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BajaNomad
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What will 'Big Oly' sell for at auction?
Just saw that Big Oly (winner of '71, '72 Baja 1000 and '73 Baja 500; driven by Parnelli Jones, and prepped by Stroppe Motorsports) is going up for
sale at auction on Friday, May 21st. There are other vehicles as well from Parnelli's personal collection in this auction.
It's a very iconic vehicle (and driver, quite frankly) in motorsports, and especially connected to racing in Baja California.
Thoughts on the final price this might generate? I'm curious, that's all. Thought I'd see who else might be as well.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/SC0521-461979/1969-ford-bronco-bi...
For those that loathe motorsports, especially vehicles racing across a fragile desert, I understand your concerns... I do. This thread however is
solely intended to engage dialogue regarding this vehicle, and/or its auction. Let's please avoid any debate or positions regarding concerns over
racing in the desert. Your concerns are noted going into this. Thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation!
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
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motoged
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Vroooooooommmm
Good looking basic rig 
Don't believe everything you think....
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JZ
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$125K to $175K
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David K
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That may be the opening bid... At least 400,000 is my guess.
[Edited on 3-20-2021 by David K]
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thebajarunner
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https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/big-oly-bronco-bound-for-...
I posted on this yesterday
I tend to agree it is a million dollar rig, but noting that Danny Thompson "only" got a bit over $500k for Challenger it makes you wonder
The Steve McQueen Bullitt going for almost $4 mil was ridiculous
And in honor of our leader's request to not stray from the topic I will refrain from sharing my great memory of getting passed by this rig, just south
of the water slides below Maneadero. He started two minutes behind us, and suddenly..... oops, off topic, sorry Doug.
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JZ
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Yeah, I have no idea.
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mtgoat666
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You would have to be a fool to spend over 50k on an old bronco with a garish paint/decal job and an Olympia beer advertisement.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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David K
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It is not a Bronco other than in name... It is considered to be the very first class of vehicle that would become known as a Trophy Truck, in the
future. Light years ahead of all other off-road racers... Even world speed champion and Chevy truck racer Mickey Thompson couldn't keep up with
Parnelli!
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BajaNomad
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http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=95816
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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LancairDriver
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Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  |
You would have to be a fool to spend over 50k on an old bronco with a garish paint/decal job and an Olympia beer advertisement.
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To the people who collect the various race cars or exotics 50k is pocket change. Money is no object.
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advrider
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I'm thinking in the 200k range, it is an iconic race vehicle.
thebajarunner, I think everyone would love to hear your story, I think Doug didn't want it turned into a political discussion about the environmental
damage and such. Hope I'm correct because you can share a bit of history with everyone.
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thebajarunner
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OK Rider... by popular demand (Don't blame me, Doug)
It was our first venture into Baja off road racing
My partner, Chuck Billington and I built the truck in his shop, finished it in my garage.
Chuck was a weekend racing tire dealer for Firestone at SCCA events. (He was also 6 time National C Sports Racing champ)
PJ and Marvin Porter (former Nascar Western stock car champion) were his contacts through Parnelli Jones Firestone.
Marvin got us access to the Stroppe shops on Signal Hill.
Bill was super helpful, answered every question, let me take dozens of close up photos of Walker's truck. (The problem was, he never volunteered
info, just answered questions, if we had asked the right questions we would not have busted an axle and that is another story)
So, we draw #82 for the 500 and PJ is #84. Back in the NORRA days you started by number, not by class.
Bill teased us a bit at tech, as to when they would catch us. I figured it would be about the Ensenada airport, but amazingly we made it all the way
through Maneadero before I spotted the Big Oly and it was a comin' on, in a hurry. Remember, those days we raced pavement to Camalu.
We eased over and they were by us so quickly that Bill hardly had time to wave, and then around the corner headed down to the bridge and of course we
never saw them again.
As a very cool followup..... for the 1000 Marvin got a special invite for Chuck to pre-run with their gang. PJ, Porter, Bill Rush, Walker and others.
They spent the night huddled in trucks as a veritable monsoon hit the peninsula, next day had to put a new fan belt on a pickup without turning off
the motor, I believe Big BIll Rush was the brave soul that did that deed. And later, in the 1000 (which we finished second in the pickup class) we
came on a really bad wrecked mini-truck, and it was none other than Marvin Porter and Billy Wilderson (the sprint car racer) Marvin was covered with
a sheet, lying on the ground, and we though he was dead, but he suddenly sat up and waved us on. Lots more stories, but just to finish the Stroppe
connection, we had a bad radiator leak out of Punta Prieta and at El Arco we just pulled into the Stroppe pits and they were kind enough to patch us
up and away we went.
Lots more to these stories, but Doug probably has heard enough for now.
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advrider
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Awesome, thanks for sharing... Maybe we can start a thread of all of the old race stories? With pictures would be even cooler.
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LancairDriver
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Great story’s, would love to hear more first hand stuff. Does anyone remember what year it was when Parnelli hit and killed a gringo male spectator
who was on the track? It had to be early 70’s. I think that was the first year I watched the races.
