Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

My Dad died last month and I was going through some of his photos. I found this in a group of photos labeled only as "Seattle." I think it is from the late 1970s.

Does anyone know anything about this car or the owner? There is no connection other than it was at the motel he was at.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...psfb30869a.jpg

Thanks,

Jim

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

That is the nova that won I think the 72 Winternationals in SS.It would have been the first race with the new stocker rules of no older cars.I think the driver was Eddie Vasquez from Elko,Nv.

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Thanks. It does say Elko, NV on the side of the car, so that makes sense.

Jim

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

I had never seen a picture of that car..all painted up and professionally lettered.
I would guess that picture to be about 70-71.
You might have better luck with posts like this in the Nostalgia section.



http://sports.dir.groups.yahoo.com/g...ed=1&var=1&p=3

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Eddie Vasquez won Super Stock Eliminator in the 67 Winternationals.


Sandbagging was rife - and he got favoured by a huge handicap which made his little Chevy 11 competitive.


Apparently he drove in from Nevada to race.


Seems no one wanted to tech the Chevy afterwards...due to the popularity of a Chev winning.....finally.


http://st.hotrod.com/uploads/sites/2...32%3B%2A%2C%2A

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

The Grump was cleaning up in 66 with the A/S chevy II ,when i saw the steel wheels ,the same on Grumps it had to be a pre70 era,same engine but this one ran SS,nice pic

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Eddie brought this car over to Salt Lake’s Bonneville Dragstrip in the spring/summer of 1966. when I was also running my car in A/S. There were several of us in A/S including some Hemi Chargers and other Nova’s. Needless to say he cleaned all our clocks as we were just street cars with cutout or headers and recap slicks. He had already won the Winters Nationals as it was hand painted on the car much like the other lettering. I’m pretty sure he also flat towed it over from Elko. The story was he beat Jenkin’s Nova for class to get into the eliminator when the Grump pulled it out of first gear too soon on the leave.
Jim

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Was passing through Elko a few years back while on my job and walked into an office at an auto repair facility(Ed's Place),the wall was covered with s/ss memorabilia,trophys etc..had a chance to sit and chat with Eddie for a while that day,nice guy and fun conversation.

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

I was at a Nostalgia race last year and had a chance to talk to Ed Iskenderian. I asked him if he could still make a cam like Grumpy ran in his 66 Nova.He said "sure", and then started to tell the story of Mr. Vasquez bringing the 327 engine to Iskys dyno after the Winternationals win to see how much power it really made.He said "we put it on the dyno and started to do some pulls, and it promptly spit out one of its connecting rods".I recently contacted Mr.Vasquez thru a facebook site and asked his version of the story.His version went like this"we worked on the engine on Isky's dyno for several days after the Winternationals.Starting with 325 plus HP, and finally getting it near 450 hp.(Remember this was a 1967 SS motor) and on one of the final pulls it expired.We then had to thrash hard to put together another motor for a race we had the next weekend".A little different story, but same results.LOL Eddie told me he later sold the roller Nova to a guy in TX. and it was destroyed in a street accident.

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Another photo of the "Too Costly" Nova.

66 Chevy ll Winternats winner 1967.jpeg (223.9 KB)

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

A belated ‘thank you’for the info on ‘Too Costly’ and Eddie Vasquez...another mystery resolved.

Great to hear he has had a long and fulfilling life - I was worried he may have become a victim of conscription.

Thx all.

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Ok, so the mystery is "solved". Vasquez shows up and spanks all the heavy hitters as per NHRA rules. He doesn't call the shots. Takes the trophy with a very pretty girl on hand. This is the Winternats. What has a red Plymouth got anything to do with this as per post 5?



















nhra

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

Looks to me like that's just in his signature section, not in the post itself.

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

If that's your take, respectfully, Vasquez earned that pic, these cars aren't in the same zip code.

Re: Anyone Know "Too Costly"
 

It was a sig pic of my car. You should also note, I posted the pic of Vasquez receiving the trophy. Clearly your understanding of web forums is wanting...

As far as an RO23 ‘not being in the same zipcode’ - I think winning the 67 SS/B and SS/BA Nats, the SS/BA 67 Springnats and Top Stock at the 67 Springnats puts them in an infinitely more salubrious zip code than any JR STOCK Chevy....no matter how many divisional class races Jenkins may have won over street Hemis on bad tracks.

Ever wondered why his Chevy II NEVER won a Nationals eliminator?

I’ll tell you.....Because he couldnt make the HP to ward off the Race and Street Hemi cars on properly prepped tracks - ask Grotheer, Stahle and Vanke.