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

Ha! Looks like a gathering of the little bastards indeed. Keep looking for my dad in the background of these shots. I remember being pointed in the direction of their house off of Cedar Hills Blvd.

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Help, I am trying to put a short video here. I know its in my video file. But for some reason I can't move it here. Any ideas??

 

Put it on YouTube and paste it here.

 

Can still 'smell' it at times.

 

History of Ron"Big Yons" Johnson's dragsters. In HIS words

"Legs Under" owned by Big Yohns back in the 60's. Can you spot the clutch pedal?
A very famous "Legs Under" dragster built by Kent Fuller was the Stellings & Hampshire Red Stamp Special.



Before I got my first car, Arvy Mack, part owner of The Big Wheel Auto Stores bought this car from Tommy Ivo in the fall of 1962. It ran with a 454 Chrysler on gas normally. Arvy at various times ran an Enderle Barndoor, a Hillborn 4-port and a Slot by Scott.

At our urging Arvy put Hillborn Stack Injection on it for the World Series in Cordova in 1963 and tried to run as a B/FD with 90+ % Nitro.

However, it was a 9 to 1 gas motor and wouldn't fire much of a load so that was a one time only experiment.



A/Gas Dragster 1963




On Gas Blazing the Slicks.




Match Racing on Gas in 1963 Note "dualie" in far lane.




Boy, Big Yohns, you sure moved the fuel tank higher or is it loose? Big Yohns says that is because of the Slot by Scott injector it liked gravity feed.




For 1964 Arvy built a 392 Fuel Motor and added the nose piece. He only ran it a few times, once was at Cordova for a match race with the Guzler.

The car made an abrupt right turn each run, right off the line. Arvy parked the car when he got home and I took it over the next year.





Mid-season we had a really bad clutch explosion and sawed the car almost in two. No one was hurt. We repaired the car and stretched it about two feet from original I think 112" to 130 something. Best e.t. was a very low eight second and we ran about 198 best, never could quite squeeze a 200 out of it.

The engine was a 392 + .030 with an Enderle Barndoor/Isky Cam etc. I don't think we ever ran much over 90 percent.

Ran the same rods, pistons etc. all season, so we weren't leaning on it very hard. This was my first effort to actually run a car and do all the maintenance myself. I kept the car at home and did everything with no help during the week.

Doug mixed fuel etc. at the track. Normal Top Eliminator money was $100, so my main objective was to run as hard as I could without breaking anything. Hoover was the Big Frog in our small pond in 1965.




This is the Ivo-Pepmuller Car when I owned it. We ran under the name of The Big Wheel. I only have one or two shots of it during my ownership. Doug Paton was the driver and we ranthe car during 1965.



Continued below

 

Over the winter of 1965-66, my friend Lyle Haley found a uncompleted car while visiting California Here are two photos of the car as it looked when he located and bought the car for me for $1,200

The chassis was a RCE small block car. I bought block, crank and heads at a local Chevy dealer. The car was not finished until June of 1966. We raced it at Minnesota Dragways, Winnipeg Canada,
Fargo/Moorhead and Rockford IL.



We finally got a few 200 mph runs with mid seven second e.t's. I don't remember any specific times.
We were the last entrant into Mickey Thompson's 200 MPH club.




"Doug Paton drove this car as well as the Chrysler car the year before. He and his wife Beth, and I and my first wife Joan, were the track crew. Joan drove the push car. Mid season Denny Preuss joined us as a crewmember."





The car was fun to run and we ran it all year on the same rods and pistons too. We simply had no money for spares, so I didn't have even a spare rod and piston. We ran 95% and up in this car with about 40 degrees in the mag and as I said it would.



My driver, Doug Paton, moved to California in the fall of 1966 and I wanted to run the car once more at Rockford.

Vern Anderson agreed to drive. On the first run, we lofted the blower and Vern got oiled in. He couldn't find the chute release and was disoriented, it went off the left side of the strip but he thought was off the right side. So he kept steering left to get back on the strip and kept going further off the track.

He crashed badly and virtually destroyed the car. I never even tried to fix it, however I gave what was left to Doc Halladay (Telstar) and he and Jerry Finn revived it and ran the following season.

