Words and photos: Chadly Johnson
“That old ladder bar crap doesn’t work.” Mark Schoonover of Chippewa Falls, WI has been hearing that same comment for over four decades at everything from street races to a day at the strip. The individual who muttered those words is soon left eating them as Mark dumps the clutch and the coupe’s nose lifts three feet in the air, launching it to another 11 second pass. Just another day for Mark and his five window; the pair have been claiming victims since the late 1960s.
Like most kids growing up in the ’50s & ’60s, Mark was a car guy and cruised a 389 Pontiac-powered 1953 Ford around his Wisconsin home town. In 1966, at age 17, Mark moved to Torrance, CA with his family so the ’53 had to be sold along with his brother’s hemi-powered ’40 Ford sedan. The family settled in and Mark enrolled in school. Mark quickly developed the itch for something to work on so he picked up a local trader and spotted an ad for a ’32 five window coupe.
The coupe was a basket case roller that consisted of the body shell held to the frame by a couple of bolts. The rest of the car was in boxes. There was no engine or tranny and the Mopar rear end was a solid welded hack job. On the plus side, the car was solid and the freshly chromed garnish moldings were still in a box from the chrome shop. $250 was exchanged and the project belonged to Mark. Since there was no drive line Mark set out to find one. He hoped to land a Ford 289, but the junkyards wanted too much for them so he settled for a more affordable Chevy. Mark spotted a ’59 Impala two-door hardtop packing a 283 with a three speed at a local used car dealership for $150. He torched the engine cross member out of the ’59 then cut it down until it fit between the deuce rails. The bolt-in portion of the tranny cross member was also used along with the ’59’s wiring harness.
Mark had plans to hop up the stock 283 so he tore it down and sent it off to be bored .030 over. Mark’s neighbor at the time was a vice cop for L.A. County who had friends in the fire department who built drag boats. One day after getting his engine block back his neighbor stopped over and suggested that if Mark was not in a big hurry he should send the engine up to his fire fighter buddies, which he did. A few days later Mark received a phone call from the shop stating that they didn’t have a hammer big enough to pound in the 11:1 pistons due to the engine block being under bored. As a result the block had to be hand honed .004 to make the pistons work.
Perhaps it was the hand honing or the fact that the two firefighters who assembled Mark’s engine would become legendary boat racing builders Pfaff & Solans, but it was a damn good engine. The engine was so good in fact that Mark had to venture further and further from his home turf to find anyone to race for cash during his high school years. Word would spread quickly to avoid running the primered deuce with the nasty small block in it forcing Mark to move on for more victims. It was at this time that the ’32 made its first runs at Lion’s drag strip during the “run what ya brung”, pulling a 13.74 at 101 mph on rock hard bias plys. Mark enjoyed the coupe as a street and strip car during his high school years upgrading to a four speed out of a 58 corvette along the way.
Mark graduated high school and traveled back to Wisconsin for a friend’s wedding and never went back to the West Coast. When a friend planned a vacation in Wisconsin, Mark flew to California and the pair flat-towed the ’32 to Chippewa Falls. In 1972, Mark finally put the primered deuce in paint applying multiple layers of deep black lacquer. Mark also pulled the standard set of traction bars for a very long set that spans all the way to the transmission cross member. This is when things really started getting fun as the coupe would easily pull its front end. The coupe continued to be a great street and track car for many years until the early 1990s. With more time on his hands to play Mark got more involved with drag racing and reconfigured the ’32 with a Doug Nash five speed, a 12 bolt Chevy rear end, and a revamp of the frame. At this point the 5 window’s combination was running consistently in the upper 12s. Then Mark blew a piston out the side of the 283’s block. Mark already had a 350 built and ready to go but gave Pfaff a call to let him know what had happened. Pfaff seemed concerned and asked Mark what he could do to help out with another engine. Mark stated that he just wanted to let him know that the engine had last through 23 years of complete torture, for which Pfaff had a good laugh. Mark’s new 350 dropped the coupe down into the 11s and has proven to be another great power plant.
Mark continued to race for years hitting the Indy event 15 years in a row and always coming away a huge crowd pleaser. Over the years Mark’s son rotated driving duties at the track and now does most of the driving, allowing Mark to pass the hot rodding torch. If you are at a track in the Midwest watch for Mark’s ’32 as this warrior is still going strong. It will be the battle scared survivor still running its 1972 lacquer paint job going nose high on the those old traction bars that don’t work.
