Racing a Marlin
AMC produced the Marlin in 1965 to "cheat the wind" and the 1966 Dodge Charger was copied from this design
but neither were very successful on the tracks.  
Did anyone ever race a Marlin?


A Marlin was raced in the 1966 "24 Hours of Daytona" by the Hess brothers. One of them was Larry Hess.

These are copies of photos from Larry and Don Hess. Larry told me that the car was basically stock (note antenna) with little more than the seats taken out, a roll bar put in and headers. He even said that the car was later sold at the dealership as a used car. They could not agree on the color of the car: blue or maroon.





Larry
                      Hess
Larry Hess in the #44 Ambassador Stock Car Racer

Larry Hess Daytona
Photo Courtesy of Phil Heitman

Photo Courtesy of Phil Heitman

Links to the 24 hours of Daytona in 1966

http://www.teamdan.com/archive/wsc/1966/66day.html

http://wsrp.ic.cz/wsc1966.html



Stock Car Racing
Another Marlin was raced on the circle track in Canada
Pictures of the car can be seen on the Victoria Motorsports Hall of Fame website (see below).

http://www.victoriaautoracinghalloffame.com/royhaslam/royhaslam.html

Bill Kraft A/FX Hemi Marlin
A Marlin was drag raced by Preston Honea and it was known as the Hemi Marlin.
Of course, it had a 426 Hemi and had a fiberglass flip-forward front end.


From Hemmings Auto Blogs

Bill Kraft Rambler

Always wondered why fastbacks weren’t more popular as altered-wheelbase early funny cars. Look at all that weight cantilevered over the rear axle - should help tremendously with weight transfer, doncha think?

Then again, you drop a big Hemi in between the front framerails and your weight equation gets thrown all askew.

That’s what Preston Honea did with his Marlin, at least, racing it as the Bill Kraft Rambler - a successor to the Kraft Rambler we mentioned (Bill Kraft stuffed an Ambassador V-8, punched out to 418-cu.in., into a 1964 Rambler American, mounted four carbs to a special intake and ran 112 mph at Fontana) here a few months ago. The Marlin Site has scans of a couple old magazine articles featuring the Hemi Marlin, though I don’t see any dates or magazine titles attached to the articles. According to one of the articles, the combination was worth a 10.31-second run at 138 mph its first time out.


Preston Honea Racing Pictures from Steve Drucker and Phil Heitman






Steve Drucker's 66 Marlin Tribute Car

Thought you guys might get a kick out of my tribute car to Preston.  He's lent me some cool personal stuff and told some cool stories about the original wheelstander. Steve Drucker







Preston Honea ran the Bill Kraft Marlin from 1965 into mid 1966. In 1965, Honea ran the car on alky for sure and maybe a little nitro, too.  Ran 9's at 138.90 in 1965 and went 9.83 at 135.33 in 1966.  The car had a 327 Rambler small block that was replaced by a Plymouth Hemi rather quickly.  Lefty Mudersbach also drove the high sitting car.  NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper was rumored to have been offered a ride in the first AMC funny car.  Honea left Southern California for St Louis to race the "Executioner" Dart. (Photo by L&M Photos courtesy of Bob Plumer/Drag Race Memories; info from Dennis Doubleday, Bill Duke, and Draglist Files)