I got some info on that SRD built 70 Camaro

RichSchmidt · #1 08-26-2011, 02:31 AM

About 2 years ago I won an auction on Ebay for what was advertised as a 1970 Camaro ex prostock car that was built by SRD and last updated in about 1972. It had a 1979 nose and tail lights on it. After looking at pics of the Jenkins 70 Camaro when ZUL owned it I could see that the cars must have been built identical side by side. It had the SRD cage with side bars that ran to the firewall and the A-pillar bars mounted on top of them,and the support bars from the same spot on the firewall to the front subframe,the 3 link backhalf(ladder bars added later)with Dana 60,super tricks,airheart brakes,old pinto rack ect. The deal fell thru,and the car got sold and shuffled around to a few owners and I lost track of it. I placed a wanted ad on Racing Junk looking for the car and had a response the next day. The new owner has a ton of history on the car,and it is super interesting. Back in 1972 Joe Lepone's couson,a guy named Bob Demarco wanted to go pro stock racing. Joe told his cousin that he knew that there was a 1970 Camaro down at SRD that they were keeping there as a spare for Jenkins. He bought the car,and raced it for a few years,and then sold it. The car supposedly floated around the PA area with a Jenkins built 427 under the hood for many years. It seems that the car was probably not built for Jenkins,but somehow it ended up there. It seems that the car was orange at some point in it's life,and it was rumored that Brooklyn Heavy had a car built at SRD. Who knows.It was white when Demarco raced it. The car has what looks to be a non Camaro steering column,maybe an early Chevy 2,it was acid dipped before it was built at SRD,but still has a VIN number,and some of the original interior panels,most of the original firewall,most of the inner 1/4 structure,inner roof structure,floor pans,has a headliner in it,and aside from the updated nose and tail treatment it wasnt updated at all since 1972. When the new owner removed the 1979 rear tail lights,the holes for the 1970 tail lights were there,with just a strip cut out between the lights for the 79 lights to mount to. All the rest of it was stock under the rear bumper cover.

What a find,I really missed the boat on this one,I want to go take a look at the car,and get some more info. This might even be Brooklyn Heavy's Dick Harrell car. An NICB report sure would help. I want to get the new owner hooked up on this forum so maybe he can share sme more info.

BTW,the car was briefly owned by a guy named Jim Frost,who supposedly collects cars. Does anybody here know of him?

Here are some pics of the car as it sits now. in the pic of the back seat area with the passenger side wheel tub in t you can see the top of a post sticking thru the floor,thats the mounting bar for the 3rd link,a real Jenkins setup.

Now heres a real interesting pair of photos. Compare the pic of this roll cage and fiberglass dash to the black and white pic of the Jenkins backhalf 70 Camaro when Richie Zul owned it in about 1973. Cool huh?

**69L78** · #2 08-26-2011, 03:14 AM

I know a Jim Frost from Cumberland, Md who deals in cars and parts. If you want his number, let me know.

RichSchmidt · #3 08-27-2011, 02:19 AM

Yup that would be him. The car is a few miles outside Cumberland now,the owner knows Jim,I was wondering if anybody remebered the car being with him. Thanks.

**markjohnson** · #4 08-27-2011, 03:05 AM

Rich, I remember that White Pro Camaro when it was on E-Bay a couple of years ago and I thought it was really interesting also. It really reminded me much on that '70 Camaro that I had 4-5 years ago. You may remember it from back then, I had purchased it out of Oklahoma City where it was just sitting in the backyard at the house of a bitter X-wife that wouldn't put me in touch with her X-husband about the car. Anyway, it was advertised as just an old, used up Bracket car on E-Bay but I noticed that it had a complete Ramchargers' Magnesium Dana 60, 4-wheel Hurst Airheart brakes, parachute mount, rack-&-pinion, etc. and I just knew that it was a little more than just a Bracket car!

