Landy's Dodges: The Mighty Mopars of "Dandy" Dick Landy

INTRODUCTION

It is often said that timing is everything. For young men maturing in America in the late 1950s and 1960s, a newfound emphasis was placed on the ownership of a personal, and personalized, automobile. Certainly there had been hot rodders before, but the popular culture now started portraying this activity as a regular facet of being part of the in crowd. Movies, music, and media all helped stimulate interest in this idea, and nowhere was this pressure more evident than in Southern California.

Not every teenager was a hot rodder, but for those who chose this as a passion, it was a wide-open world of opportunity. In Southern California, despite a host of activities that could occupy your time due to the pleasant climate and good economic conditions, it was possible to find both avocation and vocation in the field of automotive performance and modification. Customizing paint and hot rod parts helped execute a mechanical vision. With V-8 engine designs becoming commonplace, the growing speed equipment industry offered a solid selection of components for most makes, including the latest cars from Detroit. From that perspective, even the manufacturers had begun to grasp the profitability of this market, and began offering cars directly from the factory in performance trim.

It was here that young Richard Landy realized his calling. After a short stint in the world of custom speedboats, he returned to the performance automobile world that had been part of his high school years. Working with a promotionally minded performance car dealership, Landy began drag racing first in the latest Fords, and that in turn caught the attention of a major player in Chrysler’s racing efforts, Ronney Householder. Householder was looking for a good representative for Chrysler’s expanding racing program. Landy admitted years later he was not impressed at all with the styling of the 1962 Plymouth that Householder suggested for him. But the potential of the 413 Maximum Performance engine and the direct factory assistance that Householder was willing to provide sealed the deal.

Dick Landy was not an engineer or a grad student beyond his two years of junior college. But he did have three very important things that helped make timing everything. First and foremost was an intrinsic mechanical ability that set him apart from his peers. Dick Landy was never afraid to experiment, and he was constantly looking over possibilities for bettering performance. As part of his efforts with Chrysler, he opened a dynamometer shop he called Automotive Research. Although it made its bread-and-butter doing tune-up work on all makes, it became the headquarters for the Dodges that Landy began to race starting in 1964. His race work eventually forced its closure as a commercial enterprise, but it was succeeded in 1971 by Dick Landy Industries, which he operated until his death in 2007.

A look of confidence and an understanding of the value of promotion helped Dick Landy attain superstardom in drag racing. This photo is from his publicity campaign in 1967. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

This 1969 clinic poster showed Landy as a sponsored professional who thrilled crowds with extreme performance in Detroit’s latest cars. This Dart ran in A/Modified Production.

The second thing he possessed was an understanding of the media. Landy received what some might consider an inordinate amount of publicity on many of his cars. Although some of this is certainly attributable to his commendable performances, it also was in making himself and his race cars available for promotions. With many nationally recognized automotive magazine titles in the Los Angeles area, Landy readily opened his doors to give the media people the latest, greatest tips (although I would be remiss to say he always told them everything) as well as test car tune-ups. He was also available as a spokesperson for drag racing in general, and even hired publicity agents to handle this aspect of his career. All of this played a major role in the value he gave his sponsors as well.

The final thing that cannot be overlooked is that Landy took a good deal of care to represent himself and whoever was supporting his racing effort properly. Eric Dahlquist of Petersen Publishing is the one who tagged him Dandy Dick. The rhythm of the nickname worked, and although that moniker might not be considered a manly phrase in the 21st Century, the former high school sports star stuck with it.

Landy and his crew wore clean clothes, sometimes with spotless white tennis shoes, and looked the part of at-ease professionals. The ever-present unlit cigar was a source of interest that gave him a unique calling card. That Landy eventually piloted some of the most dangerous stock-bodied creations to ever hit the dragstrip only added to the dichotomy of all this.

It was also mentioned in the news reports of that era that Dick always took time to talk with amateur racers and potential Dodge customers, even very young ones. This fact perhaps played a pivotal role in Dick Landy becoming Dodge’s best representative at its dealerships, and one of the most important in its racing program.

In the following pages, I tell the story of Landy’s Dodges, the cars that Dick raced and won with. It was a unique time in automotive history, an era of opportunity that has long since passed. Dick Landy was a man of his time, and he participated in that moment to the utmost, creating a legacy of performance still remembered today.

Richard, Danette, Gean, and Robert Landy in 2015.

