1965-70 Hot Rodding, any photo's and stories to tell?

[turns]

Have previously posted the following on the HAMB, but felt that it would be applicable here as well.....or at least I think so, please tell me otherwise if I'm wrong...

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Dare to dream it, then go and build it...

Limits…. Boundaries…. Rules and regularity…the timeless curse of rodders & customizer’s, which, ironically enough have proved to be the catalyst for Hot Rodding through the decades. The pursuit of speed and rebellious attitude toward accepting what we are told, has effectively forced us to challenged ourselves, our understanding, and dared to ‘walk the road less traveled’, continually redefining and developing everything, always striving to stretch that boundary just a little bit further.
Quite often, as history has shown, sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don’t, with old ideas frequently being applied in new ways, the results either being successful, or if nothing else, awkwardly interesting and somehow appealing, no matter how far fetched.
Similarly, hot rodding was not just limited to playing with cars, but effectively pushing the limits in everything they touched.
Here in Oz, back in late 1964, Andy Ellis was one such rodder who was redefining his destiny, with speed boats and water skiing being a favorite summer distraction. Over a period of 12 months, he and Ray Jones transformed a humble family Klinker into a torque monster, as the opportunity to grab surplus war machinery mixed with creative minds resulted in one very wild looking ride, which still had a refreshing appeal to it. The detail of the build was impressive, with pride of workmanship clearly evident, I can’t even begin to imagine trying to synchronize all those 97’s, let alone try to pilot it across the water at flight revs….just imagine what the non-mechanically minded onlookers would be thinking….and this was in 1964..…

Limits, hot rodding has no limits.

Boat : ‘Merlin’ – 16’ Klinker/Lewis
Owner/Builder/Driver: Andy Ellis & Ray Jones
Where: St George Boat Club, Sydney, Australia
When: 1964
Details: Only used for a short period of time, with the boat being hitting a submerged log at Lake Narrabeen in 1965, with the engine then being fitted into a hydroplane boat called ‘Spitfire’, which ‘torqued over’ at speed, sinking to the harbor floor, killing the driver.









Dare to dream, and then make it happen. What have you created lately….?

Cheers,

Drewfus

It took me a while but I have just finished reading this thread from start to finish - what a great read

I drive past Narrabeen Lake (end of my street) at least twice a day on my daily commute and I always gaze at it on my way past in the car. It is incredible to think that the above speedboat has run in there..........I look at the lake differently now (I looked at the Lake different after my first shark sighting in there too )

After meeting Ray Ellis at the Lone Star Open Day compounds the spectacle of it all

Great post Drewfus and you are right......there are no limits

cheer sTurns

[spoggie]

Did the Geoff & Peter Kelly deuce sedan start out as a rod painted in yellow? Anyone know?

[324dor]

Did the Geoff & Peter Kelly deuce sedan start out as a rod painted in yellow? Anyone know?

Don't know. Do you have a pic of a yellow Deuce Sedan?
The first time that I saw the Kelly 32 was in 1967 as shown below.


Ken.

[hewey]

I shared Drewfus' post about the Merlin powered clinker on the FB/EK forum. Dave/Bootlegger (who is the current owner of the Merlin powered 'Aggressor' hydroplane pictured below), shared his stories about Ray Jones.

