Re: Looking for early info on Bill Thomas
Glad to, Joe. Here's a little narrative on what I've learned about my car.
First, the things I know: I bought my '57 579C from the widow of it's second owner, Sam Woodbury, Jr. of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Thanks to Jim Gessner, I was connected with it's original owner, Dalton Danon of Beverly Hills. Dalton died this past November 11 at 90. Before he died, though, I got to visit with Dalton many times. Two times in person- when I bought the car in April, 2012, and when I went back to LA in June, 2013. We also visited many, many times on the phone.
Dalton bought the car with a few hundred miles on it at Harry Mann Chevrolet in late July or early August of 1957, but he very pointedly told me to never forget that the car had initially come from CS Mead Chevrolet in Pasadena. He didn't know if someone had owned it before him, but he thought it had been used by someone, maybe CS Mead, for some racing. He knew that the car had been spun, damaging the right rear fender. He also said the car had been modified with air ducts installed in the radiator support fiberglass to vent air to the front brakes. An overflow protector was inside the gas fill door to protect the body from gas spills on hard right turns, and the outside rear view mirror had been moved forward to a more race friendly spot by the fake air duct on top of the fender so that one would not have to take their eyes off of the road as long to see who was coming up from behind. What Dalton didn't know was that someone had opened the front and back of the rocker panel areas (patches are evident today) in an attempt to vent air to the back brakes like a RPO 684 car would have. There is also a patch on the driver's side rocker under the carpet where an obstructive panel was probably removed. This work was definitely not done by the second owner, and Dalton knew nothing of it.
When Dalton bought it it had it's original engine, 3 speed, 4.11 posi, and a 4800 FI unit. Dalton ditched the 3 speed in September, bought a 4 speed had the suspension modified by Max Balchowsky, converted it to heavy duty brakes, bought wheels from Andy Porterfield, and went racing. He raced in SCCA and Cal Club events until 1960, when he was diagnosed with throat cancer.
Here's what I think happened during my car's time at CS Mead. My '57 is #2968, and it was built on or about March 23, 1957. It was (is) a black 579C (fuel injected 283hp with 3 speed), standard brakes and suspension, 4.11 posi, soft top only, radio, heater, courtesy lights and wide whites. It would have arrived at CS Mead in mid to late April. CS Mead was known for modifying and racing fuel injected Corvettes, and their man in charge of that was service manager Bill Thomas, known as the Smokey Yunick of the west coast, who would go on to further fame in the '60s as the builder of the Cheetah.
When #2968 was built the 4 speed, and the RPO 684 (heavy duty brakes and suspension) and the RPO 579D (air box package) were not yet available. 4 speeds came out in mid to late April, and 684s and 579Ds in May. I think Bill Thomas modified my car, and was trying to convert it to heavy duty brakes, probably after the spin that damaged the fender. I think he realized that it made more sense to order a more race-ready FI Corvette with a four speed, especially after the exciting new packages came out in May.
Why did it have the 4800 FI unit when Dalton bought it, and not the 4360 that it should have come with? Bill Thomas was known for modifying FI units, cutting the plenum in half to hog out the tubes inside to get more air through the engine. Pretty involved process, especially for the first few that he did. When Chevrolet released the 684 package, CS Mead ordered one, which turned out to be #5055. That was the first 684 car to reach the west coast. It was built on or about July 7, and it couldn't have reached CS Mead until mid July at the earliest. Yet the car won it's first time out with Jerry Austin at the wheel on July 27, 20 days after it was built. It's the same car that Bob Bondurant would own
and win with later, and it's been owned by Mick Swezey since 1964. Mick told me the FI unit on it, which is a Bill Thomas modified (cut in half, then re-welded) unit that has been on it since Jerry Austin won that first race, is a 4360. I think they swapped units from my car to 5055 in the interest of getting 5055 to the track ASAP. 5055 was definitely not built with a 4360. They made the swap, and buttoned up 2968 and sent it to Harry Mann to be sold
My evidence is a little slim, and more and more it seems that anyone that would know for sure is dead. I also think that Bill blueprinted my original engine, but that's even more speculative. Dalton said he regularly exceeded 7000 rpm with it, and he never understood why it didn't blow.
I put the roll bar Dalton had made for the car in 1957 and his numbers back on the car so I could send him pictures of it for his 88th birthday in July, 2012. He hadn't seen it that way since 1960. Everything's pretty intact... even his homemade pointer on the firewall for resetting timing at the drag strip:
DSC00325.jpgphoto 13.jpgDSC00045.jpgDSC00044.jpgDSC00061.jpg
and a few more old shots..
IMG_3458.JPGDSC00391.jpgsc025df09202.jpgsc025dc60002.jpgIMG_3462.JPG
Dalton's friend Fred Sutherland driving:
DSC00067.jpgand what Dalton wrote to me:IMG_0438.JPGDSC00269.jpgDSC00270.jpgcar show photo.jpg
Glad to, Joe. Here's a little narrative on what I've learned about my car.
