Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

Here it is back together.

 

I'd drive that to work.

 

Marshal Teague was killed in that car at Daytona.

 

Well that's a downer. Sorry to hear. The car is amazing, I don't recall seeing pics of it before. I'd build it as an open top, leave the nacelle behind the driver, add a chrome roll hoop that matches the shape of the nacelle

 

It's quite a story, it ran Indy at least once, built by Frank Kurtis. Here is the story if interested.
https://edjusticejr.com/blog/f/the-fabulous-kurtis-kraft-sumar-streamline

 

Hello,

One of my favorite race cars from the 1958-62 time period. When it came out, the Paul Nicolini design was pretty advanced and there were no other race cars like it. But, the problems with a new design started and until Joe Mailliard and his crew took over. It was a fancy design going as fast as possible with a ton of potential.

In those very early days, a sleek aluminum skinned body with a rear mounted motor showed up at the Lion’s Dragstrip. The driver was almost non existent as he was so low in front of the motor. It was definitely one of a kind in all drag racing. Paul Nicolini designed and build the original Sidewinder dragster that surprised everyone, not just in the Long Beach hot rod/drag race circles.

It instantly made people notice and sit back for the great show on each run. We saw it in the pits, the dragstrip and in the local Drag News paper. For most people that followed the drag racing scene in So Cal, it was a new and exciting race car.

Within the year, Joe Mailliard was asked to help out in fine tuning the design and add/subtract things to make it faster and handle better. So, by the time the photos of the newly formed old Sidewinder was shown at Lion’s Dragstrip, records began to fall and the resurrected Sidewinder started to win a lot of Top Eliminator trophies, with Jack Chrisman driving.


Jnaki

My brother and I filmed a lot of Sidewinder action as it was one of the most iconic race cars in this whole time period. Watching them a week later in our living room projected on a wall size movie screen was almost as good as being there. Our teenage friends all had a doubly good time being at Lion’s Dragstrip and then being able to see the 16MM color action again, sitting in comfortable sofas and chairs.

But, the reality of it was there was no sound in 1958-60. There was, but the recording device was too large to lug around. Plus, the cost of embedding the actual recorded sound into the film was horrendous and only Hollywood Productions made those “sound embedded” films. Even the early surf films of Bruce Brown, John Severson and Bud Brown had a tape recorded music playing over the sound system with the narration going on directly from those film makers on stage, coordinated with the film on the big screens.

The original sound when the Sidewinder fired up was different than the others. It was not until 1959 Fall season that a recording of the Sidewinder was made public. But, it was sound only and no films. My brother and I were able to buy a copy of the LP album and use the sound for our drag movies. It was on a tape recording we made and played while watching the films we took. At the time, it was just background sound and not always motion matched.

Again, it took a lot longer (2015-16) to actually put the original Sidewinder sound to the original Sidewinder films in one version of what we always saw and filmed in 58-60. Back then even with the sound now on our own tape recording, embedding it was not in the cards. So, we listened to the tape as we watched the drag racing films. it was as close to reality as it happened. It took until the digital age to get the films digitized and then get the original sound coordinated with the films.

Sidewinder Sound 1959


Upon being invited to showcase my Lion’s Dragstrip films in the original grand opening of the Lion’s Dragstrip Museum in So Cal, it was a long version of all of my films. The sound edition was not viable at the time. But, in the afternoon Cacklefest in the parking area of the complex, the latest version of the Sidewinder created by Jack Gillete participated in the “sounds” of drag racing.
2017 Lion’s Dragstrip Museum Grand Opening Cackle


An "oldie" still going strong in today’s showcase “cackle” events in So Cal.

B.Brown photo