[George Klass]

I know, most of you never heard of the place. But in the 1950's and '60's, Quincy Automotive was THE place to get speed equipment or to even get your hotrod built. Quincy's was in Santa Monica, California.

This '32 Roadster is a car built by Bill Cox, owner of Quincy's (his middle name might have been Quincy). Quincy was also the place to go to get your car club plaques made.

Quincy also sponsored many drag race, dry lakes and Bonneville cars. Here's one that I am very familier with.

This is the original "Freight Train". Back then it was known as the "Quincy Automotive Spcl." This photo was taken at the old Riverside Raceway track, which was also used as a drag strip (the main straightaway was VERY long, this was a 1/2 mile drag strip).
In this photo the twin SB Chevy's used a single crank-driven 6-71 puffer.

The same car but with a belt driven 6-71 for each engine.

The Quincy Automotive car won the NHRA Winternationals in 1961.

Without these old speed shops like Quincy's helping out the racers (there were no "pro" racers back then), most of us would never have been able to race dragsters.

I recieved this email this morning reminding me about Quincy's, and the part they played in the early hot rod scene, from someone that I do not even know.

"Just wondering why you and others never mention Quincy Automotive. Bill Cox (Quincy) was one of the guys who helped Drag Racing and Bonneville grow in the early days when you would race for a case of oil. Mickey Brown...Nye frank...John Peters...Craig Breedlove...Bob and Bill Summers and so many others all were helped along the way by Quincy. Quincy Automotive was one of the top speed shops in Southern California. How about some recognition and respect for Quincy. Bill Cox was a my former employer and my friend. Thanks"

Nye Frank (who was my partner in the "Pulsator" dragster) was also partners with John Peters. The Peters & Frank "Freight Train".

At one time, Nye was partners in the Brown-Frank-Weddle dragster too.

Mickey Brown was the driver of this crank driven blown Olds digger. Mickey died in this car at Lions. The car went off the track right off the starting line (no guard rails in those days) and flipped several times, and Mickey's head came between the ground and the roll bar and that was all she wrote. Very tragic as I was standing next to Mickey's wife on the starting line and had to hold her back.

Some of the other names mentioned, Bobby and Bill Summers, from the "Goldenrod" fame and all their dry lakes and Bonneville cars.

Bill Cox is gone now, passed away in the late 90's. I think that most of the local independent speedshops passed away with him, too.

 

[ordinary builder]

YUP

 

[George Klass]

This was the photo that was supposed to be where the "red X" is above, sorry.

 

[George Klass]

I got a nice note from sox, the guy that sent me the email I mentioned above. Turns out that I do know him and he thanked me for posting up this thread.

"Thanks...You know me but may not remember me. I worked on the counter at Quincy's With Harvey and Don and was called by my nickname Sox. I was at Lions may times with you guys and always felt included on the team. Mickey always wanted me to take a run in the Dragster but I didn't want to waste a run. I use to rent from Bobby Skinner's mom at the Red Apple Motel and would hang out with Johnny Johnson (Mr J's Headers) Great Times and Great Memories. Thanks for Remembering Bill. Just to set the record straight Quincy was a buddy of Bill's in the service who passed away and when Bill went into business he named it after his friend.

Roscoe Bowersox, Ft Pierce, Fl."

For those that are too young to remember, the "Red Apple Motel" is as famous to the oldtime drag racers as "Grauman's Chinese Theater" is to the tourists on Hollywood Blvd. The Red Apple Motel was in Santa Monica and is where the "Surfers" originally hung out and built their famous digger. The "Surfers" (Bob Skinner, Tom Jobe & Mike Sorokin) were a super low buck team that put fear into the hearts of all the eastern "big name" drag racers.

http://www.draglist.com/stories/SOD Feb 2000/SOD-022300.htm

Bob, Tom and Mike with Linda after winning the March Meet in Bakersfield. A 64 car field.

 

[two32ford]

I'm the current owner of the '32 Cabriolet built by Bill Cox (in the above picture). I'm in the final stages of restoring the car to the way it appeared in this picture. I'm looking for any information, photos, and/or names of contacts who might have additional information about the car and its history. I plan to take it to the the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA in January 2013. I'd like to have as much info as possible to take to the show. Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated!

Coleman Castellaw

 

[tinner]

Good histry lesson and old photos there George.
I always enjoy that type of posts.
Wasn't there also a place in Santa Monica back in those days that rented speed equipment?
Maybe the name was 'Shell's'?

 

[luckylogger]

You need to publish your pictures in a book George. Man those photos bring back memories of the really good old days.

 

[scott foxwell]

George, my dad drove a modified roadster out of Quincy's Garage back then (maybe a little before). It was red and white, ran a fuel flat head. Was always in top eliminator. His name was Gerry Foxwell, and I think his partner was Pete Wolf.

