Ran Like Stick
Rodney Packwood, of Escondido, California, reports that “This car was built in 1962 by Woody Sanders, driven by Bill Packwood... raced numerous times at Pomona, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Tucson, even Dodger stadium.
We called it the 'Thing', or 'Little Nasty'. Woody did drive the car on several occasions, that 'one-off' Olympic event at Riverside was one. That was pretty crazy, where racewalkers walked a lap, handed a baton to a runner, who handed off to bicyclist, then to a motorcycle... etc.
The SCCA tech inspectors were (depending on who did the inspection) pretty lax on some items ... this car had no headlights, just tape where they should have been. After several events, the tape disappeared altogether. Once the car was approved for one event, some stuff was just passed along as 'previously approved'. The required horn was a rubber-bulb bicycle item, no spare tire. Car ran like 'stink' and was noisy as hell.”1
Bill Thieme adds that “In those days a sports car was required to have reverse. On this car, the motors were re-started in reverse rotation to produce 'reverse gear'.”
Engines
The forward motiviation came from twin Mercury 500 E outboard boat engines, and was transmitted to the rear axle via chain.
Whereabouts
“The car was sold in 1964 in southern California, and has never been seen or heard from again. Any leads or clues to its whereabouts would be appreciated.”1
Contact
If you know any more about this car or where it might have ended up, please contact Rodney Packwood at fastest356@gmail.com and copy me (Tom Clayton, racer_tom@yahoo.com) so I can add the information on this page.
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Bill Packwood, on the grid at Santa Barbara.1
Woody Sanders, the car's builder, looks at the titanium megaphones from the twin Mercury outboard engines.1
Bill Packwood on the grid at Pomona. Steel wheels indicate this pre-dates the other color photos.1
Bill Packwood at Santa Barbara.1
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