First, the things I know: I bought my '57 579C from the widow of it's second owner, Sam Woodbury, Jr. of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Thanks to Jim Gessner, I was connected with it's original owner, Dalton Danon of Beverly Hills. Dalton died this past November 11 at 90. Before he died, though, I got to visit with Dalton many times. Two times in person- when I bought the car in April, 2012, and when I went back to LA in June, 2013. We also visited many, many times on the phone.
Dalton bought the car with a few hundred miles on it at Harry Mann Chevrolet in late July or early August of 1957, but he very pointedly told me to never forget that the car had initially come from CS Mead Chevrolet in Pasadena. He didn't know if someone had owned it before him, but he thought it had been used by someone, maybe CS Mead, for some racing. He knew that the car had been spun, damaging the right rear fender. He also said the car had been modified with air ducts installed in the radiator support fiberglass to vent air to the front brakes. An overflow protector was inside the gas fill door to protect the body from gas spills on hard right turns, and the outside rear view mirror had been moved forward to a more race friendly spot by the fake air duct on top of the fender so that one would not have to take their eyes off of the road as long to see who was coming up from behind. What Dalton didn't know was that someone had opened the front and back of the rocker panel areas (patches are evident today) in an attempt to vent air to the back brakes like a RPO 684 car would have. There is also a patch on the driver's side rocker under the carpet where an obstructive panel was probably removed. This work was definitely not done by the second owner, and Dalton knew nothing of it.
When Dalton bought it it had it's original engine, 3 speed, 4.11 posi, and a 4800 FI unit. Dalton ditched the 3 speed in September, bought a 4 speed had the suspension modified by Max Balchowsky, converted it to heavy duty brakes, bought wheels from Andy Porterfield, and went racing. He raced in SCCA and Cal Club events until 1960, when he was diagnosed with throat cancer.
Here's what I think happened during my car's time at CS Mead. My '57 is #2968, and it was built on or about March 23, 1957. It was (is) a black 579C (fuel injected 283hp with 3 speed), standard brakes and suspension, 4.11 posi, soft top only, radio, heater, courtesy lights and wide whites. It would have arrived at CS Mead in mid to late April. CS Mead was known for modifying and racing fuel injected Corvettes, and their man in charge of that was service manager Bill Thomas, known as the Smokey Yunick of the west coast, who would go on to further fame in the '60s as the builder of the Cheetah.
When #2968 was built the 4 speed, and the RPO 684 (heavy duty brakes and suspension) and the RPO 579D (air box package) were not yet available. 4 speeds came out in mid to late April, and 684s and 579Ds in May. I think Bill Thomas modified my car, and was trying to convert it to heavy duty brakes, probably after the spin that damaged the fender. I think he realized that it made more sense to order a more race-ready FI Corvette with a four speed, especially after the exciting new packages came out in May.
Why did it have the 4800 FI unit when Dalton bought it, and not the 4360 that it should have come with? Bill Thomas was known for modifying FI units, cutting the plenum in half to hog out the tubes inside to get more air through the engine. Pretty involved process, especially for the first few that he did. When Chevrolet released the 684 package, CS Mead ordered one, which turned out to be #5055. That was the first 684 car to reach the west coast. It was built on or about July 7, and it couldn't have reached CS Mead until mid July at the earliest. Yet the car won it's first time out with Jerry Austin at the wheel on July 27, 20 days after it was built. It's the same car that Bob Bondurant would own
and win with later, and it's been owned by Mick Swezey since 1964. Mick told me the FI unit on it, which is a Bill Thomas modified (cut in half, then re-welded) unit that has been on it since Jerry Austin won that first race, is a 4360. I think they swapped units from my car to 5055 in the interest of getting 5055 to the track ASAP. 5055 was definitely not built with a 4360. They made the swap, and buttoned up 2968 and sent it to Harry Mann to be sold
My evidence is a little slim, and more and more it seems that anyone that would know for sure is dead. I also think that Bill blueprinted my original engine, but that's even more speculative. Dalton said he regularly exceeded 7000 rpm with it, and he never understood why it didn't blow.
I put the roll bar Dalton had made for the car in 1957 and his numbers back on the car so I could send him pictures of it for his 88th birthday in July, 2012. He hadn't seen it that way since 1960. Everything's pretty intact... even his homemade pointer on the firewall for resetting timing at the drag strip:
DSC00325.jpgphoto 13.jpgDSC00045.jpgDSC00044.jpgDSC00061.jpg
and a few more old shots..
IMG_3458.JPGDSC00391.jpgsc025df09202.jpgsc025dc60002.jpgIMG_3462.JPG
Dalton's friend Fred Sutherland driving:
DSC00067.jpgand what Dalton wrote to me:IMG_0438.JPGDSC00269.jpgDSC00270.jpgcar show photo.jpg
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