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

Hey Dave,

Somewhere in that Kolb history was the famous "crab claw" flames on a white roadster owned and run by Leland Kolb and Fritz Voight.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ite-and-the-blue.1068068/page-5#post-13651780

Also, this might be the white roadster at Lions in 1958-60 prior to the "crab claw" flames.


Interesting total history from Leland Kolb. He was one respected racer that we saw racing a myriad of drag cars at Lions over the years we were there. Thanks for the new information.

Jnaki
mysterious white altered full body roadster.

 

The "tonto" cover and wheel opening skirts look to be last minute at-track mods to pass tech inspection common in street roadster classes.

 

Hey D,

That Leland Kolb Roadster is not a street roadster. It is a full on Modified Roadster that was classified as an Altered Roadster until they lumped all modified roadsters into the Altered Classes later on in the 60s. If it were a street roadster, it is missing street legal stuff and the motor is where the driver should sit, like on a street roadster. This modified roadster is an FED with a roadster body in place.

Jnaki
It certainly would not be in the same class of street roadster as your cool roadster.

 

Yeh j, I actually wasn't going to call out S/R but I have seen mention many times of tech issues over the years and guys scrambling to appease the tech guy.
I am a late 60's drag fan so don't know all the earlier classifications.

 

At some point (58 or 59) Leland punched 2 holes on the sides of the injector scoop.....
the blower whine was extreme. I remember my dad recording several cars from the finish
line at Famosa and the whine was audible clear from the start.

 

Good question...it has me stumped...I'm thinking that it came from something, not hand-formed, but I sure can't figure out what it was.

 

Great pictures, as always! The photo of the car with the flames was taken at Colton in 1955, when the SCTA briefly tried sanctioning drag racing. So the white roadster is not Leland's. I'm wondering it it was Jerry Norek's A/R? Here it is in white, but later with an orange frame and lettering...I'm not sure, though? In '58 it was a dark color, but I think it was white later (?)

 

Looks reminiscent of the nose from a
WW II practice bomb.

 

That whine turned into a scream in later years with larger blowers often running 30-40 % overdrive. I use to love hearing next pair of cars coming thru traps towards us as we came back up return road, the blower scream would oscillate with ever imperfection in track. Something I couldn’t even hear in car I was driving during a pass because of exhaust noise.

 

Kalitta

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This was on the cover of Popular Science magazine
December 1963.
I think it would depend on what there definition of "Crazy"
is.
Sitting in a car with all that engine in front of you and all that rubber on each side of you , your nuts resting on a housing with gears spinning around inside ad the zoomie tubes aimed at your face.....crazy?....maybe so...
priceless....definitely.
My rail had a sticker on the rear end housing that said
"Bullet Proof".....almost. made me feel alot better.

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LOL ….. What would have worried me the most was possibility on a hot oil nitro mixed fire in my face , at least the funny cars had some thin aluminum between you and engine.

 

D. A. Santucci...

 

That's Rapid Red Lang in the seat...few knew that Red drove Ingenue...but just once!

 

Hello,

Nice set of photos of one of the most unusual race cars in the 1959-60 era, the Warren-Colburn twin motor FED. Where ever it was, it drew a crowd and the performance was pretty outstanding. We were fortunate to see the team from the Bakersfield Smokers group down at Lion’s Dragstrip one year. Then, when my brother and I went up to the Bakersfield Smokers March Meet in 1960, we saw the twin in action again.

Don’t blink… the action is fast as was the FED race car. Warren/Colburn at Lions 1960 and the March Meet in Bakersfield 1960.

Jnaki

We have seen all different two motor FED race cars, but this was one of the builds from the early days. A 671 hemi and a Stromberg carburetor powered Chevrolet motor. What a combination… then set up for “More power!”

An excerpt from a previous post:

We were at Lions in early 1960 in between racing our SBC Willys in B/Gas. We had just completed the SBC with 6 Strombergs and were trying to get it competitive in this class. It was fun, but the competition was pretty tough in B/Gas.

While I was wandering around between rounds, I saw this most unusual dragster lining up in the pits staging lane. (A 671 hemi in back and a Stromberg/SBC in front.) No one else had that unusual combo at the time. We were interested because of the Strombergs on the SBC motor. The 6 Stromberg motor in the Warren Colburn Twin looked similar to our first SBC non supercharged motor.
Warren-Colburn Twin at Lions 1960

 

Big Al...currently at the Garlits museum.

 

Big Al...one my favorites, mostly Big Al l ,when it was still a steel body.
Then Big Al ll being of fiberglass body, said to be the first fiberglass flopper funny car ,and the first multiple disk clutch in a drag car.
The story behind Big Al is a interesting one, from its start and through the innovations and different owners , show car , competition car, its history and the owner builders stories are very interesting stuff, nise too see the car is still around.

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Here's some shots of some other drag car's from the "lets try this" years.

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Then you got the "Ass Draggers"


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A few I run across online, not all are in motion but cool shots anyways.

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What was this guy thinking, when he installed that raised front flat panel over engine to force as much air as possible against that flat firewall? …… Maybe experiment in anti-streamlining.

 

Pretty strange place for an unsupported roll bar too...
MAYBE...there's a hidden support in there at the cowl.!?



Mike

 

Its good to see that they mounted the roll bar in a way that keeps that engine cover/air scoop thing from hitting the driver in the head when it lifts off once the car gets up to speed.

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One flat tire and he's driving a snowmobile!

 

This is a good shot....its nice too see a drag racer take time out for a photo shot...and apparently there's someone wanting a autograph or something and the driver is politely making a jester that he will be with them in "one moment"... very nice.

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Or not....anyways .
Here's some motion shots.

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And some that could get something in motion.

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Smoke'm if you got'm .

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