History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

[WCD]

Originally Posted by Tio Geo

WCD. good catch on my avatar picture! it is indeed the "bad news coupe" it was the fuel altered that got me hooked on drag racing. i think you and i may be the only people on this site that remember the car.

Trust me, as you get more time on this site, you will discover that regardless of how obscure a car is/was, at least one person will have something valuable to offer.

[BSL409]

Not sure if these have been posted

[296ardun]

Originally Posted by Dean Lowe

Doug is right. The Bad News Coupe is well remembered here. I remember my friend and I riding our bikes down to Bruce Mc Dowell's mom's house in La Puente in 1958 to watch Bruce and his high school friends build the coupe. They pooled their money to buy a clean original Fiat body, a Model A frame, and a wrecking yard Chrysler hemi. They managed to get the coupe running and took it to the '59 March Meet. Running the 6 carb hemi they didn't have much success, but had a lot of fun. Then Bruce met Bob Sidebothom, and Demar Ray. Bob reworked the frame to a super short 86" wheelbase and Demar provided his 400" blown fuel hemi, and the original Bad News coupe was born. Bob drove and Demar wrenched, and the team made history. Bruce sold the coupe, and the version in your avitar that Doug saw get rolled into a ball by the new owner was an evolution of the original car first built by some tallented high school kids. Bruce's son, Steve, ran an alcohol funny car named, of course, the Bad News coupe! I was 14 when I watched the Bad News coupe make is very first pass on a drag strip at the '59 March Meet. Remember it, indeed!

Les Hawkins told me a long time ago that Bruce McDowell was the original owner of the 34 Ford "15oz coupe," and that Les and Lyle Webster bought it from Bruce, who apparently went on to build the Fiat....After the Fiat crash, the motor went into an A/FD that Bob Sidebotham drove at the '61 (I think) Smoker's meet, red, ran hard until the oil filter came on on a run...the dragster was appropriately called the "Bad News Ghost."

[MD1320guy]

This may be way off topic...but does anyone remember the Aussie designed McGee rotory valve top fuel engine? I believe Bernstien & a few others tried it for a couple years. Any pics of the engine or cars that ran it? Even Garlits doesn't have one in his museum. They may all be gone.....Mike

[dry lakes wheel man]

McGee made a Quad cam 4 valve per cylinder top fuel engine that was disqualified for running by NHRA in 1997.

[Dean Lowe]

Originally Posted by 296ardun

Les Hawkins told me a long time ago that Bruce McDowell was the original owner of the 34 Ford "15oz coupe," and that Les and Lyle Webster bought it from Bruce, who apparently went on to build the Fiat....After the Fiat crash, the motor went into an A/FD that Bob Sidebotham drove at the '61 (I think) Smoker's meet, red, ran hard until the oil filter came on on a run...the dragster was appropriately called the "Bad News Ghost."

Yup, and it was owned by Bill Borchers, a guy a few years ahead of me at West Covina High School. Bob built the frame for Bill, and drove the car. After the March meet Bob pulled the drive train out of the car and Bill stuck it in his mom's garage. When his mom died, Bill needed a place to store the frame, so in '65 he sat it in my neighbors back yard, then he disappeared for about 5 years. When my neighbor, another high school pal, wanted to build a sand rail, and thought Bill had abandoned the frame, he cut it up and used pieces of it on his sand rail. A few years later Bill, who had been traveling the world, showed up out of the blue, and got really pissed when he learned the fate of his Sidebotham chassis! Like the Bad News coupe, the Bad News ghost didn't have a happy ending. Bad News indeed!

[Tom S. in Tn.]

Originally Posted by MD1320guy

This may be way off topic...but does anyone remember the Aussie designed McGee rotory valve top fuel engine? I believe Bernstien & a few others tried it for a couple years. Any pics of the engine or cars that ran it? Even Garlits doesn't have one in his museum. They may all be gone.....Mike

Originally Posted by dry lakes wheel man

McGee made a Quad cam 4 valve per cylinder top fuel engine that was disqualified for running by NHRA in 1997.

Wasn't there another way back in the early 70's (I think?) that McGee promoted in a car of his own back before Donovan released the 392 replacement parts or Milodon got in the picture. It was a revolutionary rotary valve motor (I think?) and I recall it being talked about as a whole entire motor for fuelers like an Offy was for Indy cars.

Any one else...... ? Tom S. in Tn.

[69Chevelle454]

How much information do you fellas have on the 426 DOHC Hemi other then whats been printed on this picture?

[enloe]

^Car Craft did a story on that motor in the late 70s early 80s

[MoKanMan]

Originally Posted by Tom S. in Tn.

Wasn't there another way back in the early 70's (I think?) that McGee promoted in a car of his own back before Donovan released the 392 replacement parts or Milodon got in the picture. It was a revolutionary rotary valve motor (I think?) and I recall it being talked about as a whole entire motor for fuelers like an Offy was for Indy cars.

Any one else...... ? Tom S. in Tn.

