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

I remember this car. Bob's Muffler from Bakersfield maybe?

 

As i understand from talking to my former PS driver/owner a new rear end costs 250 k and this unit cuts another 5/100 et... This is (rumours to me) the reason for WJ parking his cars.

 

Damn... That Willy's looks VIOLENT in that shot...

 

I called WJ after he talked about that on the ESPN show. The back story is that someone took a 400 lb block of titanium and machined a rear end housing (with brackets, shock mounts etc) out of it (380 lbs of chips). Most of the cost was in the machining although the original chunk of Ti was not cheap either. On top of that the Penske shocks are $20K per pair.
The main reason that WJ and Kurt are not running is lack of funding. I did spend some time with him at Cordova's World Series event the weekend before the US Nationals and he said that they are getting closer horsepower wise but still need a sponsor to cover the overhead of getting to the events.
None of this is really relevant to this thread but gives you an idea of what happens when millionaire team owners will spend whatever it takes to win a championship.
Back to our originally scheduled programming--race cars that you built yourself and had fun with.

Roo

 

A little off topic but cool. Someone has the old "Chevoom" funny car.

 

Keep the great pics comin' guys. Thanks for taking the time to post great shots of an era where cubic $ didn't own (all of) the sport yet. One of my favorite threads...

 

Wow! Just one of those cars everybody would love to have!

 

details, link?

 

I think that this was an early version of the Butler and Welch RED from Reno, later called "the Shoehorn." They started out with this flathead car with bungee cords used to suspend the front end...later went to a blown Chevy in an updated version, sponsored by an auto glass company, painted red...picture below

 

400 lb block of titanium? No big deal? That's $30.00 a pound x 400lbs. That can't be right. it has to be more than $30.00 right?

 

Safeway Sandblasting Ardun-powered Willys C/GS coupe on the right...these guys ran against sbc powered gassers but at one point held the 1320 Record for their class...later the motor went into a CC with a chopped Fiat body, Norm Wilcox drove...thanks for .posting!

 

Yes, this is Half Moon Bay...notice the T-coupe behind it, with the Dodge or Desoto grill...was featured in HRM, I think...I never ran HMB but spectated there when I was in the Navy...great track but short shutdown area