After the crash during the 66-67 winter , I sold what was left of the motor to Ky Michaelson, who later became the Rocket Dragster Impresario. It ran 200 and 7:50's, but we kept it a little rich.



Continued below The RAT Motor cars continued

 

Tom Hoover told me that a buddy of his, Keith Peabody had bought Zane Schubert's small block Chevy RCS car, but had no scratch for a motor.

I met with Keith and we decided that I would build a motor and put in his car and he would drive.

The car was painted Black by Jon Kosmoski owner of House of Kolor. His shop burned down and our aluminum body panels were somehow not damaged.

This is the ex-Zane Shubert/ Herbert Cams RCS car. Zane was the first to go 200 with a "Belly Button Motor" with this car. If the small block was a Belly Button Motor, I hesitate to think what the Big Block Motor might be. Anyway, Keith "The Pea" Peabody was driving and we had a 427 Chev in it, our second Big Block car.



I built another 427 with parts from the local Chevy dealer. This time we ran some new stock HiPo rods too.




We ran it mostly on about 90% and toyed with 200 every run but seldom got there. It was a mostly stock engine, with stock crank and rods, 4-bolt block, MT Wedge Chrysler pistons of some sort
and basically stock heads.

We ran a roller cam, but I can't remember whose, the lifter galleries were drilled for a half hole for roller guides. Did more than one cam grinder have this style of indexing in 1967? It was really light, just over 1100 pounds.

It looks like The Pea was experimenting with a little clutch slippage. The trailer rig in the background is Jim Lutz's deal for his and partner Myron Lundbergs factory backed Olds fuel funny car.




That's me standing on the side of the track with my hands in my pockets.



We got the car together late in the spring and ran at Minnesota Dragways a couple of times and then decided to go to Union Grove for their big Memorial Day blowout.

We got there and every touring pro in the country was there. There were about 30 cars trying for 16 spots. Garlits, Schwartz, Kallitta, Hoover, Robinson (all three with cammers), The Greek, The Guzler, and about 23 more hitters, and us.



We decided to put 97% in it, 40 in the mag and sharpen it up a little with the jetting. One run, we get in or blow it up and watch, or go home. Hoover volunteered to come up to the line and set the barrel valve.

We had 2" headers on it and it was loud, I mean really loud and sharp. Peabody sat there waiting for Tom to come up to the motor and just as Tom reached out with the wrenches, Peabody whacked it.

Hoover came off the ground and turned around and came back to me and shook his head up and down and we waved Peabody to the starting line.

We ran in the right lane and the car went like an arrow and really hauled a--, but Peabody, not being a featherfoot, busted the throttle pedal mount and went over centerline.

When he couldn't get off the throttle he touched the clutch and the motor blew and oiled him.



From the starting line we saw a huge dust cloud after the cars cleared the trapsnd the announcers went nuts. We took off in a hurry, remembering Vern's crash from the year before. When we got to the car it was in the left lane, but the chute was gone from the shrouds, no cloth at all, just the shroud lines.

Peabody was pretty excited and babbling about weaving around and leaning this way and that and steering into the lean. I just looked at the motor and wrapped what was left of the chute on the car and we pushed around to the return road.

The car that had run the left lane was there and the guys were unwrapping our parachute from their front tire. It turns out that Peabody crossed the center line to the left and the car in the other lane ran into our parachute which wrapped up in the tire and pulled the other car into the back end of our car.

The other driver apologized for hitting our car. I was incredulous, "what do you mean, hitting our car?" He pointed to the seat in our car and it was dented, and he said he hit us there and then went on past our car.

It was a pretty quiet ride back to the pits, where the first person we saw was Jerry Finn, a buddy of mine, formerly of the Finn, Manke, Halladay "Padded Cell" top fueler.

Jerry told Peabody he had been coming in the entrance road just as we ran and saw everything.
He said that was the greatest job of driving he had seen. He said that after the car spun around when the other car hit us, at about 190 mph, the way Peabody guided the car out through the light posts lining the track and then around and back through the posts and onto the track simply beat anything he had ever seen at a dragstrip.

