The name Smokey Yunick conjures up all sorts of emotions in American Motor Racing folklore. “He was a womaniser, heavy on alcohol and a rule-dodging adventurer who once tried to catch the largest anaconda in the Amazon”. He was also rated as the cleverest racing engineer who lived in the 1960s and operated out of the garage by the name “THE BEST DAMN GARAGE IN TOWN”, very close to the greatest oval of them all, Daytona.
He was a genius very much in the world of Colin Chapman, Alec Issigonis and South African Gordon Murray. He thought differently from most people because he was not formally schooled. He was never taught to think, and that gave him his originality. He was honest, but like Colin Chapman was not a good player at politics. This got him into trouble with many of his innovations, as they were written out of the rule books. There were always new rules made up on Monday to cover what Smokey did on Sunday.
His innovations included the first-ever aerodynamic wing at the Indy 500. A car design where the drivers were encased in a separate pod. The first of what would become the sequential gearbox. Ground effects, which predated Formula One by 10 years. He was also a part of the team that developed the small block Chevy V8 that led to the production of 63 million units between 1955 and 1995. Then there was (in the late fifties) a fuel vapour induced engine that was small, 150 bhp two stroke and which reduced CO2 by 50%
Smokey was a genius inventor, a pioneer, hell raiser, gold and oil prospector… He raced in NASCAR in its early years and then spent the next 25 years of his life building, modifying, inventing or pioneering absolutely anything that would help his car to the front of the grid. That is if he got it past the scrutineers first! THAT’S WHERE THE STORY OF THE 1965/6 CHEVELLE AT DAYTONA IN 1968 COMES IN… The facts surrounding this car are hard to sift from fiction. Smokey built the “little” Chevelle to NASCAR rules – rules which were not yet in the book. The car built up from various Chevelle models of the mid-sixties used Smokey’s own design. The engine was used as a stressed member of the chassis; there were wide panels to hide the 3-meter fuel pipe that held another 5 gallons of fuel.
The body was moved back on the chassis. The front bumpers were modified to create an air dam effect, and there was a roof spoiler, trick suspension. It was also shorter than the standard car. Smokey tried to prove to the NASCAR officials by producing a template of a standard Chevelle from a Daytona Beach parking lot. NASCAR then found out that the template parking lot car was, in fact, Smokey’s own car! The crowning glory for NASCAR was that this car was 200 pounds lighter than its main competitors. The Chevelle never passed scrutineering and was never raced. The story, however, does not end there it goes on and on.
The Zwartkops Legends 1965/6 “Smokey” Chevelle
The re-creation is an addition to the glory days of production car racing. It is, in a way, a tribute to a man of tremendous spirit; a genius in so many ways, and even if misguided at times and a fighter to the end. The Legend Chevelle has been recreated using our Pre-1966 Legends Productions car rules. It has taken three Chevelles to make one. It does not have the ingenuity of Smokey Yunick, but it does pay tribute to one of the greatest legends of American racing of the swinging sixties.
