History The 1958 NHRA Nationals

I wonder if this is the same car, painted red, that I saw at the Nationals in 1960 in Detroit, I still have my ticket stub, wow $1.51 to get in, tax inclued.

 

Always great to see threads like this take off with lots o photos and stories from the past!

 

Bitchin Stuff....

 

I'm having a great time checking out the pictures and digging the history on this thread. One of the cool things about being an old guy is that I remember lots of this stuff firsthand. Thanks for putting it up HEMI32.

 

This is just so cool. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

The Rpck

 

Awesome stuff. There were A LOT of cool push/tow trucks in those videos. And, that trophy girl was, um, inspiring and seemed to like to kiss a lot!!!

 

1) I didn't run at the 58 nat's in OKC, but the OKC Faigrounds is where I wrecked the GizzleHopper in 1962. That strip was slick baby, slick........
2) Buggs was in fact from Houston and still is.

 

Such an amazing thread, enjoyed very much.

 

Short bar lancers and a hemi. The recipe for the ultimate fifties hot rod.

 

hey guys, I know there are pics of this T on here showing it in the 50's and early 60 when the roll bar got crazy and also with it is a pic on the T taken 5 years or so ago sitting on a pile of parts in a Texas junk yard. I've been trying to find it but had no luck. I wish someone would save it!!!! Jared

 

We are trying to save it. Several of us including the original builder have been talking about it and working on a plan to restore it. If I can catch the current owner in a good mood (his price varies a few thousand depending on his mood!) I'm going to drag it home.

 

very cool metalman!

 

Here is a scan of the photo that covered two pages in the November, 1958 issue of Hot Rod Magazine and the Drifters coupe is in the lower right hand corner .....

 

Very cool to look at all the old drag racing photo's from the event.

Drag racing as certainly come a long way since those early day's.

Thanks for sharing. Jimbo

 

Here is some info I have regarding our trip to OKC. It was written in a notebook and I will share it here .....

AUGUST 27th - Redondo Beach, CA

5:30 PM - Gassed up at Mobil Gas in Redondo - 17 Gal - $5.75
6:45 PM - Left Drifters' garage
10:00 PM - Stopped for coffee at Colton
11:00 PM - Gassed up in Indio
​

AUGUST 28th

1:30 AM - Crossed into Arizona
2:45 AM - Gassed up at Salome, AZ
3:30 AM - Started climbing into the mountains
5:45 AM - Gassed up at Prescott, AZ
8:00 AM - Ate breakfast in Flagstaff and gassed car
10:30 AM - Stopped in Holbrook, AZ for a coke break and gas. Darrell was having car trouble
12:30 PM - Still in Holbrook. Ate lunch while Darrell was still working on his car.
2:30 PM - Left Holbrook
3:00 PM - Ran into first detour. About 9 miles long and not too bad.
4:00 PM - Crossed into New Mexico
4:30 PM - Stopped in Gallup for a coke and to wait for the other cars to catch up. Kids ran into the street to look at the car.
5:00 PM - Crossed the Continental Divide. A guy pulled up beside us and wanted us to pull over so he could take some pictures. We couldn't stop so he took them while driving.
5:45 PM - Stopped in Grant for gas and bought some fruit.
8:00 PM - Stopped in Alburkurkie [That must be the way it was spelled in 1958 ] for medication. Very hot and hard to breathe.
10:45 PM - Gassed up at Santa Rosa
​

AUGUST 29th

1:00 AM - Crossed into Texas
1:30 AM - Stopped in Adrian for gas and coffee
??? AM - Woody stopped somewhere for gas and crossed into Oklahoma while I was asleep
10:30 AM - Arrived in Oklahama City and went to fair grounds to check in.
Noon - Came to the motel to clean up and eat, then went back to the drags.
8:00 PM - Got back to the motel after gassing the car. Washed the car then went to eat. Cruised around town after that and went to bed at 1:00 AM.
​

AUGUST 30th

6:15 AM - Everyone that went to bed early last night came into our room and pulled the covers off so we would get up. Ate breakfast and went to the drags.
​

I'm guessing that after that I was too busy or too tired to keep track of what we did. I do have some memories of other stuff that happened and shared one in a previous post.

​

All in all, it was a once in a lifetime experience and I can only compare it to my first trip to Bonneville with my son and two grandsons in 2010.