**markjohnson** · #5 08-27-2011, 03:19 AM

The X-wife had thought the car was just a '72 Camaro and when I picked it up I realized that the Cowl Tag was still in place and it revealed a Shadow Grey 1970 Camaro Z-/28. It was also a radio delete, 4-Speed car. That was a nice surprise! Now this car had a four-link rear suspension in place but the brackets were still in place on the passenger side where it had a 3-link rear suspension in it at one time. I know that SRD kinda specialized in those 3-Links and I was very anxious to try to find some history on the car. The single brake master cylinder was even an interesting clue as I've seen pictures of Grump's '70 car with it hacing a single master cylinder. Anyway, everybody that claimed they were able to get NICB reports were just full of shit when it came down to it. I kept the car for about a year and sold it out of frustration after not being able to find any history on it but I still think that the car was probably something special!

jannes_z-28 · #6 08-27-2011, 10:36 AM

3-link rear suspensions were the primary "thing" for ProStock cars in the 70s. If properly set up it would launch the car like a rocket. But the problem were just to set it up. The pictures of this one shows an early setup.

Later they started to make brackets for the upper rod to move the rod sideways. I have seen some cars that could move the rod 4" in sideway adjustments. Reason for this was that if the rod were not in the perfect side adjustment the car would launch in a twist, in extreme cases resulting in lifting the left rear tire. This made it really difficult to dial in the suspension on different track conditions and eventually they moved to 4-link setups that were more controllable even though they were not as good as a 3-link.

Jan

RichSchmidt · #7 08-28-2011, 12:13 AM

Yup Mark,that definatly looks like it was built in the early 70's as a pro stocker or late 70's as a modified production car. I doubt it was an SRD car that was built for pro stock. In 70,a few of the cars were running the old bolt in bars,and by 71 most SRD cars had the type of cage thats in the pictures I posted. Notice how the door bar actually goes from the main hoop directly down to the floor mid way along the door opening right over where the subframe mounting ara is,then another bar extends foward from there and goes to the firewall where it is bolted to the firewall with a plate on the outside of the firewall that has a bar that is welded to the front subframe.The top driver's side door bar was aded later on. The bar that runs down the front windshield(a-pillar) doesnt go all the way to the floor,it mounts to the top of the bar that runs to the firewall. The drivers side bar on the car in the pics was added later. as far as I know,this cage wouldnt have been legal to run faster then 10.0 anytime after about 1980. Prety much all prostockers buit after 1974 were tube chassis cars.

As for the Jenkins 3 link,if you look at this car,you will see that the mounting bar is centered in the car. I believe his setup used a link that was actually more like a wishbone that acted to both center the axle and provide suspention.This car had aftermarket frame rails in the back,and the entire floor was cut out and a box was built to cover the 3 link setup,and that box was at least as big as what would be needed to clear a 4 link.

As for you car,it looks a little like another car I have seen. If the pics are still available,there is a write-up on that red 1970 Camaro that raced on an episode of pinks and was lost to a blue chevy powered Mustang. That was repored to be an ex prostocker as well,the cage looks a lot more like yours. I wonder whose old car that was.

RichSchmidt · #8 03-31-2013, 01:46 AM

Here are some pics of the car from back in the day. After it was sold from SRD,the car was raced as a gas class car. I spoke to Pete Huntchinson from SRD about the car,and he said they never built a 2nd gen backhalf car for pro stock,but the front end work looks like a car they built for Wayne Jesel. I contacted Wayne about it,and am also waiting a call back from Derrick Von Bargen,who was the D in SRD,and part of the Jenkins "super crew" back in the day. Here are the pics. They aren't great,but you can get the idea.

Peter426 · #9 04-25-2013, 12:06 AM

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichSchmidt</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-style: italic">I spoke to Pete Huntchinson from SRD about the car,and he said they never built a 2nd gen backhalf car for pro stock,but the front end work looks like a car they built for Wayne Jesel.</span></div></div>

Jesel's Camaro was a 1974 model if I remember correctly. I suggest you pose this question and post the photos to the Classracer.com web site. Lots of long time drag racers there should be able to figure out whose car it was.

Regards,

Pete

Peter426 · #10 04-25-2013, 01:47 AM

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichSchmidt<span style="font-style: italic"></div><div class="ubbcode-body">...and am also waiting a call back from Derrick Von Bargen,who was the D in SRD,and part of the Jenkins "super crew" back in the day.</span></div></div>

One more thing: the "D" in SRD stood for Development, as in <span style="font-weight: bold">Speed Research & Development Co.</span> You're right about Derrick being a part of Grump's "Super Crew" which SRD race cars sprouted from.

Regards,

Pete