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

Hello,

I thought I had seen another car like this. Running in the A/S class was great for us until the newer models started coming on the scene. Our 58 Chevy Impala was almost at the top of the A/S class at Lions until the 59, 60, 61 335HP and 409ci/HP cars showed up. We never could figure out why we lowly 280 hp cars weren’t moved down a class or two. It was not fun to be even out of the hole, but get blown out by 1/3 of the way down the quarter. There was no way to catch up… The ratings needed to be changed. Stock cars should be just that, STOCK, not dealer prepped factory race cars…although it eventually came to that. So, something needed to be done as more cars dropped out of stock car class drag racing.

Mickey Thompson ran a great business at his Westside Long Beach shop. He was an innovator of a lot of things and knew the car racing business from the builder's standpoint. We met him on several occasions at Lions. He liked our involvement in the A/Stock class with the Impala and in 1960, was impressed with our 40 Willys build for the gas coupe classes.

Here is a weird story that came out our involvement in drag racing at Lions Dragstrip in early 1959-60 and with Mickey Thompson’s Shop in Long Beach. One day my brother and I were sitting around talking/working on our new 40 Willys build, when a phone call came in asking for my brother. The caller said he was from Mickey Thompson Enterprises. Since the shop was about 4 blocks away from our house on the Westside of Long Beach, we took the call.

(We had been racing the 58 Chevy Impala in the weekly A/Stock class ever since we bought the new car. We were fairly successful trophy winners in that class. We used to go over to Mickey Thompson’s shop to get our Drag News paper and talk “shop” with the people there.)

The caller identified himself and we knew who he was from going to the shop many times. He knew of our involvement in drag racing and had a proposal for our 58 Chevy Impala. Mickey Thompson was experimenting with his supercharged, Pontiac engines and wanted to put one in our 58 Impala. We had just put in a new, C&O Stick Hydramatic Transmission in the place of the stock 3 speed stick transmission. Our car was fast as a stocker, but with this C&O, it was really fast off the line. The 348, C&O and 4:56 gears all worked well together. (since we were in the early stages of building our 40 Willys, the Impala did quadruple duty as a daily driver, parts chaser,drag racer, and a tow car)

The caller said that he watched our Impala progress over the years and since we were “locals” they wanted to use the car as an experimental project. They wanted to see how the supercharged Pontiac motor would do in the Impala with the new stick hydro from C&O. They would do all of the custom installations and conversions. All we had to do was to continue driving it at the drags in the gasser classes.

When we told him it was our daily driver, he said that was ok, because it would show that the Pontiac motor was suited to everyday driving and at the drags. We were all for it, but that we would be without a daily driver for several weeks during the conversion. My brother could not go to college, I could not go to high school, and my mother could not use it once a week for shopping. So, what to do?

By the end of the week, my brother decided that we needed a totally reliable, daily driver, tow car for our 40 Willys. He also said that it would not be a good fit for our needs because it would actually be a race car disguised as a stock car… We all know how well a supercharged, race car runs on the street as far as long distance (Big Bear, Mojave Desert, Mammoth, Santa Barbara, etc.) reliability and daily driving. Also, my mother needed to be included in this equation for her weekly freedom from two adventurous teenagers. We were totally sad of that decision, but family comes first.

We also kept dreaming: … that a supercharged Pontiac motor would be sticking out of our motor compartment driving to school…Wow, how cool would that have been…? What about my mother driving the supercharged Pontiac/Impala to the shopping mall and back? Now, that would really be something…The comments would be endless…ha !

Jnaki

After declining the offer from Mickey Thompson, at family gatherings later on for years, the topic was always brought up as… “What if?”

 

Ewell, Stecker & Kambor
Bakersfield, March, 1963. The late Jack Ewell in the A/FD "Chubasco" of Ewell, Stecker & Kambor. This is the version of the car that Dave Sammons chose to restore.
Photo by Doyle Hatfield

 

Jack Ewell in "Chubasco" AA/FD at Lions in 1964. The black paint job had been replaced by this copper scheme.

 

Ted Cyr and original partner, Bill Hopper were one of the most successful teams in the country during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Escondido, California-based Cyr got his name in lights when he won the Top Eliminator title at the 1958 NHRA Nationals with a blown gas dragster, and really cemented his reputation by winning Top Fuel at the Bakersfield March Meet in 1960. As testimony to his prowess, the first Drag News Top Fuel top 10 list (May 1960) had the Cyr & Hopper dragster No. 2 trailing only Don Garlits. In late 1960 Ted had a racing accident and was hurt pretty bad.

 

The 1968-1969 Beebe & Mulligan "Fighting Irish" Top Fuel dragster. Built at Woody Gilmore's Race Car Engineering in late 1968 to replace their tired 1967-68 car, it put the already popular team of Tim "Chops" Beebe and John "The Zookeeper" Mulligan on the drag racing map with their convincing win at the 1969 NHRA Winternationals.
These guys were my idols in my high school years, their all out, never give up style, low, low ET's and 230+ speeds made them practically gods to me! I was crushed when Mulligan was killed at Indy.

 

The Albrich-McCulloch-Krieger "Northwind" - the other Kent Fuller "magicar" in the pits at Bakersfield prior to the 1965 Fuel & Gas Championships. It was a twin to the Winkle & Trapp "MagiCar" car that Bill Pitts restored and has today. Ed the Ace McCulloch was a local guy in 1965, a brash young guy who seemingly could , and would drive any nitro fed creation.And he was GOOD, driving our local Oregon Northwind to the then coveted Number ONE in the Nation spot, defeating Pete Robinson for the title.
GREAT DAYS! ABSOLUTELY GREAT TIRE SMOKIN' DAYS!

 

"Western Mfg. Special" - AA/FD - Fremont, 1965

 

When this car was built in early 1965 Zane Shubert and Chet Herbert had raced together for a number of years, with Chevrolet and Olds F-85 powered dragsters. This was their last car together and it was one of the very first Chevy powered Fuel Dragsters to run over 200 mph.

It was probably the best performing Chevy fueler on the West Coast on a week in-week out basis because of the never ending supply of parts that Herbert made available. Shubert reported they bought new Chevrolet blocks and other vital parts 3 at a time and machined them all building the engines like money was no object. They started with a 283" Chevy block, installed a 1 inch Moldex stroker crank, ground out the pan rails for rod clearance and with a bore job, it netted out at 402 cu. in.

Most teams who were running the Hemi's actually had smaller engines, as a 392, even at .030 over is under 400 inches. Few Hemi powered cars had stroker cranks so often this "little" Chevy would be the biggest engine in the field. Shubert & Herbert ran 10% overdrive on the blower and a very moderate Nitro percentage at 15%, maybe creeping up to, but never over, 25%. At this size the small block engines were frail so engine failures were not uncommon and they expected to build a new one every couple of weeks, but when they ran, they ran!

 

The above dragster information and photos were taken from the CACKLEFEST site.

 

A young Prudhomme with the GBP car at Half Moon Bay.

 

Driver Gary Ormsby's beautiful Vagabond Dragster

 

The Vagabond in green

 

The Grecian

 

Coty & White

 

Burgess & Steed

 

Unknown

 

Before he ran funy cars, Twig Zeiglers Willy's.I think an ex Coonrod car.

 

Der Weinerschnitzel.Jim Nicholl

 

Hodges & Olson's other "Northwind" dragster

 

Jess "The Flea" Sturgeon

 

Maynard Rupp