Fact or Fiction? Long!

[HDCharger]

My grandmother died last week and while attending her funeral I ran into some cousins that I haven't seen in years.  One of my cousins (Grandmother's Nephew) that is in his mid to late 60's turns out to be a really big Mopar guy and we got to talk quite a bit.  He has got a 72 Duster he is working on and I was telling him about my Mopars and he tell me about a Max Wedge car he owned back in the early 60's and some other car's.  He told me about a guy that he knew was a big Mopar guy 15 or 20 years ago and had alot of Hemi cars at one time and owned or owns one of Garlits Hemi cars.  Anyway, I guess all this talk got his wheels turning and on his way home he stopped by the guys business to see if he still had any old cars.  The guys owns a arabian/persian carpet store in Florence, AL, my cousin is from Lexington, AL.  He said the guy was reluctant to talk about his old cars but I guess because of my cousins age he felt safe and started telling him that alot of the engineering work on the wing cars was done in Huntsville, AL.  He said Chrysler had sent him down to Huntsville to get into the southern racing scene.  My cousin said the guy was one of the Chrysler engineer's and begin to really talk over his head.  He didn't remember the guys first name but his last name was Wright.  Anyone know of this guy and if there is any truth to this story?  If so one of the Magazines should do an article on this guy before its all lost.   

[hemigeno]

I did a quick search through the Aerowarriors site, looking for anything related to this gentleman - and I found something.  There absolutely was a Wright involved at the Huntsville operation, and they really did do a lot of testing down there for the Daytona.

Below is a link to a document written by a W.P. Wright (almost certainly the same man) who was at the Huntsville facility at the time.  The document is related to the development of a hood scoop to go with the Daytona Aero package.

http://aerowarriors.com/cda/cda_100969.html

Considering that Greg Kwiatkowski has the actual hood that was used in those tests, he might be very interested in contacting Mr. Wright.  I agree that it would be cool to have his story recorded, and perhaps Doug Schellinger would be interested in doing so for the DSAC newsletter (or Sue George for the WingedWarriors).

HDCharger, any chance you can PM me a way to get ahold of this gentleman?

Thanks for the heads-up!!

Geno

[Aero426]

The man you are talking about is Bill Wright.    The story as descibed at top of the thread makes sense.

When we talk about the fact that we had rocket scientists working on the wing car project, Bill Wright is the perfect example.

Bill spent much of his career in aerospace, but backing up a bit, he joined Chrysler Automotive Engineering in 1953 and earned a Masters Degree at the Chrysler Institute in 1955.   Bill worked on a variety of interesting projects including the early Turbine engine development.  In 1956, he was transferred to the Chrysler Huntsville facility and worked on the Redstone and Jupiter rocket program.  He worked in various areas of Redstone and Jupiter development through 1962.  At that time, devlopment began on the Saturn and Apollo rocket program, and he was involved with this through 1968.   In '68 when Chrysler lost the moon rocket program to McDonnell-Douglas, there were folks in Huntsville looking for things to do, and they found a home with the race program.   

When it came time for the race group to do the big push on aerodynamic development, they needed help with instrumentation and the ability to capture data while testing. Bill and his people developed the hardware to accomplish that.  John Vaughn who did the 3/8 scale tunnel testing on the cars worked directly for Bill.   

If you remember back to Talladega in 1969, where the drivers reported momentary blackouts in the corners because of the rough track, it was Bill Wright who made the connection to the Pogo Effect phenomenon similar to what astronauts experienced during launch.

The Chrysler Huntsville facility was still in operation a couple of years ago and made electronic ignition components and radios, but was announced it would be closed.  Not sure if that's happened yet.



At the 2001 DSAC meet in Auburn Hills, we got a group of the race group and aerodynamics guys together.  From left to right, Bill Wright,  Larry Rathgeb, John Pointer, George Wallace and John Vaughn.   The car is the #88 that Baker broke 200 with.

[DC_1]

Still wearing his pocket protector and carry a bunch #2 pencils I see.....

[hemigeno]

Still wearing his pocket protector and carry a bunch #2 pencils I see.....

Once a Rocket Scientist, always a Rocket Scientist...

[69_500]

Even cooler than a magazine interview, how about trying to hook up for a video interview. I'd be more than happy to film it and such.

[Crazy Larry]

Still wearing his pocket protector and carry a bunch #2 pencils I see.....

Once a Rocket Scientist, always a Rocket Scientist...

[Dans 68]

By all means, someone should try to get his history on tape, or paper, at least. He sounds like a treasure chest of knowledge!

A rocket scientist...that appellation always makes me smile! I have always wondered how many we have on this site (besides me, that is...I was involved in the Peacekeeper missile program back in the 80's. "Burning" 323 lbs of propellant in under a second was always good for my morale). 

Dan

[DC_1]

We should start a email campain to Speedvision to get them to interview the guy before he takes his next  lap on the big track in the sky......

[Crazy Larry]

We should start a email campain to Speedvision to get them to interview the guy before he takes his next  lap on the big track in the sky......

Hey, I'm game for that - all we need is one email to write to over at Speedvision. They must have a dozen different ones and we'd be more effective in numbers by sending them all to one.

