TOP O’ THE WORLD
Bill Mitchell’s doin’ alright.
- 3/16/2007
I hung out with Bill Mitchell in the mid-‘70s when he was running the Motion Mini-Car shop at Joel Rosen’s place in Long Island. He was preceded by his reputation. I’d heard about him from Dennis Ferrara, who drove the yellow Motion Camaro in A/MP. So began My Time in Long Island, as highlighted by the antics and the friendships of Dennis and Pat Ferrara, Scott Shafiroff, Ritchie Zul, Ritchie Sullivan, and young Bill Mitchell.
The first time we met, I was on a mission. I’d bought a Pinto wagon that I was doing up for Car Craft, circa 1974. Immediately, Billy had a plan. He’d put forged pistons in the motor, scrape about an inch off the head deck to get some compression in the thing, put adjustable timing gears on the stock camshaft, and hang a Hooker header on the side. The rub was this: TRW had supplied the pistons in what they thought was the best
configuration for the 122-incher. Billy carefully scoped out the dome and said they were too steep to work properly. He milled the decks flat and put notches were the valves would be opening. The TRW guy had a conniption, of course, but the engine ran good. I was happy. And remained so until Danny Jesel (one of my house buddies) took it one night to meet a squeeze at the Turkey Swamp Room. Danny got excited. Put the pedal down. Popped a head gasket on the way home.
Billy built many different race cars and I did several photos shoots on his junk, even put one of his VeeDubs on a cover of Car Craft. Bob Gerdes (Circus Paint) had put flames over black on flared fenders. What sticks in my mind is Billy’s broken leg episode. He held on to that crutch like a security blanket. Refused to give it up, even after his bones had mended. He was certain that his leg would shoot straight out to the side if he tried to walk without the damn thing. I remember the night he did. When he dropped the crutch he screamed in surprise. He didn’t fall over.
When you were coming up, who were your heroes? Who did you look up to?
BM: Boy, that’s a good question. I used to read everything I could get my hands on, you know I was interested in anything that had to do with cars and making them go faster, so I read as much as I could about them, but I really didn’t have any heroes, no one I wanted to be like.
How about your father? Maybe not for cars but for messing with mechanical things?
BM: It wasn’t my father, either. He died when I was a baby. This mechanical thing has always been inside me. Its always been a part of me.
Prior to our meeting you at Motion when you were doing the Mini-Car thing with the Volkswagens, what were you doing?
BM: I drag raced a ’57 Chevy at Islip Speedway (a 1/8-mile track on Long Island).
What did you do for work?
BM: I was a line mechanic at a dealership. I worked on other people’s cars all day.