CHAPTER 1

HOT RODS, CIGARS AND ROOSTER TALES

The Landy Legacy and Dick’s Racing Efforts before 1964

Southern California was a land of dreams and promise for many. Some came for the climate; others arrived for a chance at fame in the growing Hollywood movie business; still others came because going West simply landed many wanderers in the growing Los Angeles area and surrounding hills. For Henry and Genevieve Landy, son Richard was the fifth addition to an eight-child farm family in what was then a still-rural Granada Hills. Located just north of Hollywood in the San Fernando Basin, the area that came to be referred to simply as the Valley, was filled with nicely irrigated homesteads. Indeed, the house that Dick grew up in still stands on Tulsa Avenue, a long residential block, but at the time of his birth, in March 1937, it was part of a recently built small farmstead called Sunshine Ranch, which featured a house, barn, garden area, and grove of orange trees.

Chrysler hired the model for the photo shoot for the new 1962 Plymouth, but wife Gean’s support of Dick’s tireless racing efforts was a huge part of his success. They were married for more than 50 years, until Dick’s passing in 2007. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

The Landowski family had first immigrated to Wisconsin, and four of the five family patriarchs shortened that name to Landy when they opened a family auto repair business in the early 1930s. Henry had moved to the Golden State after contracting tuberculosis. The climatic change from Milwaukee was medically required, and the new California home was purchased sight unseen during the same year that Dick was born. Once healed, Henry opened a collision shop called Landy Auto Body Works in San Fernando. A machinist who had plied his trade at International Harvester, Henry had also worked for the growing Chrysler Corporation as a vehicle repossession agent before the move; he jokingly told Gean Landy years later that he had been shot at only once! In the late 1930s, Henry even owned a prewar hot rod built around a 1917 Model T Ford, complete with a Fordson-valved flat head, high-lift cam, DD4 magneto, and custom crankshaft.

Growing up, young Richard Landy found ample time to develop the type of mechanical prowess that marked his later engine-building career by working on family cars. Of course, those formative years included World War II and the soon-to-boom postwar economy; both helped fuel another pastime that became known as hot rodding. By then, Henry had closed the body shop and was working in the aerospace industry as a fabricator, using a small home-based machine shop for doing odd jobs on the side.

The 1917 Ford that Henry Landy hot rodded around in during the 1930s. Note the flow-through pipes. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Dick’s first car was this 1941 Chevy convertible. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

The Landy Auto Body Works in San Fernando operated from 1938 until the advent of World War II. Owner Henry Landy, Dick’s father, is standing second from the left. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Dick and Gean’s 1947 Cadillac was both a powerful tow vehicle for the Drag ’n’ Ski boat business and a nice ride for the young family. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Southern California was the hotbed of hot rodding activity. Equipped with prewar dry lakes experience and the economic optimism that marked the era, a ready group of young men who had come from the armed services with skills and fearless determination led the movement. That in turn meshed with the newly developing youth culture, so it is not surprising that Dick Landy as an older teenager became interested in this pursuit in the early to mid-1950s.

Among other activities at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Dick played football through his junior year, at the tackle position, and he laid bricks during the summer. This job financed his first car, a 1941 Chevy convertible. Dick’s fourth year was at San Fernando High School, where he joined the Ignitors car club. He also met the good-looking Gean Beahrs; she jokes that she was the spoiled brat only child of a doctor and nurse and that Dick had brothers and sisters. The chemistry was there; they were married just two weeks after his graduation in 1955. Although he and friend Vali Goelz had played around with a 1953 Ford, this is when drag racing first became part of his life. The apartment he and Gean rented was only about a mile from the San Fernando Raceway, and they could hear the cars running on Saturday evenings and Sundays.

Ford Days: 1956–1962

In 1956, a friend of mine bought a new Ford truck and we decided to go out to the San Fernando dragstrip, Dick summarily noted in a later interview. I was doing both the driving and wrenching.

Dick and Vince Hart with Hart’s 1956 Ford truck, already showing some signs of modification. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Landy did not state what condition this truck was in when it was purchased, except to note it was new, soon was stripped down, and had a V-8 under the hood. He and his construction business friend Vince Hart became serious enough about racing that it won. A lot. He later told writer Bob McClurg that he guessed it took home 40 trophies that year. Hart was happy being able to ride shotgun, which was part of racing at the time. Dick recalled that the truck eventually ran 92 mph. The team raced on the track and made the occasional dry lakes run.

