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

I thought it might be Colton too, or Saugus...

 

Bill Hopper that partnered with Ted Cyr?

 

How about Allen, Hopper and Huff, same Hopper ?

 

I guess this could be one way to check out the bottom side of your Henry J .... I think maybe up on a rack would be less damaging to both car and driver....Car belongs to a friend of mine..Glad to say he's just fine I believe the car is or being rebuilt ...Glad your OK Gary...

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Richard Charbonneau 1970

 

Richard Charbonneau 1970

 

Richard Charbonneau from MN

 

Otto Ryssman at Santa Ana, very early '50s. Otto was one of the first to use a Crosley body for drag racing...it was pretty ratty but competitive. He later discarded the body to run as a dragster.

San Luis Obispo


Bailey Brothers at Half Moon Bay...the body work on this car got it into HRM.


Zeuschel, Fuller, and Prudhomme at Lions, '62 maybe?


Paradise Mesa, early '50s...maybe George Burkhart in the twin-tire roadster? This shot shows the evolution from street-driven to drag-only...both cars still have license plates and tail lights....which they probably kept to flat-tow.

 

Jim Mackey and I built a Gas Roadster in 1961(?) and took it down to DMV and registered it as a trailer so we could flat-tow it.

 

Cordova pits - thinking 1963

 

Different Hopper, from Arizona...Tempe, I think.

 

Marty, I don't think so, Allen, Hopper and Huff were from San Diego...that could have been the Hopper who partnered with Ted Cyr, as Dean noted...

 

EDIT: Bean Bandits wedge car thanks to member MIKE













Ford FE powered note mag out front
EDIT: from George Klass it's a Small block Ford Not FE



Isky Cams Crower U-Fab Manifold special

 

Pete Robinson

 

I can't help but notice the lack of uprights and bracing in the chassis, Pete kept his cars light ! Chassis looks a lot like a Fuller to me.

 

I think that Woody built Pete's later cars....I remember the one that ran Bakersfield in '64, so light that the rails bent...

 

Small Block Ford power, not an FE...

 

A better view...

 

Fixed it Thanks

 

Prior to around 1966 (not sure exactly when) Woody's cars had just a single upright (each side) between the front of the motor and the torsion bar. I just finished a cackle car for a couple of guys who ran a locally built Woody "clone" out of Minneapolis back in the mid sixties and they told me that they eventually had to shorten the lower frame rails to take the sag out of the car.

Roo

 

Pete was a fanatic about weight. He refused to wear anything under his driving suit other than a pair of boxer shorts, to save weight. And NHRA had to argue like hell to get Pete to add a parachute to the car (note the original photo). He finely had one made that "met the spirit of the rules" (second photo), and was about the size of a bandana...

 

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Bean Bandits rear engine "wedge" car. Powered by a blown and injected hemi. The car still exists. There was a big rivalry between this machine and Speed Sport's "Old Noisy".

 

Terry Cook hung out with Pete whenever he could, in his journalist duties. He told a story at CHHR last fall about Pete. To save weight, Pete didn't have a push bar on one of his cars, he instead had wooden, pole like extension that attached to the front bumper of his pickup that forked around a tube on the rear of the chassis. Sometimes he would leave it on when traveling to the next race. Once, he stopped for gas and got an attendant that was a jerk, so he made sure the guy washed his windshield. When the guy walked around the front of his truck, he stumbled over pole sticking out, Pete was a mischievous sort !

 

The funny thing about Pete's light weight "fetish" is that it never seemed to be that all fired important. It was one of those things (ultra light weight) that looked good on paper but in actual practice, not so much. If I recall, the typical FED Chrysler AA/FD would fall somewhere between 1250# to maybe 1400#, and I never really saw much performance difference that gave the lighter cars an advantage. Pete's early cars (SB Chevy or SB Ford) were usualy Gas Dragsters and maybe it was more critical to have a lighter car when running gasoline, but on pop, I don't know. I don't recall Pete's SOHC car being the quickest car in the field at any events, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention...

 

George I was thinking the same thing, maybe a few extra pounds helped the fuelers get a little better bite as they were all smoking the rears pretty good in those early days

DND

 

I think with Pete, it was "emotional". He was an engineer and I think he just could not bare to have any extra weight on the car, whether it made a difference or not. I heard him tell someone once that he takes ever part installed on the car and throws it up in the air, and if it comes down, it's too heavy...

 

I'm not a student of the past as many of these members here are -- but it brings to mind the dual Olds(Pontiac) fuelers of Chet Herbert's. Lotsa cubs for the weight, but as I remember -- the dual Chevies were the winners for performance. And yet, those 283s (400s?) were finally beaten with the blown 392s -- Their best victory, in my memory, was at Smokers when the win went to the best driver.

As an aside -- is it true that Lefty built the chassis for the Money Olds? And later used it for his first dual?

And the Cook & Bedwell shot is at Colton.

 

I think so too, it was just his thing and he took it to extremes. I don't believe many of his cars would even be allowed to run these days (things like obviously roll cages not withstanding), he just sometimes went too far.
He was a great, GREAT racer of the 60's, I was shocked when he was killed at Pomona. I still believe though, that his experiments cost him his life.The forces in the photos of his crash have still nor really been explained.
I don't wish to rehash his accident, it was decades ago and serves no purpose.
RIP PETE!

 

I'll be posting some later, nice to see some new members posting!

I'm sure there will be some are repeats, I don't have the time, or frankly the interest anymore to review all the threads.Certain members here have decided they hate me , but I refuse to participate is some CRAZY internet feud.
Well that's the web guys, there is always some nut to ruin it! LOL
I provide captions when I can, try to provide some perspective and real history.
There are some people that apparently feel posting pictures is some sort of contest, they MUST post as many and as fast as they can, and more than me.That's weird and silly to me. Jeeez, get a life !
Besides. I'm not sure anyone really CARES about our history anyway, except for a handful of members, a few of us OLD GUYS! LOL!!!!!