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

This is a classic picture from Saugus...notice that these two coupes have lost their headlights as street-driven cars gradually morphed into race-only mode...I guess that these guys are also running fuel, which you could do by putting nitro carbs on your manifold and using a dual fuel tank...fuel coupes still required full fenders in the early to mid'50s, and they later evolved from heavy Fords to tube-frame Fiats and Bantams...this picture shows where fuel altered got started...great history, thanks for posting...

 

Love the "Unrealistic" name on Ronnie Nunes Corvette. It is a direct in your face to NHRA calling his B/GS Willys record unrealistic. Everything he ran, from the Willys down to his Honda drag bike, dominated it's class because he was/is a genius tuner, and one hell of an engineer.

 

AND a damn good shoe!!!! The orange Willys is the quickest 5 lb/ cubic inch, 6-71 supercharged, gas burning AA/GS ever.

 

Ronnie Nunes partner in the first Willys, Dennis Murray, is a master fabricator, thinker, and has been at the top of his game for 50 plus years. When I am stumped on a project, he is one of my first calls.

 

You nailed it. Racers were their own worst enemy as far as forcing rule changes and handicaps and eventually making racing more expensive because of their desire to go faster. These are pictures of my dad winning an Indy eliminator in '61 running low 11's and over 30 years later running mid 8's at Indy at the same pounds per cubic inch. 11 NHRA national records in between as well as when he retired. All because of desire to go faster and win.

 

Even when they can't go faster, or at least not quicker - such as Super Gas the costs escelate. Super Gas was never an inexpensive class as running 9.90's back when the class was created, took some cash and decent high end car for the day. Today we run 9.90's with our eyes closed, uphill, against the wind. Of course with the acceptance of the throttle stop (Worst thing in drag racing) these 9.90 cars are really low 8 second machines. I love the Don Davis cars but I refuse to spend that kind of money and another 35k for 1000hp drive train simply to run 9.90's @ 160+

 

Admittedly, I forgot about Montgomery's 67 and researched by looking for his Mach 1.

That said, everything I can find indicates that SWC ran the 67 Shelby Mustang on gas and later moved to the 66, which ran fuel.

 

Nobody seems to want to accept that thing change; they evolve. Racing is not exception!

To blame Montgomery, SWC or Ford for making 35-year-old body styles obsolete is folly!

Competitive nature inspired the move to smaller, more aerodynamically efficient bodies.

Presently, I hear "FOUL" almost daily on social media for NHRA discouraging ingenuity and creativity and pushing the cookie cutter car, but when it comes to those beloved Willys or Thames, etc. that wasn't in the best interest of the class.

Maybe drag racers should be only limited to Model As with Flatheads.

 

Let's get back to the title of this thread.

Early Detroit Dragway

 

I have this car. Does anyone know who had it when this picture was taken about 1970?

 

You are correct Rooman, it was not a center steer car. Also, Doug had been experimenting with a rear spoiler in the weeks before his crash at Alton. We (I raced with Al Vanderwoude) were at a race at US 30 a week or two before the crash and he was planning on adding more rear spoiler. No one knew that we had to put spoilers on the front too.

 

Johnson Bros and Nicholson AA/FA 1969 Green Valley Ft Worth, Tx

 

Thanks for getting this thread back on track guys. We can't go back 40 or 50 years and change history. I'm as upset as anyone about getting "ruled" off the drag strip, but it's done. Let's just look at the cool old pics on this thread and remember the good old days.