Tommy Ivo’s career in Hollywood spanned nearly two decades. The pocket-sized actor/singer/dancer appeared in more than 100 movies and 200 television shows. Often cast as a brainy teen, the studios had no idea of the thundering power hidden within this wee man’s frame.
Over the span of his drag racing career, Ivo competed in 12 classes behind the wheel of nearly 40 cars. On gas, he was the first to get into the 8s, the first to run over 170 mph and later the first to run 180 mph. On fuel, he became the first to break both the 7- and 5-second barriers. He was also among the first group inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
In 1963 Ivo opened Tommy Ivo Speed Specialties in Sun Valley, California. There he and Rod Pepmueller built approximately 10 dragsters for customers. Some of the more famous of these were the Crozier-Baltes-Lovato AA/Fuel Dragster, the Winderski and Winkle Black Beauty, two dragsters for Mickey Thompson and another AA/Fuel Dragster built on spec. The spec car would ultimately have a life that even the most inventive Hollywood screenwriter could not have dreamed of.
This spec dragster of 130-inch wheelbase began with a Pepmueller dual-tube frame built from four .049 chromoly pipes of 1.75 O.D. The car took shape with four crossmembers and a single-hoop roll bar. The front end was a combination of a hand-formed tube axle with 1932 Ford spindles supported by a modified Volkswagen torsion bar. The rear end was a narrowed early ’50s Oldsmobile unit with custom axles. The front wheels were 2.75X18 motorcycle units and 16X10 magnesium American Racing wheels did the spinning at the rear. The aluminum body was a one-off masterpiece hand-formed by metal genius Bob Sorrell. The black interior was cross-stitched by Tony Nancy.
According to the current owner, this spec dragster was received in a trade by Red Lang, Joe Anahory and Spider Razon who were living in Brooklyn, New York. As the story goes, this trio made a pilgrimage to Southern California with a truckload of 392 Chrysler Hemi engines. Following the trade they made friends with the local SoCal drag racing community and had a 392 Hemi race-prepped and installed. Because they wanted to run in the ultimate class (AA/Fuel) they equipped the engine with a 6-71 GMC supercharger.
Having immigrated to the new world of the West Coast, the three Brooklynites found themselves living out of their tow car parked at the dead end next to Milodon racing equipment. From this auspicious headquarters was born the racing career of the Dead End Kid’s AA/Fuel Dragster.
Red Lang did not have any real experience behind the wheel of a drag racing monster, but that didn’t seem to bother him. With a 1,500 horsepower bomb gulping nitromethane and raging wildly only inches in front him, he instantly became a first-rate competitor. This car was the Top Eliminator at the 1st annual American Hot Rod Association (AHRA) Summer Championship Drags held in Aquasco, Maryland, in 1963. In the summer of ’64, Lang and the Dead End Kids Dragster beat Don Garlits in a controversial match race at Connecticut Dragway.
Red Lang advertised the car for sale in the August 13, 1965 issue of Eastern Drag News (page 26), but the whereabouts of the car for the next 15 years remained unknown. In 1980, however, an obsessive collector had a chance meeting with a young man at the Old Times Drags in Englishtown, New Jersey. That collector was Dave Crouse and his story goes like this: “I was standing next to a ’32 Ford three-window coupe. This particular car had a beautiful set of polished Halibrand wheels on it. This young man walked up to me and said he wanted some wheels like that for a car he was building. I told him I had some more wheels like that, but that they were kind of expensive. That’s when he told me he had a funny old racecar to trade. He said it had an aluminum body that came to a point in the front. My hands started to shake when he said that it had motorcycle wheels in the front and that he bought it to scrap for the aluminum.”
The next day Crouse piled his three kids and the dog into the back of his ’76 Ford Pickup and drove across the Garden State to see the pointy car. Crouse says, “When I got there, the car was scattered all over this guy’s back yard with an ankle-biting dog growling from inside the tail of the car. As I looked the thing over I saw that all the metal work and fabrication was of a very high quality. I also noticed the butterfly steering wheel, the professionally built brake handle, the racing wheels, and the top flight chrome work. I traded him for the two wheels and towed the dragster back home—having no idea what its history was.”
It was about three years later that Crouse stumbled onto a feature article on the car in the April 1964 issue of Popular Hot Rodding (page 54). Crouse said, “I was really lucky to get this car. It’s the best vintage car that I’ve ever owned, and the craftsmanship on this one is among the best I’ve ever seen for the period.”
Crouse showed the restored Dead End Kid’s Dragster at the 2010 Grand National Roadster Show where it was a huge hit. Tommy Ivo was there to see the old gal and, no doubt, his heart was filled with song.
