[benesesso]

"The Clyde Morgan car had a Fletcher chassis. It was stolen and never seen again."

I can add something here (my first post, too!) Back in 1971 I was the co-owner of a 1971 Camaro AA/FC. How I got involved is a long story but I'll try to keep it short. I was working at a facility that rebuilt the hot section (turbine blades) of jet engines. We used plasma spray to protect certain areas, and I had the tops of the pistons sprayed--way back in early 1971. Those were 427 BBC slugs, and AA/FC and TF engines were going thru a lean/meltdown problem with the pistons-which could easily make all that nitro-laden 70 wt. Kendall turn into a napalm bomb.

Anyway, I somehow hooked up with a guy who apparently was a cousin of DH's crew chief or at least a crewmember (I don't know which). We ended up buying a complete AA/FC from DH for $5k-a real bargain back then. My two partners knew what I didn't--that the car was Clyde Morgans!

The story I finally got, after I found CM's name etched on either the alum. fuel tank or water tank and some other place, was that CM had been racing under DH's "group", with DH apparently footing some big $$$ bills. I was told that CM wasn't doing a good job of maintaining the car, and after CM took it to his home in CA DH sent his crew out there in the Quaker State semi to get it-apparently to settle up on the $$$ issues. The crew waited nearly all weekend for CM to leave his house, which he did late on Sunday nite (IIRC). The crew broke into his garage and had the car inside the semi in about 2 minutes, and then headed back to the midwest.

DH had his crew deliver the car to us in northern NJ. While dumb me wanted to check it over and go racing and license-getting, my partners had other ideas. We took that car completely apart and sandblasted the beautiful candy-apple red frame down to bare metal, then painted it orange. I couldn't get a straight answer on why all this was necessary.



Here are some photos-To be continued!