Projects The Original "Purple People Eater" dragster 1957

My pal Russ Moore even built a very cool vintage trail for the "Purple Peolp Eater".... even has 1950 Pontiac tail lights..tilt's with out the use of ramps....clean and functional.

 

I'll keep you in mind Pete if I out grow the seat....lol.

 

That would be a blast brother..... Indiana isn't that far...lol.

 

Night before last I was watching “ High Noon” with Gary Cooper playing a Marshall waithing on a real bad guy named Frank Miller. Frank was played by Sheb Wolly........real tough, bad ass looking dude! Goggled him and found out he wrote and performed the old classic song “ The Purple People Eater”, which had to inspire this dragster’s name, I would imagine. Today I get on the HAMB and see this post! Twilight Zone?




Bones

 

What a color combo and that Trailor, you guys are Too Much! Outstanding.

 

'Skunk was a good friend of mine, we lost him way too soon

We painted them white because the pits were so dark at night it helped reflect the flash light

I joined the Stroker's in 1961 and am still a member
Me in 1961 building my first Model A



I built the Bantam in 1963 which was also painted by Kenny Kay. I still have it, got it our of storage and am racing it again.


I have a friend Keith, who introduced me to the Strokers and we are still friends. We live 3500 miles apart, but he
has been with me all the way in the resurrection of the Bantam. I can't say enough about what Mark is doing with the Purple People Eater. It is a phenomenal restoration and tribute to one of Canada's oldest clubs.

The GRM stands for Grimm, Rowsell and Matheson. 'Skip' Matheson is no longer with us but was 'Skunk's' best friend

Warren

 

THATS awesome man. I'm smiling it isn't even mine.

 

Same here, the orginal pics makes it look much shorter.

 

That's unbelievable, thanks for the history.

 

Bless him and you, thats so great.

 

The timing of this thread is surreal....It brought back the memories of Skunk via the Strokers car club mention....this would have been the time of year Skunk would have been going around visisting people with his Daytona 500 game....I never won...but I always played. I had been down to Cayuga a few times with the guys that drag raced their bikes.I was there the day he crashed his record holding bike. Yes gone way too soon.

 

That's fantastic.

 

Thanks BigO for the kind words....I feel very lucky to be the caretaker of such a cool piece of drag racing history. It's also so cool to have some of the origianl Galt Strokers members that built this dragster so many years ago still here to see the restoration of the "Purple People Eater".

 

First time in probably all most 60 years .... 2 Galt Strokers drag cars at the same track.... this past summer at the ELTA Big Go Drags..... HAMBer Wuga's car in front of my rig with the dragster..... it was a cool moment as another Strokers member was there (sorry to say I can't recall his name) but he told me how as a kid he would go down to the old Galt Strokers club house to watch them working on the old dragster.

 

Old shop is as cool as the old dragster! Man!...that place has character!!
6sally6

 

Thanx for a great thread story. This is so awesome, great work guys. The 50's was my era of drag racing

 

Here's a few more historical pictures of the "Purple People Eater" dragster over about 3 year period from the 1950's.

 

I can hear that women saying, "is this why we don't have a new washing machine".

 

it does not get any better, when you have the people, the pictures , the history, and the car!

 

So ture COCONUTS...lol....but God bless the ones that do love cars...lol

 

Amen to that rd martin.....I feel very lucky to have all 4 of those "gifts". Love that you posted up that old Dave Crane sign from his shop in Michigan....he passed away just this year and he had a outstanding collection of original drag racing stuff..... God Speed Dave.

 

This picture just seems to talk to me...... I can feel the drag racing spirits.

 

such cool stuff

 

Very cool of you to bring back a part of Canadian history. My Dad and his club drag raced at Kohler from '57 to '62. Raced a '32 Ford and one of the original members still has the car. So my Dad was racing there at the same time . I will have to talk to him about your back to the fifties time warp dragster story.

 

Cool thread! Way to resurrect a lost piece of drag racing history. If you want to pay homage to the flamed version, why not reproduce the flames on the rear panel in white pin stripes? Either way, keep up the good work.

 

Hey 41rodderz..... thats awesome that your dad raced at the old Kohler track..... do you remember the name of his car club? Let me know what you find out from your dad brother..... be very cool if he remembers this dragster. Here's a picture of a 32 from Kohler back at the same time period.

 

Here's a picture for 41rodderz of a number of car clubs from 1957 at Kohler Dragway showing off their club jackets. The 8th guy from the left is Andy Marsh the original driver of the "Purple People Eater" showing off his purple Strokers Car Club jacket.

 

Hey Mark! Great thread. Thanks again for giving me the honor of working on this historic project.

 

Thanks Russ for all your good efforts brother...you did a great job on the chassis.

 

Cripes are those all Canucker Car Clubs Elvis? Cayuga not to far from Buffalo so I suspect it's a mix...just curious...I'd like to see a Club list and some do ring a bell but frankly it was before my time on terra firma...mind you many may still exist.​