Many Years ago, I had a lot of conversations
 

with a gentleman named Smokey Yunick at the PRI Shows in Orlando Florida.

For several years I was helping the Butlers, Bob & Frank, BOP, and the gentleman who was casting up
the cast iron exhaust manifolds, (Ram Air Restorations), when they had a booth at the show.

Henry "Smokey Yunick" had his garage in Daytona Beach Florida.
He did some work for Bunkie Knudson (Pontiac Executive) in the early 60s.
Knudson later moved to Ford.

So I ran across some old pictures of Smokey's Flow Bench which he put together years before Chevrolet had one.
I believe Pontiac and Oldsmobile had flow benches though.

Here are the Pictures of his flow bench. Enjoy

ps Smokey died of cancer in 2001. As a final tribute, his wife, Margie, had his ashes scattered in every winner’s circle where his cars won.

Tom V.

Thanks Tom, interesting to see a piece of history such as this.

I never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Yunick.

Jon

I made the post Jon because for a period of time he was racing Pontiacs
with Fireball Roberts. Some people he would not have anything to do with.

I was fortunate, to talk to him occasionally, in person or on the phone,
as he learned my Uncle was a Pontiac Dealer for many years.

His flow bench was similar to some of the old benches we had at my old job location
in Dearborn. Memories.

Smokey was a Bomber Pilot in WW-II and flew missions off the Florida coast looking for German Submarines.

Tom V.

Very cool, I didn't know he did that..we outfitted our B-18's and B-29's with radar the Germans couldn't counteract.... initially, they could with the British radar.. we used a form of microwave radar to hunt subs
Did I mention I'm a WWII buff..lol

Very interesting. Recently I learned that Smokey would run a dual point distributor with different dwell settings on each set, and each set of points isolated from one another. He'd leave the line on the set with the smaller dwell angle for the advance it gave to the timing curve, and would hit the switch at half-track to the other set with a longer dwell, retarding the timing to give the engine more top end power.

Brilliant, IMO!

He was supposed to appear at the POCI national convention back in 2001 but unfortunately died shortly beforehand. I was looking forward to hearing him talk. I did buy a copy of his autobiography, I think his daughter was the person selling them at the convention.

I have that book, too, Stuart. That guy was one of a kind!

Thanks for the pics and story. I also read on
WW II. One book I read( I read Non fiction) is 'Tuxedo Park'. A man was an investor, he liked science. He had a lab at his home. He would invite young scientists in. Pay their way and any equipment they wanted. They helped develop radar for airplanes to hunt u boats among other inventions.

Didn't Smokey speak at a POCI convention many years ago? Maybe there is a recording available.

In 1997, along with John Delorean at the convention in Denver.

Great thread Tom, I love reading and hearing about this stuff. I am also a history buff, automotive and WWII.

Maybe some long time POCI members can answer that question.

Smokey did in the early 60s time-frame, 1959/1961, a Pontiac twin turbo engine
that used a M/T Crossram Intake, two AFB Carbs, A dual point distributor (maybe with the dual points and his timing retard on the engine. Some special turbo exhaust manifolds and down-pipes, and some Old carb Bonnets he rigged up to get the air to the carbs. The Turbos were RAJAY 301 Turbos like the single units HO Racing later installed on their Test Car and the Pontiac dealer installed on his custom built boosted cars.

I later sold the pieces to Randy Williams and there was a photo of me and the parts in
one of the Pete McCarthy magazine issues, prior to giving them to Randy at a Pontiac Convention.

Now for the inside part of the story: Pontiac would have had the Turbo engine a couple of years before the Olds F-85 or the Corvair engine. BUT...............................

Smokey was testing the engine, his words, and he had a lean back-fire and one of the carbs was like ELVIS, (when they reported ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!!!).
His shop was a tin roof building and the AFB went thru the roof.
Smokey says he told them to get that crap out of his shop.
BUT he still kept some of the parts, The special cast iron exhaust manifolds and the cast
iron down pipes (to the exhaust system). Barry Martin had those pieces Later on and I bought them from him.

So Randy got the parts, he got sick, he fought the cancer, and when he died the parts were sold, as a single buy, to a buyer with LOTS of MONEY. Randy had LOTS AND LOTS of special Pontiac parts besides the Turbo set-up.

So that is ONE of my Smokey Yunick stories.

Tom V.

Many years ago
 

I attempted to track down a video tape that supposedly was made of the Yunick/Delorean appearance at the ‘97 POCI convention. One of the chapters(maybe the host chapter?) was selling this? I think I asked Tim Dye(Smoke Signals editor) if he knew anybody who had a copy, but I never got a response as I recall. Would still love to run this down if in fact it even exists.

I wish you luck Terry, would love to have a copy or have a PY member host a video.

Tom V.

Years ago, I read, when Smokey was racing Chevys in NASCAR, he would install obvious rule violations, so the inspectors wouldn't catch the not so obvious ones.

Small addition after doing a little research to what Tom said about Smokey..
He flew a B-17 over Europe..his plane "Smokey and his firemen" flew 50 missions.
Not debating he told Tom about flying out of Florida, but his biggest role in the war was in the European campaign

I think his autobiography says he flew over Florida after the war and like what he saw, so he relocated there and started his best damn garage.

That's what I read as well..

He also used to do a column in Popular Science, I believe.

I met Smokey at the 1997 POCI convention.....very nice guy....
I have his autograph inside the glove box door of my GTO, next to the signatures of John Delorean and Jim Wangers.