DICK BATY

Dick Baty joined the DTA in 1994. Dick has been in several car clubs beginning with the Chevruns of Denver and the Nomad Club. He served as a staff member of the Nomad Club for several years.

Like many of the early hot rodders, Dick has his head jam-packed with memories of the good, and not so good, old days. One of his current favorites is the annual California Hot Rod Reunion. This was originally intended to be only a one time meet, but everyone had way too much fun to let it die. This was about 12 years ago. Each year since that time it gets resurrected. Dick attended his first one nine years ago. Probably a bad decision…. he was hooked instantly. He's been to three since then. This is a three day meet which is held every fall in Bakersfield, California. Dick no longer races but is into some serious spectating.

Dick did some drag racing as well as roundy-round racing during his heyday. Note he hasn't mentioned anything concerning street racing. Dick did admit he had been known to do a mite bit of racing on private roads when no one was nearby. Dick did most of his drag racing at Continental Divide Raceways (CDR) near Castle Rock and at the Julesburg, Colorado Drag Strip.

Dick got into drag racing with a '35 Chev coupe which had a chopped top. It was a high-boy (no fenders nor running boards). It was classed as a D altered. Power came from a 292 inch fuel injected GMC mill with lots of goodies inside. It was a runner for sure and consistently turned 12 second ET's (elapsed time) at 104 mph. These were very good times and speeds for the earlier days of drag racing at our mile high altitude. Dick acquired a '27 Model "T" roadster. Since it was considerably lighter than the '35 Chev, he pulled the running gear out of the Chev and put it in the lighter "T". It too ran in D altered. But it didn't seem to make much difference since it ran about the same speeds and ET's as the Chev coupe had.

Dick related a story when some of us old geezers raced (illegally) on sections of Valley Highway before it was opened to the public. One night a local '40 Ford sedan lined up against a '47 Chev coupe from California. The '40 had a "guard rail racing stripe" down the right side from a previous close call. The starter was to use a flashlight to start the races. He was to point the beam towards each car to get a head nod signifying they were ready. Then wait a few seconds before whipping the beam of the flashlight straight up to start the race. Well the flagman followed the procedures. He got the nods from the two contestants and they brought up the rpms on their hot engines. In only seconds the flashlight beam disappeared into the night sky. The two racers dropped their clutches and their cars lurched forward and their tires broke loose as they left the start line. Trouble was, no one had noticed a Mr. George Udogwu. Who's he you ask? Never heard of him? Well, he was directly behind the two cars…… and in a bone white Ford featuring dual spot lights!!! One of which quickly became bright red the instant the two racers dumped their clutches! The '47 Chev from California got off his gas, pulled over to the shoulder, and stopped. But not the '40 Ford from Colorado. He kept the pedal to the metal and flat disappeared into the night..… and Dick said he means it when he says he disappeared!!! Dick has never seen either the car or driver since he left the start line! The California Chev car received a citation from the Courtesy Patrolman (later they became the Colorado State Patrol). I forgot to ask Dick if any of the contestants did any more drag racing that night after the patrolman left. I doubt it.

Dick also did some roundy-round racing. He ran a modified race car Friday nights at the Colorado Speedway in Colorado Springs and Sundays at the old Englewood Speedway using his old fuel injected 292" GMC drag engine. One night he had the race car on a flat bed trailer and was towing it to Colorado Springs to race. He felt a lurch and looked in a rear view mirror to see his race car was about half way off the back of the trailer! He somehow got the rig stopped without further mishap. The race car straps hadn't been tightened enough to keep it from bouncing. It bounced around on the rough road until it was teetering on the back of the trailer. The only thing that kept the car from disappearing off the trailer was it had become high centered on the rear edge of the trailer. However, there was a strange thing…. when the two rear wheels hit the road they instantly started turning even though the car had been left in gear. This caused the engine to turn over very fast. The only thing that happened was it ingested the red rags stuffed in to the injection horns. Dick said they must have gone clear through the engine and out the exhaust ports because he never found any piece or shred of them!