Peabody and I were speechless. I looked at Peabody and he said he had already told me about not being able to see, and when the car leaned he steered that way and when it leaned the other way he steered that way. He had no idea where he was or what he was doing. I decided then and there that I didn't want to do this any more. That was the last run we made as a fueler.

The year before, Vern Anderson had broken his back in the accident at Rockford, now this. It was too much.





We decided to finish the year racing, but as Top Gas so I built another 427 for gas. We lightened everything we could lighten, and at best with cast iron block and heads we weighed 1080 full of water, oil and gas. Peabody repainted the car yellow and green stripes.

Zane took all the weight off that he could when he was running 200 with a small block. There wasn't any torsion bar inside the front frame tube. The torsion bar arms were bolted directly to the frame tabs. No Suspension.

It had a Halibrand non-quickchange championship rear end with a tube axle and one brake assembly on the right side. On gas we had Donny Hampton prune the blower case and trim the manifold. It had an aluminum can with no liner.

One time we followed Ron Colson onto the scales with his Stiletto car and we were like 30 pounds lighter, he was incensed. He had titanium bolts and had drilled everything on his car for lightness.




We never thought of the Surfers trick of running without an idler pulley by picking belt and pulley sizes to just fit, but we couldn't have run a bigger front pulley than we did.
It already hit the track during shutdown and we used a dolly to tow the car around cause the big block was about two inches longer than the small block and the dump angle was so severe that the blower pulley almost touched the ground at rest.

We went to Cordova for the World Series of Drag Racing the weekend before Labor Day and as luck would have it, we drew Billy "The Kid" Scott first round. Peabody was with him until we hit the bump in the bad lane that we were relegated to by the slower e.t. Back into the trailer and go home.

We set the track gas dragster e.t. and top speed records at the last scheduled race of the season at Minnesota Dragways Labor Day weekend. Something like 7:85 and 187 mph.

One of the stock rods snapped and put a hole in the block. On the way home I decided I was done. I told Peabody we'd unload the car at his place and he could pay me something someday for what was left of the motor. I towed the trailer home and sold it over the winter to Denny Darragh.

I still have the toolbox and some photos. And the memories, ah,the memories. Big Yohns

P. S. One day about two years later Peabody called me and said he had some money for me for the motor. There is honor among racers. B. Y.

 

Hey Gabe

Can smell the Beach and ' Taste the Chili Tamale's ' plus a cup of coffee would warm you right up when the fog started rolling in ' Priceless '

DND

 

That was some good read'n Loudbang.

 

,i

Don,
Can't forget the faint smell of benzene hanging in the air most of the time as the air got cooler (the stuff that makes nitro smell so good, makes your eyes water & choke you all at the same time, also priceless). That's one thing nobody can ever take away from so many. Pretty cheap entertainment I'd say.

 

The gift that keeps on giving!

 

The Ron Pellegrini story.

Some of you may have even seen him and thought you were watching TV Tommy IVO??? Read on for the rest of the story LOL

A young Ron Pellegrini sitting in his 462" Olds powered B/GD in 1956/57. Ron won 63 races out of 69 and was runner up in two more. Not bad for an Olds... Ron ran four Stromberg carbs on the Olds, the car turned 123.63mph



Ron raised his own mph record to 125mph at 11.40 with the big 462". Olds July 18th, 1958 issue of Drag Times. then later that day blew the engine.




1958 and Ron's still winning with the Olds, setting Top Time with a blast of 130 mph at the AATA Championships in Central Michigan. Still think the early cars weren't swoopy, maybe the inspiration for the Hot Wheels Dragster.



Ron's steppin' it up in 1959 and has added injectors to the Olds, the car ran in the mid 140's with a high of 149 mph. The front wheels are actually OFF THE GROUND. Nobody called them wheelies yet LOL.



Ron was associated with the Speedcraft Speedshop in the late 50's and early 60's. This is their shirt patches.




Here's a photo of the front of the injected Olds. The weed burner headers were a nice touch and helped to keep the crowds at bay.



SWITCHING TO BUICK POWER



In the late summer of 1960, Ron and four friends purchased the Twin Buick from Tommy Ivo for $5,000.

