Hayden Proffitt's Z11 (a tribute)

409envy

Well Known Member
I have embarked on a new project that some of you may like and some may find offensive. I have decided to build a tribute to Hayden Proffitt's Z11 as it was raced in 1963. I have reached out to Hayden(through Phil Reed) and he has given me his blessing. I had initially thought of keeping this project off the radar but I decided its more important to memorialize this tribute so people will have access to it for posterity. I am not attempting to pull the wool over anyones eyes or build a Z11 and try to pass it off as an original. My intent is to reproduce a piece of history and use it as a living memorial to an era in automotive history that I find fascinating.

I have begun to research period articles and photos so that I can faithfully recreate his race car as accurately as possible. If any one has photos, magazine articles or personal stories that relate to this car please don't hesitate to share them on this thread. Hayden did not have the car for very long before moving over to Plymouth due to the ban on racing imposed by Chevrolet. Here are a few things to get the thread started that I have found on this forum as well as the Facebook group.

First, some photos of the car and Hayden...
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409envy

Well Known Member
Here is part of an article on the Winternationals that describes the ignition system and rear suspension set up on Hayden's car.
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Below you can see where Hayden used a Mallory mini mag, if you look at the photo above when he is changing jets on the car you can see the distributor and different plug wires. The mini mag had a separate transformer that the coil wire was attached to. This made It possible to run the magneto off the car battery and vehicles ignition system.
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Here the modifications to the rear suspension are described. Pretty rudimentary stuff even for 63. No use of long traction bars or torque arms just the cut springs from a biscayne. I believe he also installed the second upper control arm to create a 4-link essentially.
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409envy

Well Known Member
So here is the car. Its just a plain Jane 63 sport coup that came from the factory with a six cylinder and power glide. The original paint was satin silver with a black interior. I think its fitting that one of my fenders is red....
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And just because...
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benchseat4speed

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 7
You could say you were going to ‘faithfully recreate’ ANY Z11 to as-raced from 1963-64 and I would:woohoo:woohoo:happy

Red on red (or were it black?), man that cars gonna be gorgeous. Heck yeah Evan!! Love builds like this. Go to it man!!!

x2 did you sell your wagon??
 
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