[69_500]

Speedvision would be a great company to do the work. They are a lot more hightech than my company. They would have the funding to do something like that as well. Does anyone have any contact information for the Mr. Bill Wright, would love to discuss the possiblities of doing a video interview with him if he would be at all interested.

[DC_1]

We should start a email campain to Speedvision to get them to interview the guy before he takes his next lap on the big track in the sky......

Best I caon come up with is a tel #

Speedvision Network L.L.C.
Headquarters Location
2 Stamford Plz. 281 Tresser Blvd., 8th Fl., Stamford CT 06901, United States
(203)406-2500, http://www.speedvision.com

[HDCharger]

I agree someone should do it.  I've got his phone # and I know exactly how to get to his home/business.  Just some additional info:  When my cousin was talking to him I think he had said they initially had a problem with the car being "wobbly" but once the got the wing pillars right it straitend to car out.  He also said a local paper or newspaper had attempted to do a story at one time but they got discouraged because he was talking above their head.  Dave

[Aero426]

He also said a local paper or newspaper had attempted to do a story at one time but they got discouraged because he was talking above their head.  Dave

My personal experience is that it can be hard for someone involved with very technical projects to be able to explain it to us in laymans terms.  We also tend to enjoy anecdotes or events that happened.

I think Speed is the wrong direction to go.  You won't get the right questions asked, and I personally think it's really too specialized for their audience.   American Musclecar has already told the wing car story in very general terms.    Speed would have you believe their target audience wants to watch garbage like Pinks, Unique Whips and Texas Lardtails.   But I digress.

For the record, Bill was at Detroit in 2001 and we got quite a bit on tape.  Sue George transcribed much of that and it's on the WW/NBOA website. Bill was not able to attend Talladega in 2004, which we would have liked to have brought him there.  It did not work out.   I do think Bill is someone we should sit down and talk furthur with.   Another possibility is to have someone else familiar with Bill, and the project involved in the interview.  I can think of some people that Bill would be comfortable with, that would add to the conversation.   

[69_500]

Doug, just out of curiousity who do you think should be involved in any potential interviews with Bill? Is it someone in the club? Someone else who worked at Chrysler in the 60's? Like I said I'd be more than willing to see what I can put together for an interview on video.

[Aero426]

Doug, just out of curiousity who do you think should be involved in any potential interviews with Bill? Is it someone in the club? Someone else who worked at Chrysler in the 60's? Like I said I'd be more than willing to see what I can put together for an interview on video.

George Wallace and Bill are friends from way back in their Chrysler institute days.  Depending on what you want to do, ideally, you could go a couple of guys at a time and make the mother of all wing car documentaries.    John Pointer, Romberg and Dick LaJoie would be another possibility for a later segment.   Rathgeb is another.  It's easier to get guys together in Detroit.    Drivers?    Ultimatelly these could be edited into a single program.   The intent would be to tell the tale from the horses mouth one last time. When we have roundtables at the events, it's nice but you really don't get much one on one time to ask questions.  So doing it away from an event, or before an event where there are no other distractions, would be important.

Hey, is the Glotzbach tape from over at Rich's house last fall available yet?

[DC_1]

So what are you guys waiting for!.........lets geter done!!!.........just kidding....I know this is a huge undertaking, but it would be excellent if it could be pulled off.....I know I would buy a copy on DVD if made available.

[69_500]

Yes Doug the Charlie Interview is done and available. We decided to not cut anything out of it and leave it raw and unedited. Figuring that most people read the transcript in the newsletter from the WW, and we didn't want to edit any of that out. so we just left it all in there.

I would be very interested in setting individual meetings with these people to do video interviews and would be more than willing to edit it all together as one big AERO CARS discussion DVD or set. Heck I'd just like to hear all of  the stories, the editing of it would be like icing on cake, with ice cream on the side.

I have had the same idea with trying to do a DVD of engineers and drag racers from the same era as well. Which is what I talked to Akron Arleen about at the swap meet here in Indy last weekend. He loved the idea, and hopefully we can work something out in the future for that.

[Brock Samson]

 Great stuff!

What's the chance of doing a hood like that? Other then a stock metal hood being utilized what about a AAR glass hood spliced into a fiberglass aftermarket hood like Highbanks'?...
I sure like it, and what a no brainer,.. can someone photoshop a light colored DAYTONA with the NASA duct?.. please.. 
Imagine a hemi orange wing car with that duct and HEMI outs,..
   So if the daytonas all used '70 hoods, the scallops would be closer togeather then the stock '69 right?.. Now i'm confused cause 500s used '69 hoods.. 
..nevermind..

[Aero426]

Yes Doug the Charlie Interview is done and available. We decided to not cut anything out of it and leave it raw and unedited. Figuring that most people read the transcript in the newsletter from the WW, and we didn't want to edit any of that out. so we just left it all in there.

Danny, how does one go about ordering a copy?  Is DVD available?

[69_500]

Well here I'll put a little plug to my website here then.

You can order a copy of the Monster Mopar DVD which includes an excerpt of the Charlie Glotsbach interview, or you can order a DVD of just the Charlie Glotzbach interview. Both DVD's are available at our website which is www.delproductions.net
All DVD's are $15 and  that includes shipping and handling.