01-17-2016, 02:44 PM
Great Idea, Dave. Pop and I were interested in roundy round Early Model Modified racing, and by extension, hot rodding. Pop bought a '32 Ford roadster with an outrageously built OHV Caddie V-12 in it. He began buying Hot Rod, Rod and Custom and Car Craft magazines. Through R&C, we saw some Lynn Wineland articles about karting. Pop had built a quarter midget several years earlier, for the local Ford dealer. I was hired by them to drive it, but QM's bored me, so I gave it up after about three years. Karts really seemed much more interesting, as they turned both directions, and had two cycle engines. When we saw the first Bug, Pop immediately called Tom Pierson and became a dealer in West Melbourne, FL. I got my first dead axle Bug Custom with an A400 in 1958. Pop bought a dual A400 dead axle Bug. I ended up with a dual dead axle Bug with twin E-65's on it. Pop got a late '59 Wasp with an Mc5, and we promptly got outrun by a kid with a Wasp and prototype AH 58 PP. We were already Mac saw dealers, so Pop called Bob McCulloch direct, and in a week, we had a preproduction Mc6 conversion kit. No more getting outrun! I took a dead axle Bug and installed a Reed Eng. live axle kit and sissy plates with pads. I put a VERY early Mc6 on it. It was such a simple kart that it probably weighed 90 pounds all up-even with the heavy Hands wheels. It was very quick, and would beat most dual West Bend 580/700 karts. We progressed from there. I took over the kart dealership in '61 when I turned 17. We added Go Kart in '61, so we had Bug, Go Kart, Clinton, Mac, Homelite and PP to work with. We were Yazoo mower dealers, so we even sold a couple Yazoo Dragsters. We were taught by one of the best engine men in America to build modified Macs, and were very successful. As karting mostly went away in late '63 and '64, I closed the kart shop and went to work for Pop in the lawn mower end of the building. I also ran his hobby shop for him until I went to work at Cape Canaveral in '66. I thank Paul Martin for telling me about the vintage movement in '01. Ted