This produced a long term friendship with TV Tom. Ron would later campaign two other cars for Ivo, the in-Line Twin Buick and the world famous 4 Buick Dragster, The Showboat.

Ron's parters in the Twin Buick were Bob Gardella, Pete Gizzo, Reno Bartolini, and Don Wilson.
Reno, Pete and Don sold their share to Bob and Ron shortly after the purchase.

Ron said that some weeks they ran the twin twice and the four engine twice at four different tracks.. Busy schedule.

Ron raced both the 4 engine Buick and the twin until he sold the Twin Buick to Billy Herndon of Tampa, FL in 1963.



NOTE THE 6 PIPES between the engines. This has been pointed out many times even here at the HAMB but you would miss it if you weren't looking and counting them LOL. And the same on the 4 engine car.

Here's a close-up of the side by side fire breathing Twin Buicks. This Gas Dragster established many firsts including, first in the 8 second bracket, first to run 170 - 175 & 180 mph on pump gas.

The car was built in late 1959 by Kent Fuller and Tom Ivo. (See the Kent fuller thread)




Here's Ron with the Speed Craft Unblown Twin Buick setting two new 1320 records at Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, CA - 193.89 mph with an E.T. of 8.29 on GASOLINE




Ron booked the Twin Buick into 3 separate races and told TV Tom that the Twin Buick wasn't running to well and asked for his help. Ron sent Ivo an airline ticket and flew him back to Chicago, but he didn't tell Ivo that he was getting paid Appearance Money.

During that weekend, Ron made enough money to pay for for the Twin Buick.




Ron also used the Twin Buick to promote Car Shows that he produced in the Mid-West. The car shows gave him something to do during the winter months plus provided him some badly needed income.





I asked Ron, Who won the race with Eddie Hill? Here's Ron's answer... "Checked all the records I have and can not find the exact results. Being the type of person I am I do not remember my wins, as I expected to win them all.

I do remember my losses and I don't remember losing to the Pontiacs. I almost sound like Prudhomme.

If you notice in the picture Eddie had not mastered the slipping clutch yet, so I assume that I won.

I raced every local hero (including Garlits, with the 4 engined car) and won the vast majority. As a matter of fact I do not remember losing any.

"Last but not least, remember they are BUICKS and Eddie only had Blown Pontiacs." Ron Pellegrini



to be continued

 

This photo of the twin was taken the same day Ron raced Eddie Hill at Rodd Dragway.





A photo of the side by side Twin Buick taken the Smoker's Fuel & Gas Championship in 1962. Both TV Tom and Ron said the car was difficult to hook-up due to the tremendous torque the Buicks put out.

This photo is after Fuller lengthened the car out to a whopping 100" wheelbase.

With later model tires, a slider clutch and a 150" wheelbase who knows what the car would have turned in 1962, 7's and over 200 mph????




Ron sold the Twin to Billy Herndon of Tampa Florida in 1963. Here's a photo of the ad as it appeared in Hot Rod Magazine. Selling Price $5,000



THE IN-LINE TWIN BUICK

A nice stance of in-line Twin Buick AA/GD that Ron campaigned throughout the mid-west during the summer of 1963.

The car ran in the 8.40's at 189 mph.

Ron defeated Tony Nancy's blown Plymouth Dragster in a best 2 out of 3 match race, at the time Tony held the #1 spot on the Drag News Gas Mr. Eliminator list.




Here's a great side shot of the in-line Twin...an little known tidbit of information is that the tail of Ivo's Barnstormer AA/FD was designed for this car. It would have looked great!!!



TOURING THE SHOWBOAT FOR TV TOM

This is a great photo of the 4 motor, sans smoke, you can really see how low this puppy is. And the 12 -13? pipes between the engines.




Here's the big four Nailhead Buick's doing their thing. The car's best ET was 8.12, best mph 193+



Let's see...with a modern clutch management system, modern tires and all the latest trick stuff on 90%. What do you think the car would turn?




The old reverse wheel stand, see how the sudden drag from the big ring slot lifts the rear tires and throws Ron forward in the seat.




THE FUNNY CAR YEARS 1965 - 1967

Ron's driving a Ford T Bolt



Ron took the motor and drive line out of the Thunderbolt to use in this 1965 Mustang.




