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Talking to some old friends today and they confirmed that one of our own had passed away--Dyno Don.
I met Don back in the mid 70s at Hi-Lake. It was late fall and a bunch of us were hangin out and Don was sitting in his gold Thunderbolt. Yeah it was a real Thunderbolt. He had no idea that his car would have a value of up to $500k decades later. Anyway...he looked cold, so I walked over and said he should start it up and turn the heater on. He replied "these cars didn't come with a heater".
Don was a frequent racer at Northstar. He later painted the car in the good old patriotic stars and stripes theme. He built his own headers which ran through the oil pan of his 427. Boy did they sound really weird. He called them 180 degree. The car ran low 12s at nearly 120 mph. Doesn't sound fast by today's standards, but this was around '75-'76 and that was cookin for back then.
Don used to hang out at my brother's house with us and just sit and talk cars. He was a big Ford loyalist, and to us that was cool. He could sit until 4AM drinkin a beer and talk about Fords. The next day we were draggin our feet from stayin up late listening to him. The difference between him and today's Ford guys I come into contact with is like daylight and dark. The difference? Don never had any sense of arrogance or disrespecting us and our Chevs. That's why we enjoyed hangin with him. If he beat you, he didn't stick his chest out, boast about it and talk crap with disrespect. And when I beat him, I never felt the need to gloat about it to him. Of course we'd take a few friendly jabs at each other, but that's just what racers do. Hell, it was an honor to beat him because he was that good and because he was such a good guy. Win or lose, we'd shake hands and laugh about it. He also had a '67 Fairlane with a 427 and dual 4bbl. He just loved his Fords and loved to compete. Could rattle off part numbers for just about any Ford performance part and why it worked. When you ran him, you had to have your "A" game on.
Don could fix just about anything. I remember needing some exhaust welded on my SS-454. He worked at a station up on E. River road and told me to come by so he could get them welded for me. We put the car on the hoist and he had me hold them where I wanted. He took out a clothes hanger wire to tack them in place. He finished them off with perfect welds. I asked why use clothes hanger wire? He said it was more durable and he used that to weld his torque converters together after cutting them apart to repair.
He also got a kick out of using Berry cams. They were cheap and performed quite well in his 427. Plus he never wanted to pay more than $40-$50 for a cam. Unfortunately, once I saw him at the water cooling shack at Northstar working on his motor. He had the valve covers off and the plumber's crack going. I asked what was wrong. He said he thought his cam had broken. When he'd bump the motor over, some of the rockers just stayed still.
I was glad to see Don frequenting Porky's in his 460 Pinto after his unfortunate accident which paralyzed him. I'd speak to him and he'd talk briefly, but he just seemed like he wanted his space so I didn't want to crowd him. I was just glad he still enjoyed hangin out with other car people. I found out today that the accident caused him some memory loss. So it really wasn't that he wanted his space.
RIP Don. You were a class act and one of the last good car guys from the past.
I met Don back in the mid 70s at Hi-Lake. It was late fall and a bunch of us were hangin out and Don was sitting in his gold Thunderbolt. Yeah it was a real Thunderbolt. He had no idea that his car would have a value of up to $500k decades later. Anyway...he looked cold, so I walked over and said he should start it up and turn the heater on. He replied "these cars didn't come with a heater".
Don was a frequent racer at Northstar. He later painted the car in the good old patriotic stars and stripes theme. He built his own headers which ran through the oil pan of his 427. Boy did they sound really weird. He called them 180 degree. The car ran low 12s at nearly 120 mph. Doesn't sound fast by today's standards, but this was around '75-'76 and that was cookin for back then.
Don used to hang out at my brother's house with us and just sit and talk cars. He was a big Ford loyalist, and to us that was cool. He could sit until 4AM drinkin a beer and talk about Fords. The next day we were draggin our feet from stayin up late listening to him. The difference between him and today's Ford guys I come into contact with is like daylight and dark. The difference? Don never had any sense of arrogance or disrespecting us and our Chevs. That's why we enjoyed hangin with him. If he beat you, he didn't stick his chest out, boast about it and talk crap with disrespect. And when I beat him, I never felt the need to gloat about it to him. Of course we'd take a few friendly jabs at each other, but that's just what racers do. Hell, it was an honor to beat him because he was that good and because he was such a good guy. Win or lose, we'd shake hands and laugh about it. He also had a '67 Fairlane with a 427 and dual 4bbl. He just loved his Fords and loved to compete. Could rattle off part numbers for just about any Ford performance part and why it worked. When you ran him, you had to have your "A" game on.
Don could fix just about anything. I remember needing some exhaust welded on my SS-454. He worked at a station up on E. River road and told me to come by so he could get them welded for me. We put the car on the hoist and he had me hold them where I wanted. He took out a clothes hanger wire to tack them in place. He finished them off with perfect welds. I asked why use clothes hanger wire? He said it was more durable and he used that to weld his torque converters together after cutting them apart to repair.
He also got a kick out of using Berry cams. They were cheap and performed quite well in his 427. Plus he never wanted to pay more than $40-$50 for a cam. Unfortunately, once I saw him at the water cooling shack at Northstar working on his motor. He had the valve covers off and the plumber's crack going. I asked what was wrong. He said he thought his cam had broken. When he'd bump the motor over, some of the rockers just stayed still.
I was glad to see Don frequenting Porky's in his 460 Pinto after his unfortunate accident which paralyzed him. I'd speak to him and he'd talk briefly, but he just seemed like he wanted his space so I didn't want to crowd him. I was just glad he still enjoyed hangin out with other car people. I found out today that the accident caused him some memory loss. So it really wasn't that he wanted his space.
RIP Don. You were a class act and one of the last good car guys from the past.
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