Ok, I try to keep from opinions on the board, but I'm half drunk and curious...what do you think is the best drag racing era? I thought I was all about the mid 60's until I saw the altereds and funny cars from the early 70s, and seeing the Rat Trap crew wearing the uniforms (and they even had the whole long hair/beard look!) and the AA/FCs with the crazy antics at the Christmas tree, I started thinking about when I was a little kid hanging around under the bleachers at Lions and drag racing was trying to cater to the whole family...anyways, I digress. Any opinions? And why?
we would drive from Phoenix to Tucson & watch the Fuel altered cars run in the early 70's. A friend had a bugeye Sprite we would drive down there
I think in a hundred years, historians will refer to it as "the drag race or Drag strip era", as if it was just one era that spanned from the late 40s to whenever "they" finally close the last strip, and ban racing through heavy vehicle confiscation, whic has started already. It's has always been a constant progression of ever improving parts cars drivers and lower ETs. Lower ETs. that's why the 1/4 mile is the only relavant distance to race a drag race. 1/8 mile doesn't do it. it might as wel just be 60 feet as be a 1/8 mile. What was the Q? Oh, I like the fulers, front engine ones especially...and Altereds. Funny cars I just don't get, exceptI understand that they get financed better because theres more room to advertise on their bodies...
No particular era suits me.......I like them all! FEDS Gassers Altereds Factory stock wars Funny cars
Hey funny you should bring this up...I'm drunk too!! Now where was I? Ohh the drags....I like the .......ummmm.......Uhhhhhh......I dunno. The early 70's were pretty rad. Tire technology was coming on strong and the musclecar bodies were just plain sexy. I vote for that - make mullet jokes if you want I still love 'em. It is the last decade where makes were not being powered by the "corporate" engine (trying to avoid the SBC bitch fest). Anyways, Pontiacs were still Poncho powered, Buicks still ran their own stuff and so on. It gets my vote just for that. The 60's were pretty bad ass too - don't get me wrong - I am just voting for the 70's because it strikes me that there was a lot of good racing then and it is like the bastard son of decades.
not sure what time period was the best, a lot of it was before my time,, but i can sure tell you when it ended for me. it must have been 1983 spring nationals... there was a kid that came up each time in his copper colored chevelle, one round after another .. he kept on winning,, took the money in the end, he did, he and his dad. what is special or significant about this you might ask?,,, well it was the last time i saw an unsponsored car win on the national level, he had not one sponsor or sticker on that car anywhere, not even an stp sticker from the filling station. seems to me that had to be then end of what the sport was all about, as all you see anymore is coporate sponsored mega buck cars, in drag racing, and in ever frigging thing that is possible... hell wont be long and i expect to see budwieser sponsoring a ratrod at "billetproof" bob
I am about 34, my dad did it all in the 60s...circle track drags, etc. In 70 he set an NHRA Record, he was there when the World of Outlaws was an inkling in the early 70s. He got the vibe from what we did at MOKAN! He will never spill it to me but the fact he wants to build an FED is love to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Right up to the time when bracket racing started...never could understand the brakelights before the finish line.
Long before delay boxes, weather stations, tranny brakes, Powerglides or Lencos in dragsters, double roll bar hoops, traction compound on the starting line.....the list is long. After the mid-60's it became a catalog sport where very few built their own stuff. That's when I lost interest. I remember the NHRA division event at Minnesota Dragways in 1965. We were running very close to the A/Dragster national record. A lady from NHRA asked me if I wished to make a record attempt run. I replied, "Sure !" She said, "That will be ten dollars, please." I said, "For what ?" She told me I had to join NHRA to set a record. If I had eclipsed the record that day it would not have counted because I wouldn't give her 10 bucks. The next year I was running an open wheel car on the dirt ovals....and making money !
I'd say the era of the most inovation and non comformity 58-68, the "small guy" had a chance to win a title with his Model A garage and no big money sponsors.By lt 68, the pro's had it all sown up (and still do), with the same names in the standings at every race.Micky Thompson ,lady luck,Ohio George ,not mention Garlits and Prudomme just to name a few. SJ , I had much the same experiance at BIR this year just to get a rule book.
for me it was from 54-64 54 was the first time that my brother and friends took me to the strip 64 winternationals was my last race down the strip my home strip was San Gabriel at all 4 locations along rivergrade rd then it moved to irwindale we made trips to santa ana in 1955 after we heard the "Bustle Bomb " broke the the 150 mark, san fernando to watch C-9 lose lol, lions to watch Jim Lytles Big Al. and even bakersfield for garlits first west coast trip, you wouldn't believe how many booed when he pulled up to the line and how happy we were to see him get his ass kicked by chrisman then he added a supercharger and the rest is history I was more into street racing but tried to go legal racing with my street machine but racing against the likes of Stone Woods & Cook, Jr.Thompson, in A/G and B/G before they started the supercharged class was not fun. In 63 they brought out the modified production class for us little guys and I was running right and the national record for B/MP so I bolted my front bumper and some front end parts back on my Olds and went to Pomona for the 64 winternationals. first round I was up against a 40 willy's from Kansas that bumped the B/MP record up about 25 mph and I went home with my tail between my legs and never went back. I think the christmas tree and handicap system allows the little guy to run at the strip and thats good but it just doesn't seem like racing to me. I would like to try it sometime and see if I'm wrong
...and some of us feel that hanging onto the past is something new... this is a digger from 1961... well after the flathead had died off in drag racing... but when asked why... the response was "bcause, it's different"...
But by the early 60's... the SBC was rearing it's head in the smaller classes as a winner... innovation still was a factor...
but a formula for winning was brewing... call it the beginning of the end... the factory built chassis made it simpler...
yet there were still guys like Kent Fuller who did it thier way... they all look the same to the casual observer... but a winning streak on both the race track and at the hearts of those in the know... would set some apart from the others...
...and just when you thought things were getting mundane somebody had to show up with a better mousetrap... how do we make that door slammer go faster? Hide a dragster underneath it! But not with much success...
But this story does not end with the almighty digger... our roots were from the dry lakes... and a holdover was the modified roadster...
but you still had your mavericks that were hell bent on putting on a show and giving themselves a thrill...
Then along came the gassers... evolving from the very early coupes that used to street race... headlights and all the street gear were a must on the early gassers... some of which even drove to the track... yea right!
But from here things just got faster... and faster... and began to look closer and closer alike... here's our hero, John Force, at the wheel of an altered back in the day...
Now while some people thought that conformity be the death of drag racing... I believe that it was the racers themselves that priced the little guy right out of the market... one guy shows up and starts kicking ass... two things happen... one, everyone will show up with the same combination the next week in hopes of winning... and two... a shitload of money will be spent in doing so... but the little guy could hang on for just a bit longer...
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