Xplantdad
12-20-2018, 12:46 AM
Hi Bruce!
After I purchased the Nova my first goal was to track down some of the history-because at this point nobody else could find any. Starting with a decal I found in the glove box from an old Gulf gas station it had the name Gail Simons on it. That name was also on the car. There was an address in Taylor, Michigan on it, so I started with that town. The gas station was long gone.
I started searching other names on the car in that town. I found a Dale Cado that graduated from Jefferson high school in 1970 in Taylor, Michigan. I kept looking for that person and found him living in Chicago. I found his work address and phone number and with my fingers crossed made the call! Dale answered the phone on the second ring. I told him I had a strange question to ask him. I was looking for the original owner of an old Nova drag car.
Before I could finish my sentence, he shouted out the Plain Brown Wrapper? YES!! That was me gave me chills! He was just excited as I was. Dale was able to provide me with all the history on the car along with a bunch of vintage pictures of it.
The car was ordered originally from Les Stanford Chevrolet in Dearborn, Michigan in 1969. It was Fathom Green with a black vinyl top. It was a Super Sport with a bench seat and a 4 speed car. Dale street raced the car for two years-but as the car became less steetable, it became a dedicated track car and was given a silver psychedelic 70's paint job.
The car first raced in modified production with a tunnel rammed small block at tracks all over Detroit (like Milan, US131 and Detroit Drag Way. The car later switched to C super modified and Dale couldn’t handle the psychedelic paint job anymore, so in 1975 the car was painted the current brown and first became the Plain Brown Wrapper. During the off-season Dale would show the car at the Detroit Autorama.
Dale worked at Diamond Racing Engines and after blowing up the engine in 1980 with the cost of competition getting so high, he finally decided to hang it up-but to do so he quit his job and relocated to Chicago to make a clean break from racing.
The car was sold through National Dragster magazine and Dale provided me the original for sale ad as well. The car has changed hands five times since he sold it, but the history was lost after the second owner. The car as it is today is exactly how it was in 1980 when Dale sold it...every decal the same, even the tires! (Minus the race engine).
I hope you enjoy the feature,
Russell
After I purchased the Nova my first goal was to track down some of the history-because at this point nobody else could find any. Starting with a decal I found in the glove box from an old Gulf gas station it had the name Gail Simons on it. That name was also on the car. There was an address in Taylor, Michigan on it, so I started with that town. The gas station was long gone.
I started searching other names on the car in that town. I found a Dale Cado that graduated from Jefferson high school in 1970 in Taylor, Michigan. I kept looking for that person and found him living in Chicago. I found his work address and phone number and with my fingers crossed made the call! Dale answered the phone on the second ring. I told him I had a strange question to ask him. I was looking for the original owner of an old Nova drag car.
Before I could finish my sentence, he shouted out the Plain Brown Wrapper? YES!! That was me gave me chills! He was just excited as I was. Dale was able to provide me with all the history on the car along with a bunch of vintage pictures of it.
The car was ordered originally from Les Stanford Chevrolet in Dearborn, Michigan in 1969. It was Fathom Green with a black vinyl top. It was a Super Sport with a bench seat and a 4 speed car. Dale street raced the car for two years-but as the car became less steetable, it became a dedicated track car and was given a silver psychedelic 70's paint job.
The car first raced in modified production with a tunnel rammed small block at tracks all over Detroit (like Milan, US131 and Detroit Drag Way. The car later switched to C super modified and Dale couldn’t handle the psychedelic paint job anymore, so in 1975 the car was painted the current brown and first became the Plain Brown Wrapper. During the off-season Dale would show the car at the Detroit Autorama.
Dale worked at Diamond Racing Engines and after blowing up the engine in 1980 with the cost of competition getting so high, he finally decided to hang it up-but to do so he quit his job and relocated to Chicago to make a clean break from racing.
The car was sold through National Dragster magazine and Dale provided me the original for sale ad as well. The car has changed hands five times since he sold it, but the history was lost after the second owner. The car as it is today is exactly how it was in 1980 when Dale sold it...every decal the same, even the tires! (Minus the race engine).
I hope you enjoy the feature,
Russell