The car was originally built by my dad and a few friends in the backyard garage in 1963, when I was 7 years old.

The ’23 T had a destroked 299 cubic inch Chrysler in it on nitro.

At that time, it utilized a fluid drive unit by B&M called a Torkmaster. Power went through a torque converter, through an in-and-out box and straight to the rear end.

According to my dad, "it made the little motor think it was a monster” even though we were smoking the tires back then.

Tom McEwen, Don Prudhomme, and Ted Gotelli also tried the B&M with limited success. It ran heads-up with some of the era’s best fuel dragsters, set a bunch of records in the western United States, and was pretty much feared wherever it ran.

In one of the pictures I have, Don Prudhomme is sitting in the Newhouse car and my dad hand wrote on the picture: "Don Prudhomme drove Gary’s Roadster 181.88 mph 6-66 LB (Long Beach), Calif."

The roadster was a staple in CJ Hart’s Competiton Eliminator class at Lions Drag Strip, running against guys like Gary Cochran, Larry Dixon Sr., Frank Pedregon Sr., Bill Earle, Jimmy Boyd, Butters & Gerrard, and many other "names" of the day. The car also won its class at the Bakersfield / Smokers March Meet in 1963 as well.