'60's SURVIVOR * 1963 DON TUTTLE FRONT ENGINE DRAGSTER * PAT FOSTER * US MULE *

Description for Other Makes FRONT ENGINE DRAGSTER 1963

Up for auction is my 1963 Don Tuttle Chassis Front Engine Dragster. the Bates & George U. S. Mule. This car is an actual '60s survivor with documented restoration work performed by the late. great Pat Foster of Foster's Pro-Fab a. k. a. Foster Slingshotz. For those of you that have never heard of Pat here is a link that will give a little info about the man: http://www. wediditforlove. com/diggers-profab. html The car was built for the late Buddy Bates in 1963-4 by California Chassis Engineering's founder and Buddy Bates' good friend. Don Tuttle. also deceased. Dave Tuttle. Don's son. is still operating the business today and has followed his dads footsteps by building a lot of winning "new" stalgia FED's. As a matter of fact Buddy Bates' son. Dr. Kin Bates. nbsp;Sr. is still doing quite well in Tuttle cars winning the A/Fuel national points championship for 7 different seasons in the NHRA Heritage Series. The U S Mule has a 135" wheelbase. it originally was campaigned by Buddy Bates as a BB/GD with a blown 354 Hemi. Not sure when. but sometime during its life it was sold to the guy I bought it from who had "updated" it to a bracket car with a SBC taking place of the Hemi. I got it as a basket case with a bunch of useless parts in 2001. Lucky me. as I had been the starter at the local dragstrip since 1999. I have quite a few contacts in the sport which got me in cahoots with Pat Foster as he lived in Wichita at that time. and he took my car in as a "Foster child". He went out of his normal build one car at at time deal and squeezed my resto work in while waiting for the motor for his Jade Grenade restoration to arrive. The extent of Pat's fabrication work included straightening/squaring the chassis. new lower frame rails. nbsp;removed the boxy old six-point cage and replaced it with the new 5 pointer. added kidney bars and additional diagonal bracing and bars. nbsp;the entire steering system from the new SPE funny car steering box all the way to the P&S Anglia style spindles to include the one of a kind butterfly steering wheel. motor plate and front engine mounts. torsion tube and torsion arms (solid front end. no actual torsion bar). new aluminum seat. anti-rotation crossmember. shifter handle. I am probably missing more things but this should give you an idea of just how much Pat did on the car. The chassis measures 17" between the shoulder hoop. I am 5'-11'' and 195 lbs. and fit. The nickel plated rear end is the original to the car. an Olds 1949-54 series housing with a 52-54 Oldsmobile third member with 4. 56:1 gear ratio. Mark Williams axles. a push handbrake with Wilwood modern disc setup. There is also a new Stroud custom red. white & blue parachute for extra stopping power if need be. The car only weighs 1150 pounds so the 'chute is basically for backup. Back wheels are Mehelich 15x8 with 33x10. 5 M/T tires. Front wheels are new CT-90 Honda rims on machined aluminum Anglia style hubs re-laced with new stainless steel spokes by American Spoke. The tranny is a fresh shorty glide. with tranny brake which may be hooked up if desired. nbsp;the converter is a BTE 4500 stall 9" dia. The engine is a 1972 truck 350 that has been balanced/blueprinted/bored . 030 so it is now a 355. bowtie iron double-hump 2. 02 "fuelie" heads with Crane roller tipped rockers and springs. the camshaft is a Shneider #299H hydraulic. pistons are GM Hypereutectic flat tops. pink rods and cast crank. Spark is provided by a rebuilt vintage Vertex magneto. The mag was rebuilt by local Vertex guru. the late Leon DeWitt. Other than the plug wires. the only wiring on this car is a single wire to kill the mag! Less is more. The fuel injection system is a Hilborn 327-C-8A with 14AS nozzles. . 020 bypass spring. . 080 jet. fuel pressure-67. SO Hilborn pump. No balancer. just a blower snout with no pulley. The oil pan is a cut and boxed stock pan and modified stock pump and pickup. This car sits very low. The oil drain plug is literally 1 inch off the ground. Fuel is methanol. The fuel tank is what used to be an Eelco 2 gallon pressure tank that is now vented for normal use. The small aluminum front wing mounted to the front axle with a couple of old SBC connecting rods is filled with about 35 lbs of buckshot to help keep the front end down on high gear launches. The car has very few passes on it since completed. maybe 15 or 20 total and has gone a best of 9. 17 at 147 on a high gear pass. 1st gear launches/passes will require more ballast up front!!! The car comes turn key. just add some alcohol and go racing. The car could also be brought back to it's original form as seen in the #12 picture above with the 3 point cage and blown 354 Hemi. The car will come with the original cowl. original interior pad by Tony Nancy. original seat. 2 or 3 extra bare third members. some extra open carriers and ring and pinions. spiders and misc. the original Olds drum brakes. extra Hilborn injector stacks (8" long) a wide assortment of pills/jets. remote starter wagon. receipts plus more! This car was featured in the #13 issue of Gears and Gals magazine and has won numerous awards at various car shows. I have only ever entered the car in an actual competition once at the nostalgia drags at our local track in 2010 and won the heads-up junior fuel class that night. Here is a very. very rare chance to own an actual survivor of the times that Pat Foster actually had his hand in and something that you will be able to relive history again in for yourself for under 25K. Pat is no longer with us here on earth and there is not a lot of his work out there. this is a very rare opportunity to own some of his outstanding handiwork. A full photo album of the car can be found here: https://www. facebook. com/drgstrgene/media_set?set=a. 2533774123236. 91853. 1820063647&type=3 and a short video of the car making a pass can be seen here: https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=yUG1XjHaAOU The car has also been featured on the TV show Street Rodding American Style which can be seen here: https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=lQ-3H5vHaZw Serious bidders only please and if you have a feedback rating of 10 or less you must first message me before bidding to avoid a bid cancellation. Good luck and happy bidding!On Mar-12-15 at 08:33:05 PDT. seller added the following information:3/12/15 I received a message from Dave Tuttle this morning basically verifying the chassis as one of his dads. I will paste a portion Dave's message here: "I get a few people every year who think they have one of our cars when they don't. Most who do have little back ground information which makes the search for its history in my archives that much more challenging. Your's however is not. I had reason to doubt the year you have listed it was built but after finding these photo's of the bare chassis. I can tell you this much. that is the oldest surviving Tuttle Car I've seen. The way the Rear End Housing dropped out the bottom dates that one around 1964 or 65'. By 1966 Dad was mounting the Rear End Housing in the center of a V. That's the first thing I ask about when someone thinks they may have one of ours. " So. it appears the car is actually more in the 64-65 year range rather than the 1963 I was quoted the car being when I bought it from the second owner. but it is an authentic Don Tuttle chassis as verified by Dave Tuttle of California Chassis Engineering. Thanks for the info Dave and thanks for keeping the "nostalgia" in the cars currently rolling out of your shop!!