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Hirschfeld - old time rally pics ...

72K views 119 replies 38 participants last post by  Lou Smarbles 
#1 ·
I was poking around for some pics of weird Yank rally cars for another thread (http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?p=201337#post201337)
and ran across this site - http://dan.hirschfeld.googlepages.com/motorsportstuff

Go there and you'll find Dan has some pics from the 1979 NARRA 20 Stages Rally in Michigan - http://dan.hirschfeld.googlepages.com/someselectedpicturesfromthe1979narra20stagesrally

I've posted him an invite here but in doing so it dawned on me that THIS MONTH I celebrate 35 years of rallying! Yup, thirty-five years ago this month I embarked on my first rally contest, a benefit gimmick rally ("Who is the tree surgeon?" Answer was a rusty Dr. Pepper sign nailed to a dead oak tree.) in San Angelo, Texas! Talk about afflictions ... :eek:
 
#2 · (Edited)
First pics from the Hirschfeld collection ...

Dan and I exchanged several emails after my first post to him and I've come to find he was pretty busy working Ohio stage rallys back when I first started this sport. I offered him some RealAutoSport disk space to host any pics he cared to scan and here are some of the coolest so far. The ret can be found here - http://www.realautosport.com/OldPics/Hirschfeld

He promises more, "from the 1978 Sunriser 400 ... the 1979 Ohio Rally Championship Tulip 200." and the 20 Stages rally in MI. like this one:


Buffum at 20 Stages


Blok's Mikuni/KC HiLiTES Arrow @ Sunriser '78.


A Z-28 @ Sunriser '78.


The Hairy Canary 'Stang @ Sunriser '78.
 
#5 ·
Jens said:
Well looky thar. Halley is featuring my 911. Nope, wait.... he thought it was Bruno's car..."OldPics/Hirschfeld/Bruno_s_Porche_Sunriser.jpg". Oh well I guess the photo will be burned from Mikey's server :)

Hey... BTW.. I took that picture... well at least I think I did. That was quite a while ago. Either way: give me credit, or mail me a check.
Finished the rally, too, I see. At least it wasn't identified as Hourihan's Porsche.
 
#7 ·
- What a cool pics! Thanks guys.
- I love American V8 rally cars. That Z28 is $ 20 000+ today, so is Mustang FastBack...
- The other wild ones I saw: '65 Pontiac GTO (Reno International), Rolls Royce body on Chevy 4x4 V8 chassis (East of Indio) and Hollywood's own Crazy-Mike in Indy AMC V8 powered Gremlin (Tostidos Rally).
 
#8 ·
Topi said:
- What a cool pics! Thanks guys.

Hollywood's own Crazy-Mike in Indy AMC V8 powered Gremlin (Tostidos Rally).
You're welcome! I know Dan is pumped finding out folks are enjoying them and I'm always tickled to host more old time pics.

Mike Hurst was in Arizona with a Gremlin rally car? I had no idea ...

Hey Topi, I still have my petrified wood 'dash plaque' from that rally, do you still have yours?

Two pics sure to stir lots of memories, the one-off Harvey 4WD Aspen



and Jim Walker in the Fiat 131 Abarth rally car complete with Alitalia livery

 
#9 ·
This Mike:
Michael Noval, Santa Monica, CA - AMC Gremlin V8

- Mike was one of the most colourful guys I ever saw. Real NUTS! Always flatout, ending deeeeeeeeeep in the bushes - every time! (sounds like you, Mad Mike, doesn't it?)
- He had connections to AMC and got a killer Indy AMC proto V8 engine with millions of hp but no handling
- Yes, I still have the "Plank"
 
#10 ·
Topi said:
This Mike:
Michael Noval, Santa Monica, CA - AMC Gremlin V8

- Mike was one of the most colourful guys I ever saw. Real NUTS! Always flatout, ending deeeeeeeeeep in the bushes - every time! (sounds like you, Mad Mike, doesn't it?)
- He had connections to AMC and got a killer Indy AMC proto V8 engine with millions of hp but no handling
- Yes, I still have the "Plank"
Ah, thanks.

Don't honestly remember a Gremlin being there. Really don't remember much about that weekend at all other than an Australian Rules Football game (first time I'd seen such) that was on TV at the bar where registration was, the VLA radio telescopes spread across New Mexico and how upset Jimmy Leonard was with me (when he finally caught up) for saving the brake pads on the downhill tow toward Socorro when his fiancee was in the truck with me! :eek:

- BTW, I have managed to calm down a little in the intervening 25 years! :cool:
 
#117 ·
A water splash and a sizeable spectator throng for 1978 (probably mostly service crew members or competitor's family) -

I remember that road - long straight and then the railroad crossing- fun!
 
#16 ·
Mad Mike said:
There are now 39 pics on - http://www.realautosport.com/OldPics/Hirschfeld - ALL taken by Dan and his "little Kodak Instamatic camera" and recently scanned from prints he's had laying around for, ohhhhhh, thirty years now.

He promises even more, sooner or later.

Enjoy!

The Gremlin in the bottom right of the Tulip series is Dick Paddock's. He was the long-time chairman of the Sunriser. It was held together mostly with bondo and rubber bands.

Lots of power, no handling whatsoever.
 
#17 ·
Eric_Anderson said:
The Gremlin in the bottom right of the Tulip series is Dick Paddock's. He was the long-time chairman of the Sunriser. It was held together mostly with bondo and rubber bands.

Lots of power, no handling whatsoever.
Except for that solitary shot of the Gremlin (which may be dead or just resting :D) there seems to be a trend in the pics Dan took regarding machines owned by Dick - they have the hoods up and folks are messing with them!

Kind of reminds me of my Doo *** weekend with Forespring last month where he picked me up at the airport in one Subrau, traded it for another before going to Aberdeen (after getting a jump start) but then had to borrow McQuaid's WRX to get me back to SeaTac Monday! There's probably just so many rally issues to deal with there's no time to fiddle with cars - which seems kinda odd if you think about it too long. ;)
 
#22 ·
Blasts from the past....

I thought my memory was shot. Turns out I can't remember last week, that's all. Looking at Hirschfeld's photos of the Sunriser brings back all sorts of memories. The #19 Datsun is John Doviak from Rochester. (A mutual friend described John as "an unmade bed.") The #12 Opel GT is almost certainly Jim Scorse, again from Rochester. (I rode in the Opel at STPR '80; probably the smallest rally car I've ever been in. Wait, I take that back...I sat in Walt Kammer's Alpine.)

Those were, indeed, the days.....

Phil Barnes, aging co-driver
 
#23 ·
Rallye Magazine article ...



Here are scans of the December 1975 article "Emerson Fitappalling" (the late, great T. D. Grimshaw) wrote about a Sunriser back in the day. Like everything he wrote (including the epic, timeless piece he did about codriving titled "Suicide By Proxy") it is both informative and entertaining. He and brother John realized they were inhabiting the wrong seats, switched and found a good deal more success from that point forward (although I'm not sure how often, if ever, they teamed up after that).

FWIW, I am and have been in touch with Rally Magazine Publisher John Power who lives int he Dallas area and has little to do with things rally any more. He did give me tjhe okie-dokie to scan and share pages of the Rallye Magazines I have ...
http://www.realautosport.com/Grimo/
 
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