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

Very early Surfmobile...

 

The Greeks Stuckey car - did have a lot of influence on the Surfers car.

 

And Chris always ran one of Red Greth's "Speed Sport" scoops.

 

Better image...

 

Don Maynard and Joe Bush were alumni of the Speed Sport gang that came to Chicago after meeting Chris. Don worked with the Greek and Joe ran a speed shop for years.

 

The red twin motor car was built in 1960 from parts that were taken from the Warren,Coburn & Crowe rear engine dragster (see the build thread on that car under my name) The "silver" framed car- in the black and white picture came after the red twin and once again the parts were recycled. The new twin was built with an all aluminum chassis. I was told it ran very well, so well that it drew more attention from the tech inspector.
Who told them not to bring it back... So it was retired. The aluminum chassis was also supposed to be painted red but they didn't have time to finish it.
The next car the team ran was the Blue single engine SBC car 1962/63 (with Chuck Holloway). In 64 the team broke into two teams Kennard Warren (cousin of James) with Bob Crowe and James Warren with Roger Coburn (later with Marvin Miller "Rain for Rent" cars)
Both teams eventually switching to hemi powered single engine cars. Bob Crowe also ran an Allison powered rail in 63.
I'll be visiting Kennard in a couple weeks He's the only survivor of the team as Bob past away last year.
I'm currently restoring the Warren & Crowe car from 1966. That car donated it's engine at the track to the Warren and Coburn car that lost in the final round of the 66 March Meet to the Surfers...
Steve

 

1957 20 Years old

Hello,

We all have known the drag racing laurels that Tom McEwen has received over the long years involved in the racing circles. For some, it was knowing he had the fastest 55 Chevy sedan in town (Bixby Knolls/Long Beach), it continued with a faster 56 Chevy sedan and then on to the 57 Chevy sedan that ruled the streets and dragstrip classes for quite some time. Who the heck has a 55, 56, & 57 Chevy sedans in successive years?

My brother was two years older than me. He had the fortunate experience of being on the earlier days of cruising hot rods and drag racing stories from Bixby Knolls long before I started driving. The tales of those hot rods from the older group than his was awe inspiring. The McEwen group was a couple of years older than my brother’s group and the stories were different, but similar all at the same time. It was the characters that made those times great story telling experiences.

The groups from this whole area all funneled into Long Beach Poly High School. So, the cruising grounds were the same as we experienced many years later and some of the characters also intertwined as the years rolled on every 3-4 years, to the next step after high school.


Jnaki

Sometimes, the later years after our high school escapades those different classes intertwined for some great results.

Jerry Bivens class of 1962 + Tom McEwen class of 1955

Tom McEwen 1967 30 Years old


Also, two guys from Bixby Knolls opened a shop called Speed Engineering during 1958 in the Westside of Long Beach. (a few blocks from our own Westside home.)

Ronnie LeGrand in a 1955 Chevy and his business partner/friend, Tom McEwen in a 1956 Chevy. The advertisement says so… that they have the Home of the “World’s Fastest “D” Gas Coupe/Sedan Chevy… and Super Stock Record Holder...”

Tom McEwen/Ronnie LeGrand/Marauders Long Beach 56 CHEYV D/GAS WINNER 1957

And in the Green, our friend, Butch Taylor, who ran the famous concession stands at Lion’s Dragstrip. *denotes a class record

Coolness with attitude & shades…From the book So Cal THUNDER



Note: A few years earlier...

November 13, 1955: One month after the Lion’s Dragstrip grand opening, McEwen wins his first trophy…? With a 1954 Oldsmobile sedan? So, the order was 1954 Olds, 55 Chevy, 56 Chevy and 57 Chevy... all labeled: "It came that way from the factory..." Ha!

 

Redd's Auto Parts '48 Anglia A/G driven by Eldon Huffman vs Dick Weinle's A/G Anglia at the 1968 Indy Nationals. Eldon later went on to build and drive the NHRA Safety Safari fire buggy while Dick became the owner/operator of Edgewater Dragstrip in Cincinnati Ohio.

 

Walt Weney/Karl Lippold's car...

 

Hello,

In looking at these photos, brings back memories of filming drag racing from as close to the action as possible. Back then in 1959-64, the safety standards were in place, but the wide range of dragstrip set ups gave the photographer plenty of places to get “the right shot.”

