Apologies if this video has been posted before. I see plenty of vintage drag footage taken by spectators on the sidelines, but this guy took the time to mount front and rear facing 8 mm electric cameras to capture the Howard's Cams 'Twin Bears' Digge... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Jive-Bomber Jay - very cool video! ... and I can honestly say that I've never seen it before! I guess I missed it when docc posted it in Royalshifter's epic "Drag cars in motion" picture thread:
I love the safety concerns back then.....or lack there of. Priority being speed and power. Notice at the beginning of the clip the driver doesn't even have gloves on. Too cool.
That first clip is from one of Don Tuttle's videos. Don shot 8mm movie flim at strips all over Ca, El Mirage, and Bonneville in the late 50's and early 60's. used to see Don at So Cal swap meets selling his videos. I have a couple of his tapes, and the narration is priceless. He just sat and watched the films, and added comments as he recognized what was on the screen. If you like raw vintage footage of how racing really was, these tapes are must haves.
Don Tuttle was the track announcer at Santa Anna. He was a really nice guy to talk to, but from what I understand he is no longer with us. I have all three of the tapes that he produced and sold. They were entitled Hot Rodding...the Way it Was. I believe this footage was included on the one subtitled Potpourri 1. When I bought the videos from Don he also gave me a list of all the top time and top eliminator winners from 1950-1956. I might have to see about scanning and posting that information.
That film was great to see Glen Ward was a great friend of mine. He told me a lot of stories about Twin Bears. Seeing it running makes my day. Kenny
I was the Tech Advisor for NHRA Div 1 when Christman and Johanson's son ran the car on the East Coast at the NHRA championship meets.. Really an impressive car for the time. Chrisman was one of the nicest drag racer that I ever met.
Nice timing with this thread,I had not long finished reading the chapter in Robert C Post's book High Performance,where this car was discussed.Thanks ,RM
Here's a couple shots I took of Jack and the Twin Bear car at Island Dragway, in Great Meadows NJ, in 1961 at an NHRA Regional event.