Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

I really wanted no part of this debacle and I really DO WANT to believe that the car is the real deal. But far too many unanswered questions have arisen and no concrete evidence or "as found" photos have been produced. If this mess is not straightened up soon, that car's reputation will be forever tarnished and that would be a travesty if it really is the real thing. The car's next appearence will be surrounded by people whispering to their buddies and families that "it's not real" and I would really hate to see that happen to the car. My ex-Braun Bros. '55 Chevy C/Gasser, though in no way in the same league as a Dick Harrell car, even has photos of the car as-found and during the paint and body work so there's no question to it's authenticity.

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

Most of the arguements against this car were made by someone going by the handle of USA-funnycar. Who is USA-funnycar ? He also made this statement......


"I know that the guy that sold you the car (M.M. are his initials) told you he did not know if it was the DH funnycar and he didn't think it was, neither did BP. So quit playing your games and that will stop all of the name calling on both sites."

USA-funnycar..You also mention BP as also not thinking it was the Harrell car. By BP I assume you are talking about Bill Porterfield. I spoke to Bill today. Bill told me he had never seen the car or been to the guys place. He said the guy offered him the 67-8 Dick Harrell funny car but Bill wasn't interested because he wanted the 69 Harrell car. Bill said he would like to remain neutral on this discussion.. So Porterfield never saw the car and you claim you know the seller didn't think it was a Harrell car yet it appears he signed a Bill of Sale stating otherwise. Can you explain that and maybe tell us who you are ?

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

Sorry about taking so long guys, but here we go. For last couple of days I have been searching high and low for any pictures of the car before we sprayed it. During the period we were working on the car, my camera was one of those digital ones that used a 3 1/4 floppy disk. The same camera we used to photograph all of the cars at 2-3 SCRs, so needless to say, I have 100s of disks. But I was able to find this one, while not real clear, I think it does shed considerable light on the body in question. I only found a couple.

Here is a shot of the passenger side of the car. Note a couple of things.

First the angle/size of the rocker. With the absence of Red shiny paint, IMO, does not appear to be my car, even though it is.

Second, and IMO, most important, notice the area inside the red mark. The dark line, which is actually a seam, is repair work. This seam is there on both sides, still visible on the inside of the car today. This was the patch job Dave Libby pointed out to us at Etown, At the time, when Dave said the car had been damaged and then repaired, I thought he meant the usual minor damage. But a couple of nights ago, he told Mo the front end had been “clipped”. The presence of these seams indicate that this body has been “clipped”.

As most of us know, when trying to sort out old racecars, prior damage and repairs is one of the things you look for. If not mistaken, another Harrell car was identified in this fashion, ZL-1 #1, as Fred Gibb know where to look for damaged areas.

I think showing that my car may have been “clipped”, same as one of Dick’s, certainly lends credence to the fact that the two bodies could be the one and the same. And, since it is pretty obvious that my car has been "clipped" at some point in its racing career, makes it tough to try and compare the portion of my car from the seam forward with the same area on any other car, as who knows when, how, where or what parts from what company were used.

https://www.yenko.net/attachments/179661-seam-2.JPG

A close up.

https://www.yenko.net/attachments/179660-seam-1.JPG

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

These two pictures show another interesting part of the car. Note the “trim” pieces around the back glass. When I first got the car and studied pictures of the Red car with the Black roof, I really thought it had a real vinyl roof, but was puzzled how they did it. That was one of the first questions I asked Dave Libby, how did they do the roof. He laughed for a few seconds, then explained. The black was simply spray paint in a can, meant to give a vinyl roof look, and then the area where the moldings are were painted silver. To me, the black vinyl roof look is one of the most unique and interesting things about my car, always sure to draw a comment or two at shows. I know a lot of the cars back in that era have these trim pieces, and on several cars were painted silver, but IMO, they really accent the black top and red bottom. I have had a couple of folks tell me they like the burgundy colored DH cars better, but I am kind of fond of the Black over Red look.

https://www.yenko.net/attachments/179348-body-2.JPG

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

Did I hit a nerve there Mr Lopata ? Why the secret ? Who is USA-funnycar ? This is not to divert attention from Toms car. I would also like to get to the bottom of just what car it is. I think both Ratpack and 55Chevy make some valid points and they tried to lay them out to lessen the confusion. But to make these bold acusations and hide behind a screen name seems pretty chickenshit. Who is USA-funnycar ?..

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

Bob Gibson posted this.....
"Bob Gibson
Forum Member


Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Midweset
Posts: 14

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I'm sure trying to keep up on this thread... I have some good pictures of the Kirby car taken right after the Super Rat name was put on it.
A person would be a bloom'in idiot to think Matt's, Jim Kirby car isn't an authentic Dick Harrell team car.
I may be the butt here but I know what I'm looking at and TC's car as far as I'm concerned is not one of Dick's old cars.
That car was in my display booth at Bowling Green in 2003 and I looked the car over real well and I had a few doubts then but wasn't 100% sure and didn't want to voice an opinion, but as I've gotten more pictures of it and started compairing certain things, I start seeing things that don't add up.

I'll bring my pictures and if TC will let me near the car I'll show him some differences that will prove it.
TC, It's ok to build a clone in honor of a great racer... but admit it, people will enjoy looking at the car just the same.