Lion’s Dragstrip had a fairly open policy at the time. One had to have a pit pass and access was granted to the work area, the competitive cars and the folks behind the scenes. It also allowed with some decretion, shooting movies from various areas of the staging area, return road and below the orange timing tower , next to the white ambulance parking area.

But for a teenage kid with a point and shoot movie camera, it was hard to compete with the pros that were on the grass area in front of the spectators angled at the starting line. of allowed to shoot from on the track using telephoto lenses. Competition from little old me and the short lens with a point and shoot machine was funny at first. Then it was knowledge of the hot rods and competition cars that gave me somewhat of an advantage. Most photographers back then had the fancy equipment and advantage of developing the films and photos.

Jnaki

By the time our dad had decided to get us back in the “game,” was a sign that he saw his two sons contemplating the next level of our lives. Surfing was the new activity and our dad participated/supported us in his way by filming us surfing to our heart’s content. With that cool old point and shoot 16mm movie camera capturing all of those fun times. Those movies are classic of how much excitement and skills we developed trying something new.

A newer movie camera with a giant telephoto lens.

Despite the introduction of surfing, he tried to get us back in the drag racing scene by way of a new movie camera. A beaulieu 16mm movie camera with a giant telephoto lens and extended film cannisters on top, like Mickey Mouse ears.

Old post:

In my case, we missed out on some terrific movie camera possibilities during our recovery time out of drag racing. One day, my dad came home with this very cool movie camera that he had just purchased from a friend. It was too much camera for his friend, so my dad thought it would be perfect for his hobby, and for us, too. It was a larger Beaulieu 16R movie camera with all of the “goodies.” (12-120 mm telephoto lens, longer movie reels built in, a well balanced camera with a comfortable grip/battery and the ability to sync the sound with an external recorder)

This new camera was the epitome of the next level of home movies and movie making. It even had the ability to clip on those large Mickey Mouse film reels on top of the camera for longer recording times on the lengthy films. Now were were talking big time movie making.

Where were you from 1958-60?

What happened next: We tried taking movies with this new camera, but the thrill was gone. Sure, I could have used that longer telephoto lens, the longer shooting times without constant film reel changing, and the sync motion with a sound recorder, etc. But, the recovery for my brother was going a different way. We had sold the left over parts from our 40 Willys build. Now, there was no other build in the future as we were preparing a new adventure of surfing, motorcycles, and oh yeah, a little 4 year thing called college.

So, my dad sold the new Beaulieu Movie Camera to another friend of his, in Los Angeles. He went back to his old, trusty, fixed lens 16mm movie camera for HIS impromptu, family movie taking adventures, sad as it sounds, that, too, faded into oblivion.


THE NEXT STEP IN MOVIE MAKING:
“The R16 was first introduced in 1958, and is a well built, rugged movie camera. The camera supports speeds from a single frame to 64 frames per second, and is suited for single or double perforated 16mm film. It is capable of using a 100 ft. film magazine internally, or a 200 ft. “mouse ears” magazine externally. The R16 can also be used to shoot sync sound, but it has a reputation for being a bit noisy. The Beaulieu R16 features 12-120mm Angenieux Lens. A great vintage movie camera for amateur, hobbyist and student use!”

1964 Lion’s Dragstrip Gas Coupes/Sedans

These powerful moments would have been in actual 1964 real sound !!!
Drag cars in motion…

 

Whenever I see these early engine photos with clean unpolished 671 blowers, I often wonder if they cleaned an old one up from a truck or picked a new one up from GMC.
How cool would that be to be able to do that nowadays!

 

They were mostly from a blower specialty shops, because though the main rotor section was originally from diesel engines, the drive snout and belt pulley were not used in those applications and required fabrication/changes to make it that way. Also some changes were made to allow for higher RPM’s and internal rotor sealing for higher boost on racing engines

 

Here’s a 6-71 diesel in factory paint, with age they faded to a green/gray. Blowers are sandblasted to get that satin finish.

 

Right
I should have figured they came "in green", at least on assembled diesel engines.
Did warehouse replacement units get painted or were they still as cast?
I bought a used bare, unpainted 671 case around 1974 from a retired truck mechanic, the rotor bores weren't perfect but not bad, also, it still had the installation support flange on it.
Sorry for the thread derail.

 

Jack Chrisman in the drivers seat.

 

Along with steel gears.