Mr. Norm's A900 Factory Race Car For Sale

[68X426]

1965 Coronet, ad says it's unrestored, original Hemi, with 1760 miles. Quite a piece of Mopar history. $200,000.

http://www.showyourauto.com/am/listings/l0053.html

[hemigeno]

Ohh!  Ohh! 

I know that car...

[Todd Wilson]

That truck is still sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!


Todd

[Ghoste]

   The car is cool too of course. 

[Magnumcharger]

Not to detract from the topic (okay...a bit), I'm looking for THIS A990, driven by John Petrie "back in the day".

[maxwellwedge]

Ohh!  Ohh! 

I know that car...

Soooooo - Tell us more!

[maxwellwedge]

Not to detract from the topic (okay...a bit), I'm looking for THIS A990, driven by John Petrie "back in the day".

Great pics Robin! My 69 Hemi Bee came from Argyle and so did my buddy's Hemi Challenger rag. They also sold new a Hemi Daytona. They were kinda like Mr. Norm's North.....And there my friends is the tie-in from Robin's topic detraction!  

[Ghoste]

There are likely only a dozen or so of us on here who know who John Petrie is.

[hemihead nc]

...OK..here's  what I remember...you might want to get comfortable, this could take a bit....in 1964 Jim Almeter of Attica, NY bought a 64 Max Wedge Plymouth from Exchange Auto Sales ( a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership), Attica NY and raced it by the name "THUNDER" in A/SA. In 1965 the partnership of Almeter, Don Townsed and Neil Marzolf bought a 65 Dodge WO/A990 ( light blue/TF) from Greco Sales And Service, a Dodge Dealer in Darien Center, NY..it was raced as " THUNDER II "in S/SA. Almeter was the primary driver, but all three took turns at Lancaster(1/8) and Niagara (1/4) drag strips in NY on a regular basis. Almeter did tour with the car to Atco, York,Englishtown and other east coast tracks. They were quite successful anywhere they went. In 1966 the car was repainted black with a small 'tornado/twister' graphic on the doors, still named THUNDER II. The car was always run as a legit SS/A car, no 2% or altered WB. On the way to INDY in 1966 for the NATS, the Ford panel truck they towed with had a trans failure somewhere east of Indy. One of the guys who was following them to the races had a new 1966 Dodge Charger 426 Street HEMI( having traded in a 1964 Polara Race Hemi), chain towed the entire race rig aprox 100 miles into town, so the boys could race. I bought  that Charger in 1984, restored it, and have been driving it since 1991.
   Families, work, $$$$$$ and other things ( AWB, fuel injection, and mods WAY beyond stock) got in the way of racing for the guys and sometime in late 66/early 67 the car was sold into Ontario, Canada to be raced by John Petrie. I dont remember who actually owned the car, but you can see in the pics the transformation the car underwent...legal SS to Ultra Stock( i think a NASCAR Class ) to AFX type mods. I dont recall much of the car after 68/69, I think it was even painted red/Highlander plaid at one time. Luck and time and the rapid change to funny cars saved the car , it just dropped out of site ....
    Sometime in the summer of 1997, Almeter and I were at a cruz-in, just yackin about stuff, and he says that some guy from Fort Erie, Ontario contacted him about some old race car....1965 Dodge Coronet A990...Almeter wanted to buy the car back, the the fellow from Canada wanted info so he could restore it back to day one as raced condition. I know there was a lot of back and forth between them, and I moved from western NY to NC in 1999, so I lost out on a lot of the restoration process.
   I dont know when the car was finished or officially debuted, but it was at the Hemi Reunion in OHIO, completely restored to absolute 'as raced' day one condition. I have not seen the car in person, but all the pics and the guys I know from up north from 'back in the day' say it is just like someone had turned back the hands of time.
    Don Townsend and Neil Marzolf are still around the Attica and Darien area, but we lost Jim Almeter to pancreatic cancer last year........but I'm sure he is either racing S/S or building hot rods or riding his HOG in the great beyond......God bless ya 'Meter.....

[Magnumcharger]

Not to dispute any of what was said above, but I'm pretty sure Petrie's A990 was ordered at Argyle Dodge in 1965 and raced that year by Petrie and 1966 as well. In 1967 he aligned with Ford/Mercury and raced an AF/X Comet sponsored by British Petroleum.

I'm on Vancouver Island right now, and will be here for a week. It is my hope to actually visit and speak with John Petrie and discuss this, and many other topics.

I saw the Thunder II A990 at Moparfest in 2009. It was very well done!

[hemigeno]

Ohh!  Ohh! 

I know that car...

Soooooo - Tell us more!

