Talladagea Parade Lap

[marty42]

Now that it it over, did anyone see the cars on TV?  They were on the Jumbotron at the track.  D id they make it on air?  Carol

[A383Wing]

I saw nuthin' on TV this last weekend...when we were there in '99....Dennis Gage was there and did a special...we didn't get to see it until almost 2 months later on Speed

[70Sbird]

Justin,
Thanks for posting the YouTube links!
It was great to meet you there and see your handiwork in person!
Thanks for taking a look at my car as well
Scott

[Dave Kanofsky]

The car has a new owner...someone we are all very familiar with...I'll let him chime in - he is a very happy guy right now...Congrat's to him...

[Aero426]

The car no longer has the Hemi in it from long ago.  While I was looking at the car with a friend of mine, I was telling him what I knew about the car.  I was telling him that it was a Nichels built car.  I then said that I thought it might still be the original dash in it.  About that time, a man who was standing on the other side of the car spoke up and said that it was indeed the original dash.  He then said that once belonged to his "old man".  I asked "Did your dad purchase the car from Ramo?" and he replied "No, Ramo Stott is my dad".  How cool is that!?  Anyways, he told me man cool stories on the car from when his dad had it.  He kept the car until the late 80s/ early 90s.  According to him, up until the, the car was just as it was when it was last raced.  The car was still wearing #47 at the time of the sale.  The new owner repainted the body back to it's original appearence... with the #7.  Some time after the car was sold, the owner was driving it and something went wrong with the original race Hemi.  What happened??  I'm not 100% sure.  I'm not so sure on the history of the engine that is currently in the car either.  Maybe Doug can shed a little light on the details of the engine.  

Justin
"CornDog"

All the above is true.   The car is the only remaining intact Superbird stock car from the period.   It is a Nichels built car that Chrysler gave to Ramo to campaign in ARCA and the midwest.  It is the first Superbird to win a race which was the ARCA 300 at Daytona.    It also won in ARCA at Talladega in 1970, and scored two 8th place finishes in NASCAR at Daytona and Talladega.   It's final win was in USAC on the high banks at Michigan in the summer of 1972.  

Ramo owned the car until the late 80's and sold it to Jeff Bobst with a running race engine.   Keep in mind that this car had many different race engines over the three full seasons it raced.  The race engine that was in it when sold to Jeff was blown at Road America in the early 90's.   For the rebuild, Jeff used a street Hemi block with a roller cam and high compression.   All the externals on the engine are correct.   Although it is not a race block, it sounds fantastic and exactly like it should.  

The car as delivered to Jeff was in good shape paint wise with the 1972 #47 race number still on it.  It was just like it came off the track in Sept of '72.    Jeff brought it to Talladega in 1988 and left it at the Hall of Fame museum.    Unfortunately,  the museum kept the car along with some others on display outside (!) which did a number on the old paint over the course of a year.  I am sure this is why Jeff repainted it shortly after racing back to retrieve the car.   He painted the car back to the 1970 #7 treatment, but kept the later body mods like the enlarged grille,  open left headlight for the oil cooler, and enlarged rear wheel openings.

Jeff owned the car until 1997 when Ken Noffsinger acquired it.    Ken is a real historian, and has been a great custodian of the car.  He kept it as original as possible and maintained it in good mechanical order. Ken resisted the temptation to mess with or restore things that were still as they were. This is why when Justin looked at the dash, it looks original because it is. even if it is not perfect.    Ken has recently passed the keys to me.   Having witnessed this car on-track in 1972 when I was 10 years old, all I can say is that the car is a dream come true.  I can only hope to be as good a keeper of the car as Ken.  

The car is a brute and yet has many fragile pieces that are made of unobtainium.   It has all its original body panels which considering how many times it raced, is pretty amazing.    The best way to put it, is that you can go to Oshkosh to see old warbirds fly.  But most of the remaining planes were built at the end of WW II and saw little or no real action.   The #7 car is like a P-51 that has a couple of bullet holes.  

[Aero426]

This is Ramo's son Lance behind the wheel on the parade lap.  Does he look like a happy guy, or what?

[Charger-Bodie]

I sat in that car when it still belonged to Jeff. It is a very cool piece of history.

[pettybird]

This is Ramo's son Lance behind the wheel on the parade lap.  Does he look like a happy guy, or what?

it looks like he (and the rest of us) is waiting for the lights on the pace car to go out and duck into the pits 

[WINGR]

Hey Doug, his smile is almost as big as yours was when you were driving it. Congrats again, you two were meant for eachother. 

WINGR/Steve