{Chrysler 300} From September 2021 - an email from Burt Bouwkamp

Dear Noel,

I think I am the only surviving member of the team that set the 300F stock car flying mile record at Daytona Beach in 1960. After I retired, the only team member that I kept in touch with was Gregg Zeigler. By coincidence, he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of a retirement home (Wesley Willows) in Rockford, Illinois where my mother-in-law lived from 1985 until 1994. During that period, I saw Gregg a couple of times when we visited my wife’s mother.

All six 300F’s had 400HP short branch ram engines with Pont-A-Moussin transmissions. We probably built 10 to 12 400HP cars in total but only these six ran at Daytona Beach. We did not intend to built more than six cars but our Chrysler Division management insisted that we build a few more for their prestige “friends”. The “build” was completed in the “Header House” after assembly on the production line. (It was “build” because we had to make and install a floor pan patch to get the manual transmission in the car.)

I don’t remember building a 400HP car with an automatic transmission – but it’s possible. After the speed runs the team members went back to their regular jobs. We left Carl Pruehs (Manager of the Engineering Garage) with the problem of how to handle the executive requests for additional special 300F’s.

I hope you have good weather for your 300 Club Meet. Say “hello” to all my friends.

Burt

Sent from Mail for Windows

From: Noel Hastalis
Sent: Friday, September 3, 2021 5:31 PM
To: burtonbouwkamp@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: A Chrysler 300-F question -

Hello Burt,

I hope this finds you in good health I heard from Keith Boonstra and John Begian that you won't be able to attend our 300 Club's Meet in Auburn Hills! We'll sure miss you, but appreciate that you've provided a copy of your book "The Chrysler 300 on the Sands at Daytona Beach - 1955 through 1961. I have my signed copy, and sure enjoy reading through it from time to time.

Can you help me with a question about the 300-Fs that ran at Daytona Speed Weeks in early February 1960? I assume the 6 faster ones were all short ram 400 horsepower cars, and the one slower one, as you mention in your book, was the long ram 375 horsepower car. Do you remember if the 6 short ram cars were all Pont-a-Moussin 4-speed cars, or were one or more of them TorqueFlite cars. I know Gregg Ziegler's fastest-running black 300-F was a 4-speed car. And, Don Petty has a white 300-F 4-speed coupe, that I've seen in Arizona, was determined to have been one of these 6 raced short ram cars. But I'm curious about the other 4 of these 140+ mph 300-Fs.

Wishing you all the best!

Noel Hastalis

300-F coupe