Joining familiar cars such as John Young’s powder blue 1964 Dodge Dart, Alan Mann’s red and gold Mustang,
Hugh and Martin Angle’s red and white Mustang and Jim Woodley’s giant white Galaxie, were several new
kids on the block.

Most striking, in yellow and blue, was a 1965 rear-engined Chevrolet Corvair with the name ‘Chuck’ Chapman sign-written on the roof and sporting ‘Ralph Nader’ number plates. It turned out that the owner’s name was actually Bruce but his car preparer, Rae Davis, had nicknamed him ‘Chuck’ for a bit
of fun, in keeping with his new American car.

Bruce explained ‘It’s come from Sweden, where it was a race car and this is our first time out today. It’s just something different, something unusual. I haven’t seen another one. The number plate refers to Ralph Nader because he tried to ban them. We don’t know if it will be competitive. It’s got a 2.7-litre turbo charged engine in the back which apparently develops about 185bhp. We’ve done a bit of work to it, mainly on the suspension but it’s basically as it came. We’ve got no race results, so we don’t know much about it. It’s just how it’s going to handle with all that weight in the back. It actually feels a bit light on the front. There’s no apparent turbo lag. It’s quite smooth, so either the turbo’s not working at all or it’s well sorted. We’re not quite sure!’

Corvette devotee Bernie Chodosh, turned up with his latest toy, a gold and red 1960 Corvette. The car wasn’t quite finished but Bernie was having it inspected for its FIA race papers. He said ‘It’s actually an old race and drag car from the East Coast of America. I bought it probably 17 or 18 years ago off the original owner’s son. It had been laying in his back garden for 20 odd years. I only brought it to the UK last year. It’s been in New York all this time, in store. Everything is original, including the hard top. It’s got all the parts on it that you should have on a race car, so next step is to see how it goes.’

Rupert Clevely’s metallic blue ’65 Mustang looked so fresh and sparkly I thought the paint was still wet. It very nearly was and this turned out to be its first ever run. Built by John Freeman from a shell imported from the U.S., Rupert said ‘This is my first American racer. The car is terrific and it has so much grunt.’

Michael Steele imported his red Galaxie racer from Australia two years ago but he has yet to race it. He told me: ‘The car was an absolute disaster. We had to order a new 427 block from America. We had to take the gearbox out and put the correct homologated Borg Warner T10 box back in. When we first got it, it was like riding a sailing ship with a 15 degree angle as we went through the bends. The bodywork was done quite well in Australia, so we have left that alone.  ‘We have been playing around with the suspension to try and make the car handle in a flat manner. We are just about there now. The engine builder was given
the brief by myself to produce an engine that maximised torque. We have 540lb.ft. of torque and 515bhp. There should be five Galaxies racing this year and I reckon this one should be right at the front.’

Michael will be sharing the driving in the two driver races with tin-top ace, Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams. Although Barrie has driven literally hundreds of different race cars, he had never driven a Galaxie before. After his baptism he told me ‘It’s got huge character
and personality. It handles very well. It’s a lot better than I expected it to be. It’s like driving a huge truck, but it doesn’t arf go down that straight. You don’t realise how quick you are going until you come up behind other cars. It’s about the quickest car apart from the Cobra, that I’ve ever driven out of the chicane.’

These cars and a host of other American beefcakes can be seen in action in the Masters ‘Top Hat’ Series. Check out www.tophatracing.co.uk for dates, venues and further details. SH