At Lions the Durachrome Bug AA/FC and the Gunter Bros. 'T' A/FA

[JewelLure]

I'll post some of the many pictures I have and answer any questions about that great time in my life.

Warren Gunter

[Fastbrit]

Warren, where abouts are you based? I'm coming across in November again and would be interested in meeting up.

Look forward to seeing your pics etc.

OK, some basic questions: can you give us a low-down on the specs of the Durachrome Bug? What times did it run and where, apart from the west coast, did you race?

[JewelLure]

I'll have to answer a little bit at a time. We were based out of Cleveland Ohio and raced from New England to Florida and from Texas to Michigan. The Bug was basically a match race car and the performance was good but not national event status. Our best in 1971 was 7.10 and 208 (Chevy power)while the top dogs were running 6.70's and 230 mph (hemi power).

Her's a shot of the 'T' at Lions

[JewelLure]

And another for the Lions fans

[JewelLure]

This was the back of the flyer we handed out. 10,000 of these went out in the 2 years. Hope you can read since this web site has a limit on jpeg size.

[rick m]

Great Shots. Boy does this bring back the early days. Thanks Warren for sharing these with the Lounge. Some of us guys go back to the late 60's and 70's. I was weaned on HOT ROD Magazine drags when they were run on the back straight way of Riverside International Raceway in Edgemont, California. I got into the races free when going with my Uncle Ray, a Riverside County Sheriff.  My other uncle PW Hall, owned HALL MOTORS, a Crysler dealership in Riverside, and used to provide convertibles for pace cars for many of the RIVERSIDE 500 races, when Dan Gurney was cleaning everyone's clock driving for FORD.

Seeing your cars,  the Tall "T" and the Bug reminds me of a by gone era.

Rick Mortensen

[speedwell]

thx for sharing with us warren 
can talk about those pictures



rgd
fabs

[JewelLure]

This was after hitting the wall at Orange County Raceway. I am standing on the truck on the left, in the middle is fiberglass man Bill Temple and looking under the chassis is chassis builder Mike Kase. We built another chassis and repaired the one of a kind body. You can always tell the two apart as the second second paint job had black high lighting and the second car also had 5 spoke front wheels. The new chassis ran much better that the first one and was a completely different design. Car #2 also had a large red spoiler on the rear deck, red aluminum interior work and was much lower. We got it done in time to go on the first year's tour.

[speedwell]

warren watch this  video  at 1min 57 it's you  driving the car
http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?swf=http%3A//s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/cps-vfl58601.swf&video_id=DcV62lQfBOk&rel=1&hqt=0&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//i1.ytimg.com/vi/DcV62lQfBOk/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskKIsP1tmgXSMFGkSlr831rt&use_get_video_info=1&load_modules=1

[speedwell]

i found those pictures of the durachrome with the 5 spokes and the black /red paint on the car is that the second car???

[speedwell]

 

[ESH]

Great to see this thread on here by the guy who ran the car! Thanks for posting. 

[Dave Rosique]

Great stuff!

Speedwell- thanks for the photos!

Warren,

Thanks for taking the time to post pictures and share your stories.

How long did you have the Durachrome Bug? What happened to it later, was it retired, sold, does it still exist somewhere?

I have to ask, do you have any details on the crash at OCIR?

Did they ever make a Durachrome Bug model car?

Lastly, not VW related, you said the "T" is a streetrod now, do you still own it?  Any photos?

Thanks again,

Dave Rosique

[JewelLure]

I sold the Bug in 1972 to a fellow in the Northwest. I have seen reports of it up there somewhat modified for the street?? http://www.70sfunnycars.com/lost.html
http://www.70sfunnycars.com/FunnyCars4.html

The first Bug was even more foul handling than the second. Those bodies have a lot of negative lift and we figure that may have been some of the problem. It just got a little more that usual out of shape at Orange County about half way down and when along the guard rail for a couple hundred feet. Later on I will show some pictures and tell the story of my fire at 208 mph at New England Dragway towards the end of our second tour.

