Big Oly

The Petersen Automotive Museum in LA is having an exhibit called “Legends of Los Angeles: Southern California Race Cars and Their Builders." It consists of 11 vehicles, including Big Oly. If you're in town, check it out. From the WSJ:

"While these cars are the most visually appealing, Parnelli Jones’s 1970 Ford Bronco shouldn’t be dismissed as less important just because of its aesthetics. A Bronco in name only, most everything else was modified by Jones to withstand both the punishing terrain of a 1,000-mile off-road race and his devil-may-care driving style. Jones’s first attempt at the course, in the 1968 NORRA Mexican 1000, ended in failure because Jones pushed his truck too hard and it broke at the 150-mile mark. He came back in 1971 in his Bronco, dubbed “Big Oly” for its white and gold Olympic (sic) Beer paint scheme. With a new vehicle and new mindset, Jones not only won but set a new race record."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/legend...w-beautiful-bodies-beastly-engines-1543259625

Thanks for quoting some of the content of that article - I wasn't able to read all of it because I'm not a subscriber. I was hoping to make it over 2 weeks ago when they had a special event honoring Parnelli one evening before the exhibit opened, but I couldn't make it.

Todd Z.

Not sure if it was an inaccuracy in the article, or a typo here, but you might change the Olympic to Olympia beer just for accuracy of the story.

Paul

Thanks for the share... Good article

DirtDonk said:

Not sure if it was an inaccuracy in the article, or a typo here, but you might change the Olympic to Olympia beer just for accuracy of the story.

Paul

Click to expand...

Cut and paste from the WSJ. They've been getting bad on a lot of articles.