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The first documentation of the car being called “Black Widow” is found in the magazine Rodding and Re-styling, August 1957 issue. That article reported Bill Scott’s changes to Wally Olson’s car, “The front end was revised to incorporate a tubular axle and tube shocks. The new owners also equipped the car with a new power plant. The original mill is a ’41 Merc bored out .100 inch over stock, ported and relieved…includes 8.5-to-1 Offenhauser heads, a Weber full-race cam, and an Evans 3-caberator manifold.” [Note: The several engines that were housed in this car later varied; see final Merc build details below.] Don’t you love the sound of that “ported and relieved” and “full-race cam”—when’s the last time you used those terms? By the time the 1959 Hot Rod Annual was published the car-title stuck for all time “The Black Widow.”
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