Fast forward some years. Dick now had a very nice original '55 Chev Nomad station wagon. It still had the original in-line six cylinder 235" engine along with a Power Glide automatic transmission. He and his wife, Anne, along with other members of the Nomad Club, were caravanning on I-70 on their way to Memphis for the Chevy Nomad Nationals. Joe Umphenour was in the bunch in his '56 Nomad with a 265" V8 Chev engine and a standard transmission. The bunch were somewhere in Missouri and making good time when Dick heard a loud clunk and the engine ceased pulling or even running.… it just died…dead! Very odd since the in-line six engine had been running better than Dick could ever remember. Which certainly isn't a good sign! As most old time hot rodders know, when an engine begins running better than ever for no apparent reason, it's always a bad omen of things soon to come. Dick coasted over to the side of the highway and slowed to a stop. The guys in the caravan who were ahead of Anne and Dick soon missed them and turned around and came looking for them. Meantime, Dick had popped the distributor cap off and his wife, Anne, turn the key to turn over the engine. The distributor rotor didn't budge. Oh-oh. Now that's really bad. The problem was inside the engine. The stock fiber timing gear had shed most of it's teeth. A fairly common malady for that period since most timing gears were made of fiber material. After some discussion it was decided to tow it to the next rest stop to get it off the highway and then decide. Naturally no one had a tow strap or chain, but Dick did have some rope. The rope was looped several times between his Nomad and another Nomad.. It wouldn't be cut in two providing it wasn't jerked due to sudden acceleration or braking. They slowly towed Dick several miles to a rest stop and pulled in.

Now what? Still no tow strap or chain. Then someone noticed a chain secured to a post concreted in the ground. The chain was used when closing the rest stop access road. Dick rummaged around his tool box and came up with a hacksaw. Now the problem was there was considerable traffic coming into the rest stop which made it way to busy to use the hacksaw since it could be seen quite easily. Dick removed the blade and wrapped a red rag around it. The group stood around the pole talking, shielding one of them as he sawed on the end chain link! Talk about slow going! The chain must have been about as hard as the hacksaw blade. Eventually they got it cut and the chain was free. They pulled Joe's Nomad in front of Dick's and hooked the chain between the two. Oh, did I mention, the chain lacked a tadbit of being 10' long? By the time the ends were looped around the "towee" and the "tower", the two wagons were close to each other…. very close!

Down the road they went with Joe towing somewhere near Mach 3…... or at least that's the way it felt to Dick!. Dick said he was nearly a basket case when they finally pulled into Memphis some 400 miles later! Joe hadn't let any grass grow as he towed him and Dick smelled overheated brakes most of the way. Dick said they didn't even think about removing the driveshaft! The Power Glide transmission never gave him one bit of trouble as long as he ran it in subsequent years. Try that on today's automatic transmissions.

At the Nationals they found a local who lent them his two car garage to replace the timing gear. Dick said it was sticky and almost unbearably hot in the garage, but they managed to get it changed. To get to it they had to remove the oil pan, the timing cover, the crankshaft pulley, the radiator, all rocker arms, pushrods, and lifters. Then they were confronted with removing the press-on fiber gear. These are a very tight fit. Since a puller wasn't available, a tire iron was jammed between the front cam lobe and the block while they hammered on a chisel to split the old timing gear. Then they had to beat a new one back on! They got it done somehow in all that heat and humidity. It didn't give a hint of trouble all the way home. Dick said he didn't even think about breaking the lobe on the cam at the time they were hammering!

Dick still has that Nomad even though he's gone through quite a number of hot rods since he's owned it. One I always liked was his light blue '35 "sad windowed" Chev coupe. It had a big V8 with excellent performance. It went down the road a few years back. Like all of his cars, it was immaculate and well constructed. For those who wonder what a "sad window" Chev coupe is……. look at the rear window. It's oval shaped with a flat side. The flat side is along the bottom. So the window looks like a down-turned mouth… thus it's a "sad window".

The Nomad now has a somewhat more powerful engine than the original 235" six cylinder engine. It now has a somewhat larger, and healthier, 500 cubic inch V8! He keeps busy these days building a '41 Chev coupe. It's already the right color… black. He's got a 292" six cylinder Chev engine about ready for the engine compartment. It's to be backed up by a four speed Muncie transmission and an 8" Ford rear end. The interior compliments the car and the red rolled job is flawless. Dick has put a rack & pinion front end under it along with some suspension changes. It's nearly done and will be a great rod. Wonder how long before he gets bit by the big engine bug for it????

....rumble seat