Smokey Yunick HOF Induction Speech

[DEEPNHOCK]

Listened to this for the first time this afternoon...
Have his set of books, and have followed his exploits for decades.
Looked at a lot of his old equipment at Don Garlits museum...
One of my hero's....

(@$#!& language)

[avanti-hawk]

He really was a true legend. B17 pilots were very lucky to survive the war

[sweetolbob]

Thanks for the post, I would not have expected him to be so entertaining although he's an excellent read. Him, Tex Smith and a number of other curmudgeons sure made a ton of progress after the war.

Bob

[556063]

We stopped our subscription to Popular Science when his monthly article, "Say Smokey", ended.

[BobPalma]

That's great, Jeff; thanks. BP

[Noxnabaker]

Even on this side of the Atlantic I've picked up a few of his trix...
Impresive guy!

[t walgamuth]

A great innovator... His book is great too.

I often wonder how much help he got from GM on the Pontiacs and Chevys he ran.

[DEEPNHOCK]

He did get a lot of 'help'.. Kept it quiet, too.
He also taught them a lot about design improvements in their products.

Some good reading:
Smokey Yunick's 'Best Damn Garage in Town' Complete Set (Three Volumes): "Walkin' Under a Snake's Belly" (Volume 1), "All Right You Sons-a-bitches, Let's Have a Race!" (Volume 2) & "Li'l Skinny Rule Book & Eatin' an Elephant" (Volume 3) Paperback – 2001
by Smokey Yunick (Author)

A great innovator... His book is great too.
I often wonder how much help he got from GM on the Pontiacs and Chevys he ran.

[t walgamuth]

Jim Hall got a lot of help too and all the other racers. They all pretended they did it on their own and Gm didn't mind. The Chaparall sucker car was built by GM advanced concepts (or a similar name). They delivered it to Hall. Hall stuck numbers on it and went out and won races immediately.

That is not to say all these individuals were not geniuses in their own right.

[Buzzard]

Thanks for the post Jeff. I had somewhat forgotten how outspoken he really was but I was blessed to have seen and met him in person in the late 90's at some trade shows (SEMA etc.). At the time I believe he was a spokesperson for ARP Fasteners.
Thanks for the memories.
Bill

[junior]

Jim Hall got a lot of help too and all the other racers. They all pretended they did it on their own and Gm didn't mind. The Chaparall sucker car was built by GM advanced concepts (or a similar name). They delivered it to Hall. Hall stuck numbers on it and went out and won races immediately.

That is not to say all these individuals were not geniuses in their own right.

Without a doubt these two had engineering and technical support from the General, but I'm thinking it was not so much a case of pretending they did it all on their own as much as keeping quiet that GM was still actively involved in racing against corporate policy. I'm having difficulty believing that Jim Hall simply took delivery of the 2J and slapped numbers on it an went racing...at the time Hall was a mastermind of innovative air management and the applications in racing and is generally considered to be a premier innovator of ground effects before they became so successful in F1 and other FIA racing sanctions. A point of clarification of fact is the 2J never actually won a race, but did indeed show it's might by being pole sitter on a number of Can-Am grids only to be struck down during races due to failure of the suction fan motor. cheers, Junior

[t walgamuth]

Without a doubt these two had engineering and technical support from the General, but I'm thinking it was not so much a case of pretending they did it all on their own as much as keeping quiet that GM was still actively involved in racing against corporate policy. I'm having difficulty believing that Jim Hall simply took delivery of the 2J and slapped numbers on it an went racing...at the time Hall was a mastermind of innovative air management and the applications in racing and is generally considered to be a premier innovator of ground effects before they became so successful in F1 and other FIA racing sanctions. A point of clarification of fact is the 2J never actually won a race, but did indeed show it's might by being pole sitter on a number of Can-Am grids only to be struck down during races due to failure of the suction fan motor. cheers, Junior

I'll try to find a source regarding slapping numbers etc. It didn't take long to outlaw it did it?

[t walgamuth]

Without a doubt these two had engineering and technical support from the General, but I'm thinking it was not so much a case of pretending they did it all on their own as much as keeping quiet that GM was still actively involved in racing against corporate policy. I'm having difficulty believing that Jim Hall simply took delivery of the 2J and slapped numbers on it an went racing...at the time Hall was a mastermind of innovative air management and the applications in racing and is generally considered to be a premier innovator of ground effects before they became so successful in F1 and other FIA racing sanctions. A point of clarification of fact is the 2J never actually won a race, but did indeed show it's might by being pole sitter on a number of Can-Am grids only to be struck down during races due to failure of the suction fan motor. cheers, Junior

You make good points. I have a nice book which goes into a lot of detail called Chaparral. I thought maybe I read that there. Apparently not. It does describe Chaparral as being a bit of a funk due to Jim Hall's grievous injuries from his tremendous wreck and due to the F car with the low cockpit never really working out. In fact the team had been hired to run trans am for the factory team and most of the resources were going there.

It describes two young engineers who had been working on the sucker car at GM R&D as coming to the Chaparral shop and bringing along the sucker car chassis. It did take some development though before being raced.

And you are right it never won a race but did win the pole multiple times and ran away from the competition before suffering failures. It ran four races before being outlawed.

[christophe]

Very funny. I loved it. His comments about Speed Age were very interesting.

[rusty nut garage]

A brilliant engineering mind. He should be in the NASCAR HALL OF FAME but rubbed the frances wrong so likely won't be. Its fun to read about his exploits and listen to his interviews when a person could live how they want, say what they want and not give a damn about public opinion and offending someone.