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

Jungle Jim was a friend of mine. He ran out of Goodies Speed Shop in San Jose for a while......I built the motor mounts for him when he had a 57 chev with a 348 tri power motor.. I had left home for the Army before Jungle Pam came along. Jim was a pioneer funny car driver and promoter.

 

My buddy has the injection and some other parts of this motor. He is looking at recreating the dragster.

Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Life Magazine
1963
Hirata-Hobbs Dragster - driven by Bobby Vodnik - sweeps the 1963 NHRA Nationals

Sent from my QTAQZ3 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

And here is a shot of the restored Coleman Bros back motor car. Interesting that despite the fact that the Colemans were from Maryland the restoration was performed by the HAMB's own Marty Strode (in the straw hat) who is in the Portland, Oregon area. Read more about it (and a bunch of other stuff) right here on the HAMB ; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/neat-early-rear-engine-dragster.70840/



And a couple of it as it was back in the day




Evidently a later version with a somewhat stretched wheelbase


Roo

 

Roo, Thanks for the acknowledgement. Here is the Coleman, shortly after Tom Willford bought it in 1988. My race partner Bobby Mead and I cut the frame extension off and re-mounted the front axle, and had the chassis sandblasted and primed. It sat in that state until 2002, when Tom and I collected the parts to complete the restoration, and take it to CHHR that year. BTW, the Don Long car sitting alongside is the car I raced in '88. Quite the contrast in Dragsters.

 

To me they have something in common . . . they're both beautiful!

(I'd like another 100+" in wheelbase before I'd drive the short one.)

 

Going from memory, it was 104" !

 

Early shots from Santa Ana, even the Nash ran in the competition classes.


San Luis Obispo, neat chop on both cars.


Bob Alsenez in Kenny Lindley's Misfire at the '56 NHRA Nationals. Kenny was a long-time lakes racer who ran a lakester in the late '40s, later retired to Arkansas and ran a small engine repair shop.


I think I have posted this before, but too cool not to see again...Jerry Card's Fiat-bodied competition coupe at Bakersfield...The rear skirts didn't last as they trapped smoke in the cockpit, but they looked cool....Paul Sutherland ran a similar coupe, but used a later Fiat body. Jerry ran an automobile repair shop in Cerritos, right north of Oakland.


I posted a picture of this roadster (once a coupe) before, here it is suffering an engine explosion at Bakersfield, sending Tom Walsh to the hospital with burns...no real fire protection then, we learned the hard way.


Drifters of Redondo Beach, ran different flatheads on fuel, one blown...


Bean Bandits, rare shot of this car when it was not yellow...

 

Dave, Sutherland's coupe was a Simca. A Fiat with a "big butt".

 

Note flying superchargher parts



Reese Bros & Coleman Bros






Shake Rattle and Run





Silver Dollar

 

I am no means an expert at all, I love to hear all you guys stories about the great days of drag racing, but I did do a google search on "Sundance Kid" dragster and found this on facebook....it was on a page that had something to do with British Hall of Fame Drag racing.......

There will also be a Sundance Kid Reunion with three key people in Norwegian drag racing getting together at the Savill Court – the first meeting between them for well over 25 years. Those three pioneers are Fred Larsen, Jan Odd Jakobsen and Ludvig Bjǿrnstad.

Fred Larsen was the driver and co-owner of Norway’s first dragster – Sundance Kid. During several trips to the UK in the mid-1970s he paved the way for other Norwegians to get involved. With a body taken from the Commuter dragster mould it was one of the most beautiful slingshots around. Fred now operates Nordic Export Inc and is travelling from his home in Florida with his wife Astrid to reunite with his team.

Jan Odd Jakobsen was Fred Larsen’s partner in the Sundance Kid. He is a founder of ACSN (American Cars of Southern Norway) in 1973 and as a member of that board in 1975 they formed the American Car Club of Norway (Amcar) merging with American Car Club Trondheim. Today this is the main car organization for owners of American Cars in Norway with more than 100 associated clubs and 18,000 members. He was a member of the Drag Race Committee behind the first drag race in Norway held at Fyresdal in 1978.

Ludvig Bjǿrnstad and Fred Larsen were the first two Norwegians to drag race in Sweden. Ludvig was a member of Fred Larsen’s Sundance Kid team at Snetterton in 1975 and purchased Shutdown after the race (He called it Headache in Norway). He later ran a Top Fuel dragster in Norway, Sweden and the UK and became known as the Big Daddy of Norwegian drag racing.

His partner Hilde Skogseth has been active in many different aspects of drag racing. Her first visit to Santa Pod was in 1974 just to see the track. At a later meet they arranged for some runs with Inge Bugge’s Camaro returning in 1976 as crew for Inge Bugge’s Pro Comp dragster. She was also at Mantorp Park when Ludvig first ran Headache. Her good friend British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Rune Fjeld was helping out as a mechanic on the Headache team.

Hilde was a judge at Mantorp Park and Gardermoen during the 1980's. And she was at Santa Pod when Ludvig put down the first 5 second run by a Norwegian driving his Top Fuel dragster in 1987

 

I think I have posted this before, but too cool not to see again...Jerry Card's Fiat-bodied competition coupe at Bakersfield...The rear skirts didn't last as they trapped smoke in the cockpit, but they looked cool....Paul Sutherland ran a similar coupe, but used a later Fiat body. Jerry ran an automobile repair shop in Cerritos, right north of Oakland.

"Dave, Sutherland's coupe was a Simca. A Fiat with a "big butt".

We went through all of this about 700 pages back in the thread. Actually the Simca and Fiat bodies are the same with the later (post WW II) version of both having the "big butt" with the spare wheel stored behind a hatch rather than mounted on the rear deck.
I have seen this photo posted as Sutherland's car but it appears to be an early iteration of Card's Fiat--short tail, "fender" skirts etc. One of the keys is the hood which in all three versions pictured here wraps quite a way down the side of the car. The car may not have been hemi powered at this point as the hood sides are cut to clear the valve covers in the shot that Dave posted.


The pick up in the background seems to confirm that this is probably the final iteration of Jerry's car--skirts are gone and the wheelbase has been stretched (with a new nose) but the louvered roof and short tail match Dave's shot



And here is the Sutherland car --later bustle tail body, open roof, less rake to the windshield, drag link through the hood side panel above the headers rather than under and a shallower hood with the split about level with the bottom of the door handle. One thing that is interesting is that the lettering style for the AMC class designation is pretty much the same on both cars (on the roof in Dave's shot)


Roo

 

Thanks for the additional background mate!
BTW, you need to update the date for the Meltdown Drags in your signature. See you there.

Roo

 

The Coleman Brothers Chassis Research rear engine car that they campaigned in 1961-62 was driven by Earl Howard. They broke the 180 MPH Chevy small-block barrier at York US30 in 1961. Earl then went on to drag race blown alcohol hydroplanes, and later multi-Allison engine pulling tractors. Regards, Chase

 

Shake, Rattle and "Run Over Your Crankshaft"?

 

I haven't been following this thread for a while, so I might be repeating others posts.I will post captions if i have them!

 

Bob Creitz and Gene Coleman

 

Past the cutoff, but such a cool shot of Chuck Poole and Richard Schroeder at Woodburn!

 

The Dragmaster Slant Six car.

 

Looks like the Thurman Brothers

 

The Mother In Law

 

Pretty sano little digger!