Bob..The person saying that Muphys car was not a Harrell car was Dale Pulde.....
"Quote:
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On Ebay the Jim Kirby Camaro is being sold as an Orignal Dick Harrell 68 Funny car. This car was used and run to fill match races by Dick, He and Charlie Therewanger raced it for a while then the owner Jim Kirby ran the Harrell name for a while.
It was NEVER an original Dick Harrell car. This car is still appears to be on great shape and a real good find. DP"

Bob..Are you thinking Tom is trying to say his car is the same as Murphys ? What do you have pics of ?

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

You know Tom when I went with you to pick up that funny car we talked on the trip over that if it turned out to be nothing it would at least be fun playing with.

We picked up the car that day and the fun did begin. Looking over hundreds of pictures and reading tons of magazines before even thinking about what car it was seemed at the time like alot of trouble. When we was looking at all these pictures we kept coming up with the red/black car that just didn't look like all the others. In the end that came to be the deciding factor on which car we decided it had to be, it just didn't match the other cars that the pictures showed as Dick's.

Then we finally started by cutting away years of misuse and abuse and trying to get down to something savable which was quite a job. After several hundred hours of work we had learned how to re-gelcoat a body that some had said was junk. Re-built a chassis that the engine had been moved in at least twice, changed from a auto to a manual, foot brake to a hand brake. During all this time we had kept on looking at all the pictures we could find, reading all the articles possible and talking to who we was told at the time was the best we could talk to for verification and information on what we had.

I remember the day that the lettering was put on the car, we were both speachless when we stood there looking at what had transformed in my shop. At that moment we knew that we had brought back to life a tribute to a great driver and a time gone by.

Now we load up and go to our first show, to where the experts are, nervous yes, confindent no way. We get there, set up in the booth of one of the experts and start asking questions. Is anything wrong with the car, what do we need to do to make the car more period correct and so on and on. Man it felt good to see the hundreds of people come by and look at the car and alot of them tell us the stories they had with Dick and the car.

Next the trip to Englishtown and the meeting with what seemed like everyone else in the world who knew anything about Dicks or anyone's funny car as far as that goes. Still wanting to find out everything we could about the car and if we had what we thought we had, we asked questions. Sometimes to the point of being afraid that these experts and racers and mechanices were getting tired of talking to us. We found out several safety items that needed to be addressed on the car, but all the experts there gave nothing but praise to the car and our hard work.

This goes on for a couple more years. And I will have to say we had a blast.

Looking back on everything now we could have spent a lot less time trying to make sure that we had what we thought we did. Less phone calls and travel time seeking out the experts and getting their worthless opinions and just had more fun with the car. Shoot I should have bought that other car they had for sale. We thought it was just a nobody car but heck if I could have got all these experts out there working on it there is no telling who's car I would have now.

Sell it........Park it.......Set it on fire......it doesn't really matter....Life's too short for this rabbit-$hit....

Let's move on to something else.....Lets have some fun!



https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ins/3gears.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/beers.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

Good idea Mo... This train has run out of steam...

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

Hopefully this email, sent out by Bill Porterfield, (who ironically has had his own battles over the DH name and his car), will help explain a few things of what was being sold, what I bought, what the seller said, etc. Even though copied to folks associated with other sites, I doubt if it will show up on any other sites, so here it is. Thanks Bill https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/beers.gif

<font color="blue"> Valerie, Charlie, Matt and Tom,

Just in case 'someone says what I said'.....this is what I know about the 1968 Camaro funny car that is currently a point of discussion on a few websites:

While we were setting up our pit spot at the 2000 Supercar Reunion (we were ready to race at 8:30 AM and the sun was shining at the track but the event was called because of rain in the area) a guy came up to me and asked if I was interested in a Dick Harrell funny car. I asked him what year it was and he said a 1967 or 1968 model. At that time I was looking for a 1969 funny car and was also short on cash so I told him I was not interested.

A few weeks later I got a call from a Mike Menter (I have previously mis-spelled the last name as 'Minter'). He told me he was the guy who had talked to me at the track regarding a funny car and asked if I was still looking for one. I told him I did not have any cash and really wanted a 1969 car.

I got another call a few weeks after that....same question....same answer.

In December 2000 I got the last call from Mike and he asked me if I was still looking for a car. I told him I might be interested in something and asked him what he had. He said he had a 1967 Harrell funny car but sold it to a guy in Alton, Illinois. He said he still had a 1967 Dickie Montoya Camaro funny car and a 1964 Corvette funny car. I told him I was not interested in his last two cars.

I have never seen any of Menter's cars nor any photos of the cars, therefore I have no way of knowing exactly what year the subject car was or what provenance may have been attached to it.

Life is toooooo short....I hope the dust can settle and everyone can just get along with each other....

Porterfield </font>

Amen to the last part.. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/worship.gif

Re: 1967/1968 Dick Harrell funny cars
 

I still don't understand why they would not want the Harrell name on cars, its seems it would be good for the Harrell family and good for the hobby in general.

All this has backfired it seems. Now the name Harrell has a bad taste in peoples mouth all because of greed and politics.

Personally I think the FC has nothing to do with it, if I owned the car they probably could care less. But since Tom owns it, the attacks are personal. IMO. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif