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

John Force in his AA/FA car.

 

Gary Reynolds love all the lumberjack pics that was a lot of trees cut down.

 

Huh? You lost me there. What pics...?????

 

First, a couple of stray shots, and a couple from the George Klass collection:


Grist Brothers A/G, big Ford motor, classic stance, has been restored as a street car...Dean Lowe has commented more on this car, apparently used sedan doors to shorten the body somewhat...These guys both won class at national events and also held the Standard 1320 record.


Warren and Coburn early rear engined car, like all their cars, well engineered...has now been restored/or recreated?



A real street roadster from the mid-50s or earlier, Pomona. Might this be early Jim Shores? The photo might have been one of many taken by Norm Grudem.


Sponsored by Hirshfield Automotive. "Waldo" Hirshfield was one of the top gasser guys in SoCal...

Garlits versus Chrisman in Mickey's car...Was this not the '62 NHRA Nationals? Did Garlits red-light in his gas-burning wedge and give Chrisman the win?? I am blanking on this!!


Sam Parriot in the City of Industry Special...yes, he was the mayor and maybe some city funds went to help his drag racing cause (Dean Lowe knows more about this)...blown Cad-powered Kurtis.


Hier and Bender...Ronnie Hier drove this Lee's Speed Shop sponsored car from Santa Monica..if I remember correctly, Leonard Harris's death at Lions convinced Ronnie to give up the seat...


Unblown Chrysler powered TE-440, complete with the rubber biscuit-suspended front axle.

Some history, yes the shots are blurry, but an important stage in drag racing, from Drag News





The drag racing world was shocked when Emery Cook soundly broke the 160mph barrier at Lions in early '57. The results were instantaneous ... on the next page, this headline from Santa Ana:



Almost all drag strips in Southern California except Colton quickly followed Santa Ana's example, and went to gas-only, and by the summer NHRA followed, starting a gas-only policy that lasted until the early '60s. Some SoCal tracks went back to fuel after the successful Fuel & Gas Smoker's meet at Bakersfield in March '59, but NHRA stayed with the ban for years. Most of the fuel guys went to blowers on their new gas-only cars to get back to the speeds they were used to running, though it took a few years for the gas cars to top 150mph....by the time fuel came back they had their blown cars ready for nitro...and quickly got to 180mph...Garlits quickly followed with a blower on his '59 West Coast trip, and then fuel pretty much came back everywhere...

 

Spectacular stuff Gary--
Love it all, thanks

 

VANCE!!

 

All the pics where the drivers knocked down the Christmas Trees

 

The 29 roadster above is not the Duncan & Shores GMC powered car. It was never, ever, that nice. The body was actually so rough, Jim painted it with Zolotone splatter paint.

Both of Sam Parriott's Kurtis sports cars were financed with funds from the City of Industry's treasury. When Sam died, both cars were taken from the family, and sold. Sam's son, Buddy, fought to keep the cars, but the expenses for the cars were well documented and the city won.

 

I thnk she's the DRIVER.

 

Charlie Allen with the little old lady from Pasadena. "Put a Dodge in your garage honey"

Roo

 

I see what you did there.