The 1940 Chevy coupe was purchased by Gary Blasey in 1958. He was 17 at the time and had to borrow half the money from a friend. This awesome sum was $7.50. The farmer who had the car had run it into a tree to stop it because the brakes had failed and this us how he found it with the grill pushed into the radiator and the front fenders in bad shape. But he loved it at first sight. It looked like a gasser to him and that's all he could think of. The dream was born over the next two years. It was first run on the strip late in '61, Gary had a grin so big he could hardly get out of the car.

In the beginning it sported a 261 c.i. Chevy 6 cly. and it's first runs were in the 14.80's. At that time this was good enough to run with the super stockers which was 335hp/348 c.i. Chevy. WOW! This is fun running with the big guys.

Over the next ten years this engine was run in all kinds of configurations and finally go it to run in the 13.90's.

In 1972 the V8 was installed and the car because of many reasons didn't get raced very much any more. With the V8 it's best times were in the 11.10's. It has been in storage since 1974 and now here is is racing again after 27 years of storage.

* Chrysler 392 Hemi
* GMC 6-71 Supercharger w/Hilborn Injection
* Isky Junior Fuel Cam
* 727 Torgue flyte Transmission
* 9" For Rear End 4:30 spool

Al located this stock 4 clyinder Willys in Northern California in 1965. After a 2 year commitment with the army, and a "scenic" tour of Vietnam, work began on the "hot rod". By 1969 the car was on the street with a 327 Corevtte motor and a 4 speed. It remained that was until May 1992.

The 90's brought aboout a reneweddd interest in hot rodding across the nation. This Willys needed a complete rebuild. THe car was totally dismantled. The frame was boxed and reinforced, a new front and rear suspension was put in place, along with a glass tilt front end to make access tto the blown Hemi motor easier. Topping off all these mechanical improvements was a fresh coat of candy apple paint. The Willys was modeled after "Big John Mazmanian's" '41 coupe from the 60's.

Al & Judy who live in Freeland Michigan have been married for 35 years and have 2 children. The family cheers on Al at the drag races, with son, Ryan, helping with the chores in the pits.

The car has campaigned throough the Midwest in the last 10 years and is gaining a reputation. Improvements are always being made to make it more competive. It has proven itself to be a real crowd pleaser. Even thoough it draws attention, while sanding still, Al takes pride in the Willys gasser heritage."Car show are great, but give me a quarter mile, green light and I'll give you a show!"

This car started out as a gasser in the early to Mid 60's, it used to be painted a candy burgundy and had heard that they ran a 421 c.i. Pontiac with a 4 speed and big Olds rear end. In either B or C gas.

Now the car has a 440 c.i. Chrysler wedge, 30 over, 13.1 compression, 590 lift duration cam, 427 Torqueflite, 5500 stall convertor, and Dana 60 with 4:88 gears.

The car still uses the straight front axle and has a steel body. It does have a glass hood and fenders.

The best ET to date was recorded 2003, 7.03/99 mph 1/8 mile, and 11.16/118 mph 1/4 mile. The car finished in the semi final 2 years in a row (2001, 2002) at Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals in hot rod class 2 at Indy.

The most memorable race was The Hot Rod Reunion at Bowling Green June 2003, it ran an 11.30 at 116 mph and Blew the windshield "IN" at the MPH cone. What an eye opener!!

Car was salvaged from a wrecking yard, Henery was campaigned from '79 til present running the Good Guys circuit with many wins and runner ups thru trhe years. In '84 Henry was selected to be in the movie "Heart Like a Wheel" all though it was edited out. Was on the cover of National Dragster in '03

When I was fourteen, my brother took me to my first drag race. The year was 1965, and the "big draw" cars were the A/FX and the A/GS cars. To this day, I still remember the shining Halibrand wheels and candy paint jobs. The things that stick in my mind are the way the cars shook and trembled like a spirited, highbred racehorse, the scream of the super chargers, and the fight for traction. As we sat in the pit-stands, we could read the writing on both sides of the cars as they made each pass. The next few years brought the A/GS cars to their "praying mantis stance." My favorite years were l966-68.

In 197l, I moved to southern Michigan and saw my first '33 Willys. She sat at a local Shell station. When I saw the car, I said to myself, "I've got to have that." The car was running in A/GS with a Hilborn injected 427 Chevy motor. I talked to the owner, Willie Harter, about buying the car, but "no" it was not for sale. I decided then and there that I had to have a "sky high" Willys--nothing else would do! I searched until I found the "Witch Doctor," a straight axle 41 coupe that ran A/GS in the Chicago area. I bought the "Witch Doctor," made a Street Rod out of it, and put 5O,OOO miles on it. During the search for and building of the 41 coupe, I stayed in touch with Willie. He was always ready to tell stories about his car, and I was always ready to listen and learn.

