LOL @mad mikey and @loudbang if you guys keep posting these beautiful roadsters the uneducated will begin to think that altereds were bantams and Ts. LOL I am probably mistaken but if I recall my friend @RichFox ran an American Bantam Coupe at one time, maybe he will post a pic of a common early altered.
This is Jim Miles Black Magic . Rod was a crew member for Magic Muffler and I don't believe he drove any Magic Muffler car . My Dad drove the Black Magic Car for a short time he didn't like the way it handled and he couldn't see the lights well another guy drove it for a very short time and then Bill Frontuto drove it but there were two remakes of the Black Magic car the first that my Dad drove for a short time that car only raced for a short time then they made the second Black Magic. I believe the pic above is Bill in the car it's not my Dad and I know Rod Hynes became a photographer for racing so this could be his photo not sure Sent from my SM-G900P using H.A.M.B. mobile app
True. But I was discussing from a used up old memory. Beaner was right and I did post a correction. I didn't take any pictures at the drags when i had the Bantam. Only the 4 I have posted already. I built my car in the days of steel bodies and Ford frames. By the time I got back from the Army it was pretty obsolete. But we finished it and ran it anyway. Lots of fun and highly educational.
Sorry I wasn't aware that you already posted, now I got to go lookin'. It is still built the way I remember from when I was really little. Those were the good times for me. I don't remember how old I was but still in braces, the Ol' Man talked the techs into letting him make a by run with me strapped to his lap. He used to pull out the crippled kid card a lot when I was little an get away lots of chit. I doubt we went very fast but we were screamin fast to the little guy. It was a damned good time to be a little kid. I was posting from memory too, so I may be a little off on time frame and exact rules. @RichFox check your PMs, I need to pick your brain on an entirely different subject.
LOL if I had owned that coupe it would have been called the half pint coupe (or the fifth). Maybe the caguama coupe. That is one of my favorites of the oldest and bestest.
One of my all time favorites as well PnB. When you hear this monster fire up it is a life altering experience !
Sorry guys been slacking with my posting. One of my "local distractions" dropped in for a surprise visit yesterday and we spent the day "catching up" Getting hard to keep up with everybody posting cars I had planned to put up and they beat me too it. But a few today starting with "The Burkholder Brothers" history story. Some of these have been posted before but posting again to keep with the history. The story of Pete and Harry Burkholder When Harry lost his driver's license from too many speeding tickets, the idea of building a car just for racing came to be. Pete and Harry rented a garage in downtown Sacramento from car show impresario Harold Bagdasarian (Sacramento Autorama car show) and the brothers set about building the first of what would be a long line of short wheel-based altered coupes and roadsters. That first altered would come from a beautiful '34 Ford coupe that they cut up. The chopped and channeled body was set over a pair of Model A rails given to them by cousin Bob Zetz and Joe Radan. The engine was out of a '54 Olds that Pete had totaled--the result of an accident on a rainy night's drive home from work. The 354 cid Olds was bored .030 over with a 3/8" stroker crank and boxed steel rods. With a Vertex mag, 6:71 GMC blower, and Hilborn injectors, this gas altered coupe was a menace for the competition from the time it hit the strips in February 1959. February 1959 and shown here are Richard Wantz (left), Joe Radan (center), and 18 year old Harry Burkholder climbing into the race car. The "Flyin' Fox" got its name from Harold "Baggy" Bagdasarian, the Sacramento businessman who started the Sacramento Autorama. Bagdasarian was the brothers' first sponsor and "fox" was one of Harold's nicknames. The "Fox" in the pits at Kingdon (Lodi, California). The number 202 was also one of "Baggy's" favorites and Pete and Harry would use it on later race cars. The blown and injected Olds engine had to fit under the aluminum hood so the "Flyin' Fox" did not have an injector scoop. Left to right: Richard Wantz (high school buddy), Harry, and Joe Radan at Kingdon Drag Strip. The crash Pete, by now