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

Ah..dirt pits and a crescent wrench for fine tuning.Dem were da days.

 

Valiant Hairy Canary.Great.

 

We began racing the Corvair in April 68 and campaigned it throughout the U.S mainly match racing. In 1969 we won the Southern States championships at Bristol and in 1970 won the Mr Chevrolet race at Beeline. It went alot straighter than the vette. Ronnie sold the Vette to Gervaise Oneil who ran it under the King Rat banner. An earlier post said the vette found a new life as a gasser sometime in the 80's. Sure would like to have both of them again. Mike

 

Does anyone have any info: on this car? Any relations ship to the Paris Bros.?

 

Hey Mike, how close is Don to finishing the Corvair?

 

more....................

 

If you are referring to the Paris Bros twin motored gas digger, no....This was a So Cal team that ran a power blue Fiat first powered by a blown Desoto (since restored), and this fuel roadster followed it...was really well finished...

 

One of Scotty Fenn's Chassis research TE-440's.

 

I am not sure but sure would like to see it at a cacklefest. He mentioned that he would put a hemi in it

 

Neat photo. If we would have known how valuable the push cars(the vette in the backround and the 56 Nomad to the right) would become. Today they would be better than a 401k. SUR E LOVE THIS WEBSITE. Mike

 

Thanks Dean
Was the TE-440 front end different from their other chassis.Did they make others?Or was that the way they did them all.I am a doorslammer guy but feel an urge to play with an old fed.

 

Hemi!! Mike gives a frown.

 

Scotty tried the "rubber biscuit' suspension on the TE 440. I can't say how it worked, but most changed it to a common cross spring. I believe later TE 440 frames used a cross spring. The other Chassis Research frame was the K 88. I have only seen those with a cross spring.

 

Blue Hell Wrench-Can you give me any info on that 1969 Bristol Southern States race? Was it like a funnycar championship,open event,giant match race? How many fcs were there,and can you recall any of them? thank you for your time!

 

Dean is correct, NHRA banned Scotty's rubber biscuit suspension, I think that the last TE-440s had a spring like the later K-88 models. I put a Culbert front end on my TE-440, just layed a perch right on top of the tube that held the biscuit, worked pretty well...(early TE-440s had another problem, thin roll bar tubing (remember that Scotty welded them from muffler tube, called it "muffler moly")...so Jim Tice at San Gabriel wouldn't let us run anything blown in our car, because of an earlier fatality in a TE-440.

 

Excellent info,guys.
Thanks.

 

Yep, we races Bob Sullivan, Gene Snow, Sidney Foster and Danny Ongais for the Saturday night championship. Not too bad for a ALL chevy car. I remember tipping alittle more nitro than Ronnie expected but his response time won alot of races aka Rapid Ronnie. Thanks Mike

 

Thank you very much,wish I had been there.My first Bristol race was 70,AHRA. take care!!!

 

HS! That's awesome, Mike. I knew your name from having a sad HW addiction, but little did I know that the Dragstrip Demon I had was a real car (I thought it was just an homage to your HW connection). Freakin far out and cool, man!

 

Here's a picture of my dad holding his Henry J on the line, while another guy drives it. It was a four-speed, and the starting line at Paradise drag strip was slightly uphill, so the cars would roll out of the beams. At this point, this car had a small block Chevy in it, but it had a variety of engines in it over the years.



This funny car belonged to one of his buddies. Not sure if it was all that fast, but it looked cool!

 

Otto the guy who owned paradise dragstrip died last week and his funeral was being held today

 

Great shots.Was Paradise 1/8 or 1/4 mile.
That a Cheetah/Devin or what body?Looks like a couple of velocity stacks sticking up.

 

Paradise was 1/4 mile at one time, still operating as an 1/8 mile strip. It's a pretty cool joint. R.I.P. Otto
http://www.paradisedragstrip.net/

Photo taken at Paradise Dragstrip. It on the doubleHdragstrip site.

 

Red Paris was the drive and co-owner. Dubbed the Mother In Law, it was the blue Fiat albeit with a lighter fiberglass shell and other modern amenities. Sam basic frame and front suspension. Never saw the Fiat, but the Bantam version was an Irwindale regular.