 

[Shelton_Barrs]

I got a nice note from sox, the guy that sent me the email I mentioned above. Turns out that I do know him and he thanked me for posting up this thread.

"Thanks...You know me but may not remember me. I worked on the counter at Quincy's With Harvey and Don and was called by my nickname Sox. I was at Lions may times with you guys and always felt included on the team. Mickey always wanted me to take a run in the Dragster but I didn't want to waste a run. I use to rent from Bobby Skinner's mom at the Red Apple Motel and would hang out with Johnny Johnson (Mr J's Headers) Great Times and Great Memories. Thanks for Remembering Bill. Just to set the record straight Quincy was a buddy of Bill's in the service who passed away and when Bill went into business he named it after his friend.

Roscoe Bowersox, Ft Pierce, Fl."

For those that are too young to remember, the "Red Apple Motel" is as famous to the oldtime drag racers as "Grauman's Chinese Theater" is to the tourists on Hollywood Blvd. The Red Apple Motel was in Santa Monica and is where the "Surfers" originally hung out and built their famous digger. The "Surfers" (Bob Skinner, Tom Jobe & Mike Sorokin) were a super low buck team that put fear into the hearts of all the eastern "big name" drag racers.

http://www.draglist.com/stories/SOD Feb 2000/SOD-022300.htm

Bob, Tom and Mike with Linda after winning the March Meet in Bakersfield. A 64 car field.

I have read several good stories on "The Surfers", cool group of guys. If I remember right, they were among the first, if not the first, to figure out the trick to running on 100%...

 

[Greg2]

Love when you share these old photos George, thanks!

 

[Willymon]

Good stuff..and welcome, Coleman Castellaw.

 

[two32ford]

http://millscustoms.com/1932fordcabriolet.html

We just recently finished the Cabriolet. Here is what it looks like today (follow the link above). We are still planning to have it in the Grand National Roadster Show.

Let me know if you have any additional history on this car or Quincy Auto Parts.

 

[Michael_Chernik]

I know, most of you never heard of the place. But in the 1950's and '60's, Quincy Automotive was THE place to get speed equipment or to even get your hotrod built. Quincy's was in Santa Monica, California.

This '32 Roadster is a car built by Bill Cox, owner of Quincy's (his middle name might have been Quincy). Quincy was also the place to go to get your car club plaques made.

Quincy also sponsored many drag race, dry lakes and Bonneville cars. Here's one that I am very familier with.

This is the original "Freight Train". Back then it was known as the "Quincy Automotive Spcl." This photo was taken at the old Riverside Raceway track, which was also used as a drag strip (the main straightaway was VERY long, this was a 1/2 mile drag strip).
In this photo the twin SB Chevy's used a single crank-driven 6-71 puffer.

The same car but with a belt driven 6-71 for each engine.

The Quincy Automotive car won the NHRA Winternationals in 1961.

Without these old speed shops like Quincy's helping out the racers (there were no "pro" racers back then), most of us would never have been able to race dragsters.

I recieved this email this morning reminding me about Quincy's, and the part they played in the early hot rod scene, from someone that I do not even know.

"Just wondering why you and others never mention Quincy Automotive. Bill Cox (Quincy) was one of the guys who helped Drag Racing and Bonneville grow in the early days when you would race for a case of oil. Mickey Brown...Nye frank...John Peters...Craig Breedlove...Bob and Bill Summers and so many others all were helped along the way by Quincy. Quincy Automotive was one of the top speed shops in Southern California. How about some recognition and respect for Quincy. Bill Cox was a my former employer and my friend. Thanks"

Nye Frank (who was my partner in the "Pulsator" dragster) was also partners with John Peters. The Peters & Frank "Freight Train".

At one time, Nye was partners in the Brown-Frank-Weddle dragster too.

Mickey Brown was the driver of this crank driven blown Olds digger. Mickey died in this car at Lions. The car went off the track right off the starting line (no guard rails in those days) and flipped several times, and Mickey's head came between the ground and the roll bar and that was all she wrote. Very tragic as I was standing next to Mickey's wife on the starting line and had to hold her back.

Some of the other names mentioned, Bobby and Bill Summers, from the "Goldenrod" fame and all their dry lakes and Bonneville cars.

Bill Cox is gone now, passed away in the late 90's. I think that most of the local independent speedshops passed away with him, too.

