Vintage shots from days gone by!

A selection of American cars in the Netherlands.











Brand new cars in the port of Rotterdam.

 

Wait a minute.............is that Ralph Nader, the guy that said Corvairs were unsafe at any speed, riding in the back seat of this thing????

 

No this is Ralphie...

 

Hillvilla, Terwilliger Blvd., Portland, OR


Grants Pass, OR

 

1959 Homecoming, Fife (WA) High School:

 

Found a license plate and a pic of the car it was on in Granddad's stuff.

 

Ok lets finish off the last of the history lessons I found with the 1966 lesson


Whatever your favorite type of full-fendered or open-wheeled machinery, the 1966 season served up unprecedented helpings. Double-A/Fuel Dragsters still reigned as “Kings of the Sport.” Supercharged gassers multiplied with the newfound acceptance of so-called “little cars” by AHRA (Anglias) and NHRA (Austins and Prefects). Fuel-burning altered roadsters, coupes, and sedans headlined independent events and match races nationwide. Even Top Gas Eliminator was enjoying a renaissance, finally recovering from near extinction in the wake of NHRA’s 1963-’64 repatriation with nitromethane.

This was also the season during which printed references to “funny cars” dropped the old quotation marks. The hard-won, upper-case respectability of Funny Cars was reinforced by NHRA’s midseason experiment with new Exhibition Stock classes. While AHRA, NASCAR, and most independent promoters already dedicated categories to these crowd pleasers, NHRA didn’t follow the leaders until the second Springnationals—and only unofficially and temporarily. Doorslammer fans were already forgetting the legal ’65 Factory Experimental models that starred for NHRA just one year earlier, immediately embracing the tube-framed, fiberglass-bodied replicas now displacing real Detroit steel.

Women were also racing to the forefront. Though “lady drivers” dated back to the sport’s formative years, in 1966, they impacted drag racing as females never had in any male-dominated sport. Merely four years after Carol Cox fought for the right to enter any NHRA event, Shirley Shahan’s shocking Winternationals Super Stock win was a first for any NHRA eliminator category. Switching to injectors and fuel, the Drag-On Lady also outran the men in match races. More surprising still was Barbara Hamilton’s Springnationals victory in the ultramacho BB/Gas class—with a Willys built and campaigned by two females, no less. Two more women began making news as unlicensed Funny Car pilots, though under vastly different circumstances. Paula Murphy’s test runs on alcohol in Fat Jack Bynum’s blown-Hemi-powered Mustang brought cries from columnists to restrict the ladies to stockers. Midwestern match racer Bonnie Anderson’s headlines came the hard way: Shortly after she exited the Tension II injected Nova on Great Lakes Dragway’s return road, Earl Canavan’s dragster took out the timing lights, lost its front axle, and crashed into Anderson. (Bonnie eventually recovered from serious injuries, but not her promising career, which ended with a brief comeback attempt.)


An early Shirley Muldowney





April 1966 hot rod cover





Jack Christman comet during build





Jack Christman comet after the crash





Bunch of pissed off drivers protesting something





Flexy Flyer Chassis, look at that front end





Joe winter dragster with crutches in the exhaust





Les Ritchey AFX mustang





Ohio George Malco cammer gasser





Supercharger blankets make their appearance






The infamous roller starter

 

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Thunderbirds Are Go!"

 

SW Barbur Blvd between Bancroft and Hamilton...

 

Wasn't there a Bob's Big Boy across the street?


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