Ron ran the Mustang at Ford's proving grounds with the hopes that he would get the opportunity to build 100 cars ala Dearborn Steel and Tubing for Ford Motor Company. In his conversation with Ford's Jacque Passino, he told them the the Chrysler cars were going to be too fast for Fords existing program and that a tube chassis all fiberglass bodied car would keep them competitive.

Ron waited over the winter for Ford to make up their mind about the project. He started to book this unbuilt car, as this is how he derived his livelihood.

Ford informed Ron that they would not participate and it was lessthan a month away from his first dates (Memorial day weekend).

Over the winter Ron founded Fiberglass Ltd and made a full mustang body. He then bought the complete Dennison, Arlasky, and Knox roadster less body and put his new fiberglass body on it.

Ron said..."The first weekend the car ran over 165MPH at Detroit Dragway and the rest is history.

This was the first tube chassis, blown fuel, all fiberglass funny car. The car was not a good handler with the full body. It would carry the front end thru the lights.

One day it was two feet up going through the lights at Rockford. I thought that this was perfect traction as McKwen had not done his flying act yet. Ron O'Donell also drove the car as I wanted to make sure that its ill handling was not me."



BACK TO BUICKS

Ron states..."The 1967 Buick chassis was built by Logghe stamping and the interior by Al Bergler

An interesting side bar story is if you look at the rear quarter panel you will see the name Don Schumacher co-driver. When we first started Fiber Glass Ltd. I was looking for any sheet metal to build molds.

This young kid comes into the shop with fenders, hood and doors from a new 442 Olds that he wants to race. We got very busy and I had no time to make the molds for the Oldsmobile parts and I delayed him with unkept promises.

Finally I talked him into getting a complete car built by R & B Automotive. It was, of course, Don Schumacher.

Don rented a part of my shop for his race car operation. I had become friends with his dad, Al Schumacher, and more or less kept an eye on Don for him.

Don was fearless and had some close encounters of the wrong kind. He wanted to go from injectors to a supercharger and I was concerned for his well-being. I hoped that by offering him a ride in my car he would gain more experience with the injected car.

There was no holding back this kid and he turned out to be an NHRA Champion and father of Tony Schumacher today's NHRA World Champion."




Another story rom Ron... "The 1968 Buick chassis was built by Romeo Palamides. Romeo was now a tenant of mine at Fiberglass Ltd.and I wanted to try a narrow chassis high gear only funny car.

Romeo came up with the idea not a have the upper and lower frame rail welded to each other. He came up with uprights that had a saddle welded on one end and this rested on the lower frame rail.

The idea was to transfer weight.This car always had a funny feeling in the steering and after taking it out 4 or 5 times I was not able to keep it straight.

I had made up my mind (not to smart) that I would take the car to Rockford Dragway (100 feet wide) and that I would get I down the track or take it home in pieces.

What was happening under acceleration the frame rails were not only lifting, but also twisting ( I think ) and this caused the car to have no steering.

Luckily for me the car did a slow barrel roll on its side first and then its roof and skidded through the lights at 172MPH.

The car was bent but never bit in the pavement or went off the track.

I decided that I had to be either a businessman or race car driver and retired from driving that day."



But he wasn't finished quite yet LOL. He went on with two more funny cars that are too new for the HAMB.

 

Great history lesson LOUDBANG, you are on a roll. Made my day !

 

It has been a good find one history story just leads to looking up more of the people mentioned which leads to more and more. Still more to come

 

Thanks Loudbang,really instructive and enjoyable.

 

Boom goes the LoudBang! - Thank you, Thank you!!!

 

Earlier Ron Pellegrini .

 

Delete if need be - Ron Pellegrini Funny Car entrusted to the Reschlein and Trisch team.

 

Thanks, Loudbang!!!!

 

There is a video on you tube of the restored Super Mustang. The owner states that he found the remains of it including the fiberglass body in a junkyard in florida.

 

Loudbang. Keep those stories coming. What great history lessons.

 

Git 'er done!

 

Page 1780 will go down as one of the best pages on this thread! Great photos and reading.