Mr Mopar…Coppola

[dinoKeymaster]

The boys have the hood up on the first “Mr.Mopar” in 1962…Finagin pin musta snapped. They came back the following year with the A/FX and promply crashed it. Took the Roof off and continued on as a Roadster…But Thats Another story.

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[dinoKeymaster]

John Shimer ‘getting the facts correct” …THANKS …

I think it was Boccanfuso Bros that removed the top – not sure. But it wasn’t the ’63 A/FX Coppola car. Here’s what I remember – (I was handing out timing slips and saw the car go over the guard rail. Crew had removed the rear shocks, after inspection, for weight transfer – STUPID. This was the match race for fastest Dover “stocker”, Coppola vs. Billy Lagana’s Z-11). Mr. Mopar’s aluminum front end was sold, and the crunched up shell sat behind the dealership for ?? years. I don’t know what happened to the engine.

The 62 stocker was sold to a guy in Danbury who hung out at Azzarito’s. I rode in this car a few times. It was a 3 speed stick – Mopar did not have a 4 speed that would stand up to the max or hemi motors until 64. To my knowledge, Danny Coppola did not race again after the accident. JS

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[briant]

Nice ( maybe ) to see a picture of Donny Coppolas car. I do not think he sold the front end unless it was after 1969. The car sat on the side of his fathers dealership in Wspt., Ct. till at least then. I do have a picture of it with the left side ( front missing but the right side / hood just in too bad a condition. Yes it was the Boccanfuso Bros. that cut the top of their car and went roadster. I was always at their garage in Wspt. also. I believe that Donny C. moved to Fla. don’t know when but that is what I heard. The wkends in wspt were something else. Merritt pkwy used to get a lot of traffic if you know what I mean., Thanks BrianT

[briant]

sorry in my previous post I stated that I was always at the Boccanfuso garage. Meant to say that the car was always out front of their garage.

[dinoKeymaster]

Don’t have too much on the Boccanfuso Bros…anyone have some Photos/info?…I’ll start a new Topic.
Nick !….furyus63 Got Anything? This is all I can find …in the background of another shot

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[storm-king]

We knew the Boccanfuso brothers, of course. What a shame to look back now and see those beautiful lightweight max wedge cars so torn up!
The story we got was that someone had told the Boccanfuso’s that Lebanon ran Saturday night, so they were going to run Lebanon, turn ’round and head to Dover in the morning.
Well, Lebanon did run Saturday nights, just not the drags. They were trailering up to Lebanon and their trailer jack knived and the car went over.
That’s the way I remember the story from back in the day.
When they chopped the roof off it and brought it back to Dover to run as an altered (as I recall) they were sitting behind the starting line in the hot car pits area one Sunday when one of the Arfon’s had their jet car there.
Basically, they got too close to the jet exhaust, if I remember correctly, and it warpped the crap out of the aluminum front end.
If anyone remembers different, or has heard directly from one of the brothers, feel free to call B.S. (For some reason, I can only remember Chris Boccanfuso’s name).

[gramdog1Participant]

In 1964 Jay,Rick,Rick’s wife Dawn and I went to Coppolla’s to buy a set of mag wheels(Torq-thrusts I think).Dan said they removed the rear shocks on the advice of Billy Lagana 😕 😕
He said “He pulled a shitty on me” 😆 😆 Then apologized to Dawn for using bad lanquage. 😳 😳

[dinoKeymaster]

I Love this stuff…only at Dover! 😆

[super-sport-pete]

HI DINO! all i am adding to this is COPPOLA sold PONTIACS in 70-90 or so,then BOCCANFUSO sold PONTIACS in the 90s till they stopped making them. i think seymour, from that area (westport) worked in the parts dept. over and out…

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