Richie Zul's Z-11????

[tom406]

Looking at the close up picture in Marty Shorr's "CHEVROLET-The Performance Years" I'll relay the following:

1. Car is lettered with "(unreadable)/MP" on the C-pillar, "Prepared by MOTION" on the quarter panel, and "The ASSASSIN" on the front fender. all done in vaguely far eastern style script using straight hash marks to make the letters.

2. The sign next to the car says "RICHIE BROWN'S ASSASSIN, 1963 Z 11 CHEVY, MEMBER MOTION SUPERCAR CLUB, 1967 AHRA NATIONALS CLASS WINNER D/HR"

3. The caption under the photo says "There were very few light-weight-bodied Z-11 Impala drag cars built in 1963 and Richie Brown's Modified/Production racer kept the mystique going into the Seventies. Aluminum fendered car was fitted with a hot small-block for MP and D/HR competition".

4. Car is displayed at some indoor show surrounded by trophies. There's a MOTION SS427 SUPER CARS banner above and behind it, and there appears to be a '67 or '68 Camaro drag car to its left (probably the A/MP '67), with a medium color paint job and a black vinyl top.

That's all I've got, but yes, everything-including the placard in the picture-says BROWN, not ZUL. If this car wasn't a real Z 11, I'm guessing it had the lightweight body panels added to it and was referred to as a Z11 to homologate the lightweight mods for whatever classes it was running in. Just my guess.

TOM

[Verne_Frantz]

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] Well, that was a daaaah! I should have looked up the feature you referred to before my post. Yes, definitely BROWN, not Zul. I knew that. Brain fart. At any rate, except for the name mix-up, the inquiry was still valid, and now I would tend to agree with your assessment that perhaps it only received the aluminum panels. They would have put the car in the MP class for sure.
Thanks very much for straightening that out.
It's strange that I've never seen any pics of that car on the track. I wonder what ever happened to the car? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]
Verne.

[Mr70]

Verne
Your 3 Star rating is now in Jeopardy....
Sorry,couldn't resist a good natured jab. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[RichSchmidt]

It is funny that you mention Richie Zul.I found this board by looking up his name on a search engine.I believe I have a line on Bill Jenkin's 1970 camaro,and was looking for pics of it when Zul owned it.It looks like the car is in Newark New Jersey,and that it is pretty much beyond restoration.A local racer who raced prostock back in the 70's knew where the car was all along.It seems that the car ended up in the hands of a guy who does a lot of money races,and he used it as a money maker{hence the reason why Zul claimed it dissapeared}.From what I have seen,it looks like the last of the real car was hacked off about 5 years ago when the racer added a tube front clip to the already backhalfed chassis.The funny part was that I was talking to this guy at the race track around that time,and he was telling me how he removed almost 100# of dead weight from his car when he cut out the entire 3 layer thick firewall and replaced it with aluminum when he front clipped the car.It looks like the only original metal on the car is the roof,quarter panels and door jambs,it has no vin tag or floor pan,and the entire subframe and firewall were also chucked.The owner didnt seem to care much since it was his race car to do with as he saw fit,and he had litle concern for the historical value of the car.The owner wont even talk about the history of the car,but everybody who knows it says it was Jenkin's car.The Pro stock racer I know also said that Jenkin's owner more then one of certain year camaros,but I dont think that is the case with the 70 car.I also have a pretty good source on his 67 smallblock car.A guy I race with has some old street racing photos of a very popular white camaro that ran the fastest"raw horsepower" smallblock in Long Island back in the early 80's,the car had all the trimmings of Jenkin's car right down to the cragar mags in the photos from the early 80's,and was also a bit rusty looking.we are looking into that car,and if anybody has any info on the camaro from New york that was raced by a guy named Andy Harris,I would like to hear about it.I think I will start a new tread about this matter.I dont doubt that some of the motion guys from new york might have followed the scene during that time frame.

[COPO]

Didn't sixities pick up Grumpy's toy recently? I thought it was on Ebay about 6 weeks ago??

[sixtiesmuscle]

Yep, and some of what our new friend has posted is true. The car has been modified over the years by its previous owners, namely, Bruce Larsen, Richie Zul, and Dennis Ferrara. The car has been verified by Jenkins as his #VIII "Toy". It is by no means beyond restoration. I would think that is up to the owner, and, how he chooses to restore the car. It could be done as the early subframe car, or, the very early chassis car that it is today. The car & chassis appear to be as raced at least 25 years ago. To go back to a subframe/frame rail car would be a major undertaking. I kind of like the early chassis style prostocks which came about very soon after the class started. Since this car is believed to be Jenkin's first "rent a racer", I am fairly sure he still owned it when it was converted, but, I am still researching all the facts.

[Kim_Howie]

Mike very cool car whith a lot of history. Jenkins the man [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif[/img]

[Salvatore]

You are right about rent-a-racer Zul had it first. Ferrera ran the car in Competition eliminator or the old modified eliminator back then. What ever happened to Dave Stricklers 1970 Pro Stock camaro? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/[/img]

[Salvatore]

Rich, the small block car you are talking about, would you mean his A/S 67 nova? Thanks, sam

[RichSchmidt]

Nope,I was looking for a 1967 camaro that he raced as a stocker in 1968/69 with a 327 and a stick.I also beleive the car might have had a black vinyl top at one point.