[Edited on 3-22-2021 by LancairDriver]
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thebajarunner
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1974 SCORE 500
| Quote: Originally posted by LancairDriver | Great story’s, would love to hear more first hand stuff. Does anyone remember what year it was when Parnelli hit and killed a gringo male spectator
who was on the track? It had to be early 70’s. I think that was the first year I watched the races.
[Edited on 3-22-2021 by LancairDriver] |
I believe that was the first race that he ran a Chevy Blazer
Two pretty dumb Gringos were watching up past Ojos Negros, riding bikes. Decided to head back to Ensenada after some of the trucks had passed.
They would watch a racer go by, then drop down into the wheel track on the sandy road and ride until they saw dust, jump up on the berm, watch the
racer go by, drop down , etc, etc.
Big truck thunders past, drop down into the track, and PJ is just a few feet behind the truck. Bike up and over the hood and gas tank bursts and PJ
and copilot are both slightly burned.
My part of the story.....
Marvin Porter (see story above) had driven Parnelli's GMC motorhome up to Mikes to wait for PJ. For some reason they decided to make Mikes a one hour
mandatory layover, and Marvin had told us to find him and he would make us lunch in our hour down time.
So, we pulled in, got our checkpoint ticket and restart time, spotted the GMC and drove over. Marvin was a bit agitated but had us in, sat us down
and started laying out sandwich spread.
"Guess you guys did not hear about PJ's accident" he said
We were stumped, news to us.
So, there we were, sitting in Parnelli's motorhome, eating his lunch and he was back in Ensenada and basically retiring from the sport.
We finished, it was a brutal course, and I remember driving our rig to impound downtown, passing the funeral home, and seeing a guy in biker leathers
sitting in the front room window.
OK, no more stories for the night, I promise Doug....
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David K
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Dick,
I was at Mike's Sky Rancho for the first Score race (The July 1974 Baja Internacional) with the 1-hour 'downtime'. PJ never arrived... and later we
would learn what happened...
Parnelli and Stroppe were in the Big Oly Bronco and the vacationing motorcycle riders knew the race was on and they were going backwards on the
course... figured they would see a racer coming soon enough to pull off... they were wrong.
Big Oly slammed into one of the wrong-way riders, the gas tank exploded and burned Stroppe and PJ... rider was killed. Parnelli never raced Big Oly
again.
The new, bright yellow Chevy Blazer appeared in the 1975 Baja races. Here is a photo I took at the '75 1000 (Score's first 1000) in Valle de Trinidad.
Walker Evans became a team mate of PJ, racing a yellow Chevy pickup.
By 1978, PJ sold the Blazer to Scoop Vessels... I recall there was a pair of them? The Blazer was repainted black and sponsored by BFG.
[Edited on 3-22-2021 by David K]
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thebajarunner
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You are correct David
I was working off old memories, sometimes those get a bit rusty
Dick Russell, his Chevy mechanic, rode with him in the Blazer since Stroppe was purely a Ford guy.
That Blazer threw a drive shaft and the crew got word and actually had a spare at the next pit
His crew somehow backtracked on the course, got the new shaft installed and PJ was back on the road.
Scoop Vessels.... great guy, great competitor, Killed in his private plane somewhere over the southern desert. His dad Frank was also a racer, had
the world's richest quarter horse, owned Los Alamitos and had depression and ate his shotgun. Another sad story.
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David K
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The Vessels Stallion Farm is in Bonsall, CA... about 5 miles from my home. It is quite a spread! Scoop roared by me more than once when I was pitting
and spectating... He tamed that Blazer rather than destroy it with a lead foot, ala Parnelli.
[Edited on 3-22-2021 by David K]
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Don Pisto
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where they went wrong......everyone knows that an upside down horseshoe will let the luck run out, the idea behind the horseshoe on the beer label was
that when you poured the beer you set it straight.....clever but not so much on a trick truck!
I bet it goes for $1.5
there's only two things in life but I forget what they are........
John Hiatt
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thebajarunner
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Parnelli did not "destroy" cars!!
quote by DK
"The Vessels Stallion Farm is in Bonsall, CA... about 5 miles from my home. It is quite a spread! Scoop roared by me more than once when I was pitting
and spectating... He tamed that Blazer rather than destroy it with a lead foot, ala Parnelli."
Parnelli bent 'em, he tweaked and twisted "em,
but destroying a car means not getting to the finish, and PJ was a master at bringing them home
Sometimes they were looking like destroyed, but the trophies said otherwise.
I remember the great quote, back and forth, between PJ and Stroppe after PJ had rolled the Big Oly Bronco for the third time coming off the graded
road at Ojos Negros at the finish of the 500 back in about 1974
Supposedly once they stopped rolling over Stroppe looked at Parnnelli and growled "Now look where your crazy driving has gotten us"
To which Parnelli replied, "Yeah, got us here 45 minutes ahead of the next guy and get your A.... out and get us back on our feet so we can go on into
town and celebrate"
Actually, the quote I heard had a few more expletives, but they won.....
We had a saying, "If you have not totally used up your vehicle at the end, you didn't try hard enough."
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