"They Never Said I Couldn't"... [PIC]

Interesting side note on the Small Blocks and the Big Block was Smokey did not run the maximum cubic inches allowed the Big Block was only 396 cubic inches but Smokey felt that was big enough to break the records he wanted to break. They were at Bonneville for 13 days but only ran for 5 of the days because they were reconfiguring the cars and or rebuilding engines that they would break, the salt flats would seep water and Mickey Thompson who was one of the drivers for Smokey Yunick at Bonneville warned Smokey that the water seepage would cause the rear tires to spin and that did happen on a two or three runs resulting in parts breakage. In all Smokey set just under 300 land speed records for the classes he ran the car in but according to Smokey they actually broke over 500 records because they kept beating their own record. 

Smokey flat towed one of the Camaros to Riverside Raceway and ran it for three laps with Lloyd Ruby driving, Ruby went out and beat the pole time for the last Trans Am race that was run and when he pulled into the pits after three laps he left the track, Smokey hooked the car back up to the pickup and left. 

Bud Moore was at the track testing his Trans Am cars for Ford and he looked at Smokey's Camaro and told Smokey it would never pass inspection, the track officials also showed up and told Smokey to leave. Smokey ran a Camaro at Daytona for the road race and had Jim Hall and I forget the other driver, it might have been McClaren but France would not pass the car through inspection and it did not run. 

Here is a copy of the car Smokey took to Riverside before continuing on to Bonneville with it. 

Interesting cars & stories guys! 😎 😎 

You guys seem to intimate that Smokey cheated. I love the stories.

@bob-jackman Not so much Smokey cheated, he was just great at reading the rule book and reading between the lines.

@john3976 Great Smokey stories, if someone can elaborate on one I heard years ago I’d appreciate it. He was involved in NASCAR and apparently created a 7/8 scale ‘66 or so Chevelle to run. If it’s true, it’s genius (and Hilarious)

Good Lord what a bee-uti-full Camaro !

@kevins I will look it up in Smokeys book. The car was not 7/8's. Also I believe it was the 1968 Chevelle but I will try and find it in Smokey's book.

This is right from Smokey Yunick's book, The 1968 Chevelle never ran a single lap on a NASCAR track while Smokey owned it, he sold the car to Jerry Dormancy in Doe Run, Georgia. One day about six years later Smokey got pissed and decided to get the car. He found it in the city dump. It had survived a garbage fire and the firemen had pushed it outside. It was a in a hell of a mess from being used as a dirt track car. Smokey restored the car in 1985 and sold it at an auction to Floyd Garrett's muscle car museum in Sevierville, Tennessee. The car was race ready and was even more perfect today than the day I built it. 

For you cats that think the car is a 7/8th scale version, I think Floyd might let you measure it up. I know Richard Childress has, he had it in his museum for a couple of years, maybe ask him. I'm not gonna tell anymore. The car has been sold again and Smokey said in his book he don't know where it is except California. 

Remember this was back in 1998 and Smokey passed away in 2001. This car might be the one in the NASCAR hall of fame in Charolette, North Carolina today. 

Here is a photo of the Chevelle from Smoky's book Best Damn Garage In town, The World According To Smokey. This is in the Stock Car Racing Years. 

Here is a photo of the Camaro Smokey stopped off at Riverside Raceway getting some fuel at the track fuel pumps before Lloyd Ruby showed up got in and did his three laps and left. 

@john3976 Thanks for the info John, very interesting.