Who is in the '61?
Z11- Hayden Proffitt Story
- Thread starter oil4kids
- Start date
Who is in the '61?
Have a few pics to post.
Think that's all I have saved. 
Thanks, Ronnie
Greg Reimer
Well Known Member
You guys are bringing up some incredibly great memories.38 or so years ago, I wrote Super Chevy Mag a letter about 409's and Jim Jones looked me up and we made contact. Since he lived in West Covina and I lived in Temple City, we were fairly close. He put an ad in Hemmings looking for Z-11 parts, engine in particular.A postal employee on his break was looking at somebody's Hemmings,saw the ad, and called Jim.He had a complete Z-11 engine with the air cleaner, missing a carburetor as I remember,and one of the exhaust manifolds. Since I had a few 409 parts, we got together on this one, and he wound up with a complete engine. He gave the seller somewhere around $500.00 for it.It was in incredible shape as I remember, we never found out whose engine it once was. Jim helped me get the 409 Chevy Club going, and was a real good friend to us. He moved to Dallas around 1980 or so, we stayed in touch for a while , but I haven't heard from him in decades. Now, a member mentioned a white Bel Air named Valentine. From the start, he talked about wanting a white '62 Bel Air hardtop with a red interior and of reconstructing a 409 car he remembered from his teens. He found a car somewhere, eventually buying it, and the seller's last name was Valentine. He tended to name his cars various things, the Bel Air was Valentine.He did a frame off on it. I hadn't seen anybody do such a meticulous restoration on anything. I sold him some 690 heads and other parts as he needed them, a 3.70 positraction third member,I don't even remember what all. One thing I did, I called Doug Marion, told him about Jim. Doug went over and looked at it and was very impressed. Jim also knew how to use a camera, so Doug and him did a real nice car feature on it. It was 409 powered with a steel front end last I knew. I know that he sold the Z-11 engine some time back, don't know what ever happened to Valentine or Jim. Hope all are doing well.
Now, about Tom Jacobson. He was a 409 guy from the beginning. He worked at Fred Gledhill Chevrolet in Wilmington back in the day as a manager. He ran a '62 Biscayne 409 named Ol'Blue at Lions Drag Strip, and was competitive in the day.( I worked 14 years later at Economy Chevrolet in Alhambra, owned by Chad Gledhill,Fred's brother.)Today a restoration clone of that car is on the floor of the NHRA museum in Pomona at the fairgrounds.Tom was one of my members, and I met him at the '85 World Finals when he was racing a 62 Bel Air hardtop in Competition Eliminator.Nice people, to be sure.
About 1988 or so,I saw an ad for a 63 Z-11 car in the local Recycler for 2500.00. I went and looked at it. The two aluminum front fenders were there, and were still decent. The hood had a big hole cut in it, it had no inner fenders, no bumpers,(more on that later)the doors were gutted, and to top it off, it had an altered wheelbase, with the rear end moved forward about two feet or so.Pretty shocking.I later heard that Tom bought it. At least somebody got it where it won't get junked.It was white, and was a local car. In Arcadia or Monrovia, a performance shop known as Paul's Automotive worked on lots of 409's and Z's then. Lots of good race cars got put together then. Paul Althouse was the owner, he and I once met up, and in a discussion about fast W motors, he said that when he moved out of the original shop,all kinds of parts,including a set of aluminum bumpers went in the dumpster. Ruined my day.
Having lived here all but four years of my life and having raced a lot of it sure put me in touch with some of the finest people on earth. May that tradition always continue!!
Now, about Tom Jacobson. He was a 409 guy from the beginning. He worked at Fred Gledhill Chevrolet in Wilmington back in the day as a manager. He ran a '62 Biscayne 409 named Ol'Blue at Lions Drag Strip, and was competitive in the day.( I worked 14 years later at Economy Chevrolet in Alhambra, owned by Chad Gledhill,Fred's brother.)Today a restoration clone of that car is on the floor of the NHRA museum in Pomona at the fairgrounds.Tom was one of my members, and I met him at the '85 World Finals when he was racing a 62 Bel Air hardtop in Competition Eliminator.Nice people, to be sure.
About 1988 or so,I saw an ad for a 63 Z-11 car in the local Recycler for 2500.00. I went and looked at it. The two aluminum front fenders were there, and were still decent. The hood had a big hole cut in it, it had no inner fenders, no bumpers,(more on that later)the doors were gutted, and to top it off, it had an altered wheelbase, with the rear end moved forward about two feet or so.Pretty shocking.I later heard that Tom bought it. At least somebody got it where it won't get junked.It was white, and was a local car. In Arcadia or Monrovia, a performance shop known as Paul's Automotive worked on lots of 409's and Z's then. Lots of good race cars got put together then. Paul Althouse was the owner, he and I once met up, and in a discussion about fast W motors, he said that when he moved out of the original shop,all kinds of parts,including a set of aluminum bumpers went in the dumpster. Ruined my day.
Having lived here all but four years of my life and having raced a lot of it sure put me in touch with some of the finest people on earth. May that tradition always continue!!
Hi Greg,
That was the Terry Prince's Z-11 Tom bought. Terry sold his Z-11 in December of 1963 to Paul Althouse who painted it white. The car never ran hard under him, and the engine was pulled out and put in a Chevelle. Jack Bayer helped in that swap from what he told me. Sure miss Terry :_-(
Phil, almost! Bill Clay Z-11 from Wichita KS (Don Hattan Chevrolet) originally silver blue with blue interior. I spoke to Bill Clay shortly before he passed. He sold the car without the motor in 1966 to a kid on Arkansas and kept the motor until 1986 or something like that.
Thanks, Barry, I might be in Denton in a few months for my company at our Peterbilt plant there, I will keep you posted. One Chevy dealer that I'm frankly quite surprised that did not order a Z-11 Chevy was Steakley Bros Chevrolet in Dallas TX. They were heavily into performance, especially with Vettes. With being big into vettes I'm sure they got to know Joe Pike who was head of the '63 Z-11 Chevy program. This '64 Chevelle they ran looks similar to Malcolm Durham's Z-11 powered Malibu:
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Greg Reimer
Well Known Member
In 1960, my parents bought a brand new 60 Impala 2 door hardtop, robin's egg blue with a white top, 283/iron glide from C.S.Mead Chevrolet on Colorado in Pasadena.I was six years old. Mom loved that car and kept it until 1968 when she traded it in on a new 68 Caprice coupe,327/275, turbo 400, optioned out. Now, those are in demand, especially 427 powered ones.
Regarding the great photo of Hayden with the top of the carb in his hand on the Z-11.....can someone tell me what distributor he is running. Has a magneto look, but maybe a Mallory cap look. Thoughts??