In the winter of '68, most of you remember that winter as the "big snow of '68," Willie traveled to New York to get the 33 Willys from Eddie Sanzo. Willie talked of how he had to shovel "black snow" to get to the car. You people from the "Big Apple" and surrounding areas know what "black snow" is: air pollution so bad that even the snow is black. The Willys that Willie bought was the 1966-67 A/GS car of Eddie Sanzo. Eddie had wrecked his 4l Willys A/GS pickup and had replaced it with this steel '33 coupe which had been found buried under several cars in a NY junk yard. Eddie with the help of the Cali Brothers and others built a new A/GS car that was powered by a blown small block Chevy by engine builder, Jack Meikel. Eddie worked for Jack Merkel, and they both ran similar '33 steel coupe in '66. Even though the rage in '66 for A/GS was blown big blocks, they both used blown small block Chevy engines, and Eddie held the A/GS mph record with his blown small block; hence, his car was known as "Mighty Mouse." Both Sanzo and Merkel had their cars in competition at the Indy Nationals in '66, and Eddie's '33 coupe still had the '66 Indy participation sticker on the dash. In '68 both cars were replaced when they went to chopped-top fiberglass cars. Willie bought the '33 coupe and brought it to Michigan. He raced it locally in A/GS from 1968-73 with Eddie's lettering on it, and then in the fall of '73 Willie repainted it red and had the doors lettered to read "Willie's Willys." The car eventually became out dated and sat for several years, but Willie still would not sell it. In 1985 he tore the '33 apart to update it to Pro Gas, but he never got it accomplished.

I kept in touch with Willie over the years. I listened to his stories and dreamed of owning the '33. It wasn't until Sept. 2, 1988, when visiting with Willie that I realized my dream would come true. He had lost interest in the '33 coupe, and I was quick to take her out of his garage and place her in mine. I reassembled her in three weeks, and I didn't change anything except the motor. The first time I started her, neighbors from a quarter mile away heard the rumble and came to see what had been added to the neighborhood (good thing I live in the county).

Drag racing safety rules state 12.O in the quarter mile without a roll cage, and she has a 3-point roll bar so I have to keep over 12.O. This keeps the car slower but safer, and I've been racing her in Nostalgia Races since '89. Our best pass in the quarter mile has been 11.23 at 120 mph, but at the stipulated l2.O or slower we run 112 mph. She has a 1933 Willys steel body, and all other parts are fiberglass from the sixties. She still has the original Halibrands with Pirellis on the front and Americans with Goodyears on the rear. The old slicks are hard, but they still hook to today's sticky tracks. After the TECH man at Indy saw that I was trying to race with an Air Force issue safety harness from 1965, he called the rest of the crew over to check the car out and the decision was unanimous; I had to up grade my safety harness.

The '33 generates a lot of interest from racers and racing fans and has won many Nostalgia awards including "Best Nostalgia Gasser" in 199O from the Mid America Willys Club. In 1992, she was on the cover of the Good Guys Indy Happening program. When I inquired as to why my car had been chosen for the cover, I was told that my '33 is a prime example of what Nostalgia Drag Racing is all about. This was the car's greatest honor since I have owned her. To my knowledge this car is the only '33 steel, A/GS car in the 1966 racing style still racing on the Nostalgia circuit today.

• Engine: All 427 Chevy
• 12.5 Pistons
• Steel rods
• Steel crank
• Corvette heads
• Shoe-box tunnel ram
• 2 Holley 600 carbs
• Accel dual point distributor
• Trans/Rearend/Chassis: 400 Trans with 4,500 stall converter
• Early Olds rear end with 366 Strange posi out of early 6O's Garlit's top fuel car
• Henry's axles (rear)
• Don Long chrome tube front axle with early Air Heart disk brakes
• PS dragster steering box
• Moon gauges and gas pedal
• Halibrand and Pirelli on front
• American and Goodyear on rear
• Yellow Plexiglas windows
• Total car weight (wet) - 2O2O lbs.

Eddie Sanzo is no longer with us, so his legend is our legend to keep alive. Please send me any stories or pictures you may have about the car or Eddie (all pictures will be returned).

From 1971 to the present, I have had eleven treatments for "Willysitis," a disease for which there is no cure. It only radiates Happiness. I have more stories to tell but not today.

