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  •  » Hey Bullet Bob (or RPM)........

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    5/30/2018 8:09 PM  #1

    6sally6
    Hyper FYIFORD ADDICT

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    From: Surfside Beach,SC
    Registered: 4/02/2013
    Posts: 6,900

    Hey Bullet Bob (or RPM)........

    Since you guyz grew up in "sunny Southern Cal" back in the cool days.....did either of you ever hear about a fellow SoCal guy named Norm Thatcher?
    Now....he was in his 60's back IN 1960! So he would be an old guy. (I 'magine he would be an old dead guy now!)
    Anyhow...I usta read all  about him in Hot Rod when I was a kid. He was 60 and raced blown/injected Hemi MoPars at Bonneville! Cool or what?!
    Somebody posted some stuff about him and some pics from the early 60's about him on another web site.
    He was one of those memories I had , bouncing around in my "great-cranial-void" area. The memory just floated to the surface of my long-term-memory to my short-term-memory locker. Like a bloated body in the bottom of a lake.......kinda.
    Just wondered if either of y'all might have ran across him....since you're from the same area!!
    Norm Thatcher! ...............Pioneer!
    6sally6

    Get busy Liv'in or get busy Die'n....Host of the 2020 Bash at the Beach/The only Bash that got cancelled  )8
     

    5/30/2018 11:54 PM  #2

    rpm
    Senior 24-7 FYI Addict

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    From: Bakersfield, Ca
    Registered: 9/17/2013
    Posts: 3,706

    Re: Hey Bullet Bob (or RPM)........

    I only learned of him this century by reading Jalopy Journal. I was a youngster when he was tearing up Bonneville at age 63! And I was born and raised in Fresno, far from So Cal. I grew up to stories about local legends Bill Vukovich, Blackie Gejeian, Ed the Ace McCulloch,  Art Whipple...

    "Ol Norm was for sure a bad arse. 173 mph in a stock bodied, carb'd on gas 63? Mopar. It's funny how some folks get the ink and others don't.

    Now Bullet Bob was from So Cal, and being 10 years my senior had to of heard of him.

    Bob. 69 Mach 1, 393W, SMOD Toploader, Armstrong  steering, factory AC.
     

    5/31/2018 6:10 AM  #3

    Bullet Bob
    Senior 24-7 FYI Addict

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    From: Montrose, Colorado
    Registered: 4/01/2013
    Posts: 4,896

    Re: Hey Bullet Bob (or RPM)........

    Sorry to disappoint, guys, butt I was not into big-boy racing and the stuff I did do was strictly antique four-banger related.  I ran at El Mirage four or five times in the seventies and went to B-ville once in 2002...and ran into two guys that I knew from the four-banger days.  Growing up in SoCal had me building Model A's and chasin' girls, Navy in '65, married in '68.  Life since then.
    Long 'n short of it, Mike, is:  "thanks for telling me about him...maybe I'll look him up and learn something.   Sorry.

    BB
     

    "you get what you pay for, good work isn't cheap, and there are NO free lunches...PERIOD!"
     

    5/31/2018 4:25 PM  #4

    6sally6
    Hyper FYIFORD ADDICT

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    From: Surfside Beach,SC
    Registered: 4/02/2013
    Posts: 6,900

    Re: Hey Bullet Bob (or RPM)........

    rpm wrote:

    I only learned of him this century by reading Jalopy Journal. I was a youngster when he was tearing up Bonneville at age 63! And I was born and raised in Fresno, far from So Cal. I grew up to stories about local legends Bill Vukovich, Blackie Gejeian, Ed the Ace McCulloch, Art Whipple...

    "Ol Norm was for sure a bad arse. 173 mph in a stock bodied, carb'd on gas 63? Mopar. It's funny how some folks get the ink and others don't.

    Now Bullet Bob was from So Cal, and being 10 years my senior had to of heard of him.

    Well!!....................I just -oh no I used a word I shouldn't have--U-MED  you two knew everybody from "backend-the-day" in Cali.! I mean...golly gee, there was only a couple hundred-million souls ,right?!
    No kidd'in....Old Norm was definitely one of my Hot Rod heroes back when I was just gett'in interested in carz.
    Truthfully....I had to post on the HAMB to find out his NAME!......I had forgotten the name just remembered the car he drove.(typical car guy! Right?!)
    Maybe somebody has some more pictures and info on him.
    I'll hafta keepa-check!
    6sal6
     

    Get busy Liv'in or get busy Die'n....Host of the 2020 Bash at the Beach/The only Bash that got cancelled  )8
       •Thread Starter
     

    6/01/2018 8:01 AM  #5

    Bullet Bob
    Senior 24-7 FYI Addict

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    From: Montrose, Colorado
    Registered: 4/01/2013
    Posts: 4,896

    Re: Hey Bullet Bob (or RPM)........

    Mike,

    An old friend, who passed away last year, went to the trouble a couple of years ago to look up Tex Smith and browbeat him into supplying a set of Tom Medley's  out of print "Hot Rod History" Books 1 and 2 as a B-day gift for me.  These are absolutely incredible works if you care at all about the early days of our sickness. 

    So...I'm gonna do something I rarely do.  If you want, I'll bring those books in Sept. and make you a loan of them.  Ain't too many guys I'll loan books to...way fewer than I'll loan tools to...but I will loan them to you as I know you will get a kick from them.  I also have an early copy of Griff Borgeson's "The Golden Age of the American Racing Car" and this also is a fantastic read.  Again, your's to borry if you like.

    See ya in Sept. Mike...after the Bash.

    BB
     

    "you get what you pay for, good work isn't cheap, and there are NO free lunches...PERIOD!"
     

     

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