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The Pisano and Matsubara ’73 Vega “Flopper” was one of the most popular funny cars on the West Coast. Joe Pisano, owner of Venolia Pistons, and his brother Frank had campaigned a series of candy apple red race cars with Frank driving and master mechanic Joe doing the tuning. When Frank retired from driving duties, Joe offered the job to Sush Matsubara a super-talented AA/Fuel Altered pilot who had gained fame as the driver of the Mondello and Matsubara Rat-motored Fiat Topolino. Sush’s first Pisano Bros. ride was in their beautiful candy red Corvair funny car at OCIR. Sush totaled the car on his very first pass.
Sush’s luck improved after that and in late 1972, Pisano & Matsubara began campaigning a ’73 Vega with primary sponsorship from Revell. This car differed from earlier Pisano cars in that it was painted a beautiful pearlescent yellow with red and white flamed panels on the top and sides. They chose John Buttera and Don Kirby to build the chassis and body……. Buttera fabricating the chassis and Kirby building and painting the Vega body. Ed Pink built the second-generation hemi with a Cragar blower drive, Mondello heads, Venolia pistons, Schiefer mag and Hilborn injection. The car ran on Goodyear slicks and was stopped with a Simpson drag ‘chute. It was fast, setting a national record at Long Beach by being the first funny car to break into the 6.40’s with a 6.49 e.t.
1320’s rendition of this car is gorgeous! The beautifully lustrous, yellow pearlescent paint is highlighted with tampo’ed graphics of sponsors’ decals, flamed panels and a “Revell Pisano & Matsubara” banner. The grille and headlights match the real car with the soft look typical of airbrushed graphics. The interior “sheetmetal” fits tightly around the modeled tube chassis. Nestled between the frame rails is the second-generation hemi with all the plumbing for the fuel and oil systems including the fuel circuits plugged into the manifold, the fuel pump, tank and all the associated hoses, and even the dual oil filter system to keep the nitro from wreaking havoc on the engine. Single spark plug wires are routed to each cylinder. The old-style Hilborn “four-holer” even has Hilborn cast into the scoop….. A first I haven’t seen on any model of this injection system in any scale! And the hand brake and lines leading to the rear calipers are all there. Overall, it’s a beautiful car that I’m proud to add to my collection. Thirteenth in the series….. and another beauty! Thanks, 1320!
(02/08/2005)
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