Bernie Brouillet - Athol, MA, USA

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Faulkner
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Bernie Brouillet - Athol, MA, USA

Post by Faulkner »

I still wear sunglasses, but most everything else has changed for the worse with age! This picture of me with the trophy was taken at New England Dragway, Epping, New Hampshire on 8/4/1968. I wanted to go drag racing in the worst way, and I wanted a finned Plymouth as my first car, so the search was on for a long time before buying this car...

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My car left the factory painted Iceberg White, and while the letter from Brandt Rosenbusch of Chrysler Historical says it had a white top, the salesman I bought it from in 1967 said this was the original top, and it is black. Must have been one of their good old quality control issues back then, not considering rust which mine also had it’s share of, considering that it was a New England car, and not garaged for the first eight years of its life — I’ve kept it garaged ever since the fall of 1968, and fixed all rust spots to my satisfaction (at the time) during my amateur restoration in the early 1970’s.

When I got this car in 1967 it had been painted "maroon” — I later found that it's really Ford Vintage Burgundy, painted shortly before the original owner parted with it in early 1966 — why he did that is not known, and I remember seeing this car in the summer of 1965 in it’s white color but can't remember the top, so I'll assume the salesman was right. He also told me that it was just one of two cars they sold new with the Golden Commando, the other being a red Fury (not SF) hardtop — a year or so later came across a red Fury in a local junkyard, no engine, and speculate it might have been that car. I was 11 years old when my car was built, turned 12 in the late summer of 59 and don’t remember seeing many of these cars around when they were new, except for a blue sedan belonging to the father of one of my class mates, and a couple taxi cabs in town, one of which was my first ride in a ‘59 Plymouth and it was rare...

So I first saw this (my) car close up in the summer of 1966 when the second owner, a girl a year older than me bought it -- she was a cashier at a local grocery store, along with a friend of mine who was also into the drag races (they ran just once a month at Orange). One day she told him of a local "burnout contest” and this car showed it’s colors quite well — he later took me to see the patches of rubber, and it was near the house of a distant relative of mine who had a 58 or 59 Thunderbird at the time. Then I started to find myself behind this 59 around town, and took note of the beautiful sound it made, especially when passing a big stonewall going up a slight hill. Finally, in early 1967 I came out of my local library one afternoon, and saw the Fury across the street, at a “T” intersection... as he (her boyfriend, not my acquaintance) pulled away he gave it the gas and squealed the tires for several feet, and I grinned ear to ear. That was some car in my mind... Two weeks later, I owned this car for $5.00 down, and $195 more when I picked it up on Thursday, March 23, 1967. I actually tried to trade it in when bought a 1966 Chevelle SS 396 in September of 1968, but the salesman didn’t want it and said "sell it privately, you’ll do better” so I tried but failed to sell it for the whopping price of $395, and failing to do so, put in nto my grandmother’s empty garage in October 1968 and have kept it to this day. It's been moved through about four different storage/working spots over the years, and has spent 99.5% of it’s life parked within three miles of the dealership that sold it brand new. All right, the fact that its parked and not running is my fault rather than a virtue, but it’s fact. I have no intentions of parting with it as long as I'm breathing, even though several offers have come along, including from people who’ve never seen it.

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By the time I bought the car it had been "well used" mostly by the second owner and her boyfriend. So when I first took it to the drags in September 1967 in "pure stock" condition, street tires, full muffler exhaust, and about 78000 miles it ran a best time of 16.1 seconds at 86.20 miles per hour but still chirped the tires nicely every time the original TorqueFlite hit second gear (I manually changed gears with the pushbuttons, revving to about 5200 rpm on the 1 shift). I beat a 65 Mustang (225 hp 289) easily on the way to the class final, but was beat by less than a car length then by a 65 Impala SS with a 300 hp 327 and four speed. The next month, I had a little help tuning it up and got the elapsed time down to 15.9 seconds in the final against another Chevy, this time a brand new 1967 Impala four door hardtop with a 325 hp 396 and automatic, but again came up a bit short, only about a fender length this time. That run is the enlarged photocopy, it’s the only clear shot I have of the car on the track, taken by the second owner’s boyfriend, Ray Smith, who I think lives in Florida today, in case he happens to discover your website. Guess he was a bit excited because the shot was a bit blurry then again it was only an Instamatic camera. It doesn’t reproduce well, but there it is — the other car isn’t really ahead of me, it’s just the shot angle, he didn’t come by until way down track.

