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

Man that almost looks like a plastic model,..

who was the driver of that camaro,and from where ??
I dont see a motor or headers/zoomies
.cool deal
knowing the Veney competitors of this vega`s era.

Vic

 

here's a better one...in motion...irwindale, 5/74 (thanks Dennis Doubleday for the Drag News scan)
at the time Joe Fantore Drove it.
the Maciel Bros. (my dad & uncle) were based out of Gardena/Lawndale.
the car was fan as an A/FC (injected nitro) and then everyone made the switch to BB/FC (blown alcohol). Veny, my old man, Armstrong, Matsubura and all those guys were part of the old California independent funny car association.
matter of fact...
the two cars (yours and my dad's) had the same chassis (ken cox 118")

 

here's another "not in motion"...

the former Prock & Howell F Troop Willys.

my dad bought it off of a guy who had traveled out west to do some racing and fell on hard times.
it just sat in the front window of Ivan's Speed Shop in Lawndale until my dad sold it. he never ran it because they were already running the FC posted above.

the car is now restored tp P&H livery and residing back east.

 

Thanks for sharing,..really neat stuff.
The Veneys Vega I have was ran in 71-72
the 2nd veney vega, still a flat nose was ran
in 1973 and by the end of 73 they put the slant nose
on it and put the blower motor in it,..and that became
the first Revell Veney vega.
A little history on the build,..after the chassis was built
the J&E body was bodied and tinned in Woody Gilmores shop
right along side of Frank Ruperts Black Plague Vega aa/fc which was
the first AA/ Vega FC to hit the circuit.
I keep in touch Frank often,. in fact i did a 6 month search for his
Black Plague funny car Baze & Rupert thats a whole nother story.

thanks for sharing

Vic
I would like to see Pro Comp make a come back.

 

and while we're at it, here's some shots of the car between the 55 and the funny car...

it was a record setter in B/MP and was a precursor to what would become pro stock



mom again with the car...
on the left is the 55 we sold to the guy who wound up driving the funny car...

 

awesome stuff!
our car was put together in '71-'72
J&E body too...

 

I thought that looked like the P&H car. Jay Howell has been looking for pics of his first career. He was first to drive the Little Red Wagon and drove the rear engine Dart Charger among many other feats in drag racing.

 

Heh...this is another one of those boards that keeps me from loosing my mind in work...although I don't post as much as I used to.
It goes WAY too fast these days.
Anyhow...I did see the "Stovebolt" & I'm waiting to cast my vote.

 

Ftroop 2006

 

I am not able to view the pictures on this thread, can someone tell me what the problem is. The pics on the first half are OK but the late ones are no good. This is driving me mad I feel disadvantaged and am suffering withdrawal symptons, please help.

 

That is a great shot, 2 of my favorite things.
This plane is actually in Dulles Airport Smithsonian Air & Space Museum now. Darryl Greenamyer flew it to 6 victories at Reno. Finished it's career as racer 'Conquest 1' and was retired after victory in 1971.

'Rare Bear' is still in service and holds the current record for prop aircraft, 528mph. It began it's race life in '69 as 'Phoenix 1' when Lyle Shelton saved it from the scrap heap. Prop is a shortened Hamilton-Standard from a P-3 Orion. Photo of 'Rare Bear' is from Reno in 1996.

 

back to cars

 

A fried of mine's Dad used to crew on the Rare Bear. here it is in motion.

 

My first front motor ride. Sorry about the low res scan. This shot is actually of the owner Rex Brown driving the car at the Australian Nationals at Surfers Paradise in 1970. I drove the car at several events in 1971/2 and won my one and only driving trophy with it.

Roo

 

That is a cool looking engine.

 

Looks like Rex is a mite large for the car.LOL
That front end set up looks unusual.
A short 4 link? What's the big silver thingy on the right side of the axle assy?

 

Could be a beam breaker?

