Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Get Into Jocko's Streamliner Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Beautiful designs, but I don't know how true the aero was and how well it would take the current speeds on the salt, or the strip. But I would love one for the wall.
Bought some Herbert valvetrain components about 25 years ago, for my high school car ... and this 'liner was on some of the printed literature within. Thought it was cool enough to call back about just for my comments of "wowness". Whoever answered the line on the other end said "ancient history, and which one do you mean?" Basically a "what the hell do you want to know??" answer I guess. I sure didn't know. Hung up with a thankful shrug.
We've always been big fans of Jocko's 'liners. Here is his "Streamlined Dragster" from the contents of issue #28 being pushed through the pits at the 1964 Bakersfield Fuel & Gas Championships. Photo by Pete Garramone.
Always wondered if he continued with this design after it's initial success. Sure is swoopy looking!!
This is what hot ridding is all about I believe. The things like a floating clutch and overall design are really only 'allowed' to have been done in that era of time; before electronics and billion dollar teams. Owning a hot rod allows you to do these sort of things, and no other medium can say the same.
Initially it was powered by a fuel Chrysler as shown in the lead picture, first unblown (see bottom picture) and then blown...later the Allison went in...I saw it run with both engines, the Chrysler was much more exciting, he did turn an 8.35 at Riverside without smoking the tires, as most fuelers did at the time...turns out that the clutch disc was installed backwards, so didn't grab as well, so no smoke, more traction...the story was that Keith Black was there that day, and took notice...fast forward to '65 when Prudhomme won the Smoker's meet with smokeless runs...Black had him slip the clutch, replaced the discs after each run but they won...shortly after Black helped to pioneer the slipper clutch.
Here is a rare shot of Jocko's streamliner in '58, without the body and before the blower, from Don Ewald:
If you want an interesting read look up PoweRRing 3 cycle engine and you can see where Jocko's head was at.
I guess somewhere between 15-20 years ago he had some wild looking design for a new LSR car that he wanted to build. He also had a wild engine design called the power ring that he was working on.
Jocko hammered out body pieces for the 555 streamliner, and hand made some pieces for his "Power Ring" engine design. No complete car was built, and no engine was built. Jocko was living in the desert community of 29 Palms, in an old trailer. He was selling his art pieces to survive. He tried to sell his engine idea, but no money came, and the car and engine died with Jocko. Robert "Jocko" Johnson was a true free thinker. His expertise with a die grinder was second to none. His work on my SBC heads was worth over a 1/2 second in my old RPU.
Was this the same one imported into Oz by Norm Longfield and rebuilt at Ziggys? http://ziggysdesigndriven.com/jocko-liner.html There was a Street Machine feature that I recall seeing too - really grabbed my attention its a great looking machine
Such a beautiful, innovative shape. It's really a shame that his original Chrysler-powered car never got fully developed; we can only imagine what its ultimate performance might have been.
Jocko was a cool guy once you got to know him. he did build quite a few streamliners and a couple slingshot dragsters out in 29 Palms. never put a motor in them and when he was done he would use his international carryall to push them in the back yard. my mom lived next door to him so i was lucky enough to talk to him a lot.i got a early 50s dodge panel from him. i stopped at his place and hit him up about the panel and he said if you want that old piece of $hit then take it.
Whole bunch of pics here that I took a couple of years ago. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drag-cars.227101/page-5#post-8620401
Drag racers never embraced streamlining back then as the weight penalty was too high. There were plenty of serious tries at it, but none ever had any real success. Eventually they were forced to do 'air management' when speeds became high enough and the cars started displaying the propensity to taking unwanted flight.
The Jalopy Journal
