Dyno Don: The Cars and Career of Dyno Don Nicholson. Doug Boyce
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some help in making the Chevy go even faster.
Jardine recalled that Don said, “I don’t know why you bought that thing, it’ll never run.” Jardine proceeded to tell him how he just beat all of Les Ritchey’s cars and the 1957 Chevy that Don had tuned for Dave Fenn. “Don’s response was a surprised, ‘What?!’ Don was all over my car after that; rejetting the carbs, playing with the timing so the advance came in sooner, and upgrading the ignition.” This was the beginning of Don’s involvement with the 348–409-powered Chevys.
Jerry recalled that the only one who ever beat his 348 was Shirley Shahan. “I went up to Bakersfield one Sunday and had the class covered, running quicker than all the other cars. Shirley had a red 1958 Bel Air. I didn’t know they had any women running up there. Over her door was written ‘Red and Ready.’ The car was red and Shirley had red hair at the time. I was busy looking over at the car when the flagger gave the sign. Needless to say, I came in a late second.”
Jardine built his first headers in 1959, a pair of fenderwell Tri-Ys welded together on the floor of Don’s garage in Duarte. He adopted the Tri-Y design after looking at a cutaway drawing of a 1956 Maserati. Jardine was doing most of his work out of a sheet metal shop owned by a friend’s dad in Pasadena. An exploding aftermarket eventually allowed him to open his own place in Garden Grove around 1960. At its peak, Jardine Headers were producing roughly 100 sets of headers a day. By the late 1960s, fly-by-night header manufacturers had flooded the market and eventually killed the business. Jardine turned to building headers for motorcycles and saw a major boost in business when Tom McMullen at Chopper magazine gave him some positive ink. The bike business took off and became larger than the automotive business had ever been. By the end of 1972, Jardine no longer made headers for cars.
“We moved into a new building in 1973, 40,000 square feet and didn’t even put a lift in for cars.” Jardine Headers survives today in Casper, Wyoming, and is operated by Jerry’s son. And yes, once again the company does build headers for cars. Although he’s retired, Jardine likes to keep busy and builds the odd set.
Why a wagon? With tire width limited by rules, Don was well aware that the added rear weight aided traction. The B/FX winning School Bus, as Don pegged the Chevy II, helped with his decision to run the Comet wagon in 1964. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)
1962
Don had three cars at the first national event of the year, the NHRA Winternationals; a Super/Super Stock Bel Air, an A/FX Chevy II sedan, and a B/FX Chevy II station wagon. It appears that the sedan never competed, but both the Bel Air and wagon came up winners. The Super/Super Stock class was reserved for Detroit’s latest top-of-the-line, showroom-available performance offerings, such as Don’s 409/409 Bel Air. With the issues he had at Indy in 1961, Don ensured his 409 was built to a T; he installed .060-over ForgedTrue pistons with step seal rings, and he mic’d everything before putting it back together.
The winning records of Dyno’s cars meant that he never had an issue finding new owners when it was time to move them. David Heath of Owensboro, Kentucky, purchased Don’s 1961 and christened it the Kentucky Colonel. Note the Enderle bug catcher scoop still in use. (Photo Courtesy Jack Bleil)
Don found the opposition a little tougher this year, with stiff competition coming from Les Ritchey’s 406 Ford, the Mickey Thompson 421 Pontiac driven by Hayden Proffitt, and East Coast nemesis Dave Strickler and his similarly equipped 409 Bel Air. It was Strickler who eliminated Dyno Don during Saturday’s class runoffs in the too-close-to-call semifinal match. Strickler faced Hayden Proffitt in the final, losing to an unbelievable 12.52. In Sunday’s 50-car Mr. Stock Eliminator runoffs, Don defeated the Fords of Les Ritchey and Gas Ronda and the S/SA Pontiac of Whittier, California’s, Carol Cox. Meanwhile, Strickler, on his way to a final round appearance, did everyone a favor by defeating favorite, Hayden Proffitt, in the first round. With the twin white Chevys lined up for the final go, the flag went up and off they went on a clean start. Dyno Don took a slight holeshot lead and held off Strickler’s hard-charging 12.55 with a 12.84 at 109.22 mph. As proof that the sport of drag racing was still in its infancy, part of Don’s winnings included a color television donated by Mr. and Mrs. Sopps, owners of Sopps Car Wash in Los Angeles.
In a 1962 interview, Don discussed his driving technique with automotive journalist Roger Huntington. With the narrow 7-inch tires allotted to Stock, he came off the line at 3,000 rpm. Don stated that the higher (than most racers) revs gave him more flywheel inertia and torque to play with. When the flag went up, Don eased into the throttle and rode out the clutch. For him, this prevented bogging that he felt many cars suffered from. By the time he’s halfway through low gear, about 100 feet out, he was full throttle. Shift points came at 6,000 rpm, 6,500 with the new mid-season factory upgrades, which included intake, cam, and heads. These changes did not change the factory 409-hp rating. Don found that there were no performance gains above this. “Wild 7,000 rpm shift points didn’t do anything for my times. They just beat up the engine.” Chevrolet had released 409 upgrade parts in the spring (.480 lift cam, valve springs, etc.) and again in the fall. The late-season parts included high-port heads that worked in conjunction with a two-piece aluminum intake manifold and a .511-lift camshaft with a little more overlap. These parts were used in 1963 on the Z11 Impala and raised the advertised horsepower to 425.
At the 1962 NHRA Winternationals, Don parlayed a nice holeshot in the Mr. Stock Eliminator final to defeat Dave Strickler’s Old Reliable. A 12.84 against Strickler’s 12.55 did the trick. Don’s Chevy grabbed many track records through 1962, including the half-mile mark at Riverside, where he recorded a 133.90 mph. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)
Could Dyno’s Winternationals-winning 409 Bel Air be the car that inspired the Beach Boys to pen their April 1962 hit song “409”? There is no doubt that it had to have been a contributing factor. After winning the NHRA winter meet, Don was runner-up to Bill “Maverick” Golden at the AHRA Winter Nationals, turning a best of 12.87 at 112.50 mph. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)
In the shadow of Don’s Mr. Stock Eliminator winning Bel Air were a pair of fuel-injected, 327-powered Chevy II’s. Both cars were plain 100 series models in Ermine White. There was little difference between the new for 1962 Factory Experimental category and 1961’s Optional Super Stock category, it was still meant as a place for the Detroit manufacturers to showcase their limited-production high-performance cars and parts. This category consisted of classes A, B, and C, and each class was based upon a weight to cubic-inch factor. A/FX consisted of cars weighing 8 pounds or less for every cubic inch. B/FX consisted of cars weighing between 9.00 and 12.99 pounds, and C/FX cars that weighed more than 13 pounds per cubic inch. Don won class with the wagon, turning a 12.55 at 108.96 mph. Although it wasn’t until late 1964 that Chevrolet released the V-8 Chevy II option to the general public, by early 1962 it did offer over-the-counter kits for the do-it-yourselfer. Don completed the swap on his Chevy II’s with the help of Bill Thomas, whose factory ties helped him procure parts before their general release. Don’s Chevy IIs were showroom models pulled directly from the dealer’s lot. The Corvette mill was factory rated at 360 hp and featured a .060 overbore, Jardine fenderwell headers, and was backed by a Borg-Warner transmission. Single-leaf rear springs with track bars harnessed the power. Because the 100 series wagon (with the 327) weighed nearly bang-on to the B/FX minimum, there was no need to remove excess weight. As an example, the wagon retained the rear seat, windshield wiper motor, and heater but the coolant hoses weren’t plumbed. All indications are that the sedan was built in the same manner.