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

Thanks Ardun and BTW, thanks for all your contributions, helping to "keep it real".
I (think)I knew that at one time. After I posted, I looked closer, saw only three spokes.

 

Ed McCulloch ran a pair of them on this car.

 

Just want it remembered Larry Teter won class at Indy 1961 / 1962.

 

Great point, Larry was a racer who took a street-legal 32 Vicky and made it a lethal competitor -- his daughter started a nice memorial to him on the old "Gasser Madness" site...

 

"Scrima-liner" closest, not sure who he is racing...also not sure who is driving the liner, sometimes Roy "Goob" Tuller drove....like most of the streamliners of that time, weight and strange aerodynamics doomed them...this was a really good looking car, though, candy red, lots of chrome, etc...I think this is somewhere in the Pacific Northwest...ID is welcome




Think this is the '62 NHRA Nationals, Big in the wedge Swamp Rat vs Jack Chrisman in Mickey's hemi Pontiac...Jack would take Top Eliminator


Ted DeTarr in the Kansas Badman vs the Davis & Ingram "Colt 45," which was their old altered dressed up in a funny car body (still steel, though). Ted would lose his life in a drag racing crash


I should know this blown Chrysler powered car at San Gabriel, as I was racing then...but I don't...Roll bar is unusually high for that time...probably a good idea compared to some of the cars racing then (including mine!)


Fontana, too small to ID...this track was well run -- a fun place to race, though the night lights could have been better and the track less sandy from the wind blowing the dust in from the nearby grape orchards...almost nothing left and little trace of where it was....right off Rt. 66.


No caption, best guess is early Greek after the blower was added but before the frame was lengthened...(ttwomotor correctly identified as the GuZler, Oswego, 1961)


I thought this might be Peters & Frank at Bakersfield, but not entirely sure, don't remember them running mag front wheels, maybe Kenny Ellis?? (yes, the track was really near Famoso, north of Bakersfield, but we just called it Bakersfield, as did the ads for it....thankfully it remains, one of the very few surviving drag strips from the mid-50s.


No ID


Another shot of Red Case's rear engined dragster, this may be at Houston where Red and two other California cars towed to race Garlits (Garlits beat them all)


Same car with streamlined body....pretty sure that this is the car that Red lost his life in at Vacaville, though some say it was in a slingshot....


UDRA was one beginning for the professionalization of drag racing. I attended the first meeting at the Tahitian Village, sometime in '63...the top fuel racers were angry that Lions was not paying round money, and they were quickly going broke. I never forgot the moment that Keith Black spoke: "We spend over $20,000 on racing and we almost never leave California." Gasps..."that includes the cost of the car?" "No," said Black," that's just the cost of racing it." $20,000 was more than most of the folks there made in a year, so most of us realized that the golden age of top fuel was coming to a close. True, 120 or so top fuelers competed for 64 spots at Bakersfield, but the number dropped off to the point where we are now....not enough to qualify at most NHRA national meets.

 

Ron was my uncle. I think this car was a factory ordered racer with a 426 wedge. I think the car might still be in the family.

 

Henryj1951, there's a sister site called dogfightmag.com for non-HAMB friendly cars. Try there.

 

Is that a javlin?

 

Vega I think.

 

I was starting to think Opel

 

The Douglas and Forys Pontiac wagon against the 427 Biscayne of Casler Racing Tires. If I recall accurately, in addition to Bill Casler, the Biscayne was also driven by Wiley Cossey and Ed Holman at various times. This picture was probably from the 1966 Winternationals.

 

Think that is the Bud and Don's GuZler at Oswego Illinois.

 

You guys are both kind of right. That's Jack Ditmar's Boss Brute injected mid-engine (rear-engine?) funny car. Jack's previous Mini Brute was a pretty well known Opel Kadett so when he built this car is was an attempt to customize a Vega body into an Opel Manta.

 

I wasn't sure and didn't remember Ditmars having this car. I thought maybe it was an Aussie built car. I should delete the post.

 

Could have been, this is the earliest picture of the Greek's car I can find with the blower, it does have a nose, unlike the car in the post....this is '59: Don Maynard at left, Greek on the right:



Double-checked, you are right, found the original photo on this site...it is the GuZler, Oswego, 1961
http://www.mikebentley.com/dragstrip/brown/Guzler 1961sm.jpg

 

AA/GS at Fontana, Ron Bizio in the pickup, maybe K.S. Pittman in the coupe?


Only ID is on the fuel tank, so maybe Frank Hedge's A&W Root Beer car?? Irwindale


McEwen vs Ivo, Lions


Very early Pomona, looks like an early sprint car converted for drag racing


Not sure on this one, might be early Mel Heath, from Oklahoma. Mel won the '56 NHRA nationals top eliminator with a later car.


Ivo at Bakersfield, maybe the first meet?


George Miller drove all the way from Deerfield, MA to compete at the first NHRA Nationals at Great Bend, KS



Prudhomme bought Ivo's Buick car, see above, here he is at Riverside, maybe the Janke & Muravez Chevy TE-440?


Early GuZler at Oswego, John Forsteka's fuel altered Fiat in the background..

 

Ttwomotor. You are 100% correct. I should not have omitted that detail. Not only did Larry Teter win C/Gas at Indy in 1961-1962, he also had one of the most beautiful cars on the premises...very different from the Filthy Forty in that regard.

 

Lil John Lombardo

 

Looks like Panela Brothers Willys Pickup in the other lane.