John Beauchamp-Dale Swanson 60 Chevrolet Impala

[Maineboy]

In the works. Was going to wait til it was finished but not seeing new posts for several days thought I would post a few pics of the work in progress.

DSCF0003 (12) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

DSCF0002 (9) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

DSCF0005 (11) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

Not trying to be fancy, just building it as quickly as I can to be a good representative model of the real car. Only have one photo of this real car and it is B&W so some guessing takes place. This is the first model of a 60 Chevy that I have ever built.  Fun car but lots of chrome on the 1:1 car and the model too. Took all the chrome kit parts I was going to use and dumped then into a plastic container of "purple power" cleaner you can get at Family dollar.  Give it a week and all that aluminum plating is gone. Will not damage styrene. Painted it all with Rustoleum "Chrome" in a spray bomb.  Looks better to my old eyes.

MB

[TarheelRick]

Real nice looking Chevy.  Which wheels and tires are you planning to use?

[Maineboy]

THR,

Using NASCAR early 60's era from PPP and H&M wheels I got from Ron Coon. The wheels and tires do not fit well together and I did not find the correct tires on Ron's website. But I can make it work as you see in the pic.

DSCF0001 (12) by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

Hope I can cram them under the fenders. If not it will be back to square one again.

MB

[Brian Conn]

  This build is looking fabulous..... I sincerely believe that it is plausible that this car raced here in Topeka at the fairgrounds and why not, he seemed to have that track figured out with his wins there in 1956.  I don't think that I have any pictures of the '60 racing here in Topeka but that does'nt mean that there is not one some where.

Hope I can cram them under the fenders. If not it will be back to square one again.

  It's doable as far as moving the tires/wheels farther inboard to clear the fenders and 1/4 panels ....I can explain further if you want.   

[Maineboy]

Brian, 

Thanks for the nice words and offer to help.  This is the only picture I have been able to find of the real car and it's black and white of course, something that does NOT help when trying to replicate a race car from the 1950's early 60's era. I have no idea what track that photo was taken at. Neither John nor Dale Swanson were NASCAR regulars. But he surely competed, and won a ton, on midwest tracks in this era. John was IMCA champion several times, a tremendous testimony to Swanson's skill as a builder and his skill has a driver.

60 chev30 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


The decal set I got does not match some of the smaller decals on the doors but in the real world those sponsors could change often. But I had hoped it would be a good representative take on the real car. I bought this kit, and a kit to build John's 61 Impala, the car he nearly was killed in at Daytona, and one or 2 more from Fred. I found that buying 3 or 4 at a time gets a whole lot better deal on the shipping. Also got a 62 Pontiac that I am searching for the David Pearson decal set for that car. Got a pic of the real car, in color, but have not found that decal set yet. It is probably not too obvious yet but I like building some of the more obscure race cars. You can find Junior Johnson decal sets for about every type of car ever raced in NASCAR because Junior drove anything anyone would let him drive for a very long time. But I like going off the beaten path whenever I can.

I am using the wheelbacks that came with the 60 kit, with the Ron Coon Wheels. Not a perfect fit but will work. I am thinking that I will need to cut some of the axle mounting on the wheelbacks off until they fit. I think I recall someone else talking about that on here a while ago. Got to wait til I can set the body on the chassis to see how much. I will keep your generous offer in mind. Thanks

MB

[Olderndirt]

 I think if you look closely at the wheels on the actual car they are 6 lug truck wheels.

 Olderndirt

[Maineboy]

Yes I am pretty sure you are correct on that. I got the wheels from Ron Coon before I saw by looking hard that they are indeed 6 lug on the actual car. With Beauchamp's first stock car, the 55 Chevy, Swanson lobbied hard for Chevrolet to make the pick up truck rear end available in a passenger car. I think he was looking at the lower gear ratio at the time but they soon were showing six lug wheels (pick up pattern) on their stock cars.  I can get 6 lug wheels from  Ron and probably should.

MB

[Tom Birky]

Looking good! Keep us posted as you go.

Tom

[Maineboy]

Tom,

      Thanks for the encouragement. I will keep all posted. I am glad to see a bit of activity here, glad I could stir the pot a bit so to speak.

