Yeah, Auggie was quite a character. He would run all sorts of trick stuff on the drivers side and have the passenger side (easier side to pull a head) set up to pass inspection if the tech inspector had him pull a head. First time I met him in person, he had brought a couple of spare engines with him to the drag strip in San Antonio and was changing engines to run another class. I remember Auggie picking up his battery with one hand as f it were a football.
My buddy John and I were juniours in high school that year and we were fairly stout. So we volunteered to help with the engine swap between rounds. Auggie pulled the hood and radiator off his '56 Chevy and put a chain on the engine. When he was ready, he ran a length of 2" schedule 80 galvanized pipe through the chain and laid it across the fenders on shop rags. He got on the passenger side of the car and John and I squatted down on the other side with the pipe on our shoulders, stood up and walked the old engine out and set it on a trailer about 20 ft. away.
Then after he had pulled the bellhousing and bolted it onto the fresh engine, we reversed the procedure and set the new engine down on the mounts. A couple of guys got on the other side of the pipe and we held it there until Auggie had the bellhousing sidemounts tight. Auggie turned the wrenches. He wasn't about to let anyone else put a wrench on his engine. We thought it was really cool to help out. The whole swap took less than an hour. Then he set up everything the way he wanted it and we got to see the '56 run in another class. G Gas I think.
Best regards,
Harry
