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At 02:49 PM 3/4/99 -0600, Bruce in Tulsa wrote:
>Hello List,
>
>I'm sure I speak for all Forward Looker when I say it's a
pleasure to
>have Ken on the list. His direct involvement with the cars we
love as an
>automotive writer is a valuable resource.
If you guys are interested, I'll be happy to share some of my
experiences. Here's one I sent to Dave Zappa in response to a query from
him about a custom 1955 T-Bird he owns -- which was featured in Motor
Life magazine. Bear with me, because it does have a MoPar connection (the
Dodge Lancer wagon test for Pop Science) and fills in a bit more of my
background.
> Thinking about Ken Dunn triggered another memory. After I
joined Pop
> Science (1959) we were doing 10,000-mile road tests, mostly on
new
> compacts, and I usually had the chore of picking up the cars
(which Pop
> Science bought outright from dealers; they weren't
company-provided test
> cars) and putting on the first 2500-4000 miles. I took a Dodge
Lancer
> station wagon from Detroit down to Florida (with a quick flight
over to
> Nassau for part of SpeedWeeks there) and then back to NYC.
(Nassau, BTW,
> had to be the swingingest place in the Western Hemisphere
during
> SpeedWeeks, but that's another story!)
>
> I stopped in Daytona early one morning to take some photos at
the
> almost-new Tri-Oval track, just as Bill France was arriving. He
same me and
> came over grinning: "What are you doing here, Ken? There's
no race today."
> I explained about the road test and he suggested we take a ride
around the
> track.
>
> "Ford is doing so testing here today and Ken Dunn is the
engineer in
> charge. You know him, don't you? Maybe he'll let us take a spin
when they
> don't have a car on the track."
>
> I said that I did know Ken and Bill jumped into the Dodge wagon
with me.
> Sure enough, we caught Ken just as there was a break in their
testing. He
> wound up getting into the wagon with us, and I drove a
half-dozen laps
> around the Tri-Oval with Bill & Ken for company. Only
problem was, we had
> ordered the Lancer wagon with some options, including a 3.83
rear axle
> ratio, so it was completely wound out at about 89 mph -- which
was hardly
> fast enough to get up on the steep banking of the
Tri-Oval.
The Lancer had fine acceleration but not much on the high end, and
gas mileage was not that great.
>Ken, I encourage you to share some of your experiences during
this
>period. What did you and your fellow writers think of Chrysler's
lineup
>in the mid-50s to early-60s? We know you certainly liked the
1955 300.
>What were some of your most memorable experiences dealing with
Chrysler
>at this time? What were those Exner cars like to drive fresh out
of the
>box?
>
>LOOKING FORWARD to hearing more about your career,
>
The cars were great-looking, good performers, and handled well for
that era -- especially with some of the
HD suspension options available. Worst rap on them was quality
control: things like leaky trunks (I had a 50-something Imperial test car
once that leaked so bad it ruined a suitcase suitcase stowed in the
trunk); body panels that didn't always fit well (due to "tolerance
creep"), etc. But I liked 'em. I drove a '57 Plymouth Fury to
Daytona Beach and hit 102 mph with it in a measured mile in the Beach
Trials. Probably would have done better but the beach was in bad shape
that day, deeply furrow so that the car was airborne a lot of the time.
The Fury had HD suspension (& dual quad carbs, as I recall) and it
saved the lives of me & my family on the way home to Detroit. I was
coming up a hill on a narrow 2-lane road in Georgia when, all of a
sudden, a fat guy in an Olds smoking a big cigar was coming at me head-on
in my lane -- passing another car as he crested the hill. I managed to
swerve to the right, on the very, very narrow road shoulder, just enough
to miss him (by about the thickness of a Pop Science magazine) and get
straightened out before I rolled off the hill. I couldn't have made that
maneuver in most other stock cars of the day without losing it.
Is that the kind of stuff you'd like to read?
Take care, Ken
Ken Fermoyle, columnist (Ken's Korner) & publisher Fermoyle Publications, (818) 346-9384 22250 Capulin Court, Woodland Hills, CA 91364-3005 Newsletters, Editorial Services, Graphics & Web Design "In the beginning was the Word..." And don't you forget it!
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