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

Increased to 800px and cleaned up the border a bit...

 

^^^^Thanks, Rick!
Driver, Pat Norris, Guy with the bleach is Mike Norris, fellow next to him is the Kendall oil rep, sorry his name escapes me after 43 years. And then, a skinny kid that got to go along as a crew member, all 150#.This was one of the most fantastic periods in my life......
Mike and I have rued the fact that we didn't get more pics of the car.
We were always too busy to stop for pics.
If you look closely, this was a promo shot for Kendall oil, one of our sponsors.
Pat was supposed to make a launch and shut it off. But since qualifying was about to start, he made a full pass. Mr. Hamm was not happy!
My copy is from a copy that was created on a printer, and I took a photo of it with my cell phone. I couldn't figure out any other way to share it.
We were always behind the curve, we had parts and tech that would have been competitive in the early-mid 60's. Only problem, this was the early 70's.

 

Your welcome Mike! You summed up my drag racing experiences exactly. Tis better to be a has been, than a never was...

 

Rick,
I crew on an O/T "Racesaver" Sprint Car now, and even though the fun factor is way up there, it will never take the place of a 21 year old standing in the push loop with Garlits.

It wasn't always fun, especially since we weren't keeping up, but every second of every minute of every hour put into it was worth it.

 

Here's another you-got-it-right-there-Mike comment. I was the clutch monkey on the last Flying Dutchman funny car back in 2000-2002. It was a ton of work (especially for a bunch of 40+-year-old-farts), and, like you, we were perennially under-funded ($250K budget when Force was spending $4M), but we had a crap-load of fun and there's very little that I would trade it for.

 

The mother lode, Santa Ana

 

Zane Shubert, unsuccessful sidewinder​

 

^^^^^Question, Were any of the sidewinders successful? I know there were several, some engineered better than others.

 

The Chuck Jones original sidewinder driven by Jack Chrisman was very successful. They dominated top gas at LIONS during the fuel ban. One of the few cars to beat Ivo's twin.

 

Some were, the sidewinder series run by Chuck Jones, Paul Nicolini, etc, driven by Jack Chrisman did well on gas, won some west coast meets, usually during the fuel ban. But once they added a low nitro dose to the Sidewinder, the added power caused it to plane. Problem was that the chain drive ran to one rear wheel then transferred to the other wheel over a solid axle, losing torque in the process and thus one wheel drove harder than the other, causing the plane problem. Creighton Hunter had a slingshot sidewinder which ran pretty well until it crashed at Santa Ana, injuring him. The Jahns brothers did run a very quick Dodge-powered rear engined sidewinder, but the local SoCal tracks ultimately banned it, fearing for its safety. Scotty Fenn tried to solve the problem with a wheels-together design and a quick-change for Ted Cyr, but it was evil handling (saw it run Bakersfield '62, almost crashed). Garlits tried a gear drive, but breakage doomed the effort, and Art Malone tried a radical effort as well (anyone remember more about it), but it did not succeed either. So long answer to a good question, most sidewinders did not succeed due to the torque transfer problem, breakage, (the chains sometimes broke as well), but they were fun to watch!!

 

A little outside the time frame for the thread (or the HAMB, for that matter), but this was Malone's effort from 1970. November 1970 issue of Hot Rod.


IIRC the engine was centered on the rear axle and the "drive shaft" ran right through the block. How 'bout that fuel tank hanging off the side of the cockpit! Oh, and the knock-off hubs!

 

The Scotty's Drive In car at Firebird. This would be in 67 or so, obviously pre slipper clutch days! Car was driven by Ed the Ace among others.

 

Unknown at Firebird

 

"So, how's that clutch setup working out for you?"

 

Any T body on a dragster frame is bitchin'.

 

and its still going......... great thread

 

agreed, surfrider!

 

Guessing a bit later Gary. Car in foreground is about a '69-'70, possibly newer yet. Could it be a burnout ( if '70 or newer)?

 

"It's most possible that if more Sidewinders were in the mix - - the bugs would have been solved - and the big show would be winders today - - SideWinder One, (Chrisman/Jones), - dominated Top gas for a short period of time during the era of poor tires and fairly low horsepower, 59/60 - - If Winders would have been built in competitive numbers into the era of more HP, longer wheelbases and slowing down the steering on RE cars, etc. they would have had a chance to really show their stuff ... As it was - the only later winder that was a truly serious effort by a competitive racer, 'Garlits Winder', was in a very few runs coming up on competitive times with the TF cars of it's day - but gear train breakage and Gar's very busy race schedule shelved the project...
Malones car was unfortunately like many other SideWinder projects a pig pile of ideas and innovation all in one car - - among other things it had the rear axle running through the engine valley - a smart winder idea that got the engine weight way back - it had the clutch hid inside the rear wheel - a smart idea that WAY narrowed the down rear tread - Very important to making one of these things go straight - - never made a full run...
The Cooke brothers car in 62/63 was most interesting - Three Wheeler, (one in front), and no clutch, (jack start), small, bln Dodge, Hemi - - Very quick for the first 1/8 for sure - - saw them blow off Ivo, (Barnstormer), to around 1000 feet at San Gabe one afternoon ... another very interesting car was Ron Hammish's car that he ran out of Tony Capanna's shop in Torrance, (10,000RPM), it was Jack start - with a 276 bln DeSoto ... both these cars were SUPER light and Super Quick - to the 1/8 - in fact - the body on Hammish's car was 'dope and fabric' - - How Cool!
Ya know - - if there's a discussion about SideWinders going on over at HAMB or wherever - go ahead send this over ... I realy think Winders are the kinda things those guys should be building - - nothing is gonna come outa Old Guy places like 1320 but an endless parade of restored and re-poped mid 60's FE Diggers..."(g)
Fred Vosk
http://www.bikesters.com

 

Santa Ana, one of the Life photos, don't think it has been posted before...

 

Another from Life, we forget how many track roadsters would up as drag roadsters, like this one

 

Think this is the Watersworth & Morris competition coupe...for those of you who love competition coupe, this is classic...hemi powered, though I forgot what kind...Santa Ana.

 

October 27, 1968

 

October 27, 1968...again

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Might be a bit tardy here in posting, but Shroyer first ran an inliner before installing SBC.

 

I saw the car when it first, or near first, debuted at Irwindale sans any lettering, just paint. It handled like a shopping cart. A new chassis replaced the original and the car became more stable. Gunter took the car on tour and did OK with it. He culminated his barnstorming back east by taking R/U to Jungle Jim at a big 16 car affair in New England.

 

These guys owned the A/FD for years.

 

Note that Ellis' opponent, Paul Stage, lit the bulb. He couldn't wait anymore.

 

Tom Hanna maybe?

 

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Thanks, do you know if it was a Ford, Chevy, or a Slant\6 in it???