Rays jones was one of my best friends. He looked after my merlin and advised me right up until his death.
He had an amazing life and was a gifted if not eccentric engineer.
During the war he joined the airforce and completed 123 missions firstly in borneo.
He was in the last plane out before the japanese took over. He was extremely bitter about the total disregard the executives and politicians dealt with this invasion.
Now transfered to darwin he got caught up in that raid. He was in the same trench with the base comander tindal when they
Were straffed. Tindal was killed and ray got out without a mark on him. Ray had a jar full of spent shells.
He claimed one of these killed tindal. Again ray was bitter about the handling of tbis event.
He claimed there were a lot more raids and casualties than reported. He showed me a file proving the cover up to maintain morale. A couple of years before he died he went back to darwin and was interviewed.
In another incident during the raid a p40 crashed landed on the strip. Under fire ray and a couple of others ran out to the aircraft and pulled the injured pilot out of the wreck. His arm was almost completely torn off. They tuck his hand I to his pocket to keep his arm in one place. Later the pilot died.
Ray souvenired the data plate off the wreck.
In the 80s he flew to america and gave it to the family of the pilot.
Amazingly a p40 wreck was discovered recently in a dump less the data plate. It was the same plane.
After darwin he was transfered to bomber comand 426 squadron england.
He flew in lancasters and halifaxes as an engineer and gunner.
He has been credited with shooting down an ME 262 jet fighter. This feat is documented in the book bomber kills.
The front cover of the book shows this kill.
When I asked him how he shot it down he shrugged his shoulders and said it just flew past the gun.
I asked him what he felt about bombing people.
His response was "they started it".
To survive all those missions was incredible.
After the war he flew missions supplying aid to the germans. One story he told me was some russian were looting.
The american military police caught them and handed them over to a russian officer.
Without asking for an explanation the officer pulled out his gun and shot them on the spot.
Ray was only twenty when the war ended.
once back home he started deep sea diving doing salvage work.
On sydney harbour near the manly fun pier there was an abandoned beached submarine. Nobody wanted it as it was too expensive to move. Ray managed to salvage and sell the scrap.
With the money he went boat racing. He bought four merlins from an abandoned lancastrian at bankstown airport.
He was a whiz with these things and the first boat you pictured was built.
When it crashed he went to the bottom with it. He claimed his diving experience saved him as he managed to free himself without panicking.
The second hull was owned by bruce doust. Ray lent him the engine.
Named spitfire the boat torque rolled at low speed at taree. Bruce got trapped in the hull and drowned.
Ray built another merlin displacement boat which also crashed.
He became know as the unsinkable ray jones.
His wife begged him to stop racing so he took up flying.
He made his own gas turbine and plane which he never finished.
After his wife died he started playing with boats again. This was about when I met him fifteen years ago.
At that time I didnt have my merlin.
Another mate of his bought a big hydro a ray sourced a few meteor v12 tanks engines.
Ray did all the engineering , rebuilt the engines and made two fantastic gearboxes. The boat only hit the water once.
The owner was a bit crazy and had no mechanical aptitude at all so the project was doomed.
Ray went and bought another displacement boat and fitted another meteor in it tbis time with a gearbox with contra rotating propellors. I gave him a merlin inlet manifold so he could run twin 871 blowers.
He died before he finished this project.
Other projects he did was fitting a lexus quad cam v8 into his 79 rolls royce and he also put one in his nephews 60dodge pheonix.
He put twin blowers on another lexus v8 which ran well in another boat.
He was also rebuilding a merlin 25 for a narromine based group who wanted to restore a flying mosquito bomber.
I visited him I hospital a couple of days before he died. He was still telling me war stories and talking about his projects he would do when he got home.
He had heaps of different aspects to his life. He was well read and could converse on any topic. He baked scones for the lical old peoples home every week.
He was my hero not because of what he did or because of his war stories but because he never stopped thinking.
He lived his life to the full to the end. RIP Ray

[spoggie]

I'll see if I can chase up the pic Ken. The Kelly show shot provided shows a car more refined than the yellow one in the photo I recall. I'd doubt it's the same car.

[Carps]

[jailbar joe]

that fish scale model A still looks the same today but rarely seen and the T buc ket behind has not changed either but seen all over the place.

cheers joe

[HOT ROD FRED]

Spoke to the owner of that WA t-bucket on the way to Bright Rod Run 2/3 years ago.It certainly gets around

[Carps]

[petrolhead]

Neil Gibb also has a tendancy to lend it out to quite a few people including me and after three tanks of juice later and hundreds of smiles later I gave it back to him, top bloke that one

[HOT ROD FRED]

Graeme Mudford's 40 coupe & Ray Quon's 34 tudor (built in the 3 months prior to that run) at the monday wind-down run at the 1979 Albury Nationals.I have a photo taken from the opposite angle.I'm guessing that the bucket & A tudor photo was taken the same weekend?

[Oldcol]

....some irrelevant info....the green Tudor was originally put together by Roger Harrison in Merbein,the Quon bought it mostly as is , 2 tone Deuce in the background was Alan McDonalds' 2 door clone of Doug Carters Cdan......

[Von MoPar]

Rodger shoved that Hemi right back in the hammered 34 as far as it would go..... a wild ride for sure.

[Cruizin TV]

A Tudor was then owned by original builder Graham John followed by Neil Gibb in his T Bucket and then the late Neville Marney in his '39 Ford coupe so I may be wrong but pretty sure that makes it Mildura

[hotrodsteve]

Hi Murray that was when Iggy owned the Tudor. He put those plates on it. If you look close you can see him driving it. I saw it at Roadbend Motors a couple of weeks ago getting some work done on the rear end. Merry Christmas, Steve.