An all steel '40 Willys coupe built over a 2 year period in Chuck's garage by Chuck & 4 friends, from a basket case dragged out of a Canadian National Forest.

This car was the poster child for the 2006 NHRA Hot Rod Reunion held at Bowling Green, Ky

My name is Barney I was born in 1940 at the Willys factory. I was soon sold and became the pride and joy of my first real owner. Through the years I had several owners the exact number I can't remember. Finally I was abandoned in a field in Southern Missouri. I sat there for many years without anyone paying any attention to me at all. Kids busted out my windows, critters used my interior as a home. The mid-west weather played havoc with me over the years until I was nothing more that a skeleton and hardly recognizable.

Then one day sometime in the year 2000 a couple of fellers pulled up with a pickup truck and a trailer and began to load my pitiful body on the trailer. I had no idea at this point what was going to happen to me. They took me to Fenton, MO and I was unloaded into a warm garage where my new owner Bob Mitchell started to massage my body. I was in pretty sorry shape and some of his friends thought he was crazy, me too at first. Then Bob started cutting out the bad spots where mother nature had eaten holes in my body and started replacing them with new sheet metal. Before long I started to get back to the shape that I originally had. This went on for quite awhile and Bob's friends were amazed at what he was doing to me.

I ask Bob what he was going to do with me? He replied, "I'm going to make you into an Ole 60's gasser" Wow I said and why would you want to do this, I ask. "Because ever since I was 14 and saw my 1st Willys gasser I've wanted one and I finally found you" Over the next couple of years I got new sheet metal, a fiberglass front end to replace the old one that was missing and a big block 460 ci Ford motor, with a blower no less. Man am I in tall cotton now. Bob install some safety equipment so that he could drive me both on the street and the strip. Shot my wonderfully restored body with some primer and gave me a new set of shoes, (wheels and tires for the non gearheads). I ran around in the primer for a year or so then Bob decided that I need some paint so he shot me this cool red color that I am today.

Now I'm a "Geezer Gasser" and spend my leisure time at the nostalgia drags, racing and hanging arond with "Ol' Gassers" like myself. Occasionally Bob just takes me for a spin around town, man life is great and to think that I almost rusted away to nothing sitting out there in that field for all those years.

What a Life!!!!

Purpose built nostalgia Gasser

This '41 Willys was created to be shown at the SEMA show to display the Sherman-William new "Flip-Flop" paint
It has been returned to it's "Gasser" roots for nostaliga racing

One of 6 cars originally raced by the Airoso Bros. from Tulare, CA

• Ford Days Champion Great Lakes Dragway 2003
• Inducted into Kenosha Hot Rod Associations Hall of Fame July 22, 2002
• Goodguys Most Nostalgic Race Car Award June l996
• Raced in l963 C/GS
• Took 23 years to race again
• Sponsored by: Dons Auto Parts & Machine Shop
• OnLine Productions
• Fel-Pro Gaskets
• Precise MotorSports
• Affinity Mortgage
• Pit Crew: Paul Pofahl
• Mark Pofahl
• Linda Zerovec
• Andrew Pofahl
• Engine: 1952 Olds Stock 303 C.I.D - Now 387.5 C.I.D
• C.T Automotive Stroker Kit
• Bore 4 inch Jahns pistons 13-to-1
• Total Seal Rings & Gas Ported Pistons
• Iskenderian Roller Cam ( Homemade Roller Rocker arms 1.5 to 1)
• 1956 Heads with 1960 Valves
• Coyes Roller Timing Chain
• Fuel Pump & Distributor Drive (Homemade)
• Hilborn Fuel Injection
• AMC Distributor with MSD 6AL
• 2 Gallon Moon tank
• Chassis: '5l Merc Rear end narrowed 2 inches one side
• 4:56 gears (Homemade Spool)
• Stainless Steel tube axle
• l932 Ford Spindles
• Airheart Calipers
• '55 Ford truck Steering Box
• Transmission: Turbo Hydro 400
• TCI Trans-Brake
• TCI Torque Converter
• B+M Pro Ratchet Shifter

I saw my first Willys gasser at Quad City Dragway, Cordova, Illinois (Now Cordova Dragway Park) in 1963 at the age of 16 . I believed them to be the finest machines ever built by the hand of man and knew I must own one but my odometer passed 16 for the third time before funding became available for this purchase. In June of 1996, I was about to order an Outlaw car when I found Willy and purchased him as a roller. I did nothing with him until the following year, as I also have a bracket car I chase points with. Our first couple of years together didn't go well - Astwo hard headed survivors of the 60s he and I had a number of disagreements. In 1999 we were racing him in a gambler race at Byron Dragway, my home track - It was October, the track was unsprayed and cold yet for no reason Willy chose to do a 6 foot circus act wheelstand - He never did it before or since, so I named him PT Willy since he apparently thought he was in the circus with that wheelstand. I had it put on the doors with PT Barnum's famous saying "There's a sucker born every minute."

