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

Thanks for the correction, Troy, I got it mixed up with another twin..I remember that it got rebodied as a Corvette but did not know it got destroyed in Australia...it was a well engineered car, somehow the Corvette body just didn't look right but funny cars were where it was at, so....Interesting that Don is still doing blowers, been doing that for decades now.

 

More Lions:

I'm not sure on this full bodied digger, might have been Dennis Martin in "Dennis the Menace," from NoCal, anyone else?




Great shot of Bennie "the Wizard" Osborn, from Oklahoma.


Jerry Baltes?


Bill Martin's "400 Jr." on the fireup road...note Tirewiper's comments on the fireup road in an earlier post, it was hard to get the car lit and slowed as you approached the starting line, because the fireup road was so short...later Lions went to roller starters


Don't know whose C/C this is, Looks like Algon injectors


I forgot the names of the guys who ran this blown Olds F/A...Frontuto and Hartwell?? I'm probably way off...I think this had a steel body...


Not sure who is driving here...Lions did have bite!


SWC again...when the AA/GS'ers ran the pits would often empty out, they were really popular at Lions

 

The Blown Olds F/A has a Blown head gasket----steaming water in front of the tire.
We were at the far end of Lions when Potter crashed that Coupe,,,I saw it with my own eyes & couldnt believe how HIGH the dirt AND car went...I was about 9 or 10.
Eddie ended up with a small cut on his chin.

 

This is Ed Taylor's Austin 7 steel bodied altered. He owned ET Auto Parts in Pomona. Ed later built the beautiful comp roadster that Merek Chertkow drove, also blown fuel Olds powered.

 

"Their dragster with the TE440 type roll bars became the comp coupe."

"Impressive car to a teenager with all the right ingredients of a comp cpe. It wasn’t their first which was an almost a cartoon comp car as a severely chopped Model A cpe first with a sectioned deuce shell nose then a pointy drop tank nose. His helmet popped up where the A visor was sitting in front of a fuel flathead.

This car had a Peterson built 440 Chizler. As far as the scoop I don’t know its origins but it had painted on the side “Ed Eatons mouth” with an arrow pointed to the opening.
Seems the 99 team had felt the wrath of Ed Eaton and responded. Most of you west coast guys never had the fortune of knowing Ed, who was our early div. 1 director, but come to think of it he paired with Gil Kohn? and was involved with the east coast March meet debacle. Be that as it may he was heavy handed." - Jeff Howe

 

Troy,
actually it was Hampton who did the T-Boning, taking out Jim Read's Chesterfield backed Mustang at Surfers Paradise. Incidently Hampton's car was still running the drilled and dropped early Ford front axle under the Corvette body.

Roo

 

Dragliner at the NHRA Nationals...it has been nicely restored


Snodgras, Mahnkin and Andrews... Denny Andrews drove, though I'm not sure he is at the wheel here...blown Ford...this car evolved into the "Psycho" Mustang funny car.(which I think also met its end in Australia, see above note from Rooman)..Denny later built an AA/FD, had the cowl gold-leafed, looked really nice, but blew the motor on an early run, and got into the rocks next to the shutoff area at Irwindale, car was pretty bent up and Denny wound up in the hospital


I think that the "Charger" is in the near lane, not sure about the far lane...probably Paul Sutherland driving...San Fernando


I forgot whose sidewinder this was...think Ronnie Hampshire drove...like most sidewinders, the idea was good, the engine mounted sideways stopped the torqueing problem that conventional cars had...when the engine torqued to one side it unloaded the opposite wheel, and the car quickly got crooked...but the sidewinders planed because of the lost torque from the drive wheel to the opposite wheel...this one met its end at the business end of a cutting torch


Don't know where or when or who, but pretty classic shot...the days when you could drive your street car to the track and go racing


Really early San Fernando, maybe '56? The track is long gone, replaced with a flea market...but I think the snack bar building in the background is still there...this was a great place to race, if only between noon and 3:00 because of the noise curfew

 

Great pictures.

 

I'm pretty sure the Dragliner that Dode finished last year is a re creation.

 

Thanks for another trip down Memory Lane.

Jimbo

 

More from the George Klass Collection:


Don Waite's roadster. This car was so well engineered that Hot Rod Magazine dedicated their entire car feature photo section to it...Don was a master builder who started out at the lakes; story was that Ak Miller called him "the dumb kid" because he asked so many questions, but he was obviously storing up on knowledge. The car had an injected Desoto, I think that Don Borth did the sheet metal work.


