[WARIARGTO]

Reminds me of a story my dad told me about his '63 AFX Z11. That was one fast street car as well. One day mom was at the gas station on the way to pick up some grocerys in it and it loaded up and stalled, couldn't get it started. So the guy who owned the station was a friend of my dads, offered to push start it with the wrecker. She agreed, got it rolling, and when she let out the clutch it stalled the wrecker. Oh the days of compression...

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by WARIARGTO

Reminds me of a story my dad told me about his '63 AFX Z11. That was one fast street car as well. One day mom was at the gas station on the way to pick up some grocerys in it and it loaded up and stalled, couldn't get it started. So the guy who owned the station was a friend of my dads, offered to push start it with the wrecker. She agreed, got it rolling, and when she let out the clutch it stalled the wrecker. Oh the days of compression...

Mom used to drive our race cars on the street (a little bit).

Our '63 SD Catalina, aluminum front end, four speed car - was pretty much the family car. Dad would race it and if need be, swap the rear gears so they could drive it from Michigan "down home" to Missouri and back. They made that trip a couple times in that car.

One other story comes to mind: our '65 GTO had the battery in the trunk when we received it. There has always been something messed up with the electrical system on that car*, so there were a number of occasions where Mom would drive it to the corner market, do some shopping and then come out to find the battery dead.

I remember more than once that she called a tow truck driver for a jump start. He'd be talking to mom and I'd be in the back seat, little guy that I was, bouncing up and down saying "The battery's in the trunk! The battery's in the trunk!".

The driver would look at mom like "lady can't you control your kid?", walk to the front of the car and lift the hood. After a minute or two, he'd walk back to mom and humbly ask "...uh....lady....where's the battery in this thing?".

Mom would quietly answer: "The battery is in the trunk".



One of the many perils of driving a race car on the street. I won't even mention what is was like for my petite 5'4" mom to push the clutch in on those 4 speed cars!!

K

* one of the assemblers shot a screw through the main wiring harness. Even to this day if you hit the high beams it shorts the whole car out. I suppose sometime in the next 45 years I should get around to fixing that. (lol) In the meantime, we just don't use the high beams.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Our '63 SD Catalina, aluminum front end, four speed car - was pretty much the family car. Dad would race it and if need be, swap the rear gears so they could drive it from Michigan "down home" to Missouri and back. They made that trip a couple times in that car.

In fact, Mike Noun was kind enough to post some video on Youtube of this car for me. You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0M4DQhXKE

It just occurred to me that these home movies were made in SE Missouri, roughly 700 miles away from home.

I believe Dad made a couple of passes at George Ray's dragstrip while they were down there.

K

[SD421]

Being its Memorial Day, I remembered back in 1996 when Jim came down for the weekend. I had a hunch and was just looking for him online and his obituary popped up.
🥺 Jim and I at the Madras Raceway in 1995

https://www.royhetland.com/obituarie...s-christianson

[sdbob]

I read those stories about Jim Christianson in old 421 club newsletter. I thought also back then having a 63 421SD on the street. Wow! Racing a street hemi,409 corvette,SS Ford. Dave Strickler.