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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: A727Tflite]
#959782
03/30/11 08:26 AM
03/30/11 08:26 AM
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 210
Elverson, Pa
Joe Grippo
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 210
Elverson, Pa
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Quote:
Joe, please tell Tim I said hi. I'm sure he told you that he stopped by at that NMCA race and he showed me the car. First time I had seen it since i sold it.
Will do. I remember when you guys where checking it out that day...Very cool.
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: Joe Grippo]
#959783
03/30/11 09:11 AM
03/30/11 09:11 AM
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,495
Shelby mi.
JAKE68
pro stock
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pro stock
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,495
Shelby mi.
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It maybe the one that ron used a body in white that was sold to Bruce Hawk???????. Lou I was at the shop the day YOu got that dart and it had the lace paint job. I was bumed when you said you were going to take the race out of it. Now I think different cause you saved a piece of history. Jake
JAKES AUTOMOTIVE
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: JAKE68]
#959784
03/30/11 11:34 AM
03/30/11 11:34 AM
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 4,135
Yes
sixpakdodge
master
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master
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 4,135
Yes
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Quote:
It maybe the one that ron used a body in white that was sold to Bruce Hawk???????. Lou I was at the shop the day YOu got that dart and it had the lace paint job. I was bumed when you said you were going to take the race out of it. Now I think different cause you saved a piece of history. Jake
I had heard that the Wilkes family has the remains of the BIW car that Bruce had. It had burned up in a fire.
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: sixpakdodge]
#959785
03/30/11 09:23 PM
03/30/11 09:23 PM
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 529
Colo
Billet426
mopar addict
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mopar addict
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 529
Colo
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Quote:
I said the only thing you'll be driving is nails and then I left.
 Now that is classic 
Nice to have the real deal chime in on a topic 
Gary
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: Billet426]
#959786
03/31/11 06:30 PM
03/31/11 06:30 PM
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,282
Michigan
A727Tflite
master
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master
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,282
Michigan
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Here's what I remember. Ron's first car, the red car, first appeared with black stripes in 1970, then later with silver in 1971 was a real LO23. Ron was the 2nd owner. It was sold to a good friend of my dad, they both worked at Defense Engineering at Chrysler. It became the Irish Rover. The second car Ron raced started life as a 1972 Dart body-in-white, which he converted in to a 1968 by cutting the ass off of it and switching it with my uncles 1968 dart baby grand car (it started off as a real 340 GTS). Ron won a national event with that one, sold it to Bruce Hawk. It was raced by Bruce as a SS/A car. It was sold to Wilkes where it supposedly burnt in a garage fire. The last car that Ron raced started life as a 1969 Dart 340 (Swinger I think), he of course made it a 1968 and 1st ran it in A/MP, then de-stroked it from 426 to 396 to run B/MP. That was the car that gave Ron a ride for his life thanks to a loosening adapter sleeve from the filter to the oil pump housing. This same sleeve issue caused my buddy to hit the rail at Norwalk in his 1964 Aluminum nose 64 Plymouth. And as Forest Gump would say - "That's all I have to say about that".
Last edited by Transman; 03/31/11 06:42 PM.
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: Labratt]
#959794
04/21/12 05:40 PM
04/21/12 05:40 PM
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,495
Shelby mi.
JAKE68
pro stock
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pro stock
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,495
Shelby mi.
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Randy that is not the same Len.Len that owns the 63 used to have a ss/ah car but it was one that he had built. He sold that car to Eddie Smith Which ended up being Eddies last A car.
JAKES AUTOMOTIVE
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: CobraJetKid]
#959795
04/22/12 12:12 AM
04/22/12 12:12 AM
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 99
USA
BB Dart 69
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 99
USA
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Quote:
I got this photo from someone on the net who said they owned it and took the picture. Lots of B S on the net! I was at Lenny's house that day and we put the slicks in the basement and Lenny sat in a chair and took this pic after Autorama. That's his boot tip in the photo. You can see his Blue 65 Plymouth on the left, used for street racing. He had several Kelloge full radius hemi cranks in the basement he said he just got them form Mancini. Funny thing one of the Mancini's also showed up at his house and tried to buy the car the year before this. He never knew how they found him because the car was never registered. He bought the car in about 1977. I remember that because I was looking at Marty's 57 Chevy gasser with the 302 with Crower zoomies at the time.
Man that picture was along time ago. I was 16 when i helped put them cranks in the basement. Had to do my chores so i could hang out Now that i think of it, Lenny was a bad influence
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Re: Lou Mancini dart
[Re: BB Dart 69]
#959796
04/22/12 03:35 PM
04/22/12 03:35 PM
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 46
Macomb Michigan
65 Belv A990
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 46
Macomb Michigan
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Quote:
Quote:
I got this photo from someone on the net who said they owned it and took the picture. Lots of B S on the net! I was at Lenny's house that day and we put the slicks in the basement and Lenny sat in a chair and took this pic after Autorama. That's his boot tip in the photo. You can see his Blue 65 Plymouth on the left, used for street racing. He had several Kelloge full radius hemi cranks in the basement he said he just got them form Mancini. Funny thing one of the Mancini's also showed up at his house and tried to buy the car the year before this. He never knew how they found him because the car was never registered. He bought the car in about 1977. I remember that because I was looking at Marty's 57 Chevy gasser with the 302 with Crower zoomies at the time.
Man that picture was along time ago. I was 16 when i helped put them cranks in the basement. Had to do my chores so i could hang out Now that i think of it, Lenny was a bad influence
Every time I read a thread about Ron Mancini’s 68 LO23 Dart it brings up bitter sweet memories.
