During the height of the gasser wars of the mid-1960s, the team of
¹Fred Stone,
²Tim Woods,
and ¹Doug Cook
raced a series of four Swindler A '41 Willys. They competed in the AA/GS and BB/GS classes and
became popular for their series of ²West Coast match races with the
¹similar entries of
²archrival
"²Big John"
¹Mazmanian. The teams stirred interest by a series of
²letter-written challenges and counterchallenges
printed in Drag News
and ²cartoons
in ¹Drag
Cartoons Magazine. With their ¹Chrysler Hemi
engines, these cars were among the first doorslammers (streetcars as opposed to open cockpit dragsters) to run in the nine-second zone with speeds eventually exceeding 150 mph.
Without a doubt the SW&C Willys has become the car that says more about going fast with doors and fenders than probably any other race car of the gasser wars era. The team had assembled and raced their first Willys in 1961. It was a metallic blue car and was wrecked very early on. The useable parts were transferred to another body which was a
²light blue
colour. After another accident the car was painted ¹black for the 1965 season and was almost unstoppable in this colour. Finally the car was repainted
¹metallic blue and remains this colour
today.
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