I found this photo at Vindy.com. Here is some info:
The stats on this Jeep owned by Ron Stevens of Washingtonville: red 1948 CJ2A Jeep Truck Pro Street 2WD, 350cid Chevy Crate Motor 290hp, Turbo 400, Dana 44 w/Detroit Locker. The hand-built body and frame were a combined effort of Clarence, Don and John Stevens.
hey David, Again, back into the history of my Jeepin days. I know Clarence and John Stevens (may know Don too, but don’t remember). Clarence used to run a super hot Jeep in EC4WDA racing. I think it was called “Soda Pop,” and was a member of the U.S. Mules Racing team. I remember him shooting up the hill over in Lisbon, Ohio in the 7 sec. range. That was back in the days when that hill was really nasty, all shale and rutted. You could not even walk up the steep part. Just for comparison’s sake, when the hill was more mild, I went up it in an F134 powered Jeep and it took me 28 Seconds.
Cool memory. So, you took off at the bottom around lunchtime and finished about dinner time? 🙂
So, I don’t think I remember what the U.S. Mules Racing team was?
The hill in lisbon was daunting. If you were at the bottom ready to go, you could not see the top of the hill. It was 200 yards long and had three sections, the bottom being the steepest for maybe 60 yards, then it flattened out a bit, crossed a small road and hit another small hill. Jeeps like Soda Pop would race up the first part and get airborne at the crest. They have to let off, land, then hit it again and get air over the road and onto the top part of the hill. I use to work the “hook” at the top of the first part of the hill incase anyone stalled I’d run out and hook them. There was a tractor on the road in the middle hooked to a cable that would pull them up. I remember one time when Soda Pop BLEW it’s engine somewhere in the middle of the hill. I picked up a chunk of it a couple hours later. Looked like part of the block where a push rod went through.
The U.S. Mules were a small race team of maybe 10 guys out of Central-eastern PA who all had their jeeps painted the same.