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Can I Clone My Own Dick Landy?

turbine68rt

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Remember it like it was last month. I was at Atco, NJ for a Mopar show/drag event, and while walking through the parts area I saw a guy just standing with his table and tent. I immediately recognized him from old racing footage from the early '70's. I went up to him and said "Hi Mr. Landy", shook his hand, talked about what it was like for him racing back in those days. Very nice guy. Before leaving I said "I noticed you always have an unlit cigar whether racing or not. What do you do with them when you're done with them?" He said "throw them out". I said "before you leave today could you sign your cigar?" He looked a bit puzzled said a flat out "No". Disappointed, I thanked him for his time and walked away. A few hours later I was looking at parts again and heard "Hey, kid!" coming from across the aisle. I walked over to him and he said "I'll be leaving soon, do you still want the cigar?" I couldn't say yes fast enough. He took it out of his mouth, signed it, and I carefully wrapped it until getting a glass tube for it. This was 1990. Saw him again in '92 for another one. Not sure what the degradation period is for DNA on a cigar, but a good memory nonetheless. I still have a picture somewhere of him signing it.
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One of the years that I drove my 1967 R/T to Chryslers at Carlisle, both Dick Landy and Ronnie Sox were there, signing autographs. I managed to buy a picture from a vendor of Dick racing his blue 1967 Coronet R/T Super Stocker. I took it with me to the autograph line-up. While Dick was signing my picture, I mentioned that I had driven a '67 R/T down here from Ontario. He asked me what part of Ontario I came from, because he raced up there a few times. When I answered St. Thomas, he replied with, "Sparta Dragstrip", our nearby race track. In the 1960's and 1970's, this was a Mom and Pop owned strip run on a portion of the Harvey farm. It was a modern NHRA affiliated track that attracted quite a few U.S. racers. Dick recounted that whenever he and his crew showed up to race at Sparta, the Harvey's would have them over to their house for a welcomed home-cooked meal, and treated them like celebrities. Obviously a good memory for him.
 
Remember it like it was last month. I was at Atco, NJ for a Mopar show/drag event, and while walking through the parts area I saw a guy just standing with his table and tent. I immediately recognized him from old racing footage from the early '70's. I went up to him and said "Hi Mr. Landy", shook his hand, talked about what it was like for him racing back in those days. Very nice guy. Before leaving I said "I noticed you always have an unlit cigar whether racing or not. What do you do with them when you're done with them?" He said "throw them out". I said "before you leave today could you sign your cigar?" He looked a bit puzzled said a flat out "No". Disappointed, I thanked him for his time and walked away. A few hours later I was looking at parts again and heard "Hey, kid!" coming from across the aisle. I walked over to him and he said "I'll be leaving soon, do you still want the cigar?" I couldn't say yes fast enough. He took it out of his mouth, signed it, and I carefully wrapped it until getting a glass tube for it. This was 1990. Saw him again in '92 for another one. Not sure what the degradation period is for DNA on a cigar, but a good memory nonetheless. I still have a picture somewhere of him signing it.
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That is funny and cool. Should picture together, maybe sometime you or kids may need a few bucks. People might pay some money on ebay. People pay for things like bread toasted that looks like Jesus.
 
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A guy on Dodge Charger.com bought Dick Landys former 70 Hemi Charger R/t drag car,so I told him that he should bring the car to Carlisle and ask Dick to authenticate that it was actually his former racecar,which Dick did. He was not feeling well at the time and was not thrilled about looking at the car,until he saw the car,then he did authenticate the car and told stories about the car as well. He passed away a few months later.

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A guy on Dodge Charger.com bought Dick Landys former 70 Hemi Charger R/t drag car,so I told him that he should bring the car to Carlisle and ask Dick to authenticate that it was actually his former racecar,which Dick did. He was not feeling well at the time and was not thrilled about looking at the car,until he saw the car,then he did authenticate the car and told stories about the car as well. He passed away a few months later.

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Shame the guy who ended up with his car let the original Landy engine go un-reunited with the car.. Tony D had it in pieces and after a year of trying he sold it to others..
 
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I know,I remember the whole saga! My guess was that it just wasn't in the owners budget.
 
Dick Landy was a super nice guy. I had the opportunity to visit with him a few different times. Back in 1994 he was at the Nostalgia event at SIR in Seattle with his former 1968 hemi Dart. I was there with my oldest son who at the time was only 6 months old. I asked Dick for his autograph and he asked on what? My son was wearing a tiny Levi jacket and I said sign his jacket. He laughed and signed it. That little jacket is part of my garage collection.
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cool story, cool momentos

I was a lil' kid when I met him, 1st saw him race in person
I was sort of afraid & shy, he was relatively famous too
IIRC it was at SoCal OIMS (Ontario International Motor Speedway)
I was 9-10-ish (?), he was nice to me,
signed a yellow MoonEyes teeshirt I was wearing
I wish I still had it, some 52-53+ years later I wanta' say it was 1968-69
IIRC he had a WO Coronet R/T & a Charger R/T (?)
OIMS wasn't open that long at the time

my stepdad running H or J/S I don't remember which car he had then,
maybe the 68 Firebird 400 Ram Air or the 69 Judge Ram Air III
Dad he was pitted a few hundred feet over
with a bunch of other Pontiac guys, they were egging me on
saying he was a mean guy, Wess my dad's crew guy
was saying be careful, totally messing with me...
I got over my shyness pretty quickly, he was nice to me, not mean at all
I could see my dad & his buds cracking up
& Dick Landy was smiling, chuckling while comping on an unlit cigar

I loved seeing his team car/s, even then I loved Hemis & SS cars
(I especially loved Fuel Altereds, made me the gearhead I am today)
him & Bill 'Grumpy' Jenkins
(he tuned MoPars for a time too, had a Camaro there IIRC)
always had cigars in their mouth, even while driving/competing
rowing the gears
 
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