I was thumbing through "The Complete Book of Hot Rodding", a Petersen book from 1959 which covered everything from engine functions to tire tech. In the chapter titled "Building Your Own Hot Rod", I came across this super clean rear-engined drag car.... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Hey guys, technical difficulties and we lost the comments you made on this thread earlier. Sorry about that! Carry on...
From Rolleiflex: <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("postmenu_", true); </script> I thought I'd let you know that the full article on the dragster you posted is in the February 1958 issue of Rod & Custom. There is a color picture of it on the cover. It was owned by Bill Hofer of Ft. Worth, Tx. Bill and his club the "Squires" built it. Engine is a '54 Chevy six with: Spalding can, McGurk pistons, Harker manifold, Holley carbs, and reworked GMC rocker arms. The body color is a bright red with a '32 Ford chassis painted that's painted white. Much of the front suspension is chromed and the wheels are white. The car ran at the 1957 Nationals in OKC. The article gives a top speed of 132mph, but no elapsed time. Jay Williams was the driver. <!-- / message -->
I said that I had the issue of Rod and Custom with that car on the cover. Bright red. Always liked it and kept thinking I should scan it for Tman. Make a nice lakester.
Great looking dragster looks like an oversize soapbox derby racer. For those interested there is a feature in May 1958 Hot Rod. I don't have time to scan it so will do so tonight if someone hasn't beaten me to it.
I just scanned in the 1958 R&C issue that I mentioned in the info above. The article says that the car was called the Wisconsin's Red Wagon in reference to Hofer's home state. Also, I incorrectly stated that the frame was white, it was red. Anyway enjoy;
The external gauges brings to mind the '50s & 60's rods with gauges mounted in the firewall. Cool car!
You know what? All the years I have looked at that car in my old magazine I never noticed the 32 rails?!
Yes, it was the thing same for me. I think they really did a great job of integrating the frame into the design of the car.
There are a few mid-engine rails that have been built to HAMB GAS RAIL (HA/GR) specs, and also built to race in some of the other factions that came out of the HA/GR movement. I too would like to see them all come together at our national event. If you are interested in participating in drag racing today, (in the way it may have been done 50 to 60 years ago) check out the HA/GR section of this message board.
My name is Bob Hofer, son of Bill Hofer. He was a WW II veteran with 19 combat missions in a B-17 bomber, "Ole Smoke". After the war he flew in the 509th (atomic) bomb group -B-29 "Luke the Spook". He was a select combat crewmember of the USAF's first combat B-36, "City of Fort Worth". His flying record was 250 hours in B-17s, 500+ hours in B-29s and over 3000 hours in B-36s. His B-17 bomber was shot down over occupied Germany in March 1944. He spent the duration of the war as a POW. He was credited with 4 enemy fighters destroyed-3 on the day they were shot down. He first gained interest in "hot rods" from conversations with fellow POWs that were hot rodders from California. He attributed his survival as a POW largely to the focus on hot rodding and fast cars. The rear engined dragster was built from my father's 32-5 window coupe. He drove the '32 at Bonneville in 1955. It was severly chopped and ran on 20% nitro. Lessons learned from that experience told him that aerodynamics were the key to going fast. The result was the rear engined car you see in those articles. The 32-5 window did 120 mph in a 1/4 at Caddo Mills dragstrip in 1954/5 on 20% nitro. The rear engine car was a high gear only car, the clutch being connected directly to the quick change. The car was designed to try for 200 mph at Bonneville. On a "shake down" run at Fort Worth driver Jimmy Williams reported a tachometer reading indicating a speed of 170 mph+ with "lots of throttle left" on gasoline. My father was assigned to duty at Ramstein AFB in 1956. On a brief visit back in the US in 1957 the car was run at the OKC Nationals. I have extensive photos of the '32-5 window and the rear engined car. The color of the both cars was "Insignia Red", an Air Force color that was painted on the tails of the B-36 bombers for recognition in the event of a crash.
There are still some Chevy six dragsters running. Sissell's, Self's and others. Some turn in some really respectable times at the strip too. Normbc9
Attached are some photos of my fathers '32-5 window and the rear engined dragster built from same. The one picture of the rear engine car coming off the line was at OKC Nationals, 1957. Even with "hi gear only" Jimmy Williams had the hole shot. My father spoke highly of him as a person and a driver-saying Jimmy was the best, his reaction off the line was unequaled. On the first pass at OKC, the car was very slow to decelerate. Jimmy noted he passed the point where Art Arfons (Allison powered dragster) had pulled over. With a lot of speed remaining he was appling hard braking. His thoughts were that somehow the engine was still driving the car so he stood hard on the clutch, actually breaking the pedal arm. Evaluation after the run was that the reason for the long shut down was that the car was so clean in aerodynamics. Every subsequent run resulted in similar long shut downs-after the repair of the clutch pedal. The other car in these pictures is a car the club built, circa, 1953/54. Many of the parts on that dragster were later used on my father's rear engine car.
A few more pictures from back in the day. The one picture of my father next to his '32 was taken before the car was chopped and prepared for 1955 Bonneville. The engine as shown in the rear motor car was (as I remember) a GMC block displacing 292 cu.in., magneto.
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