That's Norm Brandes' car, and has been for quite a while.  Through his business (Westech Automotive) in Silver Lake, WI, Norm has built a couple of engines for me and also supplied a lot of period-correct components for the Hemi in my R/T.  He also worked with me to conjure up the stroked polysphere engine in the 2-ton truck. 

The car itself is quite legit as an A-990, and Norm used to race it regularly around SE Wisconsin up to a couple of years ago.  Last I heard, he had de-tuned it to run around 11.0 in the quarter so he didn't get yelled at by the track officials to install a cage.  From what Norm said the car was more than capable of running low 10's.  I'm not an expert in everything race-hemi related, but I think all the really rare stuff is already there.

I had the truck at his place a couple years ago for yet another camshaft swap (decent cams are really, really hard to find for Poly engines), and I left it there for a couple months.  Once they got the engine up and running again, they "field tested" it by hauling the A-990 around to a couple of shows.  I made them wait to unload the car so I could snap a couple of pics.

Jim, if you need some more background info about the car, shoot me an email or call.

[Aero426]

Gene, did you drive the truck to Wisconsin and back?   

[moparstuart]

Gene, did you drive the truck to Wisconsin and back?   

id hate to see that fuel bill

[Budnicks]

Not to detract from the topic (okay...a bit), I'm looking for THIS A990, driven by John Petrie "back in the day".

Very cool photos thanks for sharing them....

[hemigeno]

Gene, did you drive the truck to Wisconsin and back?   

Yep, I did drive the truck up to Silver Lake, I just took it very easy on the way up.  I knew the cam was in the process of going south at the time, but thankfully it hadn't wiped out a lobe yet.  DC.com member Davtona went with me on that "delivery" trip , and we were yakking away when I passed up the Elkhorn exit off of I-43.  I didn't notice we had gone way too far until we got almost to New Berlin (it was Dave's first trip to Norm's place, so he takes 0% of the blame for my gaffe).  If we weren't in somewhat of a hurry to get back on the road, I would have given you a call since we were literally in your neighborhood.

With or without a car on the back, the truck seems to get about 7.5mpg.  The tank is a 63 gallon capacity, and I only run premium gas to minimize detonation.  These days, it's heart attack territory if I go to fill it up.

Norm and I have talked a couple of times over the last year or more about him possibly selling the car, and I think he'd prefer to keep it if no one steps up to the plate.  It sounds NASTY when that thing starts up...  

[hemihead nc]

...MagnumCharger, please let us know what you find out. The 60's were a L O N G time ago. I dont ever remember JP in a true S/S 65 only the injected Hemi at the beginnings of the AFX and funny car era. The one pic of his car you can read on the door 1966 NASCAR Champion. I believe thats when Niagara Drag Strip ran under the NASCAR banner, and that could have been from the NY guys exploits. A short time ago, someone from the Buffalo area posted a big bunch of pics from Niagara, 62-69 time frame. lots of stockers and Super Stocks, but I dont remember any of JP. Thunder II, Hot Foot,Bill Drake,TinkerBell, Ed Miller, Bob Repine, Butch Adriane and more were captured on someone's Instamatic or Brownie. WOW....what a blast from the past that was....Inquiring minds want to know....

[UFO]

... A short time ago, someone from the Buffalo area posted a big bunch of pics from Niagara, 62-69 time frame. lots of stockers and Super Stocks, but I dont remember any of JP. Thunder II, Hot Foot,Bill Drake,TinkerBell, Ed Miller, Bob Repine, Butch Adriane and more were captured on someone's Instamatic or Brownie. WOW....what a blast from the past that was....Inquiring minds want to know....

Got a link to those pics?

[hemihead nc]

...if you go to the HAMB ans search for Niagara drag strip, you'll get a ton of links, especially Dean Johnson's scrap book. He owned Niagara. Also try MOPARTS in the race section

[Magnumcharger]

...MagnumCharger, please let us know what you find out. The 60's were a L O N G time ago. I dont ever remember JP in a true S/S 65 only the injected Hemi at the beginnings of the AFX and funny car era. The one pic of his car you can read on the door 1966 NASCAR Champion. I believe thats when Niagara Drag Strip ran under the NASCAR banner, and that could have been from the NY guys exploits. A short time ago, someone from the Buffalo area posted a big bunch of pics from Niagara, 62-69 time frame. lots of stockers and Super Stocks, but I dont remember any of JP. Thunder II, Hot Foot,Bill Drake,TinkerBell, Ed Miller, Bob Repine, Butch Adriane and more were captured on someone's Instamatic or Brownie. WOW....what a blast from the past that was....Inquiring minds want to know....

I'll start another thread on this topic in abit. That way we'll not bogart this thread any longer. And speaking of pics of Niagara track, I'm pretty sure I have pics of Petrie at Niagara in the A990, and maybe even a few of his timeslips.