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

Cordova.

 

Not Mo-Kan---the area is not flat enough and there is too much vegetation.

Roo

 

61 rules book

 

61 rule book

 

61 rule book

 

61 rule book

 

An unpainted Fuller "Magic-Car," that might be Fuller himself next to the car. Fuller was a genius, a term we use all too frequently, but it fits Fuller. For us mere mortals, a dragster chassis was what you hung all your stuff on, but Fuller could see a chassis relative to all the forces working on it. For example, the torsion bar front was partly to take the pivot point from the engine's torque off the front spring perch on traditional cars and move it out to the ends of the torsion bar mounting tube, so to lessen the twisting of the engine on the rear tires, etc. The "magic-car" was supposed to compensate for the pinion gear trying to climb the ring gear, or something like that, things that we mortals never understood. I think Fuller built three Magic-Cars, one for Ronnie Winkle and Kaye Trapp, one for Jim Albright and company in Washington State, and I have completely forgotten what happened to the third. Corrections welcome, as always!

 

@thehazguy
Good stuff, really cool having these shots with the point of view that the captions are written in. For us that were a few years too young to have witnessed the early years of drag racing; explaining the class callouts really helps fill in the blanks.

 

Really nice pic. Can you identify who the people are?

 

Yeah, we street raced a '57 black Chevy with dealer installed fuel injection and 4-speed. We never raced Don, as the word was out. I recall that the gas station on the corner of Colorado and Kineloa was were the match races were arranged. Don used to hang out there (plain white paint) to sucker in his prey. Once the matchs were set, we would all caravan down to Huntington Dr to watch the matches, then disperse and hide like rats until the smoke cleared. We would return to Bob's for more bench racing & vanilla cokes.

 

Same place, once was a Powerine station, now Union 76...Bobs location is now a giant pet store, but it is the same place, can tell by the alley that ran behind Bobs, still there...some of us would make a kamikaze blast down the alley after leaving Bobs, until the Pasadena police stationed a cop at the end of the alley. Alley speed limit was 15mph, so if you hit 70 at the end of the alley, fine was $5.00 for every mph over speed limit. We stopped banzai-ing down the alley after that. Those were the days!!

 

Some Texas drag racing:


Maybe Caddo Mills? Olds powered, no ID




Looks like Green Valley


Lots of fancy bodywork on this New Mexico "Rowdy Willy," think this might be Green Valley, not sure, though. (And from John Bergener: I'm pretty sure the shot of the red version of "Rowdy Willy" formerly campaigned by James Butler, then sold to the Charioteers Car Club from Hobbs, NM. was taken at Hobbs drag strip, which was a former Army Air Corps WWII airfield.) I think this could be correct, as those old buildings in the background look like old Army Air Corps buildings...




Maybe an earlier version of "Rowdy Willy," think this might have been Cadillac-powered??


Scoop looks like Bobby Langley, but not sure ...


Eddie Hill's cars were always unique...


I think that this is a pretty well-known gasser, but I cannot for the life of me remember much about it except Garland Texas?? (John Bergener did know, Kelly Chadwick and Don Hardy, both of whom would go on to drag racing fame in Texas and beyond)


Early funny car days, here is the transition from stock to custom frames, T-Bar in Texas was pretty well known.


LA cars traveled to Texas and Texas cars traveled to LA...good cars and good drag strips in both states.


August "Hands" Hartkopf --- gasser legend in Texas.


Maybe San Antonio Drag Strip? Now A/S class cars are completely fabricated -- back in those days stock mainly meant stock, even down to wheels and tires (though lots of cars ran "cheater" slicks).


Can't quite read the name...this was nail-biting time, right before a race...no matter how many time you did it, you knew that FEDs could really bite you...too many bad accidents in Texas and elsewhere...but we kept on suiting up and racing.

 

Thanks, can't take all the credit. "Nitrobrother" suggested if I could add the captions it would help.

 

Black '32 is Kelly Chadwick & Don Hardy B/Gas

 

Thanks, I knew that it was run by famous Texas racers, couldn't remember who...will edit post, thanks again!

 

Glad to help, that was a good post, keep up the great work! I'm pretty sure the shot of the red version of "Rowdy Willy" formerly campaigned by James Butler, then sold to the Charioteers Car Club from Hobbs, NM. was taken at Hobbs drag strip, which was a former Army Air Corps WWII airfield.

 

Early days with the 40 Willys. Trying to figure out how to configure wheelie bars. Dick M

 

And it does! Man, I just want to say I appreciate the time and effort that you put in to scan, crop, save, upload, and post for us nitro junkies!

 

That is Terre Haute Indiana around 1959 Garland Tyler in the 32 and Wayne Artega in the J Both these guys were tough and slapped the Chevy guys around pretty hard.Those are the dats I still dream about

 

Thank you very much

 

Great pictures