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

I bought the car in the 70s from Dan Crites he at the time had the b-altered record with his fiat. I think he told me that Gene rolled the 1st car. I do see that if you look at the earlier car it was green, the black and white photo, the glass in the car is mounted inside the car. In the red car above the glass is mounted on the outside. When I got it was the painted as shown in the red photo above the glass was mounted outside with pop rivets. I raced the car for a few years mostly on the street. It's been in storage since then in central Florida. Tried calling Dan Crites, I talked to him last year around July but not about the car. I can't reach him now don't know what happened to him.

 

You may be correct. The wheely bars are different. But the front end looks the same. But what really makes me think it is the same car as in the black in white photo is the rear fender. It is exactly the same and unusual. When I got the car the rear tire was completely surrounded by the fender as it is in the red car above. The rear fender on the car is still light that on the red car.

 

First, one from George Klass (George has posted a huge set of Texas drag racing pictures, some he posted here, others on his site: http://georgeklass.net/index.html..........we owe George a huge debt for finding and posting these pieces of history!


Calvin Rice, driving the J.E. Riley Construction dragster, being positioned by his crew for a run at Santa Ana, probably '55. This picture shows the car with Doug Hartlett's blown Chrysler, but the car also ran Melvin Dodd's flathead, in the car when it won top eliminator at the first NHRA nationals.


Talk about early drag racing, this is on dirt...from the Hoyt Grimes collection, suggesting that this track might be in Georgia


This might be early Norb Locke, who later ran a twin blown flathead dragster.


Don't have any information on this Willys gasser, except the "Calvert Automotive" indicating it is from Texas...Texas racers, ID?


Caption says "Roanoke, VA"


Another great Texas drag racer


Really early Bernardini Brothers, first the fenders, then they came off, making it fit the roadster class, then cycle fenders went back on to make it a street roadster...I think that they kept the 404 number throughout its career with them...this is either Santa Ana or Paradise Mesa.


Talk about early...can't read the name on the door, looks like it was taken at the same time as the above picture...notice that the car is running tread tires...the XG on the door stood for whatever class it ran, later X would stand for 4 cylinder, and G for gas, no clue what it stood for here.


and another from the same set, a lot of these early drag cars were pretty crude, but they got the job done


Sonny Balcain, GMC powered...no body or visible roll bar....after Frank "Ike" Iacano stopped racing his famous '34, he bought this dragster and fitted it with a full body and orange paint...and ran it for many years with GMC power. Later Tom Taros put a V8 in it and painted it green....now Pat Ganhal has restored it to the way Ike ran it


Shrank Brothers blown Desoto, down from NoCal to run Lions...another car that has been very well restored...

 

Something you don't see too often are widened steel wheels for the rear slicks, as almost all dragsters used mags

Looks like what the Shrank Bros did instead of mags

 

True, the Shrank Brothers ran on a budget...ran this TE-440 for years after the Fuller-style cars came out, ran steel wheels and, according to legend, bought stock Desoto engines at the bone yard, put their cam and pistons in them, and ran them until they broke...no fancy machine work or chrome cranks...

 

296ardun,,,The Willys gasser in above post..try Calvert Automotive,Denton Texas...Wayne is in his 80s now and still at it..They have a website also

 

Thanks, Bobby, I didn't realize that they were still open, should have known that...and a great suggestion...their shop home page has lots of pictures, including the one of the Willys I posted above:


This was Wayne Calvert's Cad powered sedan that he ran when he was at Gilmore Engine Service


Buddy Anderson's Fiat

 

And the Willys was Wayne's as well, blown Chev with a hydro



And Wayne's roadster at the '55 Nationals with a flathead, made it to the final elimination run when he was beaten by California's Leland Kolb


Wayne's brother Lewis atop the roadster, 55 Nationals, Great Bend, KS


and Wayne's roadster after it got a 265 Chev, maybe '56 at Houston

One of the great things about this thread is that we get to recognize drag racers like Wayne because someone recommended a website or recognize a car...SO THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE DONE SO.

 

ah, the Beach

 

Somebody did a nice job on that model.

Really like all the old drag cars, thanks fellas`.

 

Dang it! I was duped! Better start looking a little closer at some of them.

 

Landy's late!

 

LOL, I had to look close to make sure. I like it myself as I`m planning a similar build and like how the ramp truck was done.
Thanks for all the pics you post, really enjoy them.