I used to go out there for both the drags and road races before Hawaii Raceway Park (sadly now closed) was built. It was just an abandoned airfield in the middle of nowhere.
Hey Ryan, Nice historic post of the dragstrip in Hawaii. Those Cortopassi Brothers (Ed & Roy) went all over the place with that cool looking dragster. It was one of the first full streamlined bodies used for drag racing. But, they not only raced at dragstrips, they set an international kilometer record on a full speed run at March Field Air Base runway. The photo above is with a injected SBC motor. In 1957, they were invited to go to Hawaii for the racing there. From a 1958 Drag News article. Jnaki We used to see the news and photos that were in the local Drag News paper about the exploits of the “Glass Slipper.” It was an impressive drag racing build that also won at the numerous car shows on the Westcoast back then. Can't go wrong with those cool Moon Discs...
I like the purple 46'ish Ford sedan twisting and turning with the smaller sports cars,,,what an effort!
My Missus has a close friend in Hilo and I am not a big Atlas guy but one day I did have a look on the Globe though and is that place way the heck out there... The Hotrod Custom movement...Top Notch...I really enjoy Hawaii's contributions to The Big Picture...and thoroughly enjoy any history shared...Thanks for contributing to all sharing the good stuff 'Hao Wela'...
@typo41 said "I like the purple 46'ish Ford sedan twisting and turning with the smaller sports cars,,,what an effort!" I looked at that car too. May have been a very early Volvo P444. More likely to mix with the others, and yes, they almost became somewhat competitive...
Yeah, definately looks like a PV444. Wouldn't even have guessed there were any Volvos on Hawaii, wonder if there was a Volvo dealership there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_PV444/544
Hawaii had a lot of active duty military. It was common for them to buy cars in Europe and keep them when they changed duty stations. Just barely out of the HAMB era (1966), there was a Austin Healey Sprite with an Alfa Romero twin-cam drive train that dominated the local autocross scene. Built by a young US Air Force officer, based out of Plattsburgh Air Force Base (NY). He bought the drive train new in Italy and brought it back in the belly of a B-52. My used 1962 PV544 could not stay close to his times.
The Jalopy Journal
