1961 JAGUAR OL YALLER VIII

Details

The reputations of many sports car manufacturers and race car drivers who were already legends or legends in the making were established in the sports car races held in California in the 1950's. Ferraris, Jaquars, Maseratis, Aston Martins, Porsches and Corvettes mixed it up with 'specials' such as the Scarab and the fast and potent cars from Max Balchowsky's 'Ol' Yaller' series built from 1956 to 1963. Though some racing devotees thought Balchowsky's cars were 'junkyard specials,' a notion which

Balchowsky himself worked rather hard to perpetuate, it was actually far from the truth. He was meticulous in his attention to detail. Even after the mid-engine cars began to show their superiority in sports car racing, Balchowsky's traditional 'specials' still did quite well against the competition as late as the 1963-64 season. Drivers such as Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby spent time behind the wheel of Ol' Yallers, and pronounced them among the best cars they had ever driven. Ol' Yaller VIII, built in 1961, was a bit of a departure from Balchowsky's previous practice. Most of his earlier cars were built on a tube-frame chassis, while this car was based instead on a Jaguar E-type monocoque. Ol' Yaller VIII saw movie time in an Elvis film, Viva Las Vegas, but by late in the decade it had been modified by customizer Dean Jeffries and became a show car. **TITLED AS A 1962 JAGUAR**