While completing his junior college studies, Dick raced Hart’s truck and worked at Brendella Boats, building custom boats and boat engines for water-skiers. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Dick did chassis changes, and it is likely that he rebuilt the engine in addition to adding speed parts. The two young men campaigned it with success at the legendary Pond (the nickname of the Harry Hibler–managed San Fernando track), which had a class specifically for pickups, as well as at Lions Associated Drag Strip in Long Beach and at the Saugus Drags. In part because the rules for pickups were much looser than those for stock, it was the first of the Landy-associated machines to make a name for itself by performance. However, when the navy called Vince to go to sea; before he left, he sold the truck. Dick was now in college, studying mechanical engineering, plus working at masonry jobs to support his young family.

By this date he was also involved in a new performance business, but not on pavement. With Pyramid Lake and other recreational waters close by, weekend boating and water-skiing became Dick’s second vocation. He started a small business called Drag ’n’ Ski. Soon afterward, in a verbal partnership with Irv Brendell, the duo opened Brendella Boats. Dick proved to be very adept at the custom fabrication of fiberglass, engine support framing, and hot rod engines for their new high-performance SK-class watercraft. Drag racing was no longer a priority, until the day in 1960 when Dick’s older brother Les bought a new 352-inch Ford.

Big-Block Starliner

This car, a Starliner, was powered by what many consider to be one of the first big-block muscle car engines, the 360-hp version of the Ford Y-block FE series. Free-flow exhaust manifolds, an aluminum intake supporting a Holley 4-barrel carb, an open-element air cleaner, a hotter cam, solid lifters beneath heads featuring adjustable rocker arms, and a dual-point/mechanical advance distributor all made it go. Once again, Dick was responsible for tuning it up and getting the suspension ready, and soon he had the car running at local tracks. However, he recounted later that the biggest change was receiving some attention from Fran Hernandez.

With tuning becoming his specialty, Dick campaigned Andy Andrews’s big Ford cars with success around tracks in Southern California. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

At the time, Hernandez was a noted veteran hot rodder associated with fabricator Bill Stroppe’s shop in Long Beach; he also represented Autolite’s racing interests. According to Dick, Hernandez was willing to set up an account for parts and racing pieces from the company. Because of Stroppe’s close relationship with Ford, when Autolite was purchased by Ford in 1961, Hernandez was suddenly elevated to a much more important role in racing at Ford Motor Company. By this time, Dick was driving a new 4.05-inch-bore 390-ci Galaxie that came courtesy of dealer Andy Andrews.

Andrews was a dynamic young car dealer who specialized in high-performance vehicles only, both new and used. He recognized that Dick Landy was a clean-cut, responsible young father who had the looks and ability to sell cars but also the additional talent to keep them in tune. He first asked Dick to tune his dealer-backed 1961 Ford and then asked him to drive the car. Whether Andrews had any prior association with Hernandez is unknown, but he did sell all makes and models, and this car came into Dick’s use because of Andy’s business. Some pictures show the Galaxie that Dick drove for Andrews being flat-towed along with a 1961 Chevy that Andrews may have also been campaigning. Well versed in shifting and suspension tricks, Dick rented a small shop on Ventura Canyon Avenue and soon had the Andrews Ford making waves at local tracks in the stocker ranks. It was Andrews who gave Dick a visual trademark that lasted his entire career.

Andrews ran this yearbook ad in Dick’s alma mater Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Andy Andrews’s multicar team en route to the races. Andrews raced multiple brands to promote his used-car business. Dick drove the Ford he supplied. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

A Cigar and a Nickname

I’ll always remember Dick Landy as the mysterious guy who never fired up his cigars, mused writer Dave Wallace Jr. in a 1976 Drag News story about Dick Landy Industries. Andy Andrews seems to have liked smoking them, and he gave Dick a victory stogie at the races. Andy soon had Dick keeping a supply on hand to use in his publicity efforts, but Dick personally found that unlit cigars simply put his mind at ease. He noted in multiple interviews that he did not like to smoke, but he got a fresh one ready before each run. That big unlit cigar, clenched between his teeth as the car launched, fascinated then-12-year-old Wallace and other media types. It also became a point of humor in race reports, which might end with something like, Chomper Landy won enough money tonight to buy himself cigars for two whole months!

