Black Mariah
Owner/Builder/Drivers: Don Jensen, Gary Lind, Chad Darrah
The Black Mariah was an iconoclastic car of the 1960s, representing everything a low-budget home builder could dream of: an attractive car with the speed to challenge all but the fastest big-buck open classification cars. Don Jensen built the car while working at Gorman Auto Repair in Seattle. He had use of the shop tools and sometime help of the owner, Tom Gorman. Using a bored-out 382 Pontiac engine he had been running in a Corvette for power and a Devin-body for which he had traded a Nash Metropolitan, Jensen started work on New Year’s Eve, 1961. The steering apparatus was from a Morris Minor, the disc brakes sourced from somewhere forgotten. The car was ready for action in 1962, painted black and looking pretty good, everything considered. Jensen kept tuning and tinkering until the Black Mariah became fairly reliable and it was always straight-ahead fast. Jensen won several regionals with the car and sold it in 1964 to get the Burnett Mk2, The Black Mariah passed through a series of owners and drivers until it was moved out of the area. Its whereabouts are unknown today.
The Black Mariah was an iconoclastic car of the 1960s, representing everything a low-budget home builder could dream of: an attractive car with the speed to challenge all but the fastest big-buck open classification cars. Don Jensen built the car while working at Gorman Auto Repair in Seattle. He had use of the shop tools and sometime help of the owner, Tom Gorman. Using a bored-out 382 Pontiac engine he had been running in a Corvette for power and a Devin-body for which he had traded a Nash Metropolitan, Jensen started work on New Year’s Eve, 1961. The steering apparatus was from a Morris Minor, the disc brakes sourced from somewhere forgotten. The car was ready for action in 1962, painted black and looking pretty good, everything considered. Jensen kept tuning and tinkering until the Black Mariah became fairly reliable and it was always straight-ahead fast. Jensen won several regionals with the car and sold it in 1964 to get the Burnett Mk2, The Black Mariah passed through a series of owners and drivers until it was moved out of the area. Its whereabouts are unknown today.