Oh yes, Jenkins was at the crossroads, but his decision had already been made for him. He still couldn’t get the full Chrysler deal (cars, parts, and cash) so rather than waiting for the factory tit to gush heavy, he pioneered territory. The hardcore doorslammer community was relatively small then so the paths of Jenkins and Carlo “Ollie” Volpe (Norristown, PA) crossed amiably and often. Ollie’s Corvette was equipped with an L84 Fuel Injected 327 and ran in A/SP. In stock form, it was rated at 375 flywheel horsepower (without power-robbing accessories). Jenkins pulled a string and got the engine on a Sun Oil Company dynamometer (at the Marcus Hook refinery) to prove a point to no one but himself. The car was a killer,
Tony Pizzi at the controls.
The success of Volpe’s record-holding Sting Ray impressed Jenkins and erased the uncertainty he’d felt about another cherished small-block project, the first “Grumpy’s Toy,” a 1966 Nova. I remember watching Jenkins and Jere “Total Tuned” Stahl match race at Englishtown, NJ, mouse-motor Nova versus elephant Belvedere. Soon-to-be-shaker Bob Duffy was selling parts out the back of a truck parked by the edge of the dragstrip. Dick Moroso was still in college.
The Nova’s L79 327 was rated at 350 hp and was basically the same motor underneath the carburetor as the one in Volpe’s fuel injected Corvette. On the advertised horsepower-to-weight scale, both Chevy and Plymouth fell in A/S. Nemeses. Jenkins pasted Stahl that afternoon two out of three, but mostly it was the other way around. The Hemi was a beast on the high end. But the escapades of this upstart car were rampant: Small-block Chevy beats Hemi! It spurred tremendous interest in the little-block as an upper class Stocker engine.
