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

Not many pictures of the Magwinder, built by Kent Fuller out of magnesium tubing for Chuck Jones, think it was running a blown Pontiac in this shot...first it was white pearl, then this yellow color...very well engineered but, as I recall, didn't handle well...i also think Jack Chrisman drove it...from the gravel cranes in the background, I think that this picture is from San Gabriel II.

Muttley, thanks again, really appreciate these pictures!

 

Not San Gabriel...look at the cars in the background...San Gabe closed in 1963

 

Doug is right. San Gabe never had that much paved pit area. It's Irwindale.

 

now it gets confusing
I'm thinking the yellow car is the first one, below...

The Jack Chrisman car is the last photo, at Pomona

 

The name on this pic caught my eye. Esp with the CP on it. I googled it and it is Fred Lorenzen of Nascar fames younger brother and Fred helped him put this car together. I never knew Fred had a younger brother or even one that drag raced.

 

At least now we know what happened to all the Corvette hubcaps, they went on push trucks. Thanks Mutt.

 

You guys are both right, it is Irwindale (not sure how I missed that, I do remember the cranes

But the top car is not the magwinder, note the different front end...that is one driven by Ronnie Hampshire...note that the engine (blown SBC) is upright, while the magwinder engine canted forward....the bottom is Jack in the first version of the magwinder when it was pearl white trimmed in red

 

Only photo I could find of the original magwinder, but shows the nose, same as the yellow car...when the Pontiac replaced the Chrysler, the top bodywork went away

 

The Cheetah running in the '60's at Union Grove, Wis, Great Lakes Dragaway

 

This car resurfaced in 1971 and was painted candy red. In 71 it ran BB/GD with a blown 350. Low eights. Not real competitive, but a honorable effort with an approach that never really worked.

 

Ron Ellis or Larry Van Unen (spl) drove this car. It ran gas and fuel.

 

All I got to say is WOW!!! Great pics! Thanks to all!

 

What was it about the side mounted rear engine dragsters that made it fail? Was it the geometry or the torque of the engine or something?

 

Handling was one problem and the chain-drive was another.
Jack Chrisman's last foray into sidewinders was the funny car that he never drove that I know of. I believe in was a SOHC funny that he sold to John Force who named it "Nightstalker".
Larry Sutton was the starter at Irwindale one day when he banned Force from driving it because it has such a habit of breaking chains. The safety issue for himself and fans was too great.
You can imagine trying to get a series of chains to take the load of 1500+ HP and instantly translate that power to a pair of slicks. Something was going to "give" and many times it did.
Sutton already had experience dodging broken chains at Lions when chain-driven blowers were still being used before they were replaced by belts.

 

I've always wanted to know if this car had a clutch or a convertor?

 

OK, I give.
Where those water filler necks in the valve covers to put in oil?

 

It's odd I always missed this. Thanx; Tom S.

 

A torque converter.

 

Now THAT is cool! Great angle and fantastic and unusual drag car.

 

thanks very much! Heres the story

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=643317

 

Do you know any of the history of this experiment? Wish Google would turn up something.

 

It was an effort to rely on something other than a direct drive clutch set up. No doubt incited by B&M to perhaps enter the dragster market. Smoother take off's, no smoke, etc was the goal... But my recollection was that the car wasnt that consistent and it smoked the tires. Certainly heavier if not for anything else.

 

Pretty sure that's Johnny Lopers old car. Not many pics of it out there.

 

Is that a VW front end on that car?

 

Sure is. Kent Fuller used a lot of VW bars on his chassis'.

 

Sure is. Followed by the Little Hoss Anglia and then a string of funny cars using the same name.

Roo

 

Dont forget his ill fated Maverick A/Gasser that was between the Anglia's and funnies. It crashed not a month or so after its debut. Car Craft did an article on it, whereupon before press time it was demolished in a roll over. They featured the car in its destroyed state as well.

 

Whats the deal with maverick gassers....they never seemed to end well..

 

Maybe not Gassers but Reher-Morrison, Jim Stevens, and Arlen Fadley had a few that did pretty well in Modified Eliminator.