Crazy money! Imagine how many nice cars you could build for that. Sort of weird that Rod himself isn't selling it??? He has built many wild cars over the years, remember pushing his 69 Camaro pro street car at the Street Machine Nationals at Syracuse NY when he was having problems with the fuel injection.
HAHA Mark, you dont know the half of it. He came to Canfield OH or Hamburg NY every year boasting about how fast his 57 Vette was. Lightest car with the biggest engine, he always said. Well one year...without him knowing the local radio station rented Quaker City Dragway for Saturday night to have the CD106 Super Drags at the Super Nats.
Well Rod always claimed his car ran 8's, but media coverage back then was nothing like today...with Facebook and forums and texting, or Youtube so no one had really seen it. He got slammed as soon as he showed up. "Are you gonna run an 8 at Quaker????" He was like...what??? Well I dont think he had any way to get out of going, so every one of us went to watch. He made 2 runs, both in the 9's. It was fast as hell for those days. The biggest street tire that hooked was an M&H Racemaster 31x18. A bunch of us were in the stands watching. Finally Mike Ogilvie from Canada said...I bet I can run a 9. ( Do you remember his car Mark? The black with graphics 82 Dodge Rampage with the blown 440 and fuel inj and the HUGE WING??? His personal plate read RUNS 9's) Go for it we said. Well here he goes...he had to tech and borrow a helmet and all kinds of crap. Well he had just added the blower and inj so he did not know what he would run. He had been low 10's with a tunnelram and 2 carbs. He blasted the tires off the first run and went 10.8 or something like that. Went back to the pits and if I remember right...borrowed a set of tires from another guy from the show who weekend raced. Next pass...9.6. Changed the angle of his wing and lowered the air pressure and Im remembering a 9.3 his last pass.
Next day at the show...His car has 10x more people surrounding it the Rod's and everyones asking if he's going to try for the title "Fastest Street car"???
Mike is so laid back, he never really answered. Later that same summer in a magazine article about Rod's Vette...the title was "Fastest Street Car in America"
Mike showed up to the Street Machine Nats East in Hamburg NY in late August with a new plate...RUNS 8's!!! His car had a sticker that said..."The Fastest Street Car in Canada or the World" We laughed sooo hard.
I sure do miss those days. PRO STREET cars were soooo cool...no matter how fast they were.
Mike never did compete and Rod got his Vette into the 7's eventually. It was fast as Hell.
