The Gasser Wars of the '60s left a huge impact on the rodding public, and 40 years later, people can still talk about them as if they were held yesterday. Jump on the Web and you can find many sites devoted to the era (both for Gassers and Altereds), with many featuring unreal photography documenting what many have said is the most exciting period of drag racing ever. (Try http://hotrodnostalgia.com/Categories/Columns/hrn04/bnr04phc1.html for some big grins).
While most of those folks might have experienced the wars from the grandstands, few can say what Ron Doran can say-he was there on the front lines. Back when he was 19 (which would make it 1961), Ron was working as a mechanic at a Chevy dealership in Ohio. He owned a small-motored '56 Vette, but when a wrecked fuel-injected '57 four-speed Corvette came into the shop, Ron was more than happy to yank it out of the wreck and put the drivetrain in his own ride. With 283 hp on tap, Ron went racing.
The Gassers were alive and well in Ohio at that time, and that included Virgil Cates out of Mansfield (the "Flying Junkman" as he was known) and a young George Montgomery (who would soon be known as "Ohio" George Montgomery). Both drove Model 77 Willys coupes (the little ones from 1933 and 1934), and both of them ran hard. Ron also did well in his class and once, in 1961, got staged against Ohio George at a meet in Newark, Ohio (you'll have to ask Ron about who won that one). But in 1963 Ron enlisted in the Army, which meant he had to sell his trusty Vette. Back from his tour in 1966, Doran began driving trucks and didn't get back into cars for the next two decades.
After attending a couple of events in the mid '80s, Ron got back into rodding. He bought a '36 Chevy pickup, fixed it up, then he also bought a '34 Ford coupe. After getting it the way he wanted it, he and his wife, Kathy, drove the rod around for almost 10 years. But Ron never forgot the impact of seeing those lil' Willys run the quarter. So when the opportunity to purchase a 'glass body from Willys Unlimited came up, Ron jumped on it.
In 1998 Ron began working with two of Willys Unlimited's employees, Jim Lawson (the welder) and Todd Bigham (the body and paint man). Jim built a custom, boxed chassis that was set up on a 99-inch wheelbase. A tubular X-member was also used, and other race-derived items (custom four-link suspension, Aldan coilover shocks, a Currie 9-inch with a Detroit Locker rear and 31-spline axles, etc) were also installed. Up front, Jim, along with Stan Burnett, made up their own Mustang II-type independent suspension with an antisway bar and used Aerospace Components disc brakes on each corner.
The engine had to live up to Ron's past, so he contacted Beach Performance (New Albany, OH) to build a reliable but potent Chevy small-block. Still using the 350 block, Beach installed a 400 crank to bump the displacement to 383 cubes. TRW pistons, pink rods, and a Holley camshaft were used along with a pair of Holley aluminum heads (with a 2.02/1.60 stainless steel valve combo), Crane 1.5:1 roller rockers, and a Holley 750 carb. Ignition was provided by a Holley-based system and exhaust exits through a pair of ceramic-coated Hooker headers. The whole shebang was then mated to a TCI-prepped 700-R4 trans.
With the chassis and motor done, Ron looked to Bigham for his expertise in the paint and body department. Besides the "usual" straighten-and-prep-for-paint routine, Todd also fab'd up a rear roll pan for the rod. Todd then sprayed the Willys with a DuPont yellow paint-which is bright enough to attract bugs from neighboring states!