Lions Drag Strip 1955, “That’s...
Lions Drag Strip 1955, “That’s Scotty Finn’s dragster,” Nick says. “He was one of the first dragster chassis builders; Chassis Research was his company. Everybody ran Scotty’s chassis in those days. The GMC was my engine.” Notice the “Iskenderian Cams SPL” on the nose? Nick laughed when he looked at the photo. He actually had a Chet Herbert roller cam in the six-cylinder that day.
“I was helping out Don Rackemann (a member of the Screwdrivers, who also managed Saugus Drag Strip with Lou Baney, another Yeakel employee) a few months after I left Venolia. Don was making headers at Exhaust Engineering, renting the building from Louie Senter, of Ansen Automotive fame. (In fact, Nick, Rackemann, and Lou Baney teamed up to run Rackemann’s ’29 Ford roadster at Bonneville where it ran 176.227 with Nick’s 302-inch GMC motor—we’re talkin’ a six-banger here, folks.)
“Louie had a piston division at Ansen and he wasn’t happy with the quality. Louie stopped by to see Rackemann and we started talking. He kept talking about his piston division and I said why don’t you sell it to me? Louie went back to Indy for the month of May and when he got back I bought him out in August 1969 and started Arias Pistons.
“I ran some ads in Hot Rod and National Dragster. Then all my old customers I’d dealt with at Venolia started calling me. I was making Senter’s pistons and also mine. I’ve been in this same building 43 years.”
If you didn’t race at Santa...
If you didn’t race at Santa Ana Drag Strip at some point before it closed in 1959 you never experienced Hambone dropping the flag like Nick did that day in 1953 and you sadly missed a part of our history that can’t be explained. Didn’t matter if you ran or spectated, it was 50 cents. Nick is taking a break from his driving duties while Bob Toros, judging by the tool in his hand, was the designated motorman that time.
Remember, we said Nick had a head for business? Well, no one denied the advantages of hemispherical heads, yet not one company, including Chevrolet, had considered such heads for their V-8. It made good business sense to offer such heads; subsequently Nick developed the Arias Hemi cylinder heads for the big-block Chevy in 1972.
“When I was at Venolia all the fuel racers with Chevys competing against the Chryslers kept saying, ‘If we had a hemi head on our Chevy we could beat the Chryslers.’ I presented it to Bob and Joe in the late ’60s and they shot it down. I was surprised that Bob did because he also knew how to make heads working at Wayne with me.
“After starting Arias Pistons I knew where I was going with the company and I started doing the heads myself. Rudy Moller and I designed the heads. Rudy had retired from Northrup Aviation and did the drawings on the heads.
“I sold all my engine business and equipment to Joe Fontana 20 years ago, which included the four-cylinder Midget motor known as the Pontiac Super Duty 4. Joe was here renting my building for 12 years, but I brought back my redesigned Hemi heads for the street rodder running the LS Chevy. I’m doing the block again for the four-cylinder Pontiac engines.”
Married with children, Nick’s...
Married with children, Nick’s customer painted the ad on his ’57 Chevy. Nick was forced to sell his portion of Venolia Pistons that he and Bob Toros had started in 1953 because Nick wasn’t making enough money to support a family and began working at a Caddy dealer as a tune-up mechanic during the day. “I started building high-performance Chevy engines in my parents’ garage at night. I was cheaper than the average engine builder in L.A. I began accumulating a good amount of money from 1956-59. In 1961, I committed to going back to Venolia.”
Nick’s peers recognized his contributions to the sport of drag racing when he was inducted in the 9th Annual Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield in 2000. Nick was also inducted into the Don Garlits International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2005 in Gainesville Florida.
Nick inherited his work ethic from his father who never missed a day’s work until his retirement from the railroad. Nick arrives at his office at 9 and leaves at 4, five days a week. “Retirement?” we asked Nick, to which he responded, “Why?”
The “Occupy” crowd is jealous of success and wealth. (But will take both if it’s handed to them.) They need to read this story, to see how success and wealth is accomplished ... that is if they can read. Nick worked damn hard for both, thank you. It takes more than an old-time hot rodder to make a legend; it takes guys like Nick, who is a legend.
Long after Mr. Arias (and we) are no longer, the Arias name will be remembered—remembered, not because of what we say, but what you say. There’s an element in this country with little desire to work for a living who despise those who’ve become successful. Sure these are tough times, but growing up during The Great Depression and during the Second World War, as Nick did, was a very, very tough time as well.
The Pisano brothers’ Studebaker...
The Pisano brothers’ Studebaker at Bonneville 1966. Nick and his tight knit group did everything jointly from going to school, to enlisting into the Army, to going into business and racing together. (Left to right) Frankie Pisano, unidentified, Sal Gomez, Joe Pisano, Danny Pisano, Bob Toros, Gene “Beans” Barone, and Nick. “I built the Chrysler engines for the Studebaker. We ran three classes; we had records in each class. We ran three different Chrysler engines during Speed Week.”
Sleeping was/is a luxury at...
Sleeping was/is a luxury at Bonneville, reserved for the spectators. Nick is seen here working on his Arias Hemi head Chevy in Ken Logan’s Modified Roadster during the wee hours, circa 1977-78.
SEMA started with a small...
SEMA started with a small band of speed equipment manufacturers displaying their wares at Dodger Stadium, switching the following year to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim where Nick is explaining the features, advantages, and benefits of his Arias pistons at the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association show. (SEMA is now called Specialty Equipment Marketing Association.)
We know you’re going to invest...
We know you’re going to invest in a set of Arias HEMIsphercial cylinder heads for your big-block Chevy just because they look really cool. Yes, the awesome valve covers are absolute eye candy, but in case your better-half wants more convincing, you get much larger valves with hemispherical heads because the valves are placed on opposite sides of the combustion chamber. The conventional wedge-head design has the valves side by side, which restricts the air/fuel mixture in and out of the combustion chamber and being more efficient, the Chevy will make gobs more horsepower. OK, that won’t convince her, but they look really cool.
There are few people on the...
There are few people on the planet who devoted their lives to making high-performance engines run faster and more efficiently than Nick Arias. Yet he’ll tell you, he is still learning new ways of doing so. It was Nick who friends came to with an engine problem because every vintage photo that I viewed shows Nick working on someone’s motor. Nick had a burning desire to succeed, working almost around the clock to do so. By day he was a tune-up man at a Cadillac dealer and, “at night, I started to build high-performance engines like the 302 GMC at home in my dad’s garage.” Nick is about to unveil his 540-inch Hemi Chevy crate engine, tested and ready to fire. Is this guy ever going to slow down? Only when his engines do!
Did you know that salt is...
Did you know that salt is a natural antidepressant? That special white stuff on the ground we call Bonneville just melts depression away, which explains why so many of us go back to the Salt Flats year after year, like Nick. Nick’s Lakester was built about 10 years ago. The Arias Hemi engine is neither a Chevy, Chrysler, or Ford, but one of Nick’s own design originally for off-shore boat racing. The car was built by California Chassis to Nick’s specifications. Nick’s 707 A/GL: the “A” is the engine class 440 to 500.99 ci, the “GL” designates Unblown Gas Lakester. According to Fred Blanchard, Nick’s long-time friend and sales manager, the car did set a record with Nick III driving at 270 mph. The car is now owned by John Fasro.