Although we had contacted Disney and Matel no model was ever made then. There is a fine body now for sale at  one of the specialty model building companies.
http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9157&hl=durachrome
http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5140&hl=durachrome

The Model T now has it's original megaphone headers and a cross ram  manifold and has run mid 10's about 20 years ago when first put it in street mode. My brother has it and swears he will get it up and running soon. I will try and get some pictures posted later. The original car with a big block was in Hot Rod Magazine in June 1969.

The Durachrome Bug was in Hot Rod magazine in December 1969, Drag Racing magazine in November 1969, Hi-Performance Cars magazine in June 1970 and the cover car for the January 1970 Popular Hot Rodding magazine.

Warren




 

[ESH]

 

[JewelLure]

The picture above is a very early shot of the first car at Irwindale. Note the blanket over the C$O TorqueFlite. We went to a clutch/two speed trans in the new car.

Also the Don Burns lettering was moved up the the front area just in front of the Durachrome name since they weren't happy with Durachrome getting so much more advertising space than them.

This car weighed only 1700 lbs when new with a standard starter and two batteries on board.

[nlvtinman]

Mr Gunter, What a delight to have a new reminder of times past Thank YOU!
 I was wondering, being you were based in Ohio, how did you come to gain the sponsorship of Don Burns, one of our favorite Orange County CA VW dealers?

[JewelLure]

I actually lived in Gardena California when I was racing. After getting Durachrome as a primary sponsor we went to see the VW dealer in Orange County since they were also sponsoring a wheelstander. It worked out for only the first year and then Durachrome went out of business after our second year.

We shared garage space in Geneva on the Lake outside of Cleveland with Paula Murphy from the spring through the fall for two years. That location was our home base and we returned there after the weekend racing when possible. Sometimes we would be on the road for a few weeks depending on which race tracks we were booked into.

[speedwell]

since they were also sponsoring a wheelstander.

this one warren

[.]

I just bought this old T-shirt !
 

[Nico86]

I just bought this old T-shirt !
 

Nice shirt !

[JewelLure]

VERY, VERY rare shirt. While we gave away thousands of posters the shirts were only for our own use. There were only a couple dozen of them ever made!

Warren Gunter

[Prowagen]

Wow thanks for sharing your pics and stories Warren, I have an old mag with a feature of the bug. Not sure what one it is but i will try and get it scanned over the weekend and put up here.
What made you decide to do the bug shell? Are you into Volkswagens too or was it purely for a different funny car and sponsorship oppertunity?

Cheers,
Rob.

[JewelLure]

As I mentioned previously, the plan for the car stared out as an A/FA. The Fiat and Bantum bodies were popular so I thought the VW would be great. As we started the switch to AA/FC was made. Fabricating the body from the VERY rough shell we got was a tremendously hard task but Bill Temple did a great job. I worked with him and let me tell you, going home every night with fiberglass dust sticking you everywhere is not a fond memory.

The VW body got us the sponsorships and a lot of races. The rear lift of the body at speed was the only big draw back.

Warren

[Russell]

Warren

Thanks for posting great thread.

A proper Gasser, respect.

Russell

[Russell]

Warren

It says on the 70s website link the car was burnt  to the ground while on Tour was this after you sold it and is it true ?

[JewelLure]

Near the end of the last tour I had a fire at New England Dragway. It was one of the best runs I had ever made but the front cover seal blew out and the car was engulfed in flames. It ran 208 mph and was a fireball in the lights. I pulled the chutes and hit the fire bottle. The chutes burnt off. the tires went flat and the brakes went out. I ran off the left side of the strip and just grazed a telephone pole before coming to rest on the area between the return road and the strip.

The pictures show the car just before that run and then a shot in just past the lights before the chutes went away. There was also a 8mm or 16 mm movie clip of the fire I saw later that year in Boston but I was never able to get a copy.

I got the car back together and finished the year. My sponsors had gone away and I needed a new car and new power to stay competitive. No new sponsors were found so I sold off everything and eventually went back to work in the aerospace business.

Warren

[speedwell]

  awesome picture warren
thx