Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

As a matter of history, I'm curious as to who did his head work and engine building.

Did Mondello or Valley Head Service do his heads? Who did his engine work?

How did he get connected to Ford?

He was a great innovator and had far advanced ideas, it was a sad day when he was murdered.

I'm from SoCal (OC) but, never got into his circle. His shop was to far away to just stop by. I did get to race with Danny Ongias but, he never talked about MT. He was working for PJ at the time, he started road racing. Parnelli was very good to him.

Which Mickey Thompson engines are you talking about ?
The 3 valve Chevy V8 Indy engines?
The Pontiac V8's in the Challanger-1 land speed record car ?
The Ford V8 with 2 superchargers ?

Mostly the Ford engines, such as the Bonneville Tunnel Ports but, the Aluminum Olds Indy engine and Bonneville Pontiac's too. Chev's, not so much

Did he use different engine builders and head porters, for the the different OHV engines?

In the early Pontiac days, he was getting a lot of backdoor support from Pontiac Engineering. Much of what he was racing was their engines on which he added superchargers and externals. Then he began developing aluminum connecting rods, cams, pistons and it grew from there.

Fritz Voight was his wrench.Micky would come up with the ideas and Fritz made the work.He built the Pontiac and the early Fords.He hated the M/T Ford hemis as they used a 3 pouch rod.I was very young and went to their shop on Cota street and buy a lot of their used race stuff.Tites,wheels and a lot of Pontiac parts.I would run into him at Jess Tyrees Header Shop.I saw Jess making the headers for a couple of the Tbolts along with the M/T hemi Tbolt that Jess drove.Tom

Tom, that is the kind of info, I'm looking for, thank you.

What happened to Fritz? Who did he work for, before MT and after? He sounds like a outstanding engineer but, I don't recall his name, even though I'm from that general area but, it's been a long, long time ago.

Did he have a in house porter or, did they send the heads out? The reason I used VHS and Modello is, because that's who Shelby used and they were, in general the big name "go to" guy's for porting.

I know my dad did the dyno tuning on the Pontiacs for the Challenger-1.
I'm sure he did tuning on other MT engines, I just don't know which ones. If there was a prominent Champion Spark Plugs decal on it, my dad probably tuned it for Mickey.
As for porting, I would guess Bob Mullen had his hands on a few of the MT projects.

Fritz had his own shop in the City of Bell or close to there.He passed away a few years ago,maybe his son still has the shop.Mike,did you dad work out of the little Champion shop down by LB harbor?I used to go there to pick up plugs for our sponsored 421 Tempest.I bought a ALL alu Pontiac engine some years ago that was at Mickeys,he told Fritz not to sell it.That was in 1964-1965.After MT died a friend ended up with it and then finally to me.It was a 347 stamped casting but had 3in mains.The block was designed to be run without sleeves.I had Gene Ohley(spelling) make sure the block was good and sleeve it.Built it as a 366.It has passed through a couple hands and is now in a made up 62 bubble top cat.Tom

CamKing wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:51 pm Which Mickey Thompson engines are you talking about ?
The 3 valve Chevy V8 Indy engines?
The Pontiac V8's in the Challanger-1 land speed record car ?
The Ford V8 with 2 superchargers ?

You forgot the 4 cam engine.

Tom

tjs44 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:30 pm Mike,did you dad work out of the little Champion shop down by LB harbor?

Yes. He was technical head of Champion's racing division, and ran their West Coast dyno facility in Long Beach.
Champion built the facility for my dad.
When he went to work for Champion, my family had to move to Toledo(before I was born). After one Toledo winter, my dad told his boss, either build me a dyno facility in SoCal, or I'm quiting.

leahymtsps wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:23 am

CamKing wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:51 pm Which Mickey Thompson engines are you talking about ?
The 3 valve Chevy V8 Indy engines?
The Pontiac V8's in the Challanger-1 land speed record car ?
The Ford V8 with 2 superchargers ?

You forgot the 4 cam engine.

Tom

There's probably a couple more I'm missing too.

The Bonneville Tunnel Port 302s came direct from Ford "EEE" I bought a couple from MT at the Long Beach shop . I dealt with John House on them but he had to get Mick's OK. M/T was always pushing the envelope. Mag SBC blocks , aluminum "'59" heads , ti rods , and the real head scratcher was a Pontiac V8 crankshaft made from ALUMINUM!!! John said "don't ask!" Fritz was a real innovator , allot like Phil Remington from Shelby/Gurney. I had many conversations with him until his passing.

How about the oddball engines? 2-cylinders,4-bangers and one-offs.

So, was there a in house engine builder or head porter at MT? Did they do their own heads or send them out?

There was a lot of casting going on there, too. Who did their aluminum and magnesium castings? Buddy Bar, wasn't to far from them. Did BB do any MT intakes?

pretty sure Fritz did all the engines,dont know about head work.His son might still have the shop!Maywood-Bell area of so cal.Tom