One of my earliest memories at the track here in KC (KCIR), right after they opened the new track, was when the Little Red Wagon and the Hemi Under Glass faced off. My dad had to pick me up to look down the tailgate to the injected hemi in the bed and the hemi under the back glass on the Cuda. I was in love with that little red truck... He's taken down his website, but you used to be able to log on and check things out. I know he's retired, but does anyone know if he would give a tour of his place? I'd love to let my son in on similar memories since we just missed his last run in Topeka a few years ago as we arrived a couple of minutes late for his run. r
That's gay! Never needed wheelie bars on my pushbike to go all the way up the street and around corners on one wheel. LRW sure was something, but I can't believe those crazy Dutchmen. Little GREEN Wagon. Shouldn't it have been Little ORANGE Wagon?
Where do I get some of the Hot Rod Racing Fuel? There's an A100 pickup sitting at a muffler shop 'round here in Northern New Mexico that I'd love to have!
I never saw it in person but I built the model. My 16yr son has built 3 models of it then cut them up. The bike wheelie bars ad was great. No helmets, no shoes. Those were the good ol' days. I remember being those kids. I think Roth sold bike wheelie bars too. Rick
I remember watching it wheelie at the valley. Man it was the coolest thing id ever seen when i was a teen.
There really needs to be a vintage or nostalgia wheel stander class. NHRA has it so bogged down with limitations that the old cars like the Chevado can't even make a pass any more. Now they have to be center steer with all of these crazy roll bars. Gary Kleckner said that they didn't need that stuff back then and he was running in excess of 140. Little known fact, but Art Morrison drove a wheel stander briefly before deciding that he was better suited to building. For the record, The Fugitive was a cheater, it had an elaborate hydraulic system with big caster wheels that would balance the car and control the angles. The LRW, Chevado, the LA Dart and the rest just used testicles and horsepower...
I remember seeing it in all its glory at the coolest dragstrip around, "MoKan Dragway". It was one of the coolest sites to ever see when your like 10 or under. ahhhhhh memories
I went to Cecil County dragaway one night about that time. We had read about the Little Red Wagon but it hadn't made it this far east yet. A gray primered one pulled up to the line and the announcer said here's one for you guys that want your pizza delivered in a hurry. He yanked the wheels and carried them waaaay out there before it came back down. The crowd went nuts because we were not expecting it. This was all so new at that time. I have no idea if it ever got painted and lettered or what it was called. It was sort of a shake down run.
The "Wagon" was built at Dick Branster's shop in Troy Michigan for Dodge. Jay Howell, worked on the truck at Dick's shop I think. Jay was the first to drive the truck and Dodge handed it over to Maverick. Here is a picture of Jay driving it in 1965. I'll let him chime in and give you the details. Photo from Jay Howell collection
Hey guys, being something of a newb round these parts I didn't know if A100 talk was allowed. Here's my A when I started with it. If anyone is interested you can see the progress over here. Cheers for the A's!!!!!
Along about this time we used to go to Detroit and Gratiot Auto about once a month for racing parts. Pulled up one day and parked in front of Gratiot was the Little Red Wagon. We got out and walked around it as we had never seen it close up. While standing there I believe it was Bill came out, climbed in, fired it up and drove off like it was a normal thing to do. Just one of the memories of that era and going to Woodward when the factory teams were out almost every weekend doing their thing with the civilians. You should have been there. I'll never forget. Frank
<i>... I came up with the idea to put a braking system on the truck so I could steer it with the front wheels in the air.</i> Anyone have any pictures or information on how this was implemented? I'm picturing some sort of mechanical coupling between the brakes and the steering system. Any specifics? I've seen this one come up in various picture threads. Looks like a ton of fun.
In the mid 70s at Muncie Dragway, during the IHRA Northern Nationals I believe, there were a couple wheelstanders on hand. I remember seeing one of them crash and getting a photo of it happening, at a great distance. I thought it was a VW Kombi/pickup, possibly the Chuckwagon. So I went Googling for VW wheelstanders and found this photo site. Maybe this has been posted before, but it's all new material to me. Wheelstanders, altereds, gassers, funny cars, all neatly organized for your perusal. http://public.fotki.com/VincePutt/drag_racing/wheelstanders/ So anyway, the more I thought about it, it may not have been the Chuckwagon that I saw crash. I started to remember another VW wheelstander. But this one was a Beetle, and it wasn't really a conventional wheelstander. It was fitted with a Toronado engine and transaxle in the front and had long trailing arms running to the rear straight axle and wheels that ran inboard of a pair rear bogey wheels. There were hydraulic cylinders connected to the trailing arms and as the car left the line the cylinders extended and pushed downward on the trailing arms. Or more accurately it pushed the rear of the body upward. So you ended up with what appeared to be a Beetle reverse non-wheelstander going down the track on its front wheels. Only this time it got to the finish line and made an abrupt turn off the track, kind of pivoted on the front bumper and rolled a few times in the grass off the side of the track. Not too surprising really, when you consider the car and how it was designed to work. But for the life of me I can't remember the name of the car or who drove it. The really sad thing though was that later at the same event I witnessed another accident near the finish line involving a '64 Plymouth super stocker, a lightweight aluminum front end car. It was the "Plum Crazy" car owned by Flack and Comstock, I believe. I still kind of tear up thinking about that one, but they had it fixed up, or duplicated, not long afterwards at the U.S. Nationals.
I saw Bill at Alton Dragway when I was maybe 5-6yrs old, Dad announced back then, He took the time to sign a pic for me and added 'Jeff, are you going to be a race car driver someday?'. Still have it, will have to find and post it.
In 65 I was drag racing in Pennsylvania when that truck did a tour, saw it do a wheelie the length of the track.
You have a GREAT memory!!! Muncie was built by my family and I was THERE that day. Yes, we had the Little Red Wagon there for many events as well as the Chuckwagon. However, I THINK (I could be wrong!) the day and event you are thinking of involved the "Backup Pickup" which was Ford Econline pickup (Two person cab) that was inverted with a roll cage that was designed in a half circle so that when he would brake (after a 1/8 mile wheelstand), the damn thing would then flip over the top and ROLL down the track. However, the day in question, he hit the damn brakes and the truck was not straight and it flipped LEFT and barely missed the timing booth at the end of our track (at the finish line where we distributed the timing slips). The damn thing landed literally 2 feet from my Mom. Like John Dianna's SS tri-five wagon, I THINK my Dad buried it in the ditch behind the timing booth. Wow! Ebert
Here's the "Chuckwagon" that I was describing in an earlier post on this thread that crash while successfully outdistancing the Little Red Wagon at LIONS.
The Jalopy Journal
