Tom had just opened his chassis shop in 1962 when he heard Dave Zeuschel 
was breaking up his partnership in a dragster with Frank Cannon.  
Tom immediately offered Zeuschel a chance to partner with him, with his first chassis 
built by his new company with a car that wasn't even yet built.  
Dave agreed with the idea and said 
"It's too bad that we couldn't run the World's Fair Race in Seattle." 
He told Tom that he been previously booked in to race there.  
This race was dubbed so, because of  the World's Fair that was in Seattle at that time.  
Tom had been on tour for a year with the 4 Buicks Showboat so "A WHOLE WEEK" 
was a lifetime to Tom!!! Rod Peppmuller, Ivo's main fabricator at the shop, 
didn't get much sleep for the next several days while the Barnstormer was being constructed. 
But the following Saturday morning they were qualifying for the big
World's Fair Race in Seattle, and ended up winning it against Don Garlits.  
It might have been easier to back off on the HP as they were 1000 miles away from home 
and it was the first outing for the new Barnstormer. 
But that wasn't Ivo's or Zeuschel's style. 
Quoting TV Tom "But...Oh what a way... to step from the gas dragsters into the fuel 
dragster ranks.  You can see by the pictures it was pretty much put 
together with "spit" and "bailing wire".  
BUT IT WORKED WITH AN ASTOUNDING SUCCESS, RIGHT OFF THE BAT!!!"

The Barnstormer became the first car to run 190 mph.  
This was first accomplished at Lions Dragstrip in Long Beach CA.   
The next weekend they did it again at Pomona and then San Gabriel Dragstrip.  
Each track paid a $1000 bond for being the first fueler to run 190 at their respective tracks.  
WOW!!!  Actually, that's $750 unless you hold the bond until it matured, 
but the money was needed badly to run the car to let the bonds mature.
So it turned out to be a smaller amount.

Tom was a little leery about changing to fuel dragsters due to his 
many successful years of  racing his Buick Nailhead Powered gas dragsters.  
A lot of his racing buddies like Don Garlits had gotten badly 
burned in engine explosions.  So he went into partnership with
Dave Zeuschel.  One of the premier engine men around at the time.  But
when Tom decided to go touring full time.  Dave had his 9 to 5 cushy job
at CT Automotive and lived a pampered life at home.  He didn't want to
hear anything about traveling down the road on a daily basis, racing
all over the country.  And worst of all, fending for himself while doing
it.  This dissolved the partnership of Ivo-Zeuschel.  But, nobody's fool
Ivo, kept a keen eye on everything Dave was doing while they were racing
together.  As is very evident here!!!

With the way the spectators use to sit so close to the cars when they ran at Lions dragstrip.  
Zeuschel use to add a touch of "Oil of Murban" to the fuel.  It would make the 
exhaust smell like Shinola shoe polish and mesmerized the fans as to 
what Ivo was running for fuel.  
Tom & Zeuschel tried a touch of Perfume one time to really make the fans nuts.  
But it had such a sweet smell it made the fans sick as it would linger in the air 
for a long time after a run on a calm night.  
Both additives were alcohol based and burned with no ill effect on the motor.  
But it sure started some rumors as to what made the car so fast and quick. 
Maybe liquid Shinola shoe polish.  

On 10-27-62 at San Gabriel CA the Barnstormer became the first car to make 
a seven second run.  It was backed up with an engine exploding in the lights 8.10.  
A heart stopping event for the crowd at that time. 

The Tail Section of the Barnstormer was originally built
for another car...this one


 Ivo was building a new in-line Buick twin engine dragster when NHRA decided to lift
the fuel ban at NHRA tracks which allowed the dragsters run Nitromethane again.  
The Gas only rule had been enforced for several years. 
The rear body section that was on the in-line twin was cannibalized from the Twin Buick 
so the Barnstormer could receive a new face lift with out a big expenditure of cash. 
< My comments...I bet the in-line Buick looked great with that tail, I asked Tom if
he had any pcxs of it with the tail and he said no, too bad. ~ Lee...>

This was the rig Ivo used for his first tour in 1962 with the Barnstormer.  
Tommy toured every year for the next 20 years.  Tom's first national tour in 1960 was with Twin Buick Dragster  
with much the same kind of open trailer arrangement.  
But when he landed a staring role on the "Margie" show, a situation comedy for TV.  
It interrupted his racing activities for the year 1961 and Don Prudhomme 
took over the driving chores of the 4 Buick Dragster the "Showboat.  
Tom had to make a major decision whether he was going to continue with his movie career or 
if he was going to press forward with his budding racing career as both of them 
needed to have his full time attention.  So it had to be one or the other.  
After having a successful acting career for 19 years, that was "old hat"  
and racing was new and exciting.  
So he gave up his prosperous acting career for his deep love of drag racing.       
Can you imagine parking this in a motel parking lot overnight?  Not today!!!  
There world be a bare parking space when you came out in the morning.  
Tom put little locks on the fuel cans so he'd  know if they'd been tampered with.  
The steel box on the trailer tongue housed a complete engine. 

 
Tony Nancy fabricated covers for the engine and drivers cockpit in case it was raining.  
Other than that. Everything else that was needed to run the car was in the trunk of his "Truck-Caddy".
In this pcx, Tom was using a friend's Ford Station Wagon
  

 At one time or another Tom raced against just about everything that was ever built.  
But in this case the guys that ran the "Turbinique" (sp)  powered go cart said.  
Let's just set the cart at a standstill out on the track in the lane that your not running in, when you make a pass  
we'll get a picture of both cars with a big plume of smoke coming off your tires to make a slick promo picture.  
Always game for free promotion, Tom agreed. -----"Open mouth and insert foot"!!!
    Still trying to get the "hook" out of his mouth -------- Tom says, not only did they get this picture.  
But they also took one of the same pretend race but sooner than this one which showed 
the go cart out in front.  They plastered that one all over every magazine in town with ads 
saying how fast the cart was, "Jack the Giant Killer!!!  
The half full glass of the deal for Ivo was that the cart driver 
said that the Barnstormer's"weed sprayer" header wash almost blew him off 
the cart when it went by him.  

In the late 50's Tom was know as "Instant Ivo", because of his quick reactions 
on the lights --- and flags, in "flag" days!!!  
This was before he was dubbed TV Tom.
     Here is an especially good day for Tom's ego!!!  "Striking" the "Snake" Prudhomme 
off the starting line at Bakersfield who's driving the Roland DeLong's Hawaiian AFD.  
With his instant reactions Tom wasn't "Struck" by the venomous "Snake". 

  Now that Zeuschel and Ivo were no longer in partnership. Ivo made the transition to tuner just fine.  
It wasn't like he hadn't tuned an engine before...or let's say two or four engines ------ in one car.  
Tom was a much happier camper when he was the sole owner of the car as he took 
pride in doing everything from sweeping the floor to being the CEO of Tommy Ivo, Inc.  
Another problem was that Zeuschel and Tom were both of German decent.  
And try putting two "hard headed" Germans together to run a race car and the result  
was there were some long "silent" rides home from the dragstrip in the tow car from time to time. 

My favorite pcx of the Barnstormer
Lee...