I recently had the opportunity to see an original '55 Chev gasser preserved in it's original as raced condition where it has been stored for over 30 years. Butch Thuney, a well known Northwest drag racer has kept his '55 all this time and let us come over and check it out. I was introduced to Butch by one of his former competitors Bob Mehler, who also drove a '55 gasser in the mid 60's to early 70's called The Dirty Ole Man. Bob and I were invited over to see Butch and for me to capture this piece of history and hear about all the great stories from the day. What a treat.

One of the best stories was on a trip to Pomona for the Winternationals. They had troubles with the car pulling hard to the right whenever it was shifted hard. The car would pull the wheels up in the first 3 gears. So, Butch got to the track early in the week to test and found he had a serious problem. On one pass as he shifted to second gear & the car pulled violently to the right. He tried to correct and the car when the other way tipping up on two wheels on its side, almost going over. Well this happened back and forth 3 or 4 times before it got settled down. The crowd loved it, but he was scared s***less! They went over to a local shop that was recommended to him and the guy saw the problem right away and fixed it in a half a day for $40. He built a new steering link that was more parallel to the ground. The way it was setup before was a steep angle right to left and when the car launched one wheel went way up and made this steering so far out of whack it would turn the car once it set back down.

There were many stories passed over the period we were there (over 4 hours!) I was able to make color prints of quite a few photos I had of the car and had Butch sign and date with captions each for my "Wall Of Fame." He retired the car in the early 70's and has had sitting ever since. What an awesome car, preserved like a time capsule. He is thinking getting it going again soon to bring out and make a few appearances at nostalgia events. Butch is currently building custom choppers and attends many of the premiere bike events around the country. Some of his trademark building details can be found on many of his custom bikes. If you see the front model A straight axle, it has been drilled. He does this on everything!!! It was a really fun day.

Brad Barrie