Photos: Chadly Johnson Words: Jim Lindsay & Chadly Johnson
Jim Lindsay is a lifelong hot rodder, multiple land speed record holder and author based out of Oregon. Jim was still riding a bicycle when he was influenced by Bob Duedall's drag coupe, and both Bob and the coupe have always had a very special place in Jim's life. Fortunately for both Jim and the rest of us, he was able to locate and restore Bob's historical race car to its former glory for us all to enjoy. The story of the comp coupe is best told by Jim himself, so I'll let him take over.
“It’s been 55 years since I first saw the car. I was 15 and with some friends; we walked across a field away from the Linn County Fair hoping to get a glimpse of the hot rods that congregated at the Tom Tom Drive Inn restaurant in Albany, Oregon.
“It was a Sunday afternoon in August and the place was crammed with drag racers and their race cars, which had returned from Scappoose, or McMinnville, or wherever the race was held that day. They were a mob of post high school kids wearing oily t-shirts and Elvis hair, eating ice cream cones in the parking lot. They were hot rodders, and I thought they were gods.
“Bob Duedall and his comp coupe were among them. Bob's car was on a two wheel trailer towed by a 50’s something passenger car. I thought the dragster was the coolest ever, and I knew about dragsters... I had hot rod magazines at home.
“Bob had built the car using a mail order Scotty Fenn chassis. With a 283 Chevy motor, a ‘48 Ford transmission and a narrowed rear end... Bob had himself a B-dragster. Bob had campaigned this setup one summer, and then along came Ed Marrs with a bigger Chevy engine, and a partnership was formed. The boys installed the T-coupe body, along with Hilborn injection and other modifications. The Duedall and Marrs comp coupe was born.
“That summer when I’d first seen the car, it had been winning wherever it went. Towards the end of the season when the motor blew up, Marrs dropped out of the scene.
“Bob now had a car with no motor. His childhood friend Jerry McDonald, along with Bob’s brother Iver, left for college that fall in California. Not to be left behind, Bob loaded up the comp coupe and headed south, knowing that Jerry had a new motor with fueler heads and a Duntov cam sitting on the floor of their apartment in California. A new partnership was formed.
“During their stint in So-Cal the car was once again notorious, winning wherever they went, and setting records at San Fernando and Colton drag strips.
“As with all things, the partnership ended. The boys, ironically, sold the dragster in California to a pair of boys from Corvallis, Oregon. The new owners consisted of Ron Salsbury and Bill McCormick who towed the car back to Oregon and ran it as a B-dragster with much success. The car was sold a couple more times, and as far as I knew it went to dragster heaven.
“Then, five decades later, my friend Frank Gibbons told me the car was in a barn near Scio, Oregon. Frank and I went looking, and found the barn - a picker’s paradise - and under an array of treasures was the Duedall comp coupe... What was left of it anyway. It was exciting for me to see the old car after all the time that had passed, and it was the only remaining race car of yesteryear left in the Albany area. I was determined to save it... So I bought it.
“Luckily, the body had survived, along with the narrowed Ford rear end and transmission. The front wheels, Eelco steering wheel,and Ross steering box were there too, along with the drag link and tie rod that Bob had made from airplane struts.
“I hired Ron Austin, a fabricator from Medford, Oregon, to build an exact copy of the original Scotty Fenn chassis. Ron’s love for the comp coupe shows throughout the project, with the beautiful frame and perfectly replicated brackets as well as the one of a kind zoomie header setup, just like Bob had ran on the car.
“During the chassis fabrication I searched for missing parts, consisting of the magneto with the brown colored top and the small Hilborn injection with the right length stacks, along with the fueler heads with the 327 valve covers. The hardest parts to find were the rear wheels because of their 5 on 5½ in. bolt pattern.
“Justin Brennemen assembled the motor, and Dave Rue handled the bodywork and painting. Ron Shinn helped me throughout the project, including the final assemble.
“In January of 2013, Ron Austin and I showed the car at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA and the car, still with its winning ways, won ‘Best Dragster.’”
To read deeper into the history of the Duedall comp coupe, check out the book Jim wrote about it, as well as his other amazing publication that I just had the pleasure of reading, “The Little Bastards.” If you attended Bonneville over the past few years, you may have run across Jim's Little Bastards themed record-holding roadster. Jim plans to take the roadster to Australia soon to stretch its legs on the long lake beds down under... I wish him all the luck in the world.