an experienced body and paint guy, kept the gas altered in fine trim while Harry did the engine and chassis work. Harry did the driving, but Pete, being older, also wanted to take a crack at it. It was late 1961 and they were racing at Vaca Valley's weekly event. Harry recalls the day with clarity, "I knew Pete wanted to try some runs. So, after qualifying the car at 144 mph, I told my brother it was his turn. We did a few practice starts on the backstretch and everything went OK. He made a good pass at 142 mph, but the war surplus chute failed to deploy. The globe valve fuel shutoff did not have a 90-degree stop and did not completely close. Pete sailed off the end of the strip on the big-banked turn and flipped three times before landing on his head. It was a damned good thing it did not go over one more time as I do not think it would have stayed in one piece. The moral of the story? If you want to build a better race car, put your brother in one and crash it." That was the end of the first altered and Pete's driving career. However, before Pete's accident, the "Flyin' Fox" was a regular at all the local tracks like Kingdon, VacaValley, Redding, and later, Fremont, competing in AA/A, eventually running a best of 9.90 at 150mph. Car totaled and pride wounded, but Pete and Harry would rebound and have a new car on the strip before the end of 1961. The Second car fiat: There were several versions of the second AA/A that Pete and Harry campaigned between 1962 and 1967. Harry designed and built the car, and Pete did the body and paint with his usual aplomb .The car was easily recognized by its large radius roll bar and leading arm torsion bar suspension. NHRA still required steel bodies on the altereds, so Pete and Harry decided to use a Fiat body. They located one in such good shape that the doors still opened. They took the engine out of the deceased '34 Ford coupe and put it in the Fiat, eventually getting down to 9.30 at mid-150s. At the time, Pete was working for Aerojet General, which was building engines for the space program. Harry, who had just married, was working for Proctor & Gamble, or "the soap factory" as he called it. They now had the resources to assemble what they called the "monster motor". Starting with the 394 cid Olds block, Harry installed a huge 5/8" stoker crank with Mickey Thompson aluminum rods and homemade (with a little help from Aerojet ) 4-bolt main caps. While the "monster motor" was being assembled, Pete and Harry joined up with another local team to race a fuel altered. In 1962, Drag News, the most popular weekly drag racing publication at the time, created a Junior Mr. Eliminator List for gas and fuel altered roadsters and coupes. Well known Sacramento racers Don Argee and Lawrence Brocchini were automatically voted No.2 onto the initial list. But, Argee and Brocchini had sold their '27 T roadster and did not have a race car to match race. Teamed up with Pete and Harry, Don Argee put his blown Chrysler engine into the Burkholder's chassis and Pete outfitted it with a '27 Ford roadster body. The car set a Standard 1320 record for fuel altered roadster of 170.77 in December 1962. It also won #3 Eliminator at the 1963 March Meet, and retained the Junior Mr. Eliminator number two spot as Argee-Sorenson (Don)-Burkholder Bros. for most of 1963. The team disbanded in 1964 right around the time Pete was drafted into the army. Harry continued to race the Fiat on a limited basis while his brother was in the army. While completing his military service Pete's enthusiasm for drag racing started to wane. He even talked about selling out so he could buy a Corvette to drive across the country after he got out of the service. But, when Pete found out that Harry had set a new track AA/A record at Fremont (157 mph) all such talk about quitting racing dissipated. Invigorated, Pete now could not wait to be discharged and get back out to the drag strip. The first fire up of altered number two outside B&M Automotive in Sacramento; left to right: Dave Gilcrest, Don Tognotti, no ID, Pete, and Gilbert Lyons. Harry: "While stopping for dinner after a race at Fremont, a potographer followed us into the restaurant and asked to shoot the car; this photo was taken at McKinley Park in downtown Sacramento." CAR THREE The next rendition (number 3) of the altered was built as a roadster instead of a coupe. NHRA finally allowed fiberglass bodies, so Pete and Harry put a Bantam body on their chassis stuffed tight with