History Comp Coupes, All but forgotten?

Cool thread. Did notice how some of these are sporting a very large diameter tube for frame rail. Love the originality of each. Not sure how the rules even work for these cars today. Would love to see more of these. Thanks to all who posted stuff, really good stuff.

 

NHRA cut this type of car, and comp roadster classes out years ago. Only place you might see a comp coupe is at a nostalgia meet.

 

There is no style of vehicle in drag racing that says "Drag Racing" to me than a competition coupe. Maybe because I was a teenager in the 60's and women hadn't started burning their bras yet. (That distracted me from drag racing).

 

Hello,
Thanks for the history, @Dean Lowe Those coupes went away, just like the real Gas Coupe and Sedan classes and the Street Roadster classes. Terrible decision from the big organization. The backyard garage mechanics were pushed out of the door.

Our time at the So Cal dragstrips had plenty of Competition Coupes. Yes, it was a favorite of most teenagers and racers. They were usually well constructed, but looked like a dragster with an old coupe/sedan body attached. Some were really fast.

They were different with different rules and builds. A lot of people will think Altered Coupes are in the same class. NOT... Check out the rules for Competition Coupes vs Altered Coupes. Fuel or gas, it makes no difference. They are not the same. Do some research.

Jnaki

Here is my latest Halloween Cancelled version:


In a class all by himself: B / Modified Pumpkin division.

Hello,

Since most communities have officially CANCELLED the normal trick or treat activities, those places that have the non traditional drive-through Halloween experience seems to be a way to cope with this pandemic. Safety within the confines of your own family hot rod or station wagon.

1959 Bob Brooks Lions

A hot rod/drag race inspiration comes from Bob Brooks’ Competition Coupe from the Long Beach area. It was Reath Automotive sponsored and ran at Lion’s Dragstrip almost weekly. The above is my Halloween interpretation of what the Competition Coupe should look like on that walkabout tonight… for those hard core trick or treaters.

Jnaki

My interpretation is one fast pumpkin. It would scare any mother walking her kids in any neighborhood. If there is a neighborhood walkabout…

Thanks, Bob…

Stay safe and wear a mask… on Halloween, that is a good one!
Do original Simpson fuel facemasks count in the pandemic CANCELLED events?

 

Anyone keen as to why my post was deleted?


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Your right on that Dean. It's sad that you don't see these hardly at all. I'm in NE Ohio and even nostalgic events they are a rare site except Bowling Green. I need to build one just for the heck of it! Stay safe.

 

Would love to see the leg room in the pickup.

 

That would be cool. Cast iron blocks and heads with 10" wide rear tires.

 

Really like this one. Would love to see more of it.

 

I don't know if anyone answer this for you.

The class started out as a basic hot rod racing class and in typical racer fashion in the pursuit of more traction the bodies and engines were moved back on the chassis.

Wheel bases got longer, then someone got the idea to put coupe and sedan bodies on dragster chassis.

I don't think they lasted long enough to get into 'glass bodies.

Just like every other form of racing the racers are their own worst enemies.

 

sure wish the class would come back! i would make this legal!

 

You need to bring that thing to the midway drags in ark city Kansas on June 12 and make a pass in it lol


Chrome don’t get ya home

 

I really enjoyed drag racing a lot more when it was truly sportsman racers racing out of their own shop. Not todays high-dollar, mega-sponsor, professional racers. It's just not the same atmosphere.

 

im hoping to get the car out this year to some more events!

 

Incredible!

 

Why do they call them comp-coupes when most have sedan bodies?

 

The original name was Competition Coup and Sedan. Comp is just normal slang.

 

Saw the video on this, great story. Post on here where you might be going with it in 2021. Would love to see it in person.

 

hope to see ya out somewhere. if ya see us please stop and say hi! were going to travel around with it a bit!

 

were planning on bowlingreen hot rod reunion fathers day weekend, brew city gassers event end of june. and hopefully others if the pandemic doesnt stop us!

 

I think the post #646 shows why the class was relatively short-lived. The cars morphed into dragsters with vestigial bodies.

 

ves·tig·i·al
/veˈstij(ē)əl/
adjective

• 1.forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable: "he felt a vestigial flicker of anger from last night"synonyms; remaining, surviving, residual, leftover, lingering,

I had to look that one up Frenchtown.

Pat

 

to me and this is my opinion, the comp coupes gave the dragsters some chracter. you could run pretty much any body ,which in most cases there were alot of cars that you could recognise as soon as they pulled up to the line, which is not the case today. which i believe is a part of the lack of interest. thats not all of the problem , but for me its a problem. im tired of identical inverted bath tubs, funny cars for instance, pulling up to race, they couldnt get much more identical if they tried. that is why these reunions of the old days have been so popular. i attend alot of them on both coasts, im bias.

 

Every time I look at this thread I go to YouTube and look up Nitro Neil Bisciglia videos. If you don’t know who he is, he ran a real nitro competition coupe in the nostalgia fuel dragster class back in the late ‘90-early 2000s. Great guy, traveling the country living his nitro dreams. I wonder what he’s doing now?


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I met Nitro Neil at the meltdown drags a few years ago through a mutual friend. He still had the dragster then, but it needs some safety updates to be up to current standards. I think his car would be a hit if he pulled it out of mothballs.

 

rd martin, i couldn't agree with you more. i have never been a big dragster fan. i love altereds and gassers. i have a 440 dodge powered fed though, and have been eye balling my glass fiat body quite alot lately. it's just a high 10 second car but it is fun none the less.

 

APRIL 1959
Hello,

In April of 1959, the local Drag News paper started the Standard 1320 record list. It was accepted all over the USA from every dragstrip and organization at the time. It continued until the paper folded. The Standard 1320 is a well know part of all drag racing.

The street legal Gas Coupes and Sedans were named Gas C/S and in later terminology, Gas Competition Coupes And Sedans. This included Pittman-Edwards, Doug Cook, Junior Thompson and SWC to name a few. The later name of Gas Competition Coupes and Sedans was the real name and not “gassers.”

The group called Competition C/S were those highly modified coupes and sedans like Eldon Dye and Leffler-Loukas.

Eldon Dye-Don Hampton driving:

LEFFLER -LOUKAS 1959-60


Most of the builds were rail dragsters with a body attached to the frame/motor. The name of the division was later selected as Competiton Coupes and Sedans. Most were coupes as sedans had more weight in steel bodies before fiberglass versions rolled into the scene.

Jnaki
Leffler-Loukas vs Jerry Card

Dye-Hampton

Bixby Knolls’ Bob Brooks Competition Coupe


https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-10-4-19.1167457/#post-13269877

 

I believe the old Bantam coupes were a popular source for bodies for these cars. They were probably the smallest coupe body that would fit this application covering the the driver and the slicks for the most part. They were of course chopped radically.