History TV Tommy IVO the early years

This is a great history of Tommy Ivo, one hell-of-a racer. Thanks for posting.

 

I have always considered Ivo's twin injected Buick dragster to be the best looking dragster ever built. I knew it when I saw in in Minnesota almost 60 years ago, and after seeing it at Garlit's museum of Drag Racing several years ago, I am completely convinced. Go Tommy!

 

Thanks Loudbang....a lot to put together - enjoyed it all - thanks !

 

Tommy Ivo and Don Prudhomme at Great Lakes Dragaway.

 

Bakersfield Wheelie
A Lions pit pass gets you this close to the start line action. Ivo setting up after a push start back to the line.
Hello,
Here is a short movie clip of all of Tommy Ivo's early Buick FED race cars from 1958 to 1960 when we were actively filming drag racing as teenagers. The movie starts at Lions, goes to the Riverside Raceway, and finally to the Smokers meet at Bakersfield. Sorry, we did not see the 671 on the twin, but have some of the 671 on the single Buick at Lions. (phase one/two) The Buick powered FEDs were some of the nicest construction on any FED at the time. They were always show and go. He had lightning quick reaction times off of the start line. It was always fun to watch him race, anywhere. Great driver and fast FEDs... It was a fun time to be at the drags...
Jnaki


Here is the single Buick painted white and by then it belonged to Don Prudhomme...at Lions in the pits.

 

Great thread. WELL DONE!!!

 

This makes a great addition to the tommy story. thanks for adding it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I'd seen a lot of these pictures before, but obviously not all together. Awesome for sure! Great reference material for when I have all my parts together to start an FED...

 

Outstanding thread! Nice to hear the story behind the photos. Always good to learn some history of the early years! Joe

 

Great history from the great years of drag racing. Glad I was there...

 

To be honest I'm not sure. They are not 3/4 ton truck bells. They look like 40's car trumpets but I never saw any of those with ribs. I'm wondering if the lines that appear to be ribs that were cut down are really 1) weld beads that were to act as reinforcement or 2) just reference marks so that someone didn't clock the bells incorrectly. The one looks like it lines up with the center section rib. It's kinda hard to get a feel for the size. If it is the Champ center, the bells came off something other than a Ford. A shot of the rear cover would be really helpful. Very interesting.

 

Thanks for jumping in. I was curious, its probably just a damned good thing that I'm not a cat.

 

so twin injection or one blown, one injected?

 

As our old substitute teacher Mrs. Anderson would say, "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought her back."
Her nickname was 'Proverbs'

 

Great thread! Thank you!

 

Thanks for dropping by and trying to help us out

 

I'm thinking one of each...

 

Dual INLINE or V? LOL Choices so many choices.

 

Met Tom at the HRR in Columbus a few years ago.
Great guy, Very Humble at the time, really appreciated his fans!
Recent quote at his 80th birthday "IVO stand for.....I'm Very Old"!
He's young at heart though!
KK

 

Yes...it was both. Ivo once ran the blown Buick from Tony Nancy's gas modified roadster, pulling one of his injected Buicks to do so...purpose was to set the gas world record, which they did, at San Fernando.

 

This one was stolen from the interwebs. Didn't see it on previous posts. Bitchen to see such a clear color pic of it.

 

OK - I went back and re-read the part about the V-twin but still can't figure out where the missing 2 center exhaust pipes are????

 

Pointing down.

Mick

 

Yes I read somewhere that two of the pipes had to point downward for clearance. Joe

 

Now if only you knew a club member that might sell a digger without a motor....

 

If I end up with the Go-Rilla, it'd stay single engine. The toss up would be what induction.
I'd get with Tommy Boy to fab a frame to house a double and it'd likely be rear engine.

 

First of all, thank you for this! Very cool to read and see the old pictures of Ivo and all he has done for hot rodding/drag racing.

But, as a younger guy, I have a question....


If people are supposedly afraid to put unblown flathead power to an early Ford/Halibrand setup, how the hell did this setup run low 8's? What am I not understanding here? It's not like he was cutting down and re-tapering axles every meet was he? Or was he? Once again, thanks for posting all this; I really enjoyed reading.

 

Guys are afraid of everything now. More V8 quick changes have had blown engines of all kinds behind them and lived. I know guys at Bonneville that use the quick made by Speedway Engineering in Sylmar modeled after the Model A quick and never hurt it either.

 

Very simple back in those days they SPUN THE TIRES ALL THE WAY DOWN THE TRACK or almost. So the driveline never took the giant shock loading they do now with sticky tracks and tires. Then the loads increased slowly not all at once. But they still did have to change them sometimes.