This particular Sunday started out like any other race Sunday. It was August 1969, and the Super Eliminator showdowns always attracted a rowdy crowd to Raceway Park, both in the stands and the pits. As always, this New Jersey dragstrip lured a healthy hoard of the finest high-powered race machines to do battle on Englishtown's 1,320-foot, two-lane warpath.

Bob Ida was there and confidently running what he brung: his supercharged, Hemi-powered Austin Healey known as the "Hemi Healy." The car had become a staple on the East Coast circuit and a proverbial thorn in everyone's side. And good old Cheshire-grinned Bob, well, he was like Castor Oil to his competitors—he looked innocuous, but he never went down easy.

The Healy always lifted the wheels on takeoff. It was the beast's nature, and Bob rolled with it. This time on the hit, Bob laid into it big time: 5,000 rpm and then the clutch pop. The big meats crinkled, the Healy lunged forward, the front lifted with the power surge. The Cragars dropped low in the wheelwells and raised the Hemi forward and skyward.

"That incident really shook me up. When I got home, I mixed up some paint and repainted the car that same night. I thought purple may be a little too close to death." — Bob Ida, on spinning out the purple version (first incarnation) of the Hemi Healy

Bob remembers the launch quite well, as the horizon in front of him disappeared as usual, but this time it didn't come back into view like it had every other time. For a second, the car was near vertical, dancing on its back bumper along the strip.

Then, suddenly, it all came crashing down. The big Hemi brought the chassis to the Earth with a wallop. On impact, the steering column lurched forward and pushed up against Bob's chest. Bob knew the car had buckled severely. He could feel the chassis drag as it rolled out. The doors were pinned shut. The day was done. They pried Bob out of his tin-can cockpit. No damage done to the driver, but the Healy was not as lucky.

The crumpled car was brought back to the Ida's shop in Morganville, New Jersey, just a few miles from the track. Bob made the decision to give the Healy its last rights, and then make the car an organ donor for his new Mustang drag-car project. Out came the Hemi, and the stripped carcass was laid to rest at a nearby salvage yard. And that was the last time Bob saw the Healy for the next 40 years.

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Heart of the Healy

Bob spent his early days in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Joseph, was a good friend of the Tucker family and even owned his own Tucker dealership for the brief time that company was in business. Bob got bit by the hot rod bug early, saving pennies to purchase his first car, a 1934 Ford, which he bought at the tender age of 14. "I would save the lunch money my parents gave me and get lunch handouts from the girls," he says.

The high schooler channeled the Ford in typical East Coast fashion and purchased a 1962 Chevy 409 engine. With the big powerplant, it became a killer performer on the dragstrips that dotted the outskirts of New York City. The Ford ran in the A/Altered class, with the 409 pushing the five-window coupe speedily through the traps. It was a cool racer, but he wanted to go faster. And that meant getting another car better suited for racing.

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His next purchase was a slick 1956 Chevy, which received the 409 pulled from the Ford. He ran B/GS with the supercharged Bow Tie. Then a slick 1940 Willys was the next recipient of the blown 409. The combination was fast on the strip and a great looking ride. But Bob still wasn't happy. He was looking for more power and speed. He started looking for a new engine combination to muscle his four-door racer.

Ira Horshan was a local Brooklyn buddy. He knew Bernie Schachtner, the guy who inspired "Big Daddy" Don Garlit's first rear-engine dragster. Schachtner and his cohorts were Chrysler guys, and the Hemi was their weapon of choice. They convinced Bob the Elephant motor was the power source to live by. He then built a blown, 331ci Hemi for the Willys.

Bob knew from that first moment behind the wheel he was going to stick with the Hemi. The combination gave him the power he craved, but to hit the speeds he wanted to achieve, he needed to improve the aerodynamics with a different car.

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Bob watched the racers at the tracks and took notes. Because only American cars were allowed in the supercharged class, he would have to look hard for a car fitting his build criteria. He noticed imported Austins were running in his class. For some reason, these British cars made it past the rulebook. Bob thought an Austin Healey could also be approved.

He knew of a 1956 Austin Healey in a junkyard in Brooklyn. A deal was quickly struck, but he doesn't remember how much he paid for the carcass—it wasn't much. The project was brought back to his new shop in New Jersey. He would load the car into the shop during the day to work on it and then shovel it into the back of an 18-wheeler at night for safe storage.

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Bob decided to use a 354ci Hemi in the Austin Healey. He thought it was better suited for the weight and size of his car than the brawnier 392, which had become the go-to motor for the strip. Bob always figured there was more performance per cubic inch in the smaller Hemi, and knew he was the man to squeeze out every possible pony.

