Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

Another 40 Chevy

 

One of the first two Dragsters to run Nitrous Oxide. This is part of the story.


During the following winter, Jack Hordemann rebuilt the Kelly car with a nitrous-oxide injector and Flynn built a new nitrous-injected engine for the Thrifty car. The two designs came about simultaneously, but they differed greatly. Flynn mounted two 6-pound bottles horizontally under the cowl as noted earlier. They fed an oxygen regulator set at 12 psi. A line transmitted vapor to a valve adjacent the throttle pedal. From there, another line connected to a bulkhead in the back of the lifter valley, where a small manifold distributed the gas to each intake port. Yeah, direct-port nitrous—hidden, at that. In 1960.

 

I went looking for the dragstrip this guy was advertising and found Waco AAF Auxiliary # 5 (Prairie Hill Field) 22 miles east of Waco, TX. It had hard surface runways built in a triangle with the longest being 4,000 feet long.

 

Old satellite image of Prairie Hill Field. I can only guess that the two black streaks on the runway was where races were held.

 

Marty --
The Thrifty car made it deep into the Smokers field in 1959 (or 60?). Were they using the nitrous then? I was rooting for them -- loved the look of the "underdog" car.
Stan

 

Bob “Bones” Balogh with the first of his J&J Muffler sponsored cars.

 

Don't think they had it on the Thrifty car in 59, but here is some info on why the the car was short at 88" WB.


Ask Fern Clay. Well, she's not around, so we'll answer that for her. Her husband, Mr. Henry "Hank" Clay, owned Spokane's Thrifty Auto Supply, a garden variety parts store that started selling speed equipment in the 1950s. In fact, you can see a photo of the shop on the June 2012 HOT ROD cover.

Clay sponsored a string of cars, among them the Hordemann Brothers' mid-engine T and even the Kelly Automotive dragster later in its career. A bit before the Bakersfield meet, the Clays came calling to check the progress and offer some encouragement. But Mrs. Clay couldn't see the digger behind the car as she backed out and ended up driving over the nose.


Time constraints made re-tubing the car inconvenient. That left two options: cut the car back and run a squirrely car or not run at all. With the understanding that the shorter and therefore lighter nose would make the car more prone to uncontrollable wheelstands, the crew found the heaviest objects they could find to keep the nose down. Initially, they lashed a floor jack to the front axle with a length of logger's chain, but they eventually bolted a lead-filled tube to the axle.

They say there's nothing more permanent than a temporary solution, and Thrifty was a textbook case. A busy schedule and the promise of solving multiple problems by building another chassis kept the stumpy, little digger on the track until a U-joint explosion on September 24, 1961, severely injured Stortroen, ending his and the team's racing days. Stortroen moved to California to work for Vic Hubbard.

 

Isn't that Garlets?

 

Yes, it’s the Swamp Rat.