Hey guys, I've got a new video in my LAND SPEED LEGENDS series. This one is on Art Arfons' coolest record in his Green Monster jet car. It includes film footage and audio recordings...including a secret tape that is pretty cool!
I remember him in the tractor pulling world..every time the Truck/Tractor pulls and Monster Truck deal would come to town at the Pontiac Silverdome my Dad would take me and some friends..amazing sounds and smells...it would be so hazy in that building from blown engines , jet motors, absolutely awesome...
My best friend and I talked with Art when we attended a car show in Seattle. Really nice, friendly guy. He told us about buying the jet engine. Said he poured a slab out behind his garage, bolted down the thing and lit it off. Said his neighbors called the cops and never spoke to him again. I think he said it was in Florida. This was the same show we saw Miss Elegance, and talked with Joe Balion (spl) ?
Drag News Hello, This first West Coast trip to show the “locals” an aircraft powered dragster did wonders for spectator attention. Everyone stopped what they were doing and came to the viewing area to see this “cool” race car run. The first thing everyone noticed was that it did not have a lot of quickness off of the line and took a while to get moving. But, moving it did, sounding like the airplanes that flew over our house from the Long Beach Airport. 1959 Lions Dragstrip We were impressed with the unusual look of the Allison powered race car. The whole show brought people into the dragstrip that normally would not go. It was a show piece of a different kind. We all saw airplanes with their distinctive sounds, but no one on the West Coast ever saw a race car that had an Allison motor as the power source. This was a first for all that came to see the race car in action. (Even my dad wanted to go to Lions to see this race car in action…) In a conversation with one of the Tapia Brothers, he mentioned the event and sent me a photo. Here is the event description as posted earlier on the HAMB. Art Afrons was a hard working guy with a new race car that no others had at the time. Then a few popped up at various dragstrips in different areas of the USA. The rest, as most say, is history. I was able to film the first racing at Lions, but did not get to film the match race against the Tapia Brothers SBC powered injected FED.; Jnaki @Stan Back said: I went to Lions in 1959. If I remember correctly (probably not), Bobby Tapia's 3-carbed (gas?) Chevy dragster beat the Green Monster in eliminations. ( actually Hilborn Fuel Injected) Hey S, Sorry, I did not get back to your post with a reply. Yes, the Tapia Bros did beat the Art Afrons Green Monster. It was called: "Bobby Slays the Green Monster." In 1959 in a highly publicized match race, Bobby Tapia in the Tapia Bros SBC race car called “Almost Grown” beat Art Afrons in the big Green Monster #11. FROM THE TAPIA BROTHERS COLLECTION In my further research, I was able to get in contact with one of the Tapia Brothers. Some more information popped up that I applied to another thread on the HAMB. It is relevant here, too, since it took place at Lions Dragstrip. Sorry, I did not get any films of the actual race. But, the photograph was pretty popular, then and now. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...picture-thread.228509/page-1925#post-13040659 Jnaki I did film the Green Monster #11 at Lions during the 1959 time period when they first came out to demonstrate the huge race car. Green Monster at Lions TOTAL. I do not know why I did not film the race between the "Almost Grown" (race car name) of the Tapia Bros FED vs the Green Monster #11. It must have been an Impala race day and we did not bring the movie camera. Filmed at Lions Dragstrip in 1959, sound from Afrons in the Midwest in 1959.
Probably the one he set near 11:00pm at the end of the night at Lions. That's the coolest temp I can think of.
The Jalopy Journal
