I loved going to Irvington drags in the 60's and see the names and phrases painted on the race cars. We need to start doing that again. I get the name Cherry Picker!!! The race car that had that on it also had a picture of Cherry's on it. Very cool back then. Let's do it!!!
Working on that now. My 40, will have a name that has been on many drag cars over the years. Like my license says, USA ONE! We are working on a design that highlights the A-1 as my last name is pronounced A. My "flyin' Aye" logo has been somewhere on everything I've built since 2000.
Back In the day, 60's here, lots of cars had names. never put one on mine. In the early 70's I saw "Shitbox" on Jan Opperman's car, the Bogar #99, liked it, it has been on every race car I've owned. All of us racers have always referred to race cars as "Shit Box's" For as long as I can remember, from drivers view, "Shit Box" car, from car owner view "Head in his Ass, our Hero, the Driver " I've been around racing for MANY years, I heard many excuses from drivers, my favorite I used, I got passed, last lap, last corner, everyone asked, what happened ?, my reply, Couldn't hold my breath any longer. LOL
I like the idea of names on cars. I won't say it was really popular to do it around Chicago but in the late '60s it was kool to see names on musclecars... Stagecoach, Instant Karma, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Hustler, etc. Names on race cars goes without saying, but contingency decals took over. This is a collage of my photos I put together years ago:
Go ahead birdman1.... you first. Remember to use One Shot with no clear so you can take it off with EasyOff Oven Cleaner...
Not sure what part of the country you are in, but in the north east there's an abundance of names on cars, be it the tons of nostalgia drag cars to 50's customs, the customs most likely have the names on the skirts or the continental kits but lots of it here. And many many more, but that's enough here
Here's kinda how it was done in my small town in South Dakota back in the 60's. Seems pretty much everyone had a name painted at an angle behind the front wheels. I couldn't find a photo, so this is the best I could do with my incredible photo editing skills.....
Many years ago a guy I knew had plans to race his Olds Cutlass. I'm from Missouri and I think he got his car's possible name from a movie or something, but it was to be called "Missouri Breaks". I don't know if he actually ever got the car ready to race though. I saw "Kid's Lunch Money" on a street stock dirt circle track car. Sad thing is that might be how he financed his racing. Lynn
Hello, When we were just starting, there were very few names on cars. Hot rods or drag race cars. It seemed to be a natural, but the sponsors names or the owner/builders names were more important. Reath Automotive, Quincy Automotive, and Itow’s Automotive were seen quite often on the sides of drag race vehicles from roadsters to FEDs. But, in 1958-59, the original Chuck Jones, Paul Nicolini, Joe Mailliard’s well known Sidewinder had a name on the side: Olé Jnaki Lions Sidewinder OLE SOUND :16 to :23 in the film. It charged quite hard with a quality sound, similar to a giant bull coming out of the chute.