Favorite Funny car as a kid.....

The '65 Harrop's Flying Carpet AWB. I called him out of the phone book in '65 when I was 11. He lived near me close to my home track Atco, where I saw him run that summer. My father drew pics of his cars for him and we still talk. I just sent him this cartoon recently.

 

This is the first true Funny Car I ever saw, was a beautiful car.

 

This is the car that has always been my favorite. It wasn't actually a funny car although it had a funny car chassis & flip body. It was run as a Altered car.

 

Hard to pick one, Pisano Bros Camaro I saw at Joes house before it even hit the strip. so always a soft spot for that one, the others are just some of many, no particular order.

 

oops... this one.

 

I was just a wee lad back in 1967-68 ... but I have fond memories of watching the DESTROYER Jeep Funny Car run @ Fremont Raceway:

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... I even spelled out the word D-E-S-T-R-O-Y-E-R on the side of my bicycle's banana seat (in those "wacky monster letter" stickers that came with a stick of gum):

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Here's a little history of the DESTROYER by Danny White (from DragList.com):

In 1966, Gene Ciambella was known as a superb racing transmission builder and a top racer in the blown supercharged gasser wars in Southern California. He then did an about face and went funny car racing. He was so serious about this that he even changed his last name in trying to lure potential sponsors. He chose the Jeep to be unique and to stand out from the crowd. Ciambella chose the last name Conway from Tim Conway who was in the television show McHale's Navy to try to lure non automotive sponsorship. The car looked more like a Jeep than the {other Jeep Funny Cars of the day}. The all-silver Destroyer had a stock back end and a stretched front end with an open engine for all the god fearing world to see.

The Destroyer {...} was home built with a roll bar that would be hard pressed to pass tech for a Super Pro car today. Conway drove the car out in the open wind in a ram rod straight driving position, and drive he did. The car was a major player in 1967 when it ran consistently. The car would wheelstand sometimes and act up due to bad aerodynamics. It also had the usual automatic transmission problems of the day. The car was the most successful Jeep funny car of all time. The Destroyer won many match races and open races over the best that Southern California had to offer. But the Jeep was just a flash in the pan. Conway soon had a new Firebird in 1968. He got rid of the Jeep but the new last name stayed. Conway would later go to fight the Corvette Curse in the early seventies while gathering more wins.

The Destroyer was sold to SoCal racer Ken Coleman in 1968. Coleman ran the car under his own name in local funny car match races, mostly at Irwindale and Orange County. He got the car to run 8.20's before money constraints got the best of him. Ken Coleman went bracket racing for much of the next decade, winning consistently in local Super Pro/Bracket 1 action. He won way more money with the Jeep than he paid for it!​

 

Very Nice Colection Rusty...!

(Kosty defected from East Germany)

This I also was told - But the story I got was he escaped in a hot air balloon...!!

Either way - to cool...!!!

 

When i was a kid i had a poster of a black 79 or 80ish trans am called The Sting owned by Larry Coogle on my bedroom wall so that was my first favorite funny car.
I searched online to find a picture of it but found none.
The same poster now hangs in my shop framed.

 

I worked for Kosty back in the early 70's on his FC. Kosty was a Bulgarian refugee who escaped to the US with his family in a hail of bullets from behind the Iron Curtain in 1959. Kosty and his brother Luben built a bullet proof car

 

Both versions of Jack Chrismans' 64/65 comet. Kinda started the whole thing!!!

 

SHOWTIME for sure

 

I believe it was a 1929 Caddy, that they armor plated with concrete.

 

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Definitely any and all of "Jungle Jm" Liberman's cars! I wasn't a kid - I was in my 20's back the early 70's - when "The Jungle" (along with the immutable and gorgeous "Jungle Pam"!!!!) would come up and match race at Dragway Park in Cayuga Ont. at least a couple of times a year. I wouldn't have missed their shows for all the money in world! All I can say is "Ya' had to be there". Those that remember will know what I'm talking about. Long live 'The Jungle' - may he rest in peace.

Mart3406
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Don the Snake Prudhomme