UKDRN

Do you own or know the whereabouts of a piece of UK Drag Racing History or just want info on a particular machine.

Moderators: timetravel, ukdrn

 #37615  by plymoutharrow
 
I have just remembered about a car I saw for sale about 10 years ago in Stoke on Trent. Does anyone know the history and whether it was fact that Ronnie Picardo had his own street driven Pontiac GTO? From what I saw of it was a 4 speed car.
 #38186  by jd426
 
Yep, it was Ron's! He brought it in from New York in early '75, from memory. It was a '72, built by a shop in Yonkers and was an ex-nhra super stock car with a strong 455/M-22 and ran, I think, low 11s. The flywheel took a walk out of the stock aluminium bellhousing (I know...) and made a 2" slot from the top of the trans tunnel and went out through the floor, (Hooker) headers, rocker panels and door!!! Ron did make a nice job of repairing it though! It was a nice car, don't know what happened to it after Ronnie had it but it was about as "real" as it got.
 #39218  by plymoutharrow
 
Thanks for the reply. (Took me 2 years to reply!) I spotted it at Oldcott Motors/ Steve Walker. Steve had bought the car up from London. I think that it had been sitting about for years. I saw it about 8-10 years ago from what my memory remembers. He was asking around £11000.

I told Steve that it was Ronnies old car as he didn't know that he was a drag racer.

Alvin
 #39219  by jd426
 
Interesting, Alvin. Wonder where it is now. I'll mention it to Ron, when I see him next. Cheers, John
 #39259  by plymoutharrow
 
jd426 wrote: Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:34 am Interesting, Alvin. Wonder where it is now. I'll mention it to Ron, when I see him next. Cheers, John
Are there any pictures of it being raced back in the 70s? Could you ask? Thanks.
 #39821  by sebastien
 
hello everyone
I was trying to contact Mr Picardo and found this post ! thanks internet !
I am the owner of Ronnie's GTO, it is a long story, and I am sarting a frame off restoration. I was trying to reach him to talk about it a little. I found his email adress and sent him a message but if someone from here can contact him directly it could be awesome.
 #40164  by sebastien
 
On rotisserie for the moment
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 #40166  by ukdrn
 
sebastien wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2020 6:23 pm On rotisserie for the moment
It's looking really clean. Well done
 #40169  by sebastien
 
jd426 wrote: Tue Sep 08, 2015 10:45 pm Yep, it was Ron's! He brought it in from New York in early '75, from memory. It was a '72, built by a shop in Yonkers and was an ex-nhra super stock car with a strong 455/M-22 and ran, I think, low 11s. The flywheel took a walk out of the stock aluminium bellhousing (I know...) and made a 2" slot from the top of the trans tunnel and went out through the floor, (Hooker) headers, rocker panels and door!!! Ron did make a nice job of repairing it though! It was a nice car, don't know what happened to it after Ronnie had it but it was about as "real" as it got.
Attachments
Some stigmata
Some stigmata
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5FDDB9B9-3C43-40D3-B763-FFF698C60074.jpeg (2.36 MiB) Viewed 23426 times