The Fords were hot race cars in the pre-1962 era. Dick races one of his Automotive Research customers in this snapshot. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Then there was the Dandy Dick nickname, although it was applied a little later. It came from a noted media friend whom Landy had met during his early racing efforts, Eric Dahlquist of Hot Rod magazine. Dahlquist, looking for a hook on a story he was writing about Landy in 1964, put the tag on Landy as a rhyme. Dick took it in stride, but he did note in an interview years later that it was somewhat scandalous to his staunch Catholic family; to them, he was always Richard.

However, he was already using the nickname Dick on business cards and sponsor references. Besides, the Dandy part did fit; he understood from those early efforts at business and racing that looking professional made a big difference. He did not look like the greasers that many people associated with hot rodders, wryly noting in one interview that some of them looked as if they had been working in sewers. This good grooming effort came even before his Andy Andrews charm school era. With his clean shoes, button-down shirts, and flat-top haircut, the big former football star was exactly what the promotionally minded auto representatives wanted, especially because he was adept enough at shifting to win races.

This early business card shows that Dick primarily focused his business on late-model Detroit package cars, the Super Stocks that arrived in the early 1960s. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Hernandez was in. After his move to Detroit, Fran pulled strings and got Dick and Andy the latest car for their drag racing program. It was a yellow tri-power 405-hp 406-inch 1962 Galaxie without undercoating; Dick prepped it for the track, rebuilt the engine, and continued to find the winner’s circle. By then, Andrews had asked him to stop doing outside tune-up work. Instead he focused mainly on cars at the dealership; he had already put his boat-building days behind him.

However, Chevrolet had arrived with the hot 409s, and the big Ford was not as competitive as it once had been. Even with Hernandez’s association, Landy did not enjoy the same rapport that local older racers Les Ritchey and Gas Rhonda enjoyed with Ford.

Enter the B-Body

That same spring (1962), Chrysler’s recently redesigned midsize unibody was released with a new engine, the 413 Maximum Performance Wedge. At this point Dick, who did not like losing, began to consider a switch. He recalled in a National Dragster interview that it was Bob McDaniel and Ronney Householder (both with deep California roots) who had first recognized his racing efforts. Bob was a young regional Chrysler executive who actually did some drag racing, and Ronney was a former Indy car driver who was now spearheading Chrysler’s factory racing efforts. Householder reported directly to executive Bob Rodger, inventor of the Chrysler 300, in Chrysler’s executive offices. There can be little doubt that the no-BS Householder held a good deal of respect, whether standing in the legendary pagoda during the Indy 500 or in meetings at the corporate offices back in Detroit. He liked Dick Landy; plus he smoked his own cigars constantly.

At this time, recently positioned Chrysler president Lynn Townsend became serious about marketing vehicle performance. The 413 package had come about as a direct result of multiple factors, one of the biggest being Townsend’s teenage sons noting to Pop that the kids in high school had no respect for Chrysler’s street manners. Soon afterward, in October 1961, Townsend authorized an in-house performance-engineering group, in addition to the work Householder was already doing. This group was led by a talented engineer named Tom Hoover, member of a company-based performance car club named the Ramchargers. This cabal soon rewrote the history of automotive performance out of Detroit.

The 1962 Plymouth Max Wedge was a midyear release. Dick made a couple of passes in one and switched from Ford. The company gave him a deal for the car and parts. (Photo Courtesy Landy Family Archives)

Having made waves with a quickly built 1961 Dodge at the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals, Hoover and his handpicked crew set about transforming the company’s flagship 413 RB engine into a drag race monster that winter. The engine included a high-RPM sonic intake called the cross ram, featuring two offset 4-barrel carburetors, heavy-duty internals parts, high compression, upgraded valvetrain and cooling components, and more. This was mated to a nicely fitted suspension and capable driveline, with the new unitized body construction saving a good deal of weight compared to the fully framed competition. The midyear package release could be purchased on both Dodge and Plymouth midsize vehicles for 1962.

Plymouth Makes It, and So Does Automotive Research

Due to corporate upheaval that had placed Townsend, the former comptroller, at the top of the firm, styling was a bit off base that year, but Landy accepted the company’s offer to test one of the new cars. If he decided to go with it, the deal would be actual car ownership and whatever parts he needed. After a couple of passes, regardless of what the car looked like, Dick knew it would fly, as the bone-stock model was almost as fast as his already-prepped Galaxie. He signed the contract, and a new 413 Plymouth was soon on hand.