I was standing by the Nova talking to John Pandeles about naming the Nova "Ichabod Car" for the Halloween season. I mentioned that it was raced all over So Cal in the seventies, and that it was called "The Other Woman". I ignored the astonished look on John's face, continuing my blah blah blah, when he said "What was it called?". I repeated "The Other Woman". John said "That was my car!!!".

Who knew!!

John was the second owner, having bought it from the builder, Performance Specialties in Alhambra. John sold it to Mike Burbach who named it The Other Woman. Seems Mike still owes John $800 for the car. John held onto the pink slip all these years until just a few months ago when it was tossed away during a Pandeles' office cleaning party.

Hope he doesn't file a lean on my car!

Here are the historical highlights:

It was black with a blue cloth interior when new.

Performance Specialties raced it for a little over a year with a 350 HP 327 motor and a Muncie M22 four speed. It had a 1957 Pontiac rear end connected to a Thunderbolt type lower link frame connector and a watts link to keep it centered. It was sprung with coil over shocks. Then Performance Specialties put a 427 L88 in the car. Paul Althouse, friend of Grumpy Jenkins, turned the wrenches at the time.

The car raced in A/Stock, D/Gas and A/Modified Production with various combinations, mostly at the old Irwindale 1/4 mile track. They also raced at Lions and O.C. Raceways.

The L88 incarnation was used as a development mule for the Hooker fender well headers, that are in there now, and for the Edelbrock tunnel ram manifold sold back then.

Best ET with Performance Specialties was 11.10. Very fast for those days.

John bought the car around 1968. He named it "The Speed Merchant". John raced it in A/MP and Pro Stock. Pro stock had model year restrictions and the Nova did not qualify. But the class was in its infancy and 13 -14 car fields were the norm. Grudgingly they let John race despite the grumblings of Dick Landy and others. John's attitude was - "if you don't like it, then beat me" according to Eileen, the World's Fastest Grandmother.  John qualified for 5 races against the likes of Dick Landy, Butch Leal and Shirley Shahan (the Dragon Lady). John tweaked the car to consistent 10s with a best of 10.42 at 137.50 MPH. Impressive.

John sold the car, as a roller, to Mike Burbach in 1971 or 1972. Mike put a a 482 ci BBC in the car. Mike raced the car for several years. It was "twisted and ripped" more often than not according to John. Mike would go through a clutch every five races with the big block. He got a Clutch Flight from John hoping to do better. A front pump explosion ripped through the floor and took 2 1/2 inches of Mike's shoe off. Dripping with tranny fluid, that looked like blood, Mike was astonished to find his toes still attached when he removed his shoe.

Mike raced the car in Quick 16 at Irwindale, and D/Gas Modified at the '77 Winternationals. It ran 9.90s or better with the 482 and spray. He also ran at Ontario Motor Speedway, Carlsbad, Riverside and St. George Utah

Updates courtesy of Dave Pulver, Mike Burbach's tire wiper

MIKE BURBACH with his dog Henry

IRWINDALE:

Kenny won KOH with an easy romp through soft competition including me. Especially me. Foot brake racers - we gotta pick up our game!

My tires and suspension showed good promise. 7.28s all night and one was a dump in KOH. I was dialed 7.25 for two rounds, all dressed up in my 7.25 SFI approved jacket, looking all cool like a real racer - but that was wishful thinking. The dumped run was maybe a 7.27.

Tim Dolan emailed me and asked about Carl Swift's suggestion that we split KOH into E and No E classes. Here was my exact response:
 

Not my opinion. Here's why. Electronics are not that big of an advantage. If you or me or Eileen or Carl put all of Kenny's stuff in our cars we'd still be you and me and Eileen and Carl. Kenny is Kenny because he is dedicated to his craft. Everything he does to his car is to make it more consistent. And he is deadly consistent on the lights. I'm happy to be the underdog and leave it alone. Every dog has his day.

That's my opinion.