Dis is My Ride!!!
ide love to meet richard petty,,,last great american icon ...
Richard Petty is another class act. It is amazing that he has survived NASCAR for so long. I visited him at his home in Randalman (I don't know if I spelled that right), a really nice ranch style home. Me and my friend Chad went there to see about getting some parts for his hemi. Richard had some of his workers and relatives there and he had prepared this cast iron caldron full of chili and he was stirring it with what looked like a circumcised canoe paddle. He served us up a bowl and it was really tasty. Dale Inman was there too. Richard said that he really wasn't supposed to be selling any parts because that was in his deal with Chrysler so Chad didn't get what he wanted. However, in one bay, the old 43 Jr Barracuda drag car was sitting. There was no engine or trans in it and it was basically a roller collecting dust. Richard and Dale said if we saw anything there we wanted we could deal because nothing there was tied up with Chrysler. I found two special carbs. They were custom-built 850 center squiters with 50 cc pumps. The trick thing was that they were made prior to the "Centra-
Flow" carb production. The guided roller for the mechanical linkage had a spud tig-welded to the center body that the threaded axle went into. All the production ones were integrally cast. The air horns were milled. I bought them for $100 each. I kept them all these years and around '95, I took them to Chuck Gulledge, a Holley tech rep that went into his own business in Clearwater, FL, and I had him restore them. Chuck was another special friend that I lost to cancer....about 10-years ago. I wrapped them up and stored them in a plastic tote until last year. A friend in Springhill Florida who goes by "Tattoo Bill" really wanted them so we made a deal. I took pictures of them before turning them over. I can't get pictures to work on this site and it frustrates the hell out of me. If someone wants to see them, send me a regular email address and and I'll email them out of Adobe Photoshop. Maybe once you get them you can post them.
Also while at Richards, he took us in the house to show us his "museum"....no not car stuff...he collected all kinds of clocks and watches. It was truly amazing.
Behind the shop was kind of a drainage canal. There in the water and muck must have 25 or so hemi blocks - all destroyed. There were 8-bolt cranks sticking up out of the mud as well as busted hemi heads. Richard said he was going to have it filled and leveled over because he was expanding. Before we left, one of his guys told us that out front, before all the blacktop went down, there is a whole wing car burried.I don't think he was lying because he had nothing to gain. He said much of the R&D parts were destroyed on purpose and that many NASCAR hemi rods were pitched into the muck.
I am out of time now but I intend to reply to everyone that has posted.
Thanks
Pat