The "Shoehorn" from Reno, Welch and Shoemaker (?)...very successful rear-engine car, handled very well for a short wheelbase...maybe head gasket trouble in this photo?


RIP Pat Garlits


Gil Hayward's "Monkey Motion," with a hemi, following the earlier version with the blown SBC..Gil was a patient teacher for a dumb kid like me, I learned a lot from him.


Spaulding Cams street roadster, with a Chevy or GMC six


SWC with Chuck Finders...Pomona, maybe?



Two modified roadsters...with very different setups...the one closest seems driver-less, driver actually sits under the "hood" (note Plexiglas windows on side), and looked out through the Plexiglas insert in the grill...I think it ran a blown Lincoln, was featured in HRM. Think about how much engineering went into these cars when the top prize was a trophy....that's dedication!


Was this Bill Leavitt's car, from the San Diego area?



Tom Hoover's Ford fueler...this car was really well done, candy paint, chrome, full body...I saw it run at Fremont in '67, got beat by John Batto's unpainted unfinished Chrysler fueler...
Dunn, Meritt, and Velasco...I think that is Henry Velasco in the seat, though Dunn drove...this is in the '60s, Jim Dunn is still racing funny cars...one of the few survivors of these earlier days.

 

Damn that A/MR is crazy. Sitting under the hood with plexiglass view. Thats one crazy driver.

 

554 evolution: We remember it best as:



But before that, there was this:


carbureted

and then, because the rules required fenders for fuel coupes:


flathead powered...

But the coupe started out as a lakes racer, here it is, unchopped (Carl Johnson, Gene's first partner, chopped it)


But it was always 554, even at the lakes (note the rear wheel has Gene's club, the Rod Riders on it)...

(yes, it went on to become yellow and on the East Coast...but that was after Mooneyham & Sharp)

 

The Duncan & Shores GMC 6 powered street roadster. This roadster is alive and well, and living in Monrovia, Ca. I'm sure many have seen the orange '29 owned by Brian "The Mailman" Bauer. Brian's roadster is the former Duncan & Shores roadster. Brian is still running the same '39 Ford transmission. That's Jim "fireball" Shores in the white shop coat.

 

I saw this car in pretty much exactly the same form at the 50th Grand National Roadster Show at the Cow Palace. I should have at least on photo of it from that event but at the time I was shooting print film (pre the digital revolution) so I will have to find it and scan it. If I remember correctly that car had just been pulled out of long time storage at the time but it was still in excellent shape.

Roo

 

Some vintage Texas drag racing:










Pete Robinson visits Texas




Melvin Heath from Oklahoma, '56 Nats winner, far side...I think that the car in the near side is Rodney Singer, Cad powered, before Singer partnered with Karol Miller to win the '59 Nats...Texas guys?


This Bantam was way ahead of its time in engineering, detailed space frame, etc


Mackey & Veselka, nearest, racing Alabama's Johnny Burrell...


Yes, it's the Lark-ness Monster...Green Valley, maybe?


Buck and Bohls, carbureted Olds, this one got a full spread in HRM


Texas drag racing at the beginning...Corpus Christie?


Really early Texas drag racing

 

More Texas:


Was this Bobby Langley's first dragster, frame made out of bed rails? Cad powered


Don Breithhaupt (I know I misspelled it!!) Blown SBC, was a Nationals contender

 

More Texas




Creitz Automotive...I think that this is the car that Gene Goleman lost his life in....

 

Any pics of guy buy the name of Tony Brock raced at Pomona in the 60s had a sling shot dragster from Santa Ana .ca .. At least that's what I was told he my grandfather still lives in Santa Ana but I never seen a pic of his car

 

Not familiar to me...and not on Don Ewald's fuel dragster site, the definitive site for dragsters...anyone else?

 

Thank you for looking into it ..I know it was inclosed cockpit running a hemi . Might be under Anthony Brock ..Used to have a trophy of his my grandma gave me as a kid put i was way to young to appreciate it .

 

Fremont:














Rich Guasco


Quality Auto, from Cerritos...looks like Pure Hell but only because it was built by the same chassis builder-- Pete Ogden



Speaking of which...




The Greek spent so much time in California they should have granted him California citizenship...still racing...

 

296,,,yes that is Bobby Langleys first dragster,the Needle nose,however.it was only the headers made from old bedstead not the frame

 

PURE HELL !!!

What a bad ass car this was and the shows they put on were legionary.

Maybe that is part of what is missing today in drag racing.

Jimbo

 

Wow, that shot of the Quality Auto AA/FA is bitchin. Header Flames at night, it don't get much better then that.