After many changes to the car such as lengthening, moving the motor back, adding good tires, etc., my dad decided it was just too expensive to keep up with the times. The Torkmaster unit wouldn’t work with the better tires, leading to wheelstands. He didn't want to put a clutch in it, as some of his friends were getting hurt, so he hung it up.

The car was sold to Pat Reynolds, who continued to try the Torkmaster, until a big wheelstand at OCIR crushed the oil pan, bent the frame and ruined the front wheels.

Reynolds immediately sold the car to Southern California school teachers Ward and Ozzie Francev. The Francevs cut the car down really short, put a small block Chevy engine in it with a single carb on gas, and ran it at the then popular "Econorail" classes. They had a blast with it and they still run a neat little dragster in one of today’s nostalgia classes.

I contacted the Francevs many years after they sold the roadster, trying to find it and bring it back to how it was in '63, but couldn't locate it. According to Ward Francev, "We sold the car to a guy in Santa Ana. That’s all I remember.”

I looked for a while and pretty much gave up. Then about two years ago, my friend Joel Gruzen contacted Steve Gibbs asking permission to build a replica of my dad's Fuel Roadster for the popular cacklefests. Gibbs replied, "Hey, if it's okay with Troy it's okay with me." 

So Joel and a bunch of his friends got to work and what you see here is the finished product. I had very little to do with the recreation of this roadster, other than to provide support with pictures, magazine articles and fond memories.