 

Give the man a prize. At the time we did not have the expertise or capability of making a conical disc to attach to the spokes so we made that little aluminum plate to do the job.
The short radius rod deal was a straight crib from a photo of a California car in Drag Racing USA magazine. You have to realise that in those days our only source of info on new technology came from the magazines from the other side of the big water. We spent many hours studying the crappy newsprint quality pix in DRUSA as it (and Modern Rod) were the only really "hard core" mags on the market. PHR had better photos but most were more general in nature, aimed at making the magazine look good. Likewise Hot Rod had pretty much gone to van and street machine coverage and quality drag race tech stories were in the minority at the time.
The next car that we built had a quarter elliptic front spring (a Jim Davis deal if I remember correctly) that was again prompted by a magazine story.
The helmet in the photo is my Bell Star, probably the first used in drag racing in Australia and it was quite a bit larger than Rex's old lid.
But it did look cool (VBG).
The motor is a 171 cubic inch English Ford Zephyr six. Triple SU carbs and a six into two header deal. The car ran in D/Dragster which was a class for pre 1963 six cylinder, flat head and straight eight motors. The opposition ran everything from Holden "Grey" motors (like a scaled down Blue Flame Chevy), actual Blue Flame bowties, sidevalve Ford V8's, slant six Chryslers, straight 8 Buicks and even a twin cam Jaguar. Gearbox was a four speed Hillman using the top three cogs and the rear end was early Holden. Mild steel frame nickel bronze welded with oxy-acetylene.

Roo

 

No way, I got something right??
Either way its a coll little digger!

 

Some more from down under drag racing in the 1970's. These are all courtesy of David Cook, former editor of Rodsports and Drag Racing News and later of Dragster Australia, now published by Geoff Crisp. I had some personal involvement in all of these cars as detailed in the captions.

Roo

Neville Hawke's small block A/A at Adelaide International Raceway (my home track) in the early 1970s. This was my first big time race car paint job when I worked for the infamous Trend Customs. The car was eventually totalled in a towing accident.

Kevin Christerson's A/A from the late 70's. I did all of the fibreglass work on this car and also painted it and crewed as well. This is a later photo of the car when Kevin was running it without former partner Chris Tormay (see notes with later pix for more on Tormay).



David Baines' multi class altered. At one time David held the AA/A, BB/A, CC/A, A/A, B/A and C/A records concurrently. Four link car as can be seen from the twisted launch and the absolute class of the category at the time. Another of my paint jobs but from later in my career when I had my own shop.



Ian Splatt at the wheel of the legendary Bounty Hunter at the 72 Nationals at Surfers Paradise. Injected 440" big block Chevy on fuel at the time. Set the A/A national record on alky before the switch and then set the AA/A record several times on nitro with a best of 8.31 in 1973. Runner up to Jim Reed at this event but won the Nats (heads up Altered Eliminator) at its other two appearances prior to the introduction of handicapped Competition Eliminator. I crewed on the car from late 1971 until the end of its front running career and still have the firesuit that Splatt is wearing in the photo.


Here is Splatt at Castlereagh with the second paint job. The base paint was by Bob Moule and Tony Kuchel at Custom City and the graphics were by Reg Stevens, both of Adelaide. At the time probably the most spectacular graphics/lettering job on any race car in the country


The Bounty Hunter late in its life as a front running car. This time Chris Tormay (former engine builder in the injected nitro days) is the owner and at the wheel with the motor out of Claus Maluszczak's pro stocker between the rails. Chris ran in competition eliminator and in two trips to the Nationals was a winner and then runner up.

 

Roo- While surfing around the DLRA site I see that one Bob Bowman seems to be a noted racer/rodder downunder (black car). I also have a pic, on my computer, of a (60s-70s ?) altered(brown car) that has a offset right side drivers position, leading me to believe it may be from Aus. (?) and it is captioned Stan Bowman. Would you know if they are related or just a coincidence. A unique set up none the less.

 

The altered is very cool. Looks like a tight fit.

 

Roo baby those are awesome pics. Thank you for taking the time to post them.

 

If they are related it would be distantly. The Stan Bowman car is from this side of the big water as evidenced by the Brian Beattie photo. The RHD must just be a coincidence or an attempt to put some more weight on the right rear wheel while putting the driver lower in the car. If I remember correctly Stan later ran a funny car (Midnight Skulker?).

Roo

 

Kinda what I figured, since I posted I found another pic and the Vette in the background appears to be LHD. Thanks Roo.

 

Bowman called his cars "Flying Dutchman" (including a Vega funny) until the Vander Woude's sent a "please don't do that letter". He later ran the Chicago Patrol car.

 

Here is an old pic from Derby Downs......

 

79 pages & only one picture of "Landy's Doge" & None of the "Bean Bandits"???

 

Any of Bob Chipper's Willys from the east coast.