Joe Wolf/Junior Johnson 1939 Chevmobile modified sportsman

[MarkJ]

This was a very innovative car built in the late fifties by Joe Wolf. It was a 1939 Chevy and had a 394 Oldsmobile v8 with 4 weber carbs. He placed it so far back on the chassis the driver sat in the back seat area to drive it. It won one of the modified races at the Daytona Beach Road and beach course, but I can't remember what year it was. Tim Flock was the driver at that time. This is the way it looked when Junior drove it in either 1959 or 1960 on the trioval. It led the race but did not win.

[MarkJ]

Here are some pics of the real car.

[TarheelRick]

Junior was disqualified for "too large a gas tank", why doesn't that surprise me. Another great build Mark. I really like these history lessons you present. I'll bet those pipes made a distinctive sound.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Fantastic build of an incredible car. Really nice job.

[Volzfan59]

Great looking model Mark. Like TarheelRick, I enjoy the history lessons that you provide.

[john2]

    Very nice.  I wonder about the sound too.  Very different from the others I would imagine. 

[MarkJ]

Thanks guys. I had to do a lot of guessing on the exhaust and the interior of the car because of the lack of good reference photos, but I knew each side had 4 pipes coming out so I figured it must have looked something like this. I mean, why would you go from 4 pipes into a collector and then have 4 pipes come back out again. It made no sense to me. I had to make a close out box like vans have for the interior of the car because they must have had to keep all that heat and noise away from the driver sitting in the back seat area. I had to guess on how that might have looked, and I had to move the pedals back where the driver was and the gear shift as well. Just built it the way I would of if I was doing it on a full-sized car. I actually was a technician in a Chevy dealership for 45 years, so I had a little bit of mechanical knowledge. I have to admit that I spent most of those years doing electrical stuff and interior stuff like replacing dashes, seat covers, and door repairs including those electrically operated sliding doors. Man, I hated replacing those drive units. You had to basically strip the interior to get that done. Didn't pay much on commission either.