Serious as they may have been, the rest of the match race clan was just as serious and the evolution of the "funny car" was under way. "Dyno" Don Nicholson was under contract with the Lincoln - Mercury division to compete in a factory backed Comet F/C and he along with Jack Chrisman, and Eddie Scartchman, raised the bar in 1965 with the first "flip top" fiberglass bodied cars. Their performance was dominating, and other racers soon followed their lead. By 1967 the "Kingfish" had become a flip top bodied car, with a state of the art Logghe chassis. Reyes and the "fish" remained competitive, but the expense and grind of maintaining a competitive racer was beginning to concern Bill Taylor. A brief flirtation with retirement from the drag racing scene prompted Taylor to sell the "Kingfish" to local racer T.B. Smallwood. The "Kingfish" name went to Smallwood along with the hardware. Taylor was out; for at least a few months.
