Mr4speed (aka Russell Rosales) SS Nova Drag car
 

Hi Bruce!


After I purchased the Nova my first goal was to track down some of the history-because at this point nobody else could find any. Starting with a decal I found in the glove box from an old Gulf gas station it had the name Gail Simons on it. That name was also on the car. There was an address in Taylor, Michigan on it, so I started with that town. The gas station was long gone.



I started searching other names on the car in that town. I found a Dale Cado that graduated from Jefferson high school in 1970 in Taylor, Michigan. I kept looking for that person and found him living in Chicago. I found his work address and phone number and with my fingers crossed made the call! Dale answered the phone on the second ring. I told him I had a strange question to ask him. I was looking for the original owner of an old Nova drag car.


Before I could finish my sentence, he shouted out the Plain Brown Wrapper? YES!! That was me gave me chills! He was just excited as I was. Dale was able to provide me with all the history on the car along with a bunch of vintage pictures of it.



The car was ordered originally from Les Stanford Chevrolet in Dearborn, Michigan in 1969. It was Fathom Green with a black vinyl top. It was a Super Sport with a bench seat and a 4 speed car. Dale street raced the car for two years-but as the car became less steetable, it became a dedicated track car and was given a silver psychedelic 70's paint job.



The car first raced in modified production with a tunnel rammed small block at tracks all over Detroit (like Milan, US131 and Detroit Drag Way. The car later switched to C super modified and Dale couldn’t handle the psychedelic paint job anymore, so in 1975 the car was painted the current brown and first became the Plain Brown Wrapper. During the off-season Dale would show the car at the Detroit Autorama.


Dale worked at Diamond Racing Engines and after blowing up the engine in 1980 with the cost of competition getting so high, he finally decided to hang it up-but to do so he quit his job and relocated to Chicago to make a clean break from racing.



The car was sold through National Dragster magazine and Dale provided me the original for sale ad as well. The car has changed hands five times since he sold it, but the history was lost after the second owner. The car as it is today is exactly how it was in 1980 when Dale sold it...every decal the same, even the tires! (Minus the race engine).


I hope you enjoy the feature,


Russell

Continued!

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As it looks today! :headbang:

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[EDIT: Added for sale ad from National Dragster in 1980! Thanks Russell!!]

Outstanding......we need to have this Nova at MCACN in 2019 :)

Dan

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Simply awesome stuff!:headbang:
:beers:
~ Pete

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Seeing the evolution is pretty darn cool, great pics , thanks for posting Bruce.

Des, Thanks to Russell for sharing!!:headbang:

thanks so much for sharing!its been quite the adventure!

That's a cool story for sure, and the pics were fun to trip through.

Thanks for sharing

Awesome detective work Russell and very neat story. Now all you need to do is trailer the car to Chicago and pull it into Dale's driveway for a reunion and photo session to complete the story.

for sure Rick! Dale and i have become good friends and he really enjoys talking about the good old days! the car is featured in the current issue of Traditional Rod and Kulture magazine so its cool to have Dales story out there after all these years.

Just awesome!!

Good, good stuff. The morphing thru the years is priceless. Congrats and thanks for sharing!!!

Bring the Wrapper to Chicago and with can take pictures of it with my F85.. My shop is only 10 or 15 minutes from RT66,

Now that would be awesome, I got a camera guy :)

Dan

That is so cool!!

Love it! Great job Russell and thanks Bruce for putting the story up.:beers:

Super Cool Car great history

Such a cool car, the history and relationships is what makes it so special! I love seeing it at my old home track, Milan Dragway.

THANK'S KEN TOTALLY AGREE!I EVEN RECEIVED A Christmas CARD THIS YEAR FROM THE ORIGINAL OWNER DALE. PRETTY COOL