~ The Tri-Fives ~
| As the "more mature" readers (myself included) will remember, there was a time when the 55, 56, and 57 Chevies were just about every young man's object of lust...well, one of their objects of lust, anyway. This page contains pictures of a lot of those cars that we remember from our younger days. Hope you enjoy them. The page will take a while to load (there are, after all, over 50 pictures on it) but if you're a fan of the tri-fives or just curious, it should be worth the wait. |
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Go to Page 2 of the Tri-fives |
| Note: All of these photos are credited and used with permission except for a few. Those few have been sent to me over the last several years and I'm sorry, I just don't know who shot or sent them. If you see a pic here that belongs to you, please email me at byron@gassermadness.com and let me know if you would like it removed or credited. |
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Michael Steed sent this one. This was just about the perfect 55 gasser in the 60's! |
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Tiny Eglit's "Hell Fire" gasser. Tiny's got this all steel car in the 7's! You can also visit his "Hell Fire Racing" website |
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Tiny also has his Nostalgia C/G 55 with a Hilborn injected 355. This has been a gasser since the 60's |
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Tiny's B/G 55 at the 68 NHRA Springnationals. Ran a Crower injected 427" BBC. |
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Of course a guy has to get to work too. Here's Tiny's street 55 with a 454" BBC with 2 AFB's. |
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Tiny's son Bobby is doing a good job following in the old man's tire tracks with a blown SBC. |
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Here's a couple of healthy looking 55's |
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Don't know who it is...don't know who took the picture...but I LIKE IT! |
| Well...at least I now know something about the car. Received the following on 4/10/00:
This car belonged to Charles Carpenter of Charlotte, NC until a few years ago when
he built a new 55. At that time it probably had a 632 fulton motor with 3 stages of nitrous. We ran Super Chevy
shows and matched raced it with the infrequent IHRA race thrown in for good measure. The car ran 6.60s at 210 Dave Covington, Snow Camp, NC |
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Nice fenderwell headers, huh? |
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Notice the license plate. A lot of these cars were street drivers back then. You didn't want to break at the strip! |
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Pretty typical Sunday afternoon at Lions (or anywhere else) in around 1965. |
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A pair of nice 57's...30 years apart! |
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Anybody have any information on this car? The current owner is looking for some history. |
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Strong looking 55. |
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A modern rendition of a classic gasser. |
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Some of you may remember the Bradford & Sons AA/FA Fiat. Well before that they were racing this gasser. |
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Bill Casey |
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Interesting headers, huh? |
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Yeah, yeah...I know it's not a real tri-five, but who cares? I like it. |
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The spoilers make me wonder just when this car was run. |
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Another exemplary 55 gasser from Michael Steed. |
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Not all gassers had blown Hemis. This one probably ran a 283 SBC...and I still love the fenderwell headers. |
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Wonder if the last 2 ever met in competition. |
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Eric Carlson, one of our Gas-FX family, sent in this pic of his '62 running down a sturdy looking 55. |
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Ferd Napfel's "Stormin' Bull" was one of the best known, most consistent 55's of the era. |
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Bob Bunker's "Folsom Flash" ran the Pro Gas circuit that started in Sacramento, CA. |
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"Git-Go" with the seemingly mandatory Cragar wheels. |
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Tom McEwen's match race 57 |
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A 56 Chevy vs. a 38(?) Willys at a really narrow track. |
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This 56 saw a lot of action at Lions. |
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"Jailbait" was a strong running 57. |
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More Texas action from Michael Steed |
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All right...I know it's a stocker...but it's a nice example of the breed. |
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Um...think I'll let Bekins handle my furniture. |
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Not all tri-five gassers were Chevies. |
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From Gonzo at Bananaland |
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This looks like an aptly named car. Bob...is this a "resurrected" gasser from the 60's? |
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The Sander Bros. VERY strong 55. |
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Another consistent gasser from the days of yore...who was yore anyway? |
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Shake, Rattle, and Run |
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Steve Hudson's very courteous 55 stands up to have it's picture taken. Steve and his gasser have been recently reunited. You can read about it here. (21 Nov 2003) |
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Nice looking 55 hardtop. |
| Byron...Down near the bottom of
page one of the tri-5's is a shot of a baby blue 55 called Temptation.
That car was (and still is) Dave Riolo's car and the photo was taken at
Sacramento...by the looks of the starter (not me), it was probably at a
Division 7 points race. Pro Gas was started to have a place for Bunker
and Riolo (and LeRoy Philson and Jerry Tarvin) to race where they didn't
have to go 10 or 12 rounds like they would in Bracket 1....I am pretty
sure that both the Riolo and Bunker photos were shot by Lou Kelly from
Stockton Thadd !! More info! Just FYI, Dave Riolo's baby Blue '55 Temptation listed on your web page was replaced by a scaled down full tube chassis version approximately 10 years ago (give or take a year or two). The chassis was built by Chris Alston's Chassisworks in Rancho Cordova CA. I don't know all the details of the newer car but I do know that Dave joined the 200 mph club with it shortly before selling the car and retiring from racing. The full bodied '55 was sold when the new car arrived. Brad Chapman |
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A nicely done modern recreation of a 60's icon. |
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Ed Thomason's C/GS 55. |
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Tommy Shaw's project car in the 60's. Fortunately he had an attack of sanity and sold it before he finished it, thus assuring that he'd be alive today to send this picture! |
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Another consistent SoCal 55. |
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Go to Page 2 of the Tri-fives |
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