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

You're right, so I wonder whose 5-window that is, I still think it is a Texas car...

 

It could have been, he was certainly the flathead innovator...the one I remember was in a chopped deuce coupe with a Willys hood for a nose, but now that you mention it, I think John might have tried it. John was a great guy, saved me from blowing up the Ardun in avatar by telling me how to light off a flathead on straight nitro (something else he was an expert at!)

 

Yes, it was John Bradley, he apparently mixed intake and exhaust, note the headers coming out from in front and on top of the block....

 

Refering to the coupe from Texas
It sorta looks like Bobby Knightons car from Houston,,not sure

 

that is not a reverse engine but a standard engine with all exaust ports opened up

 

I want one of those for the lakester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Carl, you're right, it is not a reverse engine -- wonder how he did the extra exhause ports?

 

see my post on the Flat Fed that is what I'm doing on the next engine for it kinda looks like swiss cheese.......
see:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/flat-fed-build.436556/page-44

 

I had forgotten this thread, guys, if you haven't seen it, you are missing backyard craftsmanship in action! Here is one of Carl's pictures showing how to add extra exhaust ports to a flathead:

 

Prudhomme & Zeuchel , Zeuchel's Chysler in Ivo's old car, at San Fernando. This was the testbed for the Zeuchel, Fuller, and Prudhomme fueler.

 

San Fernando, someone laying down a smoke trail. This was one of my favorite tracks, though getting stopped before the Foothill Avenue bridge was sometimes a challenge.

 

The caption sayd "David Ivo," but I think this is Mickey Thompson's twin that was the forerunner of his Challenger. I saw it run San Fernando in '58.

 

Fireside Inn modified roadster against the Rat Trap

 

San Fernando

 

This was shot at Fremont. All I can remember of the car was it was later painted copper with white scallops...

 

Yes..that's Mickey's twin..later ran at Bonneville.

Bill

 

That is M/T's twin that ran 294 on the salt, and planted the seed for the Challenger. I snapped this pic at San Gabe in May of '58.

 

This is the way I remembered it, never saw the body support tubing in the above picture, sort of confused me (that's not hard to do!)

 

Another pic the same day. Wonder if both engines were Mickeys? different injector stacks and headers.

 

I never noticed the difference (no stacks in the original picture). I would guess that Mickey did borrow one of the engines since they are different, and, if I remember corrrectly, he was still a pressman at the Los Angeles Times, probably not bucks-up enough in '58 to afford two competition engines. I wonder if the back engine might have belonged to Fritz Voight, Mickey's long time partner in the Challenger project. Fritz did run an gas-burning Chrysler with standard stacks (see picture in next post because I can't get it to post properly on this post??!!). I also found a picture of Mickey's Ardun digger, notice the stacks that look like the front motor. Yes, they are Ardun, but my guess is that Mickey, who reportedly never threw anything away, made them fit his Chrysler (also see next post). This is all just guesswork, anyone know for sure?

 

All I know for sure is it took huge balls to run nearly 300mph in that thing!!

 

Draglist: "Coehlo Racing" Owned by Manuel Coehlo from California. Ground-breaking twin-engine, 4WD dragster first ran in 1956 with injected 361" Chrysler hemi in back, carb'd 296" flathead Merc driving front wheels through upside-down Ford rearend with quickchange diff in front. Owner, driver, builder Coelho sat between mills. Car was consistently bettering 150 mph by Fall of '56, only the second twin to do so.

"Shortly after the 1955 NHRA Nationals finals in Perryville, Az., Fred “Fritz” Voigt started working with Mickey Thompson where his first job was to help convert Manuel Coelho’s twin-engine dragster into Mickey’s first twin-Chrysler streamliner dragster. Upon completion of the twin-engine dragster they headed to Oklahoma City for the 1958 NHRA Nationals but managed a side trip to Bonneville where they turned in a speed of 294 mph." http://www.garlits.com/fritzvoigt.htm

 

Well, there you are. Some history on that car I never knew.

 

Nor did I, first time I heard this story, I always thought that Mickey built the twin from scratch. Here is a picture of Manuel Coehlo's twin as Tire Wiper described it, at Lions, mid-50s, from Don Ewald's site:

 

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Steve Evans, '62, from Don Ewald's site. We remember Steve as a promoter and as an announcer (NHRA, swamp buggies, etc., etc.), and he was very good at those pursuits, but before he was famous, he ran this gas-burning 296" Desoto powered K-88. This is at San Gabriel, and next to the digger is Mike Demarest (Later of "Groundshakers" fame). Steve ran 130+ times, pretty good for the time. He later ran an evil-handling sbc-powered Dragmaster, which neither Steve or any one else (including Les Hawkins and Lyle Webster) could get to go straight. When Steve started the Santa Anita Speed Center in Arcadia (around '63), he sold this car to Bob Keilty, and later Keilty and I took the motor out of it and put into a Doug Robinson car, with a 6-71 and nitro,
obliterated it after too many hard runs.

Steve was on the road a lot and died too early. He was hard to match with his knowledge of drag racing and his ability to tell a story that both made it interesting and educational. Those of us who were lucky enough to know him still miss him.

 

"A little more info: As you said, Mike Demarest is the big guy beside the car. The guy to his right in the white T-shirt is Gar Biffle, Greg Biffle's dad. The tall guy behind the car is Ed Belknap, one time roommate of Steve Evans. The speed shop was Foothill Speed Center, which was started by Jay Evans, Steve's dad, who also ran the concession stand at San Gabe. It was on Foothill Blvd in Monrovia, just east of Arcadia. Steve was there too and would show drag racing movies in the evenings after closing the store. Isky's Nine Second Adventure was one of them, showing the '61 March Meet. Steve always had great stuff going on." pd

 

"This is Rapp & Rossi & Maldonado. Gary Gabelich drove first, then Tom McEwen, then Norm Weekly and the last time out Ronni Hampshire when the team was out of parts and money." - Manny M.

 

That is a Scotty Fenn FL44, one of 6 as I remember. It was rated as "Worlds Fastest Chevy" in '61. Blown on 40% it ran 8 .91 @ 180 ! Here are some shots after I restored it, for the late Tom Willford in '02.

 

Kenny Lindley's front-mounted blown fuel dragster, maybe Bob Alsenez driving? This could be the '56 NHRA nationals. From George Klass