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

[All American 6]

Original body. Not in race trim until the late 90s. Now a street car.

[Toby Denham]

[jetboatmama]

Who recognizes these 2 studs??

[Mike Britton]

That's Garlits and Swingle, isn't it?

[296ardun]

Garlits and Malone

[nitrobrother]

Cool photos of Runyan, VanderWoude, and Manion at KCIR. I wonder where Harrell was that day?

[Toby Denham]

I can't remember if this as been posted before. If so, I apologize.

[slayer]

Originally Posted by rooman

That car originally raced as the Sites Bros "Scootin Cuda"

Roo

Are you sure its the same car? The Sites bros car/EJ biggers car in was a '66 and the one picturred earlier is a '67. Did the '66 get rebodied at some point?

[rooman]

Originally Posted by slayer

Are you sure its the same car? The Sites bros car/EJ biggers car in was a '66 and the one picturred earlier is a '67. Did the '66 get rebodied at some point?

You are probably right. I went back and looked at the photos of both cars and the one in the recent post looks more like a Logghe style chassis like the one that Butch Leal and others ran while the original Scootin' Cuda was most likely a steel body car from the era before the flip tops took over.

That said,I did some research recently on Biggers' last car which was a 70/71 Duster and there were several references to him having run the ex Sites car prior to the Duster. The pictured car may be the Duster in an earlier incarnation as the Duster appears to have a Logghe style chassis too. It appears that he was usually about a year behind the well sponsored front running teams. The next question would be, "whose old car was the 67 in the photo?"
Years ago Roger Lindamood told me that there were not a lot of new Color Me Gone cars, just the prior year's version with new grille and tail lights and I know from working on the Sox and Martin E body 'Cuda that it had at least one rear fascia change as you could see where the spot welds had been drilled out.

Roo

[55 Nomad]

[55 Nomad]

[55 Nomad]

Dick Gazan, Tom Dawes, and Owen McKenney at New England Dragway with the Freedom Machine top fueler. Three outstanding people that I miss terribly.

[55 Nomad]

Jack Doyle stands behind his Slider top gas dragster at New England Dragway with a watchful eye.

[jetboatmama]

Originally Posted by jetboatmama

Who recognizes these 2 studs??

Art Malone & Don Garlits

[nitrobrother]

Interesting...I'd have to check around town to verify, but I'd guess that the '67-'68 Sites Brothers 'Cuda became the Mr. Plymouth car.

(Dean Miller photo)

(Unknown photographer)

(Unknown photographer)

(November '67 issue of Drag World...probably the same event as the other shots posted by BHW)

[nitrobrother]

And his Duster...I wish I had some color shots of it.

[55 Nomad]

[WCD]

Thats Jeff Gordons (Not NASCAR Gordon of course) Cuda isnt it?

[WCD]

Originally Posted by nitrobrother

Cool photos of Runyan, VanderWoude, and Manion at KCIR. I wonder where Harrell was that day?

Note that each was relying on a different safety equip manufacturer for their suit. Runyon was donning a Simpson while Vander Woude had a Tri-Form and Manion had a Ansen. Lou Senter of Ansen made everything just about. M/T was selling suits too for a while as was Ed Weddle of J&M Muffler.

[WCD]

Originally Posted by Toby Denham

Here's an example. Who made these originally?

I met Tom the Mongoose McKwen at a book signing in Burbank. He told me how came up with the idea of adding a painters filter mask to the hood of his Simpson hood in order to filter out the exhaust fumes that would build up in the cockpit area. They used the same filters relied upon by miners as those would actually deal with carbon monoxide.