CARPET BAGGER FOUND !

[dinoKeymaster]

Hey …found this post, buried in Historic Dover photos !………Must be VIC Jr. ! Fill us in !

“Hello,
I see in this picture it looks like the CarpetBagger….(running Casey) ….I found that car and I am putting together a board with pictures of it. I grew up as a kid watching my dad run Vic Speed Shop Car. As I get use to moving around the site I will post pics of cars. Vic”……………………[Found This for ref.IN Kathy V. Collection (ODF Galleries) June,1970-edit-dino]

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[john-sachs-srParticipant]

Getting old,memory slipping,butttttttttttttttt, I THINK 🙄 “The Carpet Bagger” was owned by Tom Gouluboff,who owned the Floor Covering Shop,in Torrington,Ct.
I sold him my ’70 Hemi-Cuda SS/DA,pictured,at the end of ’71.
John 😀

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[vicp2d]

Hello again, Now I guess you are wondering how I found it . I was searching 55 Nomads and found a small black and white picture of a car with writting on the side and could not read it. Call phone # in Flatbush ny and figured I would be going to the city. Called number and found out the car was called the “Carpetbagger” and Flatbush is also in the Tri State area. When car was uncovered it was awsome! The guy knew I had to have it. Bought with out drive train. Gather up some nickel deposits and purchase car. Oh thanks for the picture of car. I hope to get some nice ones of it soon. Thanks again.

[dinoKeymaster]

What the latest on the ‘rebuild” ?…Oh- Found this–T.O’Shea collection -ODF galleries

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[rodz927Participant]

I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW HOW THAT CAR WAS FOUND,,,,,,,WHAT SOURCE DID YOU USE TO FIND THE CAR,,,THANKS!

[vicp2d]

Update on Carpetbagger. I went thru the whole car. Pull diff out and clean, all the brakes off and cleaned and inspected. I put in a pump gas big block 540 to take to the shows. I ran a couple of times at the Valley as well as Island last year. When I took it to the track a lot of people remebered the car. So I bought the driveline for the car and put it back to all drag only. It is a Small Block, just finished fitting engine, headers and fab up trans cross member in car. Engine sat for 4 years. We filled with water and it went into the pan. Took engine apart and found leak. Blew the dust off of it at Island this past weekend.

[dinoKeymaster]

Heres Vic’s latest Photos! Wow ! he’ll be sending more info Too…His DAD in N.C. now and Ran Vic’s Speed Shop .

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[vbobParticipant]

HEY
found the ole Carpetbagger at the nostalgia meet at Englishtown, yesterday Sunday July 26th!!

Lookin soooooo good!!!!

‘V’

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[bobby-s]

go to the e-town report forum
more there action shots from e-town & this one,,
Bobby S.

(start on page 3 a bunch there)

[rustynuts]

For those who read this post and know the current owner. I have access to information about the CarpetBagger, grew up next door to one of the drivers and knew the machine shop owner that worked on the car.

I have sent a PM to the current owner. Based on his profile he does not visit often. If anyone here has another way to contact him…please advise him of the PM I sent to him. I can be reached at hpexpatriot@yahoo.com.

Ray Opperman

[dinoKeymaster]

RustyNuts !…love that name…He was here ‘Visiting’ Fri. He will get an E-mail notice of your PM at his profile… ya can send Reg E-Mail…thats at profile too.

[dinoKeymaster]

Just in from RustyNuts :

I believe it indeed is the same car.
That is based on the name and the general appearance of the car. FWIW even the stance of the car (as shown in an Englishtown video on the Dover site) appears the same. The car had a pretty stiff launch…it really did not hook up and pull the front end up much. It just sorta headed down the track. I always thought it was due to the no torque 302 motor. Might be it was the suspension. The car had a rear from a big Pontiac or Olds of the late 50’s early 60’s possibly. The car nw seems to sit a little lower to the ground at least i the still pictures. Watching the video I would say that the car as it is now seems to travel along the same way it did back then and the stance seems the same despite apparently having a BB engine now.

Been sorta hooked on the Dover site this weekend. Didn’t spend a lot of days there way back when but I spent more than a few. Most of the crowd I hung around with migrated to Lebanon. I guess the sanctioning issues were important to those guys. If ya were gonna be a CLASS WINNER on a given weekend people wanted to win on NHRA sanctioned tracks in NHRA defined classes. I dunno why that mattered IF the reason to go racing was TO RACE period. Ahhh well.

Dover was always a “Run What Ya Brung” atmosphere from what I recall. I knew guys who built cars that had no chance of winning in an NHRA classification system OR cars that did not meet NHRA rules for this or that. Seems that the answer was…… go to Dover!!!!!
Ray Opperman

….Ray…There appears to be a Drivers name on door If ya can scan at 300 DPI, And resend ,maybe I can work some editting ‘Magic’ …Dino

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[rustynuts]

No need to rescan. I know the names. Not sure of the order in which these guys were in the seat but the names are (Drum Roll please) Wayne Gemelli, Joe Zeller and Jerry Gallo. Wayne was the first guy I knew who drove the car. Gallo and Zeller were later but I cannot recall the order in which they “served”.

This is the same car THE CARPETBAGGER . There is no question. It was reincarnated as Yellow Fever in 68 or 69. After that point in time I dropped outta the car scene and until this week I don’t think I ever even thought once about the car. The engine work…what work there was given the outta the box 302 motor was done by a guy named Larry Liefert. I think I am spelling that correctly. I suspect…suspect is a good word ….that the body work (yellow paint) was done by Jim Coury. Not sure about that however. behind the rear wheel there is a panel painted with “Thanks to” and I belivee that Coury and Liefert and possibly one or two other names are listed there. If the door were to be rescaned it would show “Floor Covering Shop” I cannot rescan becasue I got the picture from someone this weeked via E-mail. We would need to go back and ask him to rescan. The pic you posted is a “prettied up” pic already so I dunno if it can be enhanced further. I have another PIC of the car when it was red (same source as the yellow pic). I thought that I sent that one to ya along with the yellow one. Lemmie look tonight in my C drive.

[dinoKeymaster]

Cool do that…I got same shot good & bad

[rustynuts]

Ok Gonna send you the other picture at your other E-mail. Stand by.

I need to clarify something.

I know that the yellow car is what once was the red Carpetbagger. There is no doubt about that ! If the car presented to be the ” Found Carpetbagger ” is the Yellow Car that is something I cannot say. The current owner had to have linked the car as he found it to the original Carpetbagger somehow. I cannot say anything about that connection. I am VERY sure looking at the Englishtown video that the striped Carpetbagger is the car I remember. Not ABSOLUTLEY sure however.

I knew the owner of the Carpetbagger as more or less an acquaintance. He was a few years older than me…his mom and my mom were lifelongfriends but I really did not know him well. The drivers:…Wayne Gemelli lived a few doors away from me. He was also a few years older than me. I went to the same technical college as one of the other drivers…. Jerry Gallo. Joe Zeller was a close friend of a good friend of mine. All the drivers mentioned drove the car while Tom Gouluboff owned the car. It appears to me that the car must have passed outta Tom Gouluboff (Sp?) hands at some point after say 1970…possibly later. I know about the car from the time it was a red daily driver:…say 1965 or so (With lettering “the Floor Covering Shop” on the door ) up thru say 1969 or 1970.

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