History Comp Coupes, All but forgotten?

Everyone seems to have forgotten about the Comp Coupes.
I have always liked them more then Dragsters.
The whole idea of the wheels being 6" ahead of the wheel well or the trunk hanging out in space is just cool!

Love to see some and learn some history!

My 1959 N.H.R.A. rule book Fuel Ban-

 

I wonder if they were a regional popular race car? I honestly do not recall ever seeing one race in the Southern Ontario area but I could be mistaken.

They are unique and it will be interesting to see how this thread grows.

 

I missed out on all of it, born Dec 81





First Ridler Award Winner- Al Bergler “More Aggravation”

 

They were not regional, here is Johnny Burell from Alabama, late '50s


Bakersfield, late '50s...Jim "Jazzy" Nelson's former competition coupe...


Crosley at Riverside

Just some examples of the wild cars that competition coupes were, like modified roadsters, all you needed was a body, body modifications were almost unlimited (you couldn't narrow the body or section it, but almost anything else went), I would love to see more restored ("The Lil' Honker" is perfect!)

 

I love these but never have known the reason for this type of car. Is this a progression of heavily modified full bodied coupes or a different configuration of front engine dragster? How did this class of drag racing come to be?
Thanks

 

Also are the bodies altered factory steel bodies or fiberglass? Thanks

 

Another...Leonard Harris drove, Gene Adams blown gas Olds


Caption got the engine wrong, it was actually a Studebaker...Bantam bodied


This might have been the first competition coupe (well, sedan)...Jack Ewell in the Ewell/Goldworthy car at Santa Ana, maybe '50 or '51




This competition coupe briefly held the world's et record, early '50s, Jazzy Nelson with a Fiat body, stock front nose (not required on competition coupes), '34 frame rails....

Bill Coburn at Lions


Gene O'Tanger from Amarillo TX, Buick powered T body


This is the first competition coupe I saw, Sandoval Brothers, won its class at the '57 NHRA nationals, Dodge powered...I first saw it run Santa Ana in August '57....never forgot it!

 

That Nash won best engineered at Indy.

 

I remember seeing this Nash back in the sixties at Quaker City in Salem, Oh.

 

Good question...drag racing classes started for street driven cars, so the rules divided the mildly modified coupes from the radical street driven coupes. So if your coupe (or sedan) was both chopped or channeled, you ran in the competition coupe class, because you had an advantage (probably small) over the cars that were just chopped, for example. In late '50, the dry lakes cars started to show up at the drag strips, and they were already divided by how radical the modifications were -- so when the Pierson Brothers radically chopped '34 ran Santa Ana, it was put into the competition coupe class so it would not have to compete against the lakes coupes that were less radical. Later, when drag racers started moving the engines back, the altered coupes were limited to 25% of the wheel base, whereas the competition coupes could mount the engine anywhere (there were some rear-engined competition coupes. Still later, when the slingshot dragster evolved around '55, some racers realized that you could hang a body on a slingshot and still be in the competition coupe class.

The class ended when the cost of drag racing mandated purses paid out to the most popular classes, and in the early '60s those were the fuel dragsters. It cost as much money to run a fuel competition coupe, but there was no payout, so they quickly disappeared.....

 

Original bodies were steel....later Cal Automotive made a fiberglass Fiat coupe body...one way you can tell is that some of the steel-bodied cars still had their door handles.

 

Do Fuel Coupes count?

 

Thanks for the info 296ardun. Very cool part of drag racing history.

 

Frank Pedregon Sr

 

The next craze....always wanted to do that with this..... even bought a 394 olds for it.....

Future Altered Style drag car by UNSHINED 2 posted Dec 3, 2008 at 11:57 AM

 

Oh really?

 

I have a old 33 Plymouth 4 door body I have kept around with thoughts of doing this someday

 

Brother Mike's Anglia comp coupe/sedan, black is looong time ago, orange when it was driven on street ONCE, blue as it looks now waiting on injected 394 Olds motor. Chassis cert. to 7.50.

Pat

 

Competition Coupes are the coolest drag cars.
I think the Silver Bullet is considered a roadster but with the hatch it's a coupe, built in 1966 originally it has been recently restored by Stan Johnson. This car is absolutely stunning. I saw this DuPont poster every day when I worked for Stan, easy to say it left an impression.

 

I've bee putting this thing together for way too long. "BigDrag" has a late production K-88 chassis and a 30-31 Ford body based heavily on the Little Honker.....another bench mark comp. coupe.

 

A few more images I've collected over the years.

 

Guffey, I remember one time, walking up Mike Griffin's driveway, and seeing the Quad Al, chassis sitting there. Last thing I expected !! I just about shit !!!

 

Always liked the comp coupe look. Now I want to put a body on the rail.

 

Paul Sutherland's A/comp Simca at Bakersfield.

 

Flamin' Frank showing how he got his nickname. This was no fluke. I saw him do it a few times at LIONS. This was long before they were doing fire burnouts. Rubber would coat the wheel tubs and the nitro flames would ignite it.