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During my amateur restoration I (partially) rebuilt the engine, fully rebuilt and tricked up the transmission (not the original, that’s another story, as is obtaining the one that’s in it now), built homemade exhaust headers and changed the rear end gears from 3.31 to 4.10.

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Finally in 1976 we went back to the drags at Epping, and after a few weeks it ran a best of 14.57 seconds at 96.56 mph, won one more trophy and would have been written up in the national drag newspapers for my runner up finish on Sept 19, 1976 except it was also a big funny car show that day, and a New Jersey driver (Roy Harris) had a big fireball in the “Brutus” Mustang that day, so bad that they left the car off the side of the track for the rest of the racing, and I made my last run around 9 pm, losing to a guy from Vermont with a beautiful 71 Road Runner that he, too, has to this day. Guess I’m not alone as a true Yankee pack rat! Over the years I made about 70 runs down a dragstrip with my Fury, and about 250 all told with different vehicles. One week after the above race, on September 26, 1976, coming home from the track with this car on a tow bar, it started to rain. Getting onto a highway on-ramp I suddenly got the sickest feeling in the world when the rear tires of my towing car broke loose, and the right front of the Fury went into the right rear quarter panel of my brand new ‘76 Pontiac Lemans. The Fury had a mind of its own, and I’ve wondered where Stephen King was that day, for his novel "Christine" came out a few years later, and he’s from up this way too -- realistically, he was probably 200 miles away, but some of the written words describe a 1959 car better than a 58. That damage was discouraging, and still has to be repaired. I pretty much parked the car after that, started a family, and the Fury has been waiting and waiting for the right stuff to come along to see the light of day.
"If it's new, Plymouth's got it!"
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william0431
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Re: Bernie Brouillet

Post by william0431 »

Not sure when this was originally posted or if you fallow the forum still but just want to say this is such an awesome story of the glory days of drag racing history! Thank you for posting it! Hopefully some day your Fury makes a come back out of retirement for a few more passes down the 1/4 mile.

I love stories like this, hearing of the people, the places and the cars. Sadly many of which are gone today. It's always interesting when an old 1/4 mile warrior is discovered in a barn or field still sporting the best speed equipment of its day. Many times home made speed parts. I would love to see this fury in person.
Bernie B.
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Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2004 10:55 am
Location: Massachusetts

Re: Bernie Brouillet

Post by Bernie B. »

William,

Thanks for the kind words - I wrote most of that as just an introduction to Dan almost 15 years ago and had no idea he would quote it so much for the showcase.

But yes, those were the somewhat early days of drag racing. I had some fun, but the car was rather well used when I got it in 1967 and it was probably a bit quicker in its younger days. It still sits in the garage as pictured, really need to hit the lottery to do anything with it soon.

This one isn't going back down the track but I've raced a couple other cars a few times since then. As first raced in Pure Stock in 1967 it was always fun to get that second gear chirp of the tires. Raced it again in 1976 after some amateur rework and hop ups, it now has 4.10 rear gears, original was 3.31 and I still have them someplace. The 4.10's probably made more difference than anything, a real nice push in the back in first and second gear.

My intent is to someday bring it back to near showroom condition. I do have another "parts car" hardtop that more than one person has tried to buy from me to make into a race car, so who knows what might happen there.

Thanks again for reading through everything, there's a lot more to be said about these cars. I've paid a lot of attention to them over the years even while mine sits, and lived through the era at an impressionable age, and still lucky to have a good memory of what happened.

Bernie
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william0431
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Re: Bernie Brouillet

Post by william0431 »

Bernie, Again really enjoyed hearing of your racing days and it is nice to know the car is safe and sound waiting its turn for a day in the sun. I love the home made fender well headers!! and getting a big C body like this to run a 14.5 is impressive!!

So, she was originally white, then painted Ford Maroon. Did you paint it back to the white as it is shown in the photos of it in the garage during your partial restoration? I love the very 70's style paint highlights around the trim and I noticed the "76" sticker on the windshield, guessing that's the last time it was registered.

What a cool car! And super rare being a convertible. Willing to bet there are not many 59 SF convertibles with a racing back ground still out there. Some day you will have to write the story about the transmission. I thought that was cool how you would manually work the push buttons to improve shifts. I am working out what I am going to run for a transmissions in both my 59 Plymouths.
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