Bob always admired the long runners on Roto-Faze intakes, so it was an easy decision to choose one for the Healy. To boost the engine, a Detroit Diesel 6-71 supercharger was bolted on top.

He salvaged what he could from his last Willys racer and implanted the parts into the Healey. The big Top Fuel tires out back and the 1957 Ford rearend both made their way to his new ride. A Hydrostick transmission was bolted behind the Hemi and he painted the car a shade of deep purple, which Bob wasn't too sure about, but figured he would feel it out and see how it went.

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Few people remember the Hemi Healy dressed in its violet skin, and Bob would like to forget it altogether. On a pass at Englishtown, calamity occurred when the Hydrostick transmission had an issue. Bob tells it this way: "On a pass I was making at ETown, the dowel pin shook loose and fell into the bellhousing. The torque converter had a drain plug in it. When it hit the dowel pin, it knocked the drain plug out. The trans fluid just blew out of the bell, going on the headers and tires making lots of smoke.

"The car did a 540-degree spin. I was facing the starting line watching my best buddy, Chip Banney [driver of the Dancing Bear 1957 Corvette], running down the track along with my 15-year-old cousin, Vinny, to pull me out of all the smoke they thought was fire. That incident really shook me up. When I got home, I mixed some paint and repainted the car that night. I thought purple may be a little too close to death for me."

Ida's previous Willys racer was painted in a Cadillac Firemist color. It was a hue that stood out in the crowd, so that night Bob concocted his own similar designer blend for the Healy. Before hitting the track again, the Hemi Healy would be covered in its signature copper tone and emblazoned with the graphics package it's known for.

The Healy ran that way for quite a few years. It mowed down competitors in the B/GS class (B Gas Supercharged) and later in BB/G when the NHRA changed classifications. BB/GS was added as well so the car could run both NHRA and IHRA. The goal was to run as often as possible, as Bob also had a thriving business to run. The Healy ran a best of 9.20, the track record at Englishtown at the time. Back then, you didn't want to set the national record, as that would change your handicap when you ran in Super Eliminator.

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Healing the Hemi Healy

Rob Ida never saw his dad run the Healy. Its final wheelstand came years before Rob would make it to his first dragstrip. In the days after its demise, the Hemi Healy became a celebrity in car magazines and on the Internet. Though the ride was a quarter-mile terror, its race days were earlier than a lot of its fans. Still the car lived on in the minds of the faithful followers of everything fast. So did the Ida's. Rob always had some amazing piece of automobilia in the shop. A Hemi Healy tribute car had been discussed before, but this time Bob and Rob were ready to commit to a new car.

In a bizarre coincidence, the original Healy chassis surfaced again when the Idas were in the market for a proper donor car. It was their good family friend, John Tucker (the grandson of Preston Tucker, creator of the 1948 Tucker sedan) who alerted the Idas to the sale of the slightly butchered Healey, which was in the process of regaining its original Austin Healey form.

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From its telltale cuts and welds, Bob easily verified the chassis was from the Hemi Healy. The Idas ponied up for the Healy and brought her back home to Jersey for an all-out restoration.

Rob helped his father with the car's assembly. He took over bringing the body and chassis back to life, while Bob handled sourcing and assembly of the powertrain. A 1956 354ci block was purchased and bored 0.030-over to clean it up. New forged pistons, steel rods, and crankshaft were sourced. The 555 heads were ported and polished, built with stainless steel Manley valves, and the camshaft is an old Norris roller cam, with a 0.650-inch lift.

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Bob loved the long runner style of that original Roto-Faze intake (Roto-Faze.com) he used back in the 1960s. No reason to change now, as Joe Panek is still in business and building intakes in Southern California. Joe pulled the original 50-year-old wood patterns and recreated the same intake gracing the original 354 Healy.

The blower is straight off a 6-71 Detroit Diesel. Bob disassembled it, cleaned it, and had the case hard-anodized. He refaced the endplates, installed new seals and bearings, and reassembled the vintage power-adder. He also timed the rotors to perfection. The engine build was topped off with an old Vertex magneto.

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The body needed some massaging, but once it was straightened and past restoration work was put back to race-car status, the body came together rather quickly. Just as the original was back in the 1960s, a wheelbarrow was needed to build the scoop that covers the big Hemi.

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In a matter of months, the Healy was reborn. No new tweaks, no Ida modern stylings or billet-CNC pieces. It's as true to the original as you can get, built as sparingly as Bob and Rob possibly could—and true to the way Bob did it way back when.

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Featherweight

Forty years ago, Bob Ida had to add weight to the Hemi Healy. At 120 pounds soaking wet, he had to make up the necessary 8 pounds per cubic inch the car needed to race.