Don't think it had any thing to to do with a 392, It was it's own design with dual overhead cams. Not a rotary valve as far as I know. I think the first one came along in the mid 70's and it under went some changes over the years. I think the biggest effort at making it work in Top Fuel was in the late 80's with Phil McGee tuning and Gary Beck driving.

Phil McGee is still around and living in Central Missouri. He was building Jr Dragster engines for a time, might still be doing that I don't know. And when I say building he was casting the blocks and all.

He used to rent our track to test. Haven't seen him in a couple of years, I heard he was building an A/Fuel car for his son. I talked to him quite a bit about the engine, of course NHRA outlawing it put the stop to it. His son told me once that they had enough stuff to build one (on gas and un-blown) to put in a '50 Ford truck he had so he could run No/E with us at Mo-Kan. I hear there is one in a Cobra in California, and Doug McCann ran one in IHRA Top Fuel as late as '96.

[Tom S. in Tn.]

Originally Posted by MoKanMan

Don't think it had any thing to to do with a 392, It was it's own design with dual overhead cams. Not a rotary valve as far as I know. I think the first one came along in the mid 70's and it under went some changes over the years. I think the biggest effort at making it work in Top Fuel was in the late 80's with Phil McGee tuning and Gary Beck driving.

Phil McGee is still around and living in Central Missouri. He was building Jr Dragster engines for a time, might still be doing that I don't know. And when I say building he was casting the blocks and all.

He used to rent our track to test. Haven't seen him in a couple of years, I heard he was building an A/Fuel car for his son. I talked to him quite a bit about the engine, of course NHRA outlawing it put the stop to it. His son told me once that they had enough stuff to build one (on gas and un-blown) to put in a '50 Ford truck he had so he could run No/E with us at Mo-Kan. I hear there is one in a Cobra in California, and Doug McCann ran one in IHRA Top Fuel as late as '96.

Ask him about a rotary or some kind of slide valve engine he was promoting for fuelers 35 or more years ago, all of his own design from no existing patterns.
Tom S. in Tn.

[rooman]

Tom,
the McGee quad cam was designed and built in Australia with the first example hitting the track in the mid 70's in Australia. Phil and Chris McGee followed their dad Headley into the racing business. Dad was a cam grinder who also branched out into fuel injection. The first version of the engine was a monoblock deal like an Offy with the head integral with the cylinders. A good idea for keeping the combustion bottled up (no head gaskets to push out under load) but a bitch to service between rounds, a scenario which was becoming more and more common at the time.
The revised version had conventional cylinder heads but as has been the case with other attempts the four valve configuration did not seem to like nitro too much. The alky versions were reasonably competitive at the time considering the tuning ability of those who ran them but the ready availability of the BAE and similar engines made the McGee a hard sell.
Gary Beck did indeed drive for the McGees as did Dave Grubnic and Sue Ransom but Gary's main contribution was his tuning skills which were sometimes thwarted by the tendency of the McGees to put "improved" parts on the car on a regular basis.
I saw Chris at the March Meet this year and Phil has stopped by my shop a couple of times while in the Indy area.

Roo

[bcrosby500]

The first two pictures are Scorpion II probably at Caddo Mills or some other track but I suspect NOT at Willowrun (I believe Willowrun was built after Scorpion II had been wrecked). The next picture is of Scorpion V with an air scoop that is generally identified with Scorpion VI. Probably near the end of #Vs career. I belived the car with the nose off is Scorpion III. Scorpion II, III, IV all had aluminum chassis.

[JC Sparks]

The McGee had some good features with a very strong bottom end. But the heads had a problem burning the aluminum out from around the exhaust seats. Not to mention how much work it was to try to service it between rounds. It was a nice piece, just not practical for blown fuel racing.
Nothing will ever replace the late model 26 as the standard in fuel racing. JC

[Panneton Bros. Racing]

There is a McGee sitting between the frame rails of one of Robert Reehls (can't remember how to spell his last name)old fuel cars on display at the Speed Zone carting place out here in Cali. It use to be inside where all the video games were, now its sitting out side in the weather, gonna get rained on again today & tomorrow. The last hurrah for that engine was Bruce Walker from Childs & Albert driving. Moe Mills, former part owner of Ross Pistons (where I used to work), loaned Bruce his titanium clutch can that year. At Phoenix they blew something up and the entire engine came out of the car, dragged along side by the throttle cable, fuel lines etc. with a spectacular shower of titanium sparks. Moe said he was watching the race and said "oh wow, watch out Bruce.., OH CRAP THATS MY CLUTCH CAN MAKING ALL THOSE SPARKS". I think on monday Moe just sent Bruce a bill, or added it to the "piston bill" they already had with us.

[Marty Strode]

Check out the engine in Clarence Everett's one year old Camaro, he ran G or H/G, he was a Flathead legend here in Oregon.

[Marty Strode]

A couple more from Oregon, A/A Wayne Trowbridge, 450" Packard, AA/FD Ron Salsbury "The Rumbler"

[Magnus]

I remember the song of the McGee engines, quite different on idle, sounded very angry indeed. There was an english guy running one on the european circuit, Jonathan something.

[svtmustang]

WOW!!!!!! look at that hemi . ilove it .

[HKH]