Tag Archives: Gapp and Roush

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Headline – The ultimate street car???

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This article comes from October 1975 Super Stock and Drag Illustrated. It was provided to me by Tom Tate who is now the proud owner of this vehicle.

As I noted in our email conversation this article clears up some timeline information for me. Hot Rod Magazine ran an article in 1977 about this car but I thought the car was built in 1975.

The final quote from my Dad is pretty good. Enjoy…and thanks Tom!

JAWS

Putting some real teeth in a Mustang II.

This is no fish story. It is absolutely true. We’d planned to save this little gem until it was completed for our upcoming street issue, but we felt this little preview would better serve the common good. It is intended to serve as fair warning to those minnows who regularly cruise the greater Detroit area – when you see this silver grey mutha pull up, you’d better do your swimming somewhere else.

What do big-time professional drag racers do between races?

“Well, we take on occasional projects for people, just to keep my crew busy when I don’t need them for the race cars,” said Wayne Gapp. “Like that one over there” he added with a sheepish, self-satisfied, cigar-filled grin.

There sat your standard ’75 Mustang II, with the sticker still in the window except that there were these huge 12″ slicks in the rear wheelwells, the front end sheetmetal was off the car, and that motor was nestled tightly in the engine compartment sure didn’t look like standard equipment. Moving closer and circling slowly, you noticed that the fenderwells had undergone surgery, and that the engine was using Pro Stock type front engine mounts and set back a bit. And it was big. Real big.

“Looks like a 429”

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“Well, not exactly. It’s a 460. A 460 Cobra Jet to be exact. It’s a real nice motor. We put some good high compression pistons in it, a real strong cam, ported and polished the heads, all that good stuff. Be interesting to see it run – ought to go 10–seconds easy if the guy just stands on it.”

It certaintly was a real nice car. Interior was dead stock, but if you looked up underneath, you immediately noticed the round tube frame under the floorboards and the heavily beefed-up rear subframe and suspension. By asking, we found out the competition C-6 tranny sported a 9″ 3500 rpm stall speed torque converter, while the narrowed 9″ rear housed a Detroit Locker and 4.30 gears – just to keep the gas mileage reasonable, we suppose.

“Who’s it for?”

“Some businessman we know. Said he just wanted us to make the Mustang run faster than his old Torino.”

Noticing that the big 850 cfm double-pumper sitting on the hi-rise manifold protruded above the hoodline, we just had to ask. “What are you gonna do for hood clearance?”

“I guess we’ll have to put a little scoop on it. That’s the only thing wrong with it – we can’t get the damn thing shut.”

They probably never will – not really, anyway.

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Gapp & Roush promotional picture for press packet

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Update: There are indeed a couple of different images floating around from this shoot. So no airbrushing!

This is an image that can be seen in several places.

I believe it’s in book called “Mustang Race Cars” and it’s the one that Roush Performance uses here as part of the “About” page for Roush Performance. Except it looks like in that one they airbrushed my Dad’s right arm out of the picture…or he moved and this is not the same shot.

This picture was probably taken in mid to late summer of 1974. The Mustang II was built for that season, so was the Maverick and the Pinto was from ’73.

Anyway, that’s a lot of Pro Stocker’s.

Dad still owns this building by the way.
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National Dragster Cover – Tijuana Taxi – August 2nd, 1974

Below we have the cover of NHRA’s National Dragster from August of ’74.

The Taxi is still new.

The cover states:

Wayne Gapp’s still new 4-door Maverick, which annexed the Pro Stock runner-up honors at the NHRA Summernationals and hit consistent 8’s throughout the event, put it all together once again this weekend to dominate the Pro Stock portion of the Minnesota Dragway Division V WCS event. Said by many to have plenty left in the performance department, Gapp will undoubtedly be right in the thick of things at the Grandnational-Molson even, too.

Indeed it did…

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December 7, 1973 National Dragster cover – Wayne Gapp – Pro Stock

Here is the cover from the December 7, 1973 issue of National Dragster.

Note the smiling guy on the far right. Supernationals winner.

The caption reads:

After the smoke and fury that was the NHRA’s 4th Annual Supernationals settled at Ontario Motor Speedway, these five men remained as victors in their respective classes. They are (l. to r.) Don Enriquez (Pro Comp), T.C. Christenson (Pro Bike), Tom McEwen (Funny Car), Don Garlits (Top Fuel), and Wayne Gapp (Pro Stock).

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3/4 shot of the 1974 Maverick called the ‘Tijuana Taxi’

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Here is a nice 3/4 angle shot of the ‘Taxi’ showing some good details of the vehicle.

One of the discussions that I have read about over the past is the actual name of the car.

