Since the article ran in March/April issue of Gasser Wars, we’ve discovered a lot more information about King Kong’s journey from the West coast to the East.
During the Sunday Niagara at Lancaster, after the Willys Home Run, Bob Bialecki (a Rochester racer) told Carlos that he was there in Rochester when the Anglia (Showdown at the time) arrived from out west. It turns out his neighbor, Paul Thompson had bought the car from the Pacini brothers and had it shipped up here with some other cars. A friend of Paul’s had seen the car listed for sale in the National Dragster and apparently had told Paul about it.
When Paul got the car he raced it about a half dozen times but had trouble with the transmission and the brakes. Since the car only had rear brakes it was difficult to get it to stop. Paul then sold the engine and transmission and thought about turning the car into a street rod when Chris O’Connor approached him. Chris offered Paul a trade; the Anglia for his already built street rod. Paul painted the Anglia black with green flames as Chris wanted it and made the trade.
Within a couple of years, Chris sold the car to Carlos. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to track down Chris O’Connor – but we’re still hoping to be able to find him so we can get the final piece of the puzzle in place. If Chris O’Connor is out there somewhere, we’d love to hear from him.With Bob Bialecki’s help, Carlos has been able to speak to Paul Thompson and with Ron Podsiadly, another neighbor friend of Paul’s. Ron Podsiadly is the man who saw the ad for Pacini Brothers "Showdown" and who ended up buying the Kohler Vasser King Kong Thames from Chuck Pacini at the same time that Paul Thompson bought "Showdown".
Incidentally, in 1989 Carlos sold Ron Podsiadly an Anglia body that he had brought back from WV. During the sale, Carlos mentioned that he had King Kong and walked Ron back to show him the car in the barn. Carlos says "I did not even remember that until Ron reminded me when we were talking on the phone recently".
Through discussions with these folks, he was able to put together a timeline of the cars’ owners.
The Chronology of the Car
1964 – Ed and Ray Kohler built the Anglia and raced it as the famous and much feared Kohler Brothers King Kong.
1968 – Chuck and Joe Pacini buy the car from the Kohler Brothers and turn it into the successful Pacini Brothers Showdown.
1976 - Pacini Brothers sell the car (turn-key) to Paul Thompson in Rochester, NY.
1977 – Paul Thompson trades the Anglia to Chris O-Connor for a ready built street rod.
1979 – Chris O-Connor sells the Anglia to Carlos Cedeno.
1984 – Carlos trades car to Jack Leonard.
1987 – Carlos gets car back from Jack with another trade.
2002 – Ed & Elaine Kohler come up to NY to check out the car and meet the “new” owners.
Now that the trail of the old King Kong car can be verified, we can focus our energy on finishing putting it all together. We’re still working on that.