Merlin's Racing
Email
merlin289@aol.com
Each year people attend the Super Chevy Show in hopes of getting in the Magazine. This is true for myself and club members. Well this year while at Firebird we thought for sure they would have put at least one of these pictures in there, but NO! Even if I didn't get in the magazine, we put on a great show.
In 1973 while working for a Ford/Mercury dealer in El Cajon California my parents wanted a good running car. I found them this 1970 Ford Torino, which was purchased for my mom. They drove this car everywhere taking it on many road trips, and my mom used it for picking up her art students and driving them around. You know the song about the little old lady from Pasadens this song was made for my mom, except she lived in San Diego and she had silver white hair, was about 5 feet tall and she had to sit on a pillow in order to drive it.
After owning it for about five years the engine started using a quart of oil every three thousand miles, my dad then decided it was time for a new motor. By then I was living in Florida and they lived in California,so my parents drove it to Florida and visited while I built and replaced the old motor with a fresh 302. This was around 1978 from that time on this car went back to California and each year they took it on vacation even up to Canada once.
My mom loved that car, many time she would be sitting at a stoplight and some racer would pull up next to her gunning their engine. But when the light turned green she would be first off the line spinning the tires through the intersection. When it wouldn't do that, she would bring it to me and say "Richard it's time for a tune up, I couldn't hear the tires spinning today".
My mom drove this car up until a year before she passed away leaving it to me. I spent a couple of years thinking about what to do with it. Knowing that my mom would approve I decided to make some changes: like expanding the stock wheel wells into mini tubs, switching the stock rearend with a shortened 9", which now allows me to run up to a 14/32 tire and I added four wheel disc brakes. This work was done by myself, Billie Jo and Allen from Arizona Kustom Koncepts. Both seats were reupholstered at Simons in Tolleson and it had a quick paint job done inorder to make it to the Power Tour. The old engine was replaced with a 351 Windsor, machine work done by Standard Machine and built by myself.
In
Memory of Vern Dahmer
Mother and Car Lover
