Warren Johnson and his race cars.

[Geerhead55]

Got 2 stories,,, not much really,, I remember the first time we saw WJ was here at Seattle in '76 and he had the big block Camaro, but that summer belonged to the AMCs and both Booth and Maskins & Kanners were here too with their Hornets. After the Friday qualifying was done we saw how strong the Hornets were, so my buddies and I are walking around the pits, which were dirt and gravel and grass back then, and low and behold heres WJ thrashing on his engine before the Saturday sessions. The Grump's group was in the middle of a swap, so we ventured back over to Warren's when we heard him fire up. I remember there was no rope steup for fans that day so I walked right up to the Camaro as he was sitting in it warming the engine, and I'm watching his tach as he brings up the revs, and all of a sudden he really wings it and it goes over 10 grand! I turned around and told my friends,"I just saw a big block go over 10,000 rpms!",,and we walked away amazed at that,, not to mention the sound of it too.
The second story is in Phoenix,, 2005 on Sunday morning before the first round, we had passes to back stage before the driver's intros, and we're milling around, sons getting autographs and pictures, when my buddy with a camera say "Danny, move over a bit!" Well, there was WJ standing about 5 feet away, so I say "How about a picture, Warren?" to which he grumbled something, and stood there with his best poker face on. I'm thinking Bill Jenkins got the nickname that Warren should've always had,, although my only conversation with Grump, in Seattle '74, didn't go much better.
Danny Durham

[Geerhead55]

Theres an ex WJ Firebird up here in division 6,, a GM Performance Parts "Superman" car in one of the sportsman classes out of B.C. I believe. If Rory sees this he can elaborate further.
Danny Durham

[Hemi Moose]

Here's a few more shots of WJ's pro stock Camaro with early lettering.

[Hemi Moose]

And WJ's pro stock Camaro with later lettering...

[Hemi Moose]

Gearhead, cool story...so if WJ was in his Camaro what was Grumpy in a Monza or Camaro back then...if forget when they all switched from Vega's, Monza's and Camaro's.

[Tom Goldman]

Danny ,that 10000 rpm shot was in the pre 500" days ,when a lot of BBC Pro ,and Comp eliminator engines were destroked using a 348 crank with a stroke of 3.25 or less..
We ran one in the mid '70's in a B/A that was 379" and it regularly went over 9 grand!
It took me a long time to become a WJ fan, and now I'm sorry I was'nt one sooner.

[mcink]

[Paul Precht]

Originally Posted by Tom Goldman

Danny ,that 10000 rpm shot was in the pre 500" days ,when a lot of BBC Pro ,and Comp eliminator engines were destroked using a 348 crank with a stroke of 3.25 or less..
We ran one in the mid '70's in a B/A that was 379" and it regularly went over 9 grand!
It took me a long time to become a WJ fan, and now I'm sorry I was'nt one sooner.

Back in 77-78 I worked in a shop with Richie Zul who was building Bob Ingles Pro Stock motors for a while. He was using the 348 cranks in a 396 block, the CI was 360 or 366 I think. The dyno pulls were in the 8,000 range I seem to remember a little over 500 flb in torque and a hair under 800 in HP. I did a lot of the block prep and boring but Zul did every inch of the heads and manifold with his bare hands. We had a home made flow bench, but it did the job.

[Geerhead55]

Originally Posted by Hemi Moose

Gearhead, cool story...so if WJ was in his Camaro what was Grumpy in a Monza or Camaro back then...if forget when they all switched from Vega's, Monza's and Camaro's.

Hm,,,,, Grumpy,,Lombardo and the boys had the Monza scattered all over the ground, working on that engine swap. It was the second year the Monza appeared at Seattle, as it debuted in '75 . We only saw the Vega here once,,, for a match race in '74,, which Jenkins lost(!),, to local racer "Jungle Gene" McKinney and his low slung '69 Camaro,,, don't remember what Gene ran, but the Vega went 8.55 which wasn't too bad at match race weight in the summer of '74. Yeah,,, the crowd went wild! I recall Jenkins was sporting a beard that year up here in '76.
Danny Durham

[Hemi Moose]

Originally Posted by Geerhead55

Hm,,,,, Grumpy,,Lombardo and the boys had the Monza scattered all over the ground, working on that engine swap. It was the second year the Monza appeared at Seattle, as it debuted in '75 . We only saw the Vega here once,,, for a match race in '74,, which Jenkins lost(!),, to local racer "Jungle Gene" McKinney and his low slung '69 Camaro,,, don't remember what Gene ran, but the Vega went 8.55 which wasn't too bad at match race weight in the summer of '74. Yeah,,, the crowd went wild! I recall Jenkins was sporting a beard that year up here in '76.
Danny Durham