the "monster" Olds engine. They named it "Outcast" because at the time NHRA was not sure what they wanted to do with the altered classes and a lot of the teams just felt like that-outcasts. Pete was back home from the army and working at Aerojet General again. AJ had fabulous machining facilities and let the brothers use their shop to build a trick set of heads for the Olds engine. The heads were furnace brazed in the exhaust port area, enlarging and separating the paired center ports into matched exhausts. Likewise, Harry was allowed to use P&G's machine shop after work to make 1/8" offset valve guides so the larger valves could fit. It took many hours of grinding to make everything clear, but in the end, the hefty Olds had the lungs it needed to flex its muscles. A 24-year-old Harry Burkholder posing with the Bantam for an article that appeared in the August 1964 issue of Drag Racing Magazine. This photo was taken by Leland Norene at the rear of the Safeway store at 24th and Florin Rd. The "Outcast" started out running AA/A on gasoline, but now and then Pete and Harry got the itch to try a more potent combination. Fuel altered racing was becoming extremely popular, so the brothers decided to pour in some alcohol and see if they could make some of those 16-car shows Fremont was hosting. With methanol and 10% nitromethane in the tank, that big hefty 470 cid Olds engine purred like a lion after dinner. The Bantam qualified for every race they entered and went several rounds most of the time. Nevertheless, it was time to move forward. So, after five years of racing, Pete and Harry sold the chassis and Bantam body. The Bantam at Sacramento Raceway; Harry: "Sacramento Raceway was our home track. We ran most of their events and held the track record for AA/A". This was another photo done by Leland Norene and used for the Drag News cover for the Aug. 19, 1966 issue. This was the original paint scheme applied by Pete after his return from military service. Running AA/GA, the Bantam set a track record of 9.35-165.44 at Fremont in 1966. The Outcast in action at Fremont Raceway; Pete and Harry ran the Bantam on fuel just a few times and only when the track offered a 16-car fuel altered program. That is all I have if you can add more or any corrections to their story post away.
Another long but good history story. Jim Herbert story past one: The altereds. Again some of theses may have already been posted but trying to keep the history in order. By the late 1950s, Jim was living in Sacramento and began frequenting the 1/8 mile drag strip at the old state fairgrounds. His first race car was a 1934 Ford coupe with a stroked 283 cid Chevy that he ran in B/A class. From there, he joined forces with life long friend Ted Taylor to race an injected Olds-powered dragster. Jim had so much fun driving the slingshot that he knew right then he would always be a dragster guy; "The Lizard" had found his niche in drag racing. Despite his growing passion for the sport, Jim had other concerns that needed to be addressed. Herbert's first race car, a '34 altered coupe. Recently married to his high school sweetheart and eager to start a family, Jim knew he would need to continue his education. With that in mind, he enrolled at California State University Sacramento and would eventually graduate with a degree in business administration. After a stint as general manager of several Tognotti Speed Shops, Jim used this experience and his business savvy to open Jim Herbert's Performance World in the early 1970s. All the while, he continued to race, sometimes with a dragster he owned or as a hired gun, but always a nitro-burning, supercharged, front-engined dragster. That was his short history in altereds now continue to part two the dragster years go here (See part two the dragster years here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/dragsters-galore.843377/)