 

One thing I forgot to mention was Darrel's car. He had a very nice red 1954 Chevrolet convertible with a Chevy V-8 conversion. I took this photo of it while we were waiting for him to fix it in Holbrook. Don't remember what was wrong with it but it ran fine after the repair. That may also be Bones looking on .....

 

That's an awesome story, BN! Any more photos?

 

Here are a couple of customs that were parked on the grass. I spotted them while on an errand .....

 

Top Eliminator - Ted Cyr getting ready to make a run in the "New Car" .....



Thanks to HEMI32 for this info .....
NO. 215
ENTRY Cyr-Hopper
DRIVER Ted Cyr
CITY Escondido, Calif.
CAR dragster
ENGINE '58 Chrysler

 

She did and it's here .....

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/redondo-beach-drifters-car-club.367781/

 

I was just re-reading the posts in this thread and saw that the photos I thought I posted are now gone. Here's another try .....



NO. 231
ENTRY Drifters Auto Club
DRIVER Hozie Gomez
CITY Redondo Beach, Calif.
CAR '35 Ford
ENGINE '54 Dodge



NO. 232
ENTRY Drifters Auto Club
DRIVER Bill Vornholt
CITY Redondo Beach, Calif.
CAR '34 Ford
ENGINE '55 Chrysler

 

That is not the car that won Top Eliminator. The unblown car they also ran won TE. it is shown in post 165. Smaller picture at top of page. The newer car crossed up on the start line and lost to Jay Cheatham in his blown Olds "Pearson Olds Special" from Mountain View Ca.

 

Here is a photo of the 23(2) car taken in the pits. I climbed into a tree to get this shot and the 57 Ranchero that the Drifters used as a push car is by their coupe. You can also see the front end of Woody's chopped Merc convertible.



How great would it have been to have a digital camera in 1958? All my photos were taken with 35mm slides. That kind of sounds like a foreign thing now.

 

It's also not the first time I've been wrong.

I went back to the magazine and read the article. The orange car was their new car and the unblown blue car was the top eliminator. Now I have to give this old brain a rest for a few days.

 

Since @Bullet Nose gave this old thread a bump, I thought I might as well share the '58 Nats B&W photos that @dechrome posted in his 1958 Oklahoma NHRA Nationals pictures thread:

image by @dechrome

NO. 215
ENTRY Cyr-Hopper
DRIVER Ted Cyr
CITY Escondido, Calif.
CAR dragster
ENGINE '58 Chrysler​

NOTE: This is the orange Cyr and Hopper supercharged car that won the low E.T. trophy ... but lost to Jay Cheatham's entry #274 Pearson Olds Special dragster (powered by a supercharged '58 Oldsmobile engine) in the semi-final round ... However, Ted Cyr did go on to win the '58 Nats "Top Eliminator" with the Cyr-Hopper entry #214 Ol' Blue dragster (powered by a carbureted '58 Chrysler HEMI engine).

 

image by @dechrome​

NO. 10
ENTRY Masters Dragliner
DRIVER Nelson & Martin
CITY Oceanside, Calif.
CAR dragster
ENGINE '55 Chev.

NO. 258
ENTRY Jerry Morgan
DRIVER Jerry Morgan
CITY Wichita Falls, Texas
CAR '50 Crosley
ENGINE '55 Chev.​

 

image by @dechrome

NO. 14
ENTRY Lee Christian
DRIVER Lee Christian
CITY Lubbock, Texas
CAR dragster
ENGINE '56 Olds

NO. 124
ENTRY Trucelent Turtle
DRIVER Lorne Parks
CITY Houston, Texas
CAR '26 Ford
ENGINE '54 Olds​

 

image by @dechrome

NO. 51
ENTRY How Much?
DRIVER Lindell White
CITY Amarillo, Texas
CAR dragster
ENGINE '57 Chev.

NO. 76
ENTRY Ramblin' Ram
DRIVER Joe Williams
CITY Amarillo, Texas
CAR dragster
ENGINE '55 Dodge​

 

images by @dechrome

NO. 73
ENTRY The Purple Prancer
DRIVER Dick Coleman
CITY Bloomington, Minn.
CAR '57 Ford
ENGINE '57 Ford​