      I admire John Beauchamp and Dale Swanson a lot as they were small town boys from a remote part of the country, who took NASCAR by storm whenever they had the chance. John and Dale took second place in the last race held on the Daytona sand, in 1957, in one of the famed Black Widow '57 Chevrolets. Swanson was offered the chance to head up Chevrolet's racing division in Atlanta, GA. And turned it down for family reasons. I have had a couple emails with Dale Swanson, Jr, asking for info on that '55 Chevy (their first stock car) that I hope to build soon. I told him I thought his dad had been a very skillful builder and they had every reason in the world to be darned proud of what he accomplished. Dale Jr, and sons are still building engines, and race cars...... in Harlan, IA of course.

DS2 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

The nut did not fall far from the tree!


Some things, like this big Y-Block are just timeless! This is not fancy yet reminds me of when I was young in body as well as heart.
DS3 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

This Dale Swanson, Jr build takes me right back to my misspent youth. I was always a Chevy guy but had a place in my heart for Ford motors like this one along with '55 to '57 Fords.

MB

[Tom Birky]

If you haven't read The Ghosts of Nascar you should find it. Tells the whole story of Dale Swanson, Tiny Lund, the Burdicks and others. Also the whole SEDCO/Swanson story. Being from Iowa, I too have an opinion about the first Daytona 500.

Tb

[hemiman_2010]

If you check my website I do have a color pic of the 60 Chevy he ran at Daytona. There are a bunch of other color pics of stock cars run in the 50s and 60s just browse and look at the pics......
here is the link it should take you to the site          SMPDECALS.com

[Maineboy]

Tom,

      That book has been in my collection for a couple of years and is what stirred my passion for finding more out about Beauchamp and Swanson. I have always sided with the supposed "underdog" and these two guys venturing into NASCAR's front yard....and beating them was just an incredible story. I love history and my own memories of racing are surely history today. Seems like a long time ago, but it was a time when personal skills and innovation and driving could take the day. Hope you don't begrudge my carrying on about the historical aspects of these little cars we build today.

Hemiman,

     Thanks for the info I will be sure to check that out.


Beauchamp and Lee Petty hideous crash on Daytona's high bank, in 1961.

This starts back with the controversy over just who won the first Daytona 500 in 1959. This story first came to me via "The Ghosts of NASCAR" and I have done further research on it as I can. In a photo finish in the first Daytona 500 Race, Beauchamp, driving a Ralph Moody 59 T-Bird,  was declared the winner. Petty protested. After 3 days Big Bill France took the win away from Beauchamp and gave it to Petty. In the finish line photo Petty was slightly ahead of Beauchamp. But according to Beauchamp's pit crew, and others in the pits, Petty was a lap down. He had made one more pit stop than Petty. That was about 50 secs for one lap. Who counted laps for Petty?    His wife!  Legend has it that Petty won other races the same way. France did not want to let the idea of shoddy scoring get out. He had worked hard to covet the image that NASCAR in those days was honest and above board.

In 61 Beauchamp and Petty, and others, were driving in a shorter qualification race before the 500. Petty was ahead in a 61 Plymouth and Beauchamp drafting him. This you tube video shows a truly horrifying crash that ensued. The first time I saw this I could not imagine how anyone could survive such a crash. Cars were capable of 130- 140 mph then and had nothing like the cages that exist in cars today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohw7OMMAgUw

It is thought that Beauchamp was going to play bump and run and spin Petty out of the way. Grudges can do that plus that was always a part of racing at this level. It has looked to me like the two cars actually got hooked together as they went off the track right in line with each other still.

Screen shots from the video:

Petty is just starting to turn to the right and Beauchamp's 61 Chevy is right behind him.
PB2 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


Petty's car is out of sight and Beauchamp is just going over the railing. Both cars rolled violently and crashed to the ground on their roofs.
PB5 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr


Who would have wanted to been in this car when it crashed?  Clear the roll bar saved his life.
PB8 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

Nobody ever said that racing cars was for the faint of heart!

MB

[Olderndirt]

 I know that in about ‘61 they ran a Chevy Impala in the sedan race in England against the cream of the sedans in Europe. That Impala dominate them so bad it was pathetic. It went out with a broken wheel and from then on a lot of racers ran six lug wheels. The guys in England took no chances and changed the rules so American sedans no longer qualified.

Olderndirt