Yep it was around 1977 when Lenny K bought the Irish Rover as I wanted to buy it too. I grew up with the son of the guy Lenny bought it from Marty Regan. I spent a lot of time during my teen years around the Rover. When Marty first bought it from Ron Mancini it was still wearing the burgundy paint with the bumble bee stripes and the Gratiot Auto Supply logo on the doors. He ran it that way the first summer, but I do remember him getting some flack about the Gratiot Auto Supply logo still on it. He repainted it that winter to the pearl white and candy green loosely replicating the tail stripes Mancini had in it in green. He then painted the block and intake the same candy green, and the Irish Rover was born. It definitely was a real LO23 car that Ron had acquired from Gil Clark back in 69 or 70. It was unmolested other than leaf spring relocation under the frame rails and a mini tub split of the factory wheel houses. It had a Dana 60 replacing the 8 ¾ stock Torqueflite rear end to the car as well. It had never been caged and the interior was factory issue except for the order code 573 wood grain sports steering wheel that someone had put in it previously. The cross ram intake had been cut, ported and re-welded before Marty got it and I don’t know who did the mods. Lenny and his brother Dave were the Mopar gurus in my neighborhood back in the day. They lived together in their parent’s house that the boys inherited when they were both killed in a car wreck if I remember correctly. That house in Sterling Heights in a subdivision was right across the street from the Regan’s that’s how I came to know Lenny and Dave. Lenny and Dave’s place looked like a miniature Grand Spaulding Dodge back in the day. Dave’s Superbird, Lennys 65 Satellite , a 68 hemi Charger in the garage a 69 GTX out in the street, various other B-Bodies coming and going all the time with engines and transmissions all over the place. It was Mopar nirvana for a young 17 year old Mopar head like me driving an F-8 green 69 Coronet at the time. It was Lennys 65 that started my lifelong love affair with 62-65 B-Bodies. I too remember the stack (maybe 6-8) Kellogg hemi cranks that used to sit in the corner of Lenny’s living room still in the wooden crates.
During the time Marty owned the car, his son Darryl my friend and some of us would on occasion sneak the car out on the streets when his dad was up north at their cabin. One fateful day the car was brought out and fired up for another clandestine run though the neighborhood, and Darryl forgot 4 out of the 5 hood pins. We took off and he matted the gas pedal in first gear and off came the hood about 30 feet in the air. That is except for the big chunk on the passenger side rear corner that stayed with the car as it was the one pin that did get clipped. It’s ironic though as the hood came back down to earth right side up on the grass in front of an elementary school and if all 5 pins had been forgotten, the hood would have never been damaged and we more than likely have never gotten caught. Ron Mancini wanted to by the car back from Marty not too long after he wrecked the M/P Yellow one at Indy in 76, but Marty did not want to sell at the time. So they may have followed up and got Lenny’s address from Marty or maybe he just pointed across the street. When the time came for Marty to retire and spend more time up north he put both the Rover and the blue injected F/Gas 57 Chevy up for sale. As a young man I was working two jobs plus going to school and had a little cash saved up and borrowed a couple of grand from my dad. I knew even back then that these LO23 Dart’s and the BO29 Barracuda’s would be worth a small fortune someday. I offered him $8500 for the car (a lot of money back in the mid 70’s and a small fortune to a 17 year old). My dad thought I was nuts but reluctantly agreed to loan me the money anyway. Marty asked me what my intentions would be with the car. The Dart was fully capable of high 9.60’s- low 9.70’s at 145 mph back then and by the time it went up for sale, it was too fast to legally run without a cage. Knowing how valuable this car would be never being caged or cut up (just the mini tubs from factory wheel houses) and not being streetable, I had but one reply. I said ”Mr. Regan, if you sell me this car I plan to put it up in storage, repaint it back to its race day graphics when Ron campaigned the car back in 1970”. I also told him when I get old enough to buy a house; I would build a room for the Dart and put velvet theater ropes around it. He smiled and then reminded me of the hood launching episode as well as other escapades. He also reminded me that we were all still a bunch teenage punks and he would never be able live with himself if any of us wound up getting killed in the thing. He then turned around and sold the car to his neighbor Lenny who was in his late 20’s at the time and deemed more responsible for considerably less money than I offered him from what I understand. After Lenny got married, he moved out of the old neighborhood and bought a house in Warren in the 13 and Hoover area he showed the car at the Autorama at Cobo and I lost touch with him after that. I always wondered what happened to the Irish Rover until I heard here on the board a couple of years ago that a broker/representative for some rich guy found out about it and offered Lenny crazy money for it. I know the car was cleaned up and put on display that same summer at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green and when I seen it my heart sank. All it can ever be now is a show poodle with an occasional romp though town on a cuise night, but what a sight that would be.
And to BB Dart 69 that picture posted above is from Lenny’s driveway at the Warren house is that where you know him from? I remember all the cranks in the living room from his parents house when he lived with his brother. Both of them were great guys and maybe Lenny was a bad influence on us kids, but I became the same bad influence on the kids that came up after me. Whatever the case I sure miss hanging out with him.
I have a collection of over 2000 1/18th scale die cast cars with a large percentage of them vintage drag cars. The replica of the Mancini Racing/Gratiot Auto Supply Zoom-O Hemi Dart sit’s front and center in my collection. It would be the one thing I would grab if my house caught fire and I had to escape. It serves as a lifelong memory of the “one that got away.”
Ed.
MoPower..... Better to be a racer for a moment than a spectator for a lifetime.
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