Jim Dillon

I mentioned in the 413 thread about Larry Lombardo's 61 F/S that won the 68 Nationals and low and behold here I find it on the HAMB. I had heard it was in Pa. and apparently and gladly such was the case. I believe this is one of the best stockers to hold up the Corvette colors on the quarter mile. I think John Neas and Dan Hampton also saw this car run at the Nats in 68. This car ran consistent mid to low 12 second times with a "stock" 283. It remains the best running stocker I ever witnessed, a combination of a great driver and engine builder/tuner Roger Sinistri. I will dig up some other pics of it. Hopefully the Youtube video will work-Jim

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

Jim Dillon

Thought I would throw out some other pics and an article from Roger Sinisti's son posted on the HAMB sometime earlier. In the photo of Lombardo at Indy holding the trophy the guy holding the trophy with him I am pretty sure is Sinistri. Sinistri built and tuned a number of strong running Corvettes during this era. Great car-JIm

john neas

That car ran the typical Eastern Pa tune up for that era. Quite often they also ran a Ed Winfield cheater cam. Although the cars were effective, you would wonder if the Forgedtrue pistons (heavy) and the Dykes rings (did they really seal well with that low compression)? As a side note there is a 55 Chevrolet in Tulsa that has held the NHRA stock- super stock record off & on since 1974. Its a 265 with flat top pistons (legal overbore, I believe .070), the single WCFB and the last I looked ran in the 11.20s. This would easily beat the 413 and Stingray in the other posts. Before I get to many spears thrown at me I realize that the rules are looser now than in the 60s. Fun to live in the past.
Regards

427Hotrod

That's just too cool! Thanks for digging those pics up!

JIM

Dan Hampton

Special thanks to Jim Dillion for posting those great pics. Those almost brought tears to my eyes. What a great car and what a great era that period was. I had a number of those same Crane Cams t-shirts that are shown in the Victory Circle pic. It is amazing to look at the size of the crowds, too. Thanks, again, Jim, for a great walk down memory lane.

BTW, the sound from that exhaust tells me that isn't "your father's 283/270 hp engine".

DH

futura

Ya got to love it.

midyearvette

Dan Hampton

Jim:

What ever became of Larry Lombardo and Roger Sinistri? They were really young to win a Stock Eliminator at Indy. I would bet that no one that young ever did that.

groovyjay

Very cool! Thanks for sharing...

Jim Dillon

Dan, As discussed in the other thread Lombardo went on to drive for Jenkins with pretty good success throughout the seventies. I do not know what happened after that and do not know of his whereabouts today.

As to Roger Sinistri his son Roger Jr. is out there and I believe still building engines. He posts sometimes on the HAMB (that is where I got the two page article after I inquired of him of the specs of Buckshot). Roger Jr. pointed out his dad also built some other top cars such as Skip Bechtel's 64 Stingray "Snake Charmer", Charlie Lutz 66 "Lickety Split" Biscayne, Ed Showalter's 62 409 "Zorro", Paul Albert's Rapid Rabbit 61 Corvette (which I may have a picture of -will have to dig), and John Nugent Sr' Trautman/Nugent 60 Corvette.

Maybe someone else know of Lombardo-he still should be a "young" guy, as I am not going to admit I'm old yet-Jim

bertbrown

Jim

Paul Albert (Rapid Rabbit) had a 61 that won class at Indy. We traded phone calls to talk 315 hp '61s a long time ago. Is he still around?

Bert

knight37128

wmf62

interesting.... the article pix show it as 2-4s whereas the video and other pix show it as FI....

Bill

Jim Dillon

Bert I have no idea if Paul is around but Roger Sinistri may know. He posts on the HAMB-you should be able to find him there(I see you have posted there-look him up on the Junior Stocker thread).

Roger posted a couple of pics of Albert's 61 see below.

Bill as to the Fuel injection in the pics I noticed that as well. They ran the two fours in 68 and fuel injection in 69. The guys I was running with had the same setup, 283/270 bored to 292 with the same carbs. I am quite sure that Carmen Rotunda who ran occasionally at Milan and is lined up against Lombardo in the article above also ran the 283/270 setup for awhile. According to Roger the engine in Buckshot today is the very last engine his dad freshened up for the car which is kind of cool. In 69 He ran in G/S and I am not aware if at some point he switched to a fuel injection unit-that is possible as I lost track of the car.-Jim

Dan Hampton

I had the pleasure of talking to Roger Sinistri, Jr. last night and he said that the car ran FI, depending on the Class it elected to run. He said that Buckshot ran F/S, G/S, & H/S throughout its career. Jim is correct. The was a 2x4bbl. 270 hp car when it won at Indy in '68 and that is the set up photographed in the article that was posted.

GCD1962

Before Dick Moroso stopped running the '61 (he later bought Paul Blevins Stingray), he was running high 10s with a 272 motor in D/MP. The hookup was incredible on the car. As the lights came down he oftens sent people nearby running for cover as he would nail it and come of the line well over 9,000 rpm and the car would plain go !

wmf62

in the mid 60's there was a 57 chevy that ran at Milan, MI that used to 'launch' at 8,000... it was the most awesome, and scary, sound i ever heard....
Bill

GCD1962

Everyone would scattered expecting parts to come flying at them, but it always held together ! Love the sound of a small block at high rpms.

Jim Dillon

Bill that 57 may have been Al Maynard's car. I believe he ran a black 57 and ran with the Midwest Auto Parts clan (Arons, Gianino, Kanners, Booth). Those guys were not afraid to push the RPMs up. In 69 Wally Booth was pulling some high RPM launches with his rally green 69 Camaro, like I had never heard- I asked him what he was launching at and he told me 10,000 although I believe it was a big block. Shortly after that it became a bit more commonplace I suppose. Still great music-Jim

Dan Hampton

Does anyone have a picture of the Kanners Corvette?