is "still breathing" and hopes to be "returning to the sport next year".

[Mel Horn]

Here is one that I had heard about...but just recently got a photo of it. The "Wertzville Cornpicker" of Gus Gosthnian. Photographed at Hershey....I believe this was a Renault based special!

If i recall correctly the Cornpicker was owned by Tim Sprinkle somewhere along the line. It was Renault 4CV powered . I saw pictures of it at the old New Bloomfield kart track.

And Lou Fageol actually qualified a car at Indianapolis in 1946. It was called the Fageol Twin Coach Special and had two supercharged Offenhauser engines...one driving the front wheels, the other driving the rear wheels!

Qualified on the front row and finished last....

[Ron Mann]

I believe you are right on Tim running the Cornpicker...wonder where it is now?!?

Richie sent me a good list of a few I didn't think of….Here is a goodie…Mini Moke of Bob Phillips (Middletown, PA), who would have thought, right. This ran in Mod 2 and was 1974's 2nd overall Mod 2 champ!

[Ron Mann]

Ok…we got these pixs resized so everyone can see, "Goliath" of Garnet Humelsline and the "Frispeti" of George Iliff. Some strange rides!

[Mel Horn]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the Frispeti ran in the late '60s-early '70s. My theory is based on the novice liscences being issued sequentially (and I was issued #661 in late '72).

Although it was essentially a Beetle, the Tom Hartman/ Tim Firestone "Hate Bug" ran in the early '70s. Might well have been inspired by the Rutan car.

[Ron Mann]

You are about right Mel.....

got these comments from PHA Veteran John Katzbeck~~~

"- the Frispeti was built by two three fellows from my local Car Club at the time (Competition & Touring from Monroeville, PA). The name of the car is a combination of their last names. I'll try to see if I can dig up their names when I get home from vacation. The car was blistering fast, but had evil handling and only one of the drivers could really drive it well. I only saw it run one event and I think that was an autocross in the South Hills of Pittsburgh (1970 or 1971). Word was that the owners got tired of trying to tame the beast so rather than sell it, they dismantled it. Figured it would be too dangerous in the wrong hands."

thanks John!

[Ron Mann]

Here we go…how many remember the Knepper Special??

This ride was Corvair powered…..Al was a Weatherly local…..is he still around??

[Ron Mann]

John Debaugh's hill climb career spanned close to 20 years. Running Vettes & MGB's his last ride was his homebuilt special Debaugh 1. We have record of it running 1970 - 1977, 1980 & 1983. In conversation with John…one moment of pride was taking FTD with Debaugh 1 at PHA's Pocono Solo in 1982. The Debaugh 1 had a few looks over the years…I ran across it, for sale, at a Carlisle Import show a few years back.

[Ron Mann]

Gotta love...the HATE BUG!

http://www.pahillclimb.org/phpBB3/viewt ... f=3&t=1088

[Mel Horn]

JOHN KATZBECK!

also...Wow, the Debaugh!

You must also include the Hobby Sabol (sp?) built by Hap Gardner.

The link above to a previous post by Tom Hartman states that some of the running gear of the Hate Bug ended up in the Firand...another Special collaboration of Denny Anderson and Tim Firestone.

Vince Orlando of York had a Lola sports racer...does that count?

And also one of the more recent cars (not to mention ...different!) built and raced by a gentleman whose name escapes me and recntly passed away...front end had a Bugatti nose and was powered by a rear-mounted VW.

The man I recently got ahold of from Breezewood (Breezewood/Town Hill Hillclimb from late 50s-early 60s)had a Ford Coupe- based special...still waiting for a picture from him if he can find it.

[Ron Mann]

Mel....the PHA vets are coming out of the woodwork....it is amazing what happens when you shake some trees!!!

You are on the right track with the "Firand" and the Sabel.....stay tuned....thanks to everyone that supplies photos to me, they all go into the PHA archives and are used in threads such as this.

Steve Flakus....is the person you are thinking of....and, heck yea, I'll throw a pix of him, when I get back on my main computer!!

Mel...........we have some touring to do, right!!!

[svann]

Ron,
Jerry Kieft's Bandit is indeed racing again after about 10 years. Jerry sold it and it bounced around a while but finally George Bowland helped South Carolina's Ted Theodore find and buy it. Throughout the winter with help from a few of the legends of southern hillclimbing, Ted entered his first hillclimb with it at Wolf Ridge last month. Now keep in mind this was only Ted's fourth hillclimb as a driver and the first in anything except a Miata. Now Wolf Ridge is one of the most difficult hills I've ever run in over 12 years with a length of 1.7 miles, 28 mostly blind corners, and pavement that is anything but smooth. I had driven it last year and still did not remember which way it went, but Ted had never been there. Anyway when we finished our runs on Sunday Ted was right there in second overall. A very impressive performance. I think we will have the Bandit coming up to Duryea with us in August. Here is a tread from the CCR-SCCA forum about it's restoration: http://ccrscca.proboards51.com/index.cg ... thread=726 A little on the Wolf Ridge Hillclimb weekend: http://ccrscca.proboards51.com/index.cg ... hread=2307

[Ron Mann]

There was a thread on here about the Bandit and it's return to racing...I couldn't dig it up in a search.