Max Balchowsky Story

Miss those days, my Dad and uncle Max provided lots of inspiration and I cherish those memories...

Excellent presentation, thank you !

A ball turent gunner, a wife fabricator and retriever dog. The beginning of a great story and a hot rodding legend.

An absolute delight. The story about Riverside's sophisticated Turn Six fans standing and cheering every time Ol' Yeller II came through expresses the spirit and impact of Max and Ina and their creation. Bravo! And Brava! Thank you for the opportunity, Jerry and timbuctwo1.

A truly wonderful video, I have had the pleasure of meeting mr Nagamatsu and this wonderful car a few times now and seeing the fantastic history and testimony of so many great names makes the story of Max Balchowsky one of the best. 

Tommy Ivo credits Max for his success drag racing the T Bucket he built early on, Ivo used to go to his shop where he learned how to port those Buick Nail head engines... Thanks Tim, this was a great story about the most exciting period in automotive history....

I just learned about Max from Jay Leno’s Garage which had Max’s Old Yeller 2 race car. Thank you for posting this so we can get more perspective on a legendary American racer!

An absolutely awesome documentary. A long gone era where the everyman COULD take on the big European guns on the track and win. That guy in his $500 BMW at the WRC is the closest thing today to that. This whole era of US V8 sports car racing fascinates me - and also awesome that his wife Ina was a skilled mechanic in an era where most women were supposed to be June Cleaver types in the kitchen all day, raising the kids. Ol' Yeller is probably what inspired cars like the AC Cobra, Sunbeam Tiger, as well as Italian cars with American V8s such as Bizzarrinis, Apollos (Balchowsky prepped the 'Thorndyke Special' Apollo in the Love Bug which also features an Old Yeller and also had an OY as a camera car!), Iso Grifos, Monteverdis etc.

A very nice story. One that probably won’t be repeated in the future.

Great video Jerry! Thanks for e-mailing me the link. Amazing coincidence - I was sitting at my desk wearing my 'Old Yeller II' T-shirt when I received your e-mail. Now I better get back to work - shouldn't have spent 45 minutes watching a video in the middle of the day, but I couldn't stop myself!

Max built several iconic cars.

Those were the days, no 300 page rule book, no homologation papers. Was there a tech inspection? The air was dirty but our conscience was clean...

Worth seeing Jay Leno garage driving old yeller 2. Jay has millions in cars and probably drove about every car you could imagine. In that episode, Jay says Jesus more than I have ever heard him say.

Wonderful little documentary about a real american hero along with his wife. I grew up in LA in the 50's and early 60's and remember his shop Hollywood Motors.I had no clue what was going on there. A Ball turret gunner is a brave man and this man did it all. - Reminds me of my father who i'm sure knew him.

Brilliant, can't wait for the movie.

What an awesome story. I am an avid fan of Rover(=ex. Buick) V8 powered Cars since a couple of years now. And the more you dig into that theme the more interesting things you find. Thank you guys for posting it here. B R from Munich Germany Harry :-)

Great show, sadly, it reminded me of how much I miss the SPEED Channel.

Who else is watching this after seeing the old yeller on the jay Leno car show? Lol.

This is a great historical film about some amazing Americans. It is also proof that everyone with great skills does not have to have a great education to achieve Great things.

my first time to watch about Max, what an incredible story ! I hope someday it will be in the Petersen Automotive Museum as tribute to Max