There were three iterations of the name:

  1. “Tijuana Taxi”
  2. “Juana Taxi”
  3. “Taxi”

I don’t know the reasoning for the name changes. Some of have stated it was pressure from NHRA to change it from ‘Tijuana’ to ‘Juana’ or just plain ‘Taxi’.

I doubt it. The reasons for the changes are lost in time.

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Drag News – October 20, 1973 – Entire article

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Ruth, Hall and Gapp Claim “World Champion” Titles

PRO STOCK

AMARILLO, TEXAS

It just had to end up being a battle of the “factories” as the Fords of Gapp and Roush, Nicholson and Glidden and Allen were looking mighty strong over the Mopars of Reid Whisnant, Oscar Roberts and Irv Beringhaus and the others. The Vegas of Paul Blevins, Grumpy, Lynn Harrison and Sonny Bryant’s ‘lonely big block’ had their work cut out for them for the Chevrolet camp.

Bob Riffle’s 9.48 – 145.16 was too much ofr the Duster of Oscar Robert’s car Roberts 9.65 – 142.40. Next up was Royce Freeman who drew some tough competition from Reid Whisnant and his Duster. Freeman’s 9.84 – 136.78 was enough to make a spectator out of Whisnant with his 9.95 – 141.95. Lynn Harrison’s Vega twisted a 9.67 – 139.75 off to beat William Parris and his Demon’s 9.78 – 140.62.

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Grumpy ran a 9.34 – 145.86 to trailer Don McLavey’s Demon at 10.03 – 138.46. Wayne Gapp in the Gapp and Roush Pinto turnon on the Ford fans by beating Irv Beringhaus’ Duster 9.41 – 147.05 to a losing 9.84 – 139.53. Sonny Bryant’s big block Camaro fell victim to the small block Vega of Paul Blevins 9.39 – 144.69 to Bryant’s 9.71 – 141.95. The ‘Ford Camp’ further cheered on for Bob Glidden and Pinto as it easily put away the Duster of John Hagen. Glidden garnered low e.t. of the round (and the meet thus far) with a 9.28 – 146.81 to Hagen’s 10.03 – 136.15.

Nicholson drew the bye and cut a 9.40 – 145.16 as only 15 cars made the call for the first round.

Glidden further enthused the Ford lovers by downing Paul Blevins 9.37 – 146.34 to 9.45 – 145.39 to open round two. Jenkins primed the Chevrolet fans once more by defeating the Dodge Sport of Bob Riffle 9.33 – 145.63 to Riffle’s 9.58 – 144.69. Nicholson’s 9.39 – 147.54 was more than enough to win over Royce Freeman’s 9.78 – 138.61. Gapp and Roush closed out the round by shutting down Lynn Harrison’s Vega 9.23 – 147.29 to 9.72 – 139.53. Another Ford over Chevrolet win and another…yet lower e.t. meet/track record for Gapp and Roush…and remember these times are at 3700 feet altitude (and are unfactored except in the case of a new national record)!

It had come about with the way the Fords were dominating the scene…in a semi-final round it was 3 Fords versus the Chevrolet of none other than Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins.

The first pairing of round 3 saw Gapp and Roush square off against a car they built…the ‘like-Pinto’ of Glidden and Allen. Kinda’ tough to ‘run what ya brung’…and ‘what ya’ built’…but so goes it! Gapp took the win and a ‘triple timer’ low e.t. of 9.22 at 146.57 to Glidden’s 9.31 – 146.34. Grump trailered Dyno with a 9.34 – 145.39 ‘go’ to Nicholson’s 9.37 – 144.92 to create the ‘factory showdown’ final!

The Ford fans were ‘quivering’ with excitement as Grumpy was no ‘light hitter’, but the blink of a green, Gapp was gone and Grump in pursuit. It’s not often one ‘cuts a light’ on Grumpy but Gapp did it with the excellence of a surgeon and ‘put a Pinto’ in the winner’s circle with a win and a new national records!! 9.17 – 149 flat to Jenkin’s 9.35 – 145.86. The 9.17 factored (again, due to the altitude of 3700′) becomes a 8.89. So, Gapp not only beat Jenkins but he also eclipsed the Grump’s national record of 8.91 with their 8.89 – Ford definitely ‘had a better idea’ with Pinto and Gapp & Roush.

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AMARILLO, TEXAS — Ralph Hansen, President of Accel, shakes hands with Wayne Gapp congratulating him on his Pro Stock victory.

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AMARILLO, TEXAS — Edelbrock factory representative Bobby Meeks congratulates team owner Wayne Gapp on his outstanding Pro Stock Victory.