A good batch from you guys today and some good historical info added. Some from me. The business was now successful, so Dave Bracket decided to build his own Fuel Altered. He built a chassis and front end, and wanted to put a Messerschmitt body on the car, but NHRA said no. It was around this time in late 1966, that Dave was drafted into the Army, so he gave the fuel altered chassis to R.T. Reed, who got together with Leon Fitzgerald and finished the car. It was called "Pure Heaven II" and was one of the most successful Fuel Altereds ever. The car has been restored and is now in the NHRA Museum in Pomona, Ca., and Leon Fitzgerald has been inducted into the NHRA Hall of Fame. The late Gary Hazen drove Top Fuel and Funny Cars but his first love was the AA/FA class. Hazen's Panic AA/FA was a favorite of Southern California fans. Hazen and I did a huge smokey burnout in the pits at Irwindale for the cover of Popular Hot Rodding. The roadster dug two holes through the pavement on the burnout. Oh yeah, the track was closed that day for repaving, so we used the pits. I guess they could fill in those two holes with the left over pavement from the track. There was a junior and there was a senior Groundshaker and junior was the Fuel Altered. On any given weekend you might find Glen Way, Tom Ferraro or Gary Read at the controls. It was short, had gobs of horse power produced by Bill Demerest. I was a big fan of this AA/FA. If you need to know, Groundshaker senior was the team's Top Fuel car driven by Gary Read. Okay, here "Rapid" Roger Garten is making a two wheel pass in the Tocco, Harper and Garten AA/FA at Irwindale. This car was a rolling test vehicle for Bishop & Buehl race components. The Horchar Brothers Super Thief AA/FA had an almost funny car type suspension but it still didn't help with handling. The Thief was a handful for driver Chuck Horchar. The only Fuel Altered ever to run down Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood belonged to Bob Hankins. His Blue Blazer AA/FA was there for a photo shoot for your truly. Bob parked his rig a few blocks from our photo sight, unloaded and fired up the AA/FA and then calmly drove the AA/FA to our photo sight. Yes, it was at night and yes, he was on the city street. A legend in Fuel Altered wars, the one and only Gabby Bleeker and his 392 Hemi powered Bantam. This Midwest based racer was racing fuel burning roadsters before the class even existed. The world's fastest Glassman, Dennis Geisler and his Instant T AA/FA. Geisler was one of those AA/FA owner/drivers that held on until the money diminished in the AA/FA class and then he went Funny Car racing. The world's fastest and quickest pickup truck was The Mob AA/FA. Here driver Ed Moore lines up against Howard Haight in Don Wilson's AA/FA at Irwindale about thirty eight years ago.
Even more The first Rat Trap really looked like a rat trap. George "The Stone Age Man" Hutchinson was at the controls here at Orange County International Raceway. Then came the all new super Trick Rat Trap driven by "Dangerous" Danny Collins. This Rat Trap was one of the best of the show and go race cars. Fast forward about 35 plus years and Ron Hope has kept the spirit of Don Green's Rat Trap alive with his recreation of this very cool AA/FA. Before Rat Trap was this one below: Pipins and Green T pickup fuel altered. The car itself was Butch Pipins', and the motor was Don Green's. This thing really thundered, and showed some of the power that Green was to later show more with the Rat Trap cars. Not quite the style points with this one, however. This run appears to be starting as a bit more than Pipins wants, as the butterflies are already closing with the front wheels in the air, heading to the left a bit and smoking the rear tires. Who says that the fuel altereds used to be a handful to drive? A Fuel Altered favorite in the late 1960's was the Beaver Hunter AA FA. Here it checks out the bite at Orange County International Raceway. Glassman, Dennis Geisler and his Instant T AA/FA It was the only Fuel Altered I ever saw with an all steel body. Here is the Thurmond Brothers Wild AA/FA with Butch Thurmond at the controls sideways at Orange County International Raceway. Lawrence Brocchini & Don Argee Yes I know it's been posted but this one is BIGGER The Stone Crude Bantam was owned by Martha Lippard and driven by Dave Christensen. The car was part of the four car East Coast injected fuel altered circuit The Magic Muffler Fuel Altered squirts up into the air. Photo by Tom West Unknown fiat at Fremont
Wowza I've stated more than once here that if I ever had the opportunity to take a ride in a time machine, it would be programmed to return to those heddy days of AA/FA racing. The air had to be rich with testosterone. Long live the fuel altered.
Wow, some great stories and photographs folks. This is like a book on Altereds that has no final chapter. I hope.
Some 554 pics. This car had a lot of versions as it evolved, and changed over the years as a drag strip warrior.
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