My knowledge of these is super limited, but I'm curious. My guess would be that most started out as simple and cheap before being turned out. Rubber floors, posts, radio delete cars with 6 cylinders. I'd love to see pics of them babies back in the day after being modified. Novas, Falcons..etc. lets see some pics and hear some history, crazy names, and techinical know how.
I think that improper terminology in your subject line is throwing folks off on your thread. The term "dragster" was defined in the rule books as a class intended for purpose built "rail job" type race cars, not production cars modified for drag racing as you wish to discuss here. When I read your subject line, my first thought was something like Jr. dragster class, which would be way off topic here. Maybe try again with a better title line. You're right, many production compacts were used and it could make a good thread. Also, posting a few of your own pics to describe what you have in mind can help a lot to seed a thread.