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

AND, since you got me going on the Coke tour, Fred Goeske's Road Runner was (to me) one of the coolest cars! This brick like full size 'glass RR was just....KOOL!

 

To show the variety of chassis, here's a 67 Jay Howell frame in the Ramchargers Dart. It's a pace frame, ladder type, but pretty different from the Logghe design. there were lots, Fletchers were also popular.

 

Gary,
Thanks for the EXCELLENT info you've been posting.
Did Jay Howell build the 70 Ramchargers car?

I think that's Kelly Chadwick in the far lane of the Goeske pic above. Goeske did the best burnouts of em all at Amarillo. Started way behind the line and burned about halfway through the 1/4. Seems like he was in the finals against the Chadwick driven Steakley car.

 

I don't know who built the 70 Ramchargers Challenger, Look at the full size 68 Mr Norms car roll cage and project the chassis rails. Another car by Jay, who incidentally, was an employee of the Logghe Brothers who opened his own shop.

 

And...look at the Lutz & Lundberg Olds, raced 66-67 at least. This car actually had athe Olds/Gm frame, though lightened. They ran heads up with guys like Jack Chrisman and Doug Thorley! Fields could vary as much as a 1'5 seconds in those days, most of the running was match racing at local tracks anyway. Don't forget there were only four National events then, and guys got paid mostly for showing up and running best of three races.

 

If they used the GM frame, they must've also converted it to leaf springs (in rear) ?

 

Guess so! Read about it here. the Car Craft article featuring the car.

http://www.oldsmobility.com/old/lutzlundbergcc1266.htm

 

Another perimeter stock type frame car

 

Ok, one last post on chassis. Take a look at Dick Jesse's 67 GTO. and this was a full year after the world beating Logghe Mercury Comets came on the scene!

 

This is actually a year earlier, 1966, and it's Don Westerdale in the Ramcharger's AA/FD vs. Val La Porte in the All American AA/FD.

 

Despite all the extraneous tubing, and swiss cheesing, it doesnt make up for the fact that the car is based in part on a OEM chassis. And yes, Dick Fletcher built chassis' as late as 1969, that were comprised of a single rectangular lower chassis rail. Jess Tyree ran one in 69-70.

 

"And...look at the Lutz & Lundberg Olds, raced 66-67 at least. This car actually had athe Olds/Gm frame, though lightened. They ran heads up with guys like Jack Chrisman and Doug Thorley! Fields could vary as much as a 1'5 seconds in those days"

Gary it as this very descrepency in performance that kept me from being a really big fan of the breed until 68. With most of the West coast shows being open events, it was not uncommon to have one or two cars running decent times, another racer who wasnt fast, but who didnt break or leak and the remaining 5-6 entries who were lucky to make a full pass without spilling fluid over the track. Being a purist, I preffered the rails as the racing was generally much closer and trouble free. That of course changed by 68 or so as I mentioned.

 

Speaking of brick-shaped cars, here's one that had a stock grill insert, chrome wheel trim, and other stock items! Back in '68/'69, the evolution from the stock classes weren't that far that past.

 

And another herkin' big car. I'd really like to find one of these bodies!

 

Missouri boy Terry Ivey in the Kansas Badman...

 

Wish I had a lot of money...

 

That WAS the consensus by real drag fans and racers then!
Funny cars were kind of the pro wrestlers of racing the, why LIONS played Circus music. Prudhomme, one of the last to switch says he never thought of them as real race cars.
Remember though, that AA/FD fields had the same problem, one would run 7.90. the next 8.50! And I do remember some push starts...when the car didn't start.

 

Last of the Flying Torino's...another Terry Ivery appearance.

 

Absolutely love these mechanical breakdown drawings.

 

Right you are. The next slide in the sequence from this box has Garlits in his red 66 full-bodied car-not the one he won with in '67.

 

And here's Jess's Firebird now! You made me post this.

 

Speaking of full-sized funnies like the Road Runner, I was suprised to see the Coleman Torino sell for $9,000 with a dummy motor in Sept., 2009 at the Petersen.
I thought that was a real deal for a display piece, but...

 

The most bricklike of all bricks was Shel Kornblett's 66 4 door LTD, complete with vinyl top!

 

This thread will always amaze me with; its' size, its' content, its' balls and its' revin' slightly beyond the red line of the "TJJ era" cutoff date. God Bless the Hot Rod Messiah, Ryan Cochran.
(too much?)

 

I'll drink to that......

 

I can't stop posting1 Stop me before I post again.
Here's Doug Nash's Bronco Buster. THIN square aluminum tube chassis, flimsy roll BAR, 289 Ford, 1700lbs.

 

Any idea what happened to this old racer? ^^^^

 

SUV type bodies were banned by the NHRA , because of the Jeeps. Aluminum chassis were also banned, for obvious reasons. And the 289, even blown just couldn't keep up.
What happened to it? I don't know, ask Nash. He made the Nash 5 speed trans, I think he's still around. Google City!

 

This car was used in Ford ads. The prop fiberglass body was dropped atop a rock formation in the middle of the desert via helicopter. Dont know how Sheldon got it.

 

I remember watching this brick at Lions...really spectatular with the flames out of the sides, looked like a phone booth on nitro...wasn't competitive, but fun to watch.