(Words and photos by Greg Rourke) – Last time we visited Dennis Spal at his High Speed Welding shop in Westmont, Illinois he was finishing up the mechanical restoration of Grumpy’s Toy X. That car was verified as the real deal by Grumpy himself. Recently Dennis invited me over to see his latest project, a clone of Bunny Burkett’s 73 Pinto Pro Stocker. Unlike Grumpy’s Vega, which is too valuable to race, the Pinto will be thrashed on with a circuit of nostalgia Pro Stockers.
This car is owned and driven by Dan Manesis, owner of a Wisconsin trucking company. He purchased the Pinto and brought it to Dennis for updating. Dennis reports no known links to anyone famous ever owning the car, and he feels it was turned into a race car sometime in the 80’s. It’s powered by a 351 backed with a ‘Glide, not the Lenco a Pro car likely would have had in the 70’s. The car is done in perfect “Lil Cotton Pony” livery just as it was back then, including vintage decals. The car will debut at Central Illinois Dragway this Saturday, Dennis is thrashing 16 hour days to finish it.
We also spotted some other cars in progress or finished, including a Hemi Duster, a 440 Demon, a low 7 second AMC Hornet with Indy AMC power, and a Chevy powered Dodge Colt.
Thanks again to Dennis Spal for taking some time out to open his shop to us!
Thank you for the article.
Also, being a devout lover of all things AMC, I hope there will be a report on the Hornet project forthcoming!
A glide? Really? I love the idea of these nostalgia pro-stockers but it stops with the autos in the cars………….