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The "Poachers" AA/FD |
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CLICK Photos to Enlarge
The family returns home with ther project car via the famed Route 66
The car arives at it's new home in Rancho San Margarita, California
The chassis ready to go to the shop of Bruce Dyda for a little cosmetic surgery
A couple "work in progress" shots at Dyda's shop
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Owners; Paul,
Pam & Ryan Schavrien History The car was originally owned by the trio of Jack & Jake McCloud and Paul Rick and ran under the banner of the McCloud Bros. racing team. Jake McCloud was the motor man who assembled the potent 460+ cubic inch Hemi with brother Jack being the first driver of the car. The car was later turned over to Walt Stevens to do the driving chores, who dove it until it was put out to pasture in 1972. Paul Rick took care of the crew chief duties and kept the car going down the various tracks around So-Cal until the rear engine cars took the class over in the early 70's. The car started life in the 1968-69 time frame with a Frank Huzar (RCS) "Flexi-Flyer" style chassis that had been built to be a Jr. Fuel car so it had a rather short wheelbase for the time of only 189" when most other Top Fuel were over 200". It sported tin work by Kenny Ellis with paint and artwork by Jim Kelly. The cowl art was a point of controversy with NHRA for the illegal substance that was pictured but the artwork remained and has been faithfully recreated on the restored car.
Paul Rick related to me that the artwork was inspired by there somewhat frequent trips to Northern California to "poach" frogs, which accounts for the name, "Poachers" and the frog in the cowl art. We won't speculate about the relevance of the rest of the art. With the afore mentioned hemi with a 7/8" arm the car ran really well with a best of 6.03 @ 248 but never got the attention it deserved from the media at the time.
Restoration When the McCloud Bros. and Rick decided it was time to get out of drag racing and with the rear motor cars having become the hot set up in Top Fuel the proud fueler was degraded to an Econo-rail in Texas and after changing hands a number of times Paul, Pam & Ryan Schavrien found the car in Louisiana and rescued it from farther disgrace or destruction. Paul and Pam's son, Ryan had been treated to a fire-up in the Frantic-4 dragster and upon climbing out told his Dad and Mom, "We got to get one of these". He then sat out on a mission to locate a car to restore and came upon the great old car pictured here. With the deal made the family traveled across country to recover their new addition and just barely rescued it from the devastation that Hurricane "Katrina" reeked on Louisiana and with the proud old digger in tow they made there way back to So-Cal to begin the long and expensive process of restoring the car. They enlisted the help of chassis builder Bruce Dyda to restore the pipe to the original configuration that Frank "The Old Man" Huzar had bent and welded 30 plus year prior. The paint and lettering was taken on by none other than the great Tom Kelly and the whole project cumulated into one of the one of the most beautiful restored "cackler" in the mix today.
With the help of Engine Dynamics and Mike Kuhl, Paul assembled a very nice and great sounding 392 to go between the rails
CLICK HERE for many more shots of the restoration First Time Out After completing the beautiful car it's first outing was at the NHRA World Finals at Pomona, CA. Walt Stevens had the honor of being behind the wheel and since it had been a number of years since he had done a push start the anxiety level was pretty high for the whole team. Everything went off like clockwork and the beautiful, newly restored "Poachers" has joined the ever growing ranks of "The Cacklers"
CLICK HERE for more great shots of the car in action Look for the car at several of the upcoming nostalgia events and cackles and be sure and go by and say "Hi" to the Schavrien family. Tell them you saw there car here on NitroGeezers.com
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