We’ve got to thank our own Greg Rourke for the tip on this one. He must have been fuel altered shopping on Craigslist and came across this ad featuring the famed AA/FA of Gabby Bleeker listed for the paltry sum of $79,000. The ad correctly states that the car is a historic piece and it wears the original steel Austin coupe body on the back. There is some debate as to whether this is a 1931 or 1938 Austin body, but who really cares. It is the right piece. It does have the correct “small” 354ci Hemi in it as well. Bleeker raced the car successfully for many years with a blown and nitro burning Olds engine in the car but in the late 1960s he swapped to the Hemi and the rest was history. Our “kinda sorta” jab in the title centers around the chassis of the car. It is definitely very long, much longer than any iteration that Bleeker piloted back in the day and also if you’ll note the drivers area, there is a modern double hoop cage. If this were the original chassis, it would have the classic three point bar in there. We have no idea how much (if any) of the original tubing is in place or if all the pipe is new from front to back.

This car is interesting because up to the late 1960s this was one of the, if not the most fearsome AA/FA in the country. Bleeker won a ton of races in the midwest, but he also tangled with and beat the best names in the business. The car won the 1961 AHRA nationals in Texas against the best in the country. In 1964 he won the March Meet in the heart of AA/FA madness, California. His biggest triumph came in 1968 when he won the US Nationals beating the mighty Winged Express in the final round. Bleeker retired later in 1968 and never drove the car again. One of the interesting things about Gabby Bleeker’s drag racing career was that he drove exactly two cars. One was a coupe he began in and then it was this AA/FA. That was it. During the middle to late 1960s this car was very well known around the country as a measuring stick to run against and prove your mettle. We love it for the coupe body. It is cooler looking than a Fiat Topolino and maintains that “hot rod from hell” look that has endeared fans to fuel altereds for the better part of 50 years now.

To us, this is a weird car with respect to selling it. The chassis has been updated to modern specs and (apparently) made longer so it isn’t really the same car that Gabby Bleeker raced back in his heyday, but it does have the original body and the tubing can always be fixed. Is this a “grandfather’s hammer” situation where you have your grandfather’s hammer even though the handle and head have been replaced over the years? You tell us!

Thanks for the tip Greg!

Scroll down to see photos and a link to the CL ad!

CL AD: GABBY BLEEKER’S AA/FA