Funny car resto

[Belair62]

OK guys I know this is a bit off the subject but there is a lot of people on this site with old magazines and knowledge so here goes...I am restoring a 66 GTO Funny Car from 1966. It was called The Gray Ghost and was from Chicago. The owner was Larry Swiatek and he was heavily into Pontiacs back then.Raced several Super Duty cars etc ..all called Gray Ghost. I traced him to New Hampshire where he owned a couple McDonalds franchises but he doesnt anymore and the last I heard he went possibly to Florida.Anyway to make this short as possible ..If anyone happens to see a picture or 2 of this car in any old mags please let me know. It was painted by Dick Scully,headers by Iggy,chassis by R&B Engineering and body by Ron Pellegrini...these were all local folks whom I've talked to including Swiateks partner Mike Garfinkel but haven't been able to muster any photo history yet...any help will be appreciated...I am going to try other boards as well but thought I would start at home base.I can have someone post a pic if anyone is interested but it's real ugly right now .
Bob

[copo69]

Bob, There's a two page article in a magazine called "Popular Customs - The Wild, Wild, World of Funny Cars", Nov/Dec '66 issue on "The Gray Ghost". It's mostly pictures. I'd be glad to send you copies. Greg

[Steven J]

I checked some of my old photos from the Oswego Drag Strip. I have a photo of a 1968 or 69 GTO funny car called the Gray Ghost with Swiatek and Scully's name on it. The car had a yellow and red custom paint job, and the photo was probably from 1971. I'm guessing that this was built after the '66 GTO was retired.

[bowtie3168]

Belair62,
You being from the Chicago area, have you contacted Arnie Beswick? Arnie lives quite a ways from you in Morrison but, is a great contact and would help you in any way that he could. Also have you checked www.mysterion.net (http://www.mysterion.net) ? There might be some cool photos there.

Andrew

[Belair62]

WOW great so far...Greg I will send you a note offline for the Popular Customs .....Steven J.....the 68 was sponsored by Dick Scully and was the next car after the 66,which had evolved to a 1 piece tilt body...I think they went Hemi then...the 66 was Pontiac powered for a while and may have gone Chevy....68 was wild paint and Scully wants to find that one...Bowtie...I have checked Mysterion which is one of the coolest sites around for early Funnies and asked Jim Sorensen for info but nothing yet.I have talked to Mr.Beswick previously about my Super Duty Catalina.He remembered that car very well as he was good friends at the time with the owner of SD car,Mr. Jake Howard.Unfortunately he couldn't offer much more on that car .I will ask him about Funny since he had one of the 3 (Ithink) bodies built by Fiberglass LTD. Anyone else get the shovels out yet ? Hey thanks for the space gang.....I know it's brand X but hell everyone here likes this kind of stuff !

[Edited by Belair62 (08-15-2001 at 05:59 PM).]

[micky69396]

Cool Bob, are you going to race it or just a display? You may want to get in on the funny car mail list also thru the Yahoo groups.

[bbdon]

I looked through some of my stuff, but didnt find anything. I was wondering if there are any of those old event stickers on the car?
Any particular events that it might have finished well at, or just raced at?

[Belair62]

Its so ugly right now I'm afraid to get that close to it.But no there are no event stickers on it. Probably a lot of Midwest UDRA stuff is where it hung out more than likely. It was sold and later called The Assassin.....Hemi powered.Mick,this thing is a bit crude to actually race unless it was totally updated and I don't want to do that. No Tech inspector would even let it in the gate !

[micky69396]

Neat car though, if you update it and need a driver let me know.

[Edited by micky69396 (08-16-2001 at 06:34 PM).]

[MikeA]

Bob,

Post or email me a picture. I would like to see it.

Mike

[whitetop]

Bob
Post a picture here so we can all see it.
Dave

[Belair62]

COPO69 is going to send me a magazine article.When I get that I will have it posted.For now I will send one of you guys a pic as it sits today....kind of ratty but you gotta start somewhere.I picked up some cool mags of the the old funny car days.Anyone know of any old Chevelle or Nova funnys that have been restored. Sure would be nice to see an old Jungle Jim car re-done.

[Edited by Belair62 (08-17-2001 at 10:11 PM).]