ASn interview with Big Daddy

[pwd72s]

[herr_oberst]

Great interview. I like the thumbnail - one of his experiments, like the streamliner and the sidewinder that weren't as successful as his rear engine transformation. (Fun fact, the same guy that designed and built the famous Moon streamliner body also built the body for Big Daddy's streamliner - Bodies by Jocko)
One thing he tried to innovate was the size of the front wheels so the timing beams would break quicker at the launch. At one point he had what were essentially vee-belts on cart wheels. I don't think the sanctioning body was ever going to let that become a thing.
Then there's that famous blowover where he's in the spoon car. (Maybe he talked about it in the OP interview, I saw that a while back and I can't remember all the stuff that was brought up.)

[herr_oberst]

[Zeke]

I never saw Jocko build a body. He was in the same building as Doug Kruse, though. I worked next door. If he did, I bet he didn't do it alone. Kruse (pronounced cru-sy) gas welded AL, never TIG'ed that I saw.

Jocko was brilliant, no doubt. He died still working on his famous engine idea. To even think that siht was beyond belief. One thing folks don't know a lot about is that Jocko made wood sculptures and was a name in the art world.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Zeke

I never saw Jocko build a body. He was in the same building as Doug Kruse, though. I worked next door. If he did, I bet he didn't do it alone. Kruse (pronounced cru-sy) gas welded AL, never TIG'ed that I saw.

Jocko was brilliant, no doubt. He died still working on his famous engine idea. To even think that siht was beyond belief. One thing folks don't know a lot about is that Jocko made wood sculptures and was a name in the art world.

Thanks for that insight, Zeke! You guys that lived the life down in So Cal had so much more over people like me that could only read about that life I dreamed of. I took what I read about the people in the magazines, from Jocko to Buttera to Barris and Ed Roth and Chip Foose et al, at face value. Maybe it's better that way, I don't know.

I read about Boyd now, (or Buttera, or Barris) and my thinking is colored by later testimony of people that worked for them.

(I'm not naive, I know that for instance, Chiluly, isn't spending as much time at the furnace as he is as a celebrity artist. It's the nature of the business)