History FOUND....GOLDDIGGER TOP FUELER....with PICTURES!

The GOLDDIGGER front engine top fuel car was raced out of the Louisville KY area at the tail end of the FED days....The chassis and body work was done by Bill Stebbins...Car was owned by Jack Hart...piloted by Mr Billy Cambell...It ran an Ed Pink 426 stroker..early funny car style engine...IT THUMPED THE GROUND...The car ran mainly IHRA points events, and was a constant competitor during weekends at Bowling Green....Was abandoned for the new mid/rear engine cars in late 72 or so...

Fast forward some 35 years..and it was found not surprisinly close to Bowling Green KY....Went to pick it up, stopped by Louisville on the way back...THE MAN himself Bill Stebbins positively Id'd it and gave it his blessings...Both sides of my family had Billy do work on their Front engine Top gas and Top fuel cars in the late 60s..awesome guy....got back to Cincy and now its time for the ressurection of this awesome dragster...bitchin enuff, the only changes have been different motor mounts and a few other add ons..nothing major...If anyone has any flicks of it, please shoot me a PM!...thanks....

Tyler Hilton

car originally at Rockingham in '71..BEAUTIFUL paint job...



And Englishtown 1970..



Early mornin photo op before a show last weekend...Shes around 205 inch wheel base....from the end of the GOLDEN age of Top fuel racing...with our Comp coupe THE DRIFTER couplin up...quite a difference in era and wheel base length...













REUNITED WITH ITS BUILDER...






And of course my shit eating grin when it got home...

 

Great find! Want your $ back?

 

Man, that's cool. Great find.

 

Awesome find! Congrats! Hopefully you will be able to bring it up here to Island and other local strips. Be nice to see.

 

You guys have way too many toys

 

Congrats on the find!

 

Killer find!!!

Pretty sure I saw that car race at Byron (IL) and Cordova (IL) back in the day.

 

All one can say is BAD ASS!!!!!

 

That is a great find! I wish I could find the history of my FED.....Have fun on the resto!

 

Bringing it back around....Jack Hart the owner decided to get out of drag racing in the mid 70s...sold the car to the partnership of Thornberry and Siegle along with its name and a Ton of spare engines and parts...
..My old man steps up in late 77 and drives for a season for them..KB late model...a heavy right foot... BITCHIN...funny how everything falls in place...

 

Congrats on a great find, Tyler! Are you any relation to Ted Hilton in California?
BTW, I'm a closet Drifter groupie - I have every photo of it ever loaded onto the HAMB - keeps me inspired on my (C/C style) altered build!
Thanks and congrats again,
Scotty

 

Scotty,
no relation to ted...funny enough we have done deals with him over the years on parts....
Drifter groupie...hahaha well were glad you like it...comp coupes are the shit and we like it that way...see you in the lanes...

T. Hilton

 

Thanks T. But if you get in the lane next to me, you better suit up with body armour - something's bound to fall off of my heap and ping pong around... Actually, the car itself seems to be magnetic! But it'd be a huge honor to go up against The Drifter some day...
Ted's great - hauls a giant BBQ rig up here every year and feeds everyone at the Gasser Nationals a free chicken dinner! That's paying it back!
Okay, back to your thread...

 

great to see so many old drag cars being found and put back on the track

 

Bad ass, Killer score!!!!!

 

Too bad the years weren't kind to the paint job but cool find and equally cool story. These are the reasons to read the HAMB.

 

Very cool.

 

F' that FED, I wanna see more of that blue/navy AD truck in the background of the 1st shot

 

Seems the car was meant for you as your family was connected to it in the 70's thats way killer. Dave

 

must be good karma.....pretty soon mike is going to have to add on

 

Very coooooool!!!!!!

 

Congrats! What a cool car....

 

Damn I really gotta get me one! Very Cool!

 

How in the hell did it stay "intact" all of these years?..... Congrats!

 

Really like all the old FED's. There has been several in the last few months located so I think by next year we will have a bumper crop of old restored FED's

 

Sorry....but I am distracted by the Comp coupe ...............I need one !!!......Littleman

 

Lucky!
Great find!

 

Looks great, we need to hear it run!

 

looks like you got yerself a keeper, and a damn nice one too! enjoy the ride. waldo

 

I saw this car run several times at Beech Bend Raceway it was one of my all time favorites, beautiful paint and like you said shook the ground.