Here's something you don't see everyday... The King of fuel coupes in full motion video. The Mooneyham/Sharp 554 car actually started life as a b-ville bound sedan with Flathead motivation. Initially, it was owned by... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Thankful you posted that.....Truley awsome...and a push start to boot....Littleman...gave me chills....I'd take that over a digger anyday!!
I'll have to use the computer at the Town Library to view that, mine is too old & slow. The 554 coupe was sold to K&G Speed Associates in Havertown, Pa. around 1965, and ran in NASCAR..............drags.
Awesome pics Ryan. I'm pretty sure I have seen early pics of the car at the track looking basically stock, unchopped full-fendered black couple with white skinny flames on the front fenders. That ring a bell for anyone?
Awesome! Only thing missing was the smell of rubber burning. That is one bad a$$ car. Thanks for posting it. Reminded me of the days I raced my blown henry j. J was nice and fast but didn't hold a candle to that coupe.
are those c&t aluminum heads in that belt picture....? that ride is a sweet piece.... got a pic of it from garlits museum from the mid 90's..... the cool thing about it...was they were still thrashin it after it was restored in the 80's.... didn't brian burnett (sp) have something to do with it...? brandon
I am pretty sure Al Sharp and Gene Mooneyham made the heads. Gene Mooneyham was one of the best machinists around. Jimmy White
Thanks Ryan; Looking at the track, Must be late '80's early '90's I think pre-CHRR, a nostalgia meet. What is so cool, They where still letting the cars make full passes with their dated roll cages. Last time I saw that happen The Speed Sport Roadster made a full pass, Greath was driving. The anouncer said "He knows better than that, oh well, at his age, you forget". Talked to him in the pits later, said, with a huge smile, he got "carried away"........ Man, I hope the Hamb drags come to Bakersfield.... Sorry for ramblin on... Thanks again Ryan, OLY The cancer car lives Give to cancer research
I noticed they changed from the stock heads to alum. heads too. What do you guys think about running a hemi with the newer alum heads from Hot Heads, etc. in a traditional car? I was kind of thinking of doing it with mine, but then I was thinking I would rather it stay more vintage looking. My truck is going to be a driver and is going to get used, so racing and top performance isn't my primary goal. Also, I liked the car better with the fenders on it and the steel wheels. I realize it is a race car, so they obviously upgraded it as needed for performance and don't fault them for that in any way.
when I was a kid I had a 1/32 (?) scale model of a 34 exactly like that. no fenders and the scoop on the hood. it was molded in lime green. the hood didn't open or anything ...it was a very basic kit.
If my memory serves me right I saw that car at either Fremont at the Nostalgia drags... or maybe Sears Point Goodguys back in the 80's. burnin rubber. or maybe I made the whole thing up and only wish I saw it.
The car did run the early eighties at the Nostaglic nats or something like that, my father brought a video of the races back in I think 83, the coupe was doing almost full 1/4 smokers running about 170 mph, I will have to try and find that tape and see if it can be saved and maybe put on dvd, I remember the Glass Slipper doing full tilt runs at the same meet.
WOW!!! And I think that was with no shift. Makes me want to hang onto the roached out 34 5 window sitting in my garage.
Thats right, The coupe is direct drive. There is at least two more videos of mooneyham & sharp running on youtube, but i dont remember the titles off hand.
Some where in my basement I have video I shot at the 1985 Nestalgic nationals. I have seen faster cars but never one more exciting. On my video you can see this 34 smoke the tires the full lenght of the 1/4 mile.
A couple more here: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Mooneyham%2FSharp+&search_type=&search=Search