As time has gone on we seem to have come to a working arrangement where by he will run a fairly consistent number if he gets at least two time runs before eliminations

I know very little of his history that I can verify - I bought him from a guy named Bill Kasellis in Medina, Illinois - They now race a quick 16 Pro Mod style Willys which put Willy out of work for them - I'm not even sure how many years they raced or owned him - At the Thompson race in 2002 a guy came up to me in the pits and told me he owned Willy prior to the people I bought him from but I didn't get much other information from him. Another guy I know that races a 40 Willys says he remembers Willy from the 60s which is the history I am really looking for. According to him, Willy was an A/GS car built circa 1963 and was campaigned under the name Bussey and Phouts, (Fouts) - I never heard of him under that name so apparently no great amount of success was enjoyed. If anyone who has any information regarding that period of his life, I would be very grateful for it.

He still has a Pontiac rear end, 5 foot ladder bars and a Chrome Don Long straight axle - Engine is a 468 BBC with one 1150 Dominator - He runs high tens or low elevens depending on weather - Thats the story of PT Willy and I

The car was purchased in Gary, IN. It was raced under the name of E. Smalls Whine-O, the owner was from around the North-West suburbs of Chicago.

• Rt 66 Joliet, IL
• IRP Indianapolis, IN (Goodyguys)
• Gasser Madness, Thompson , OH
• Beach Bend Paceway Park Bowling Green, KY (The Hot Rod Reunion)

• Orginally owned and raced by Rydell, Hope and Lang
• Was raced and based out of Canada and the Dakota's
• Held two NHRA records
• Won several Gas class races, 1969 September Indy, 1969 Dallas Nationals, 1969 Winternationals, and the 1969 U S Nationals

Several Canadian racers have looked at the car, and have said it really could be the orginal, but over the years of lost history, one nevers knows

Needing parts for the car, we contacted Dean Kersten, at his Company, Anglias Obsolite, talked for a few minutes, asked info we had, said the name Mister Crude. He said he had a magazine with that named car in it, E-mailed it to me and the photo was the car we had purchased, and the History trail started again

We have collected a large amount of history on the early days, but again as history goes there is a large void of time...when the Rydell, Hope, and Lang sold the car and moved on too race the Vega in Modified Production, the history ended. We like and hope to find more info on the car during that period

The history of the car had stopped, until the car was pulled out of the "lawn tractor shed" in East Moline, IL., and the fellow we purchased the car from made reference, that the car was supposed to be a Gasser from the 1960's and was called Mister Crude

Building of the Car

We brought the car home and looked at it for several months, then a good friend, Bob Mitchell, stepped in and took over. You may know Bob from his two red Willys, known as Barney, and de'railed...he and several, NO ALOT, of friends put their fingerprints on it. We jokingly refer to ourselves as the MFRA (Murphy Flats Racing Assoc.) of Missouri.

We are very lucky, because here in the St. Louis area their are six of us racing the Old Style Gassers with the"Geezer Gassers" and they all helped alot.

The Crude Crew, we have a group of four that are involved on a weekly if not a daily basis, we have a great time, and have fun...Bob Hajek my partner in the car; Danny Mann who has the driving duties; Jim Predeau, who does all the things none of us want too; and myself Bob Worrall

Our best time in 2007, was 9.69 et, with a speed of 137 mph

Alum Head 406 Cui Chevrolet
Hilborn Fuel Injection
12.75-1 comp
Powerglide/all Cone internals
4500 Stall Conv Cone pro Brake
9" Ford rear-end Adjustable Ladder bars, with floaters
4.88 gear/ spool

Car has Fiberglass Nose
Lexan Glass
Alum Interior
Car Weighs 2350lbs

Turning 1.45sec 60 foot marks, running in the 11.00's Car has won C/GAS classes at Indy, Bowling green, National Tail, and Thompson OH

Car was build and raced in The early 60's By Toke Landrum.. Back then the car was running a 318 cui flathead, Alcohol three deuce setup and Three speed trans Running in the low 12sec's..
Toke told me he raced the car 110 times at the track for the year, and won 107 times with the car