:drinkers: Here's to you pop---How's the Speed Shop in Heaven---must be a super UFO you are making....and getting lessons for flying interdimensionally!
My dad, Harvey Chernik managed Quincy for Bill Cox for years. I remember Bill and all his kids and Quincy's as a boy. The location I recall on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica near Yale was down the street by 2 blocks from Uncle John's Pancake house. They gave cardboard mustaches to the kids. My dad chose the location on the corner to keep an eye on the mechanics and the front entrance. He worked long hours. I recall the muffler pipes and a mural with deers and forest on the wall. It was a hunter's store and they did not repaint the wall. I recall the mechanics and the hot rods and the noise. I recall there was gritty dirty men in farmer overalls, that would come in, smelly and some teeth and towing some heap. These were moonshiners from Georgia and the southern hillbilly states by word of mouth heard of Quincies and they would come in and ask my dad..."how fast can you make this rod go?" My dad would ask back: "How much money you have?" They would give an amount and my pop would say: "I can make it go $1,500 dollars fast" and would get the parts. There were coffee cans on the floor and some of these toothless or sparse teethed hillbillies and others migrating to California after WWII and Korean War chewing tobacco because it was an automotive speed shop would spit tobacco on the floor. My dad being not one to mince words and was very straight and ethical, would yell: "Spit in the coffee cans goddmanit, that's what they were for" And these mean craggy looking fellows would look at him, and say "yes sir". My pop was young and handsome, wore a white T-shirt some days and other days a white shirt with collar but he got respect. He was going to start his own speed shop but Mr. Cox sort of squelched on the deal and dad went into selling insurance and making a better life. He could not insure Craig Breedlove the world's first land speed record holder in Bonneville Salt Flats. Dad passed February 8, 2013. No more ethical person has ever walked this planet. Pop was a genius. And driven and good man. Loved sailing and fishing and travelling. He was blessed by two good wives--at separate times and two families--second one adopted. I am blessed that his ethics and morays for hard work and honesty were passed on to me, my elder brother and younger sister. Well...that is Quincy automotive. And the story is, I was put together by spare Quincy parts and he loved me like I was his very own.....that's a joke...but would someone mind squeezing lube into that zerk I have trouble getting to?

 

[Michael_Chernik]

Pop told me Stan Laurel would come into Quincy's with his Model T.
That would have been a hoot to see him.
Other's building hot rods would come in. I am sure Steve McQueen made it in there as well.

 

[Patrick Cox-1953]

My Name is Patrick Cox. I am the number 2 son of Bill Cox.
Just by accident I stumbled onto this website. I have been in communication with the the present owner of Dad's old '32 roadster. Offering him some old pictures of Quincys.

I have a few OLD pictures from the Quincy Auto Parts days. Michael you will see your dad, Harvey in one of them.

Thought some of you would enjoy a little "Blast for the past"

https://plus.google.com/photos/1003...6880478705?banner=pwa&authkey=CP-JxZfJ6Pu1iAE

Patrick Cox
Salem, Oregon

 

[alteredbob]

That's cool you found us here lots of cool old stuff and latest drag race info here. Before the mafia tells you go see the newbie thread. Welcome. Bob

 

[spidergearsman]

Classy George ...So Cal was not the only place where hot rodding was an industry

 

[rely.valentine]

In a strange turn of events I stumbled across this thread -

In 1959, when Mickey Brown crashed at Lion's Drag Strip, taking his life, my mother and late grandmother were also there. My grandmother had recently married Mickey and together they had a child, my mom, who at the time of the crash was 3 years old.

Being that it was 1959, my grandmother Charlotte wasted no time and found someone who would love and support her and my mother.

Now - Charlotte passed away when I was 3, so I did not have the chance to know her, but have only heard stories of her eccentricities. As i got older, I did however learn that she had hidden this information from my mom and practically everyone else in her life, as if her first marriage had never happened. My mom spent 16 years believing that someone else was her father, until she found newspaper clippings about the accident, hidden in my grandmother's things. The story goes on to get even more harry and complicated, but I will spare the lengthy details and get to my point.

No one ever followed up on this. For whatever reasons, my mother never pursued finding her real family. In fact, I would have never known this story unless we hadn't gotten a knock on our door 15 years ago telling my family we had inherited the house Mickey grew up in in Santa Monica. My real great uncle had died in that house and apparently my mother was the closest living relative.

You think this would have provided some answers, but my mom and dad just wanted to unload the house and get rid of everything.

Its a tragedy to think about now... my sisters and I had NO IDEA

The only thing I know about my grandpa Michael Daryl Brown, is that he died at age 22, broke a world record at the LADS world record meet (152.8 mph), and some how the only family member I look like..

(im often called the milk man's daughter as a joke)

Reading this thread gives me some kind of hope I might be able to connect with someone who knew him or any of his family. Im not quite sure what Im looking for.. a photo perhaps? a sttory? Any kind of insight would be great. After doing some deep internet research, i found a few names he was associated with -

Dick Harryman
Nye Frank
Craig Breedlove
John Peters
Bobby + BillSummers (maybe)
Charlotte Brown (later Charlotte Davis)