I think I have mentioned this on here before but I'm going to try again in case some new members have joined since the last time. Back in '64-'65 there was an orange '55-56 Plymouth with the wheel base altered and a new 426 style hemi that ran at the old Double H Dragstrip in Blue Ridge, GA some. It was called the "Big Orange" and I guess it was from the AL, GA, NC or TN areas. Does anyone have any information on this car? I've never heard anyone else mention it.
"Back in '64-'65 there was an orange '55-56 Plymouth with the wheel base altered and a new 426 style hemi that ran at the old Double H Dragstrip in Blue Ridge, GA some. It was called the "Big Orange" and I guess it was from the AL, GA, NC or TN areas." Big Orange makes you think Knoxville perhaps, but I'm trying hard to recall a match racer you describe out of the Atlanta region. (Norcross?) Situations like this make me want to kick myself for not having a camera back when I was a kid. Tom S. in Tn.
Any of you guy's with the MOPAR AWB cars run threaded rod and wingnuts like Leal and Landy instead of hood pins? I was thinking that it was a cool idea , but wondered if it was a pain to remove every time.
in post 1212 of this thread you can see in the pic i use wing nuts on the trunk lid. i bought aluminum rod and threaded it. i think wing nuts would be a pain on a hood. i didn't run a hood because the front wheels came off the ground around 150 mph. i say the hood traps air and causing lift on the front end. when fred englehardt ran the metro moulded rubber 65 awb he had his hood heavily taped up to block the air. I'm not crazy on this subject i have pics to prove the lift. photographers caught it on camera. many cars started to crash in late 65 early 66 as speeds increased over 150 mph. and they ran hoods. we need to be safe out there.
We actually inquired about this for the 1:18 cars, but not many of us have that small of fingers, so went with hood pins. And do incude extra's for when they go flinggggggggggggg...
Ever see a big air dam on the front of some of those bodied cars with straight axles? You're thinking ahead of the game by leaving the hood off as long as they let you. A big air dam limits under hood and under car air ok, but it creates it's own set of problems and makes a car more like guiding a mobile home and cuts trap speed. I saw some that had holes cut in them as after thought because of the original size. I can state from personal visual experience a 1600# bodied car will rotate and fly like a canary once at > 140 mph. They can still be very unstable (even) with inner fenders in place. Tom S.
the fiberglass comets had air dams designed from wind tunnel tests. the mopars never went into the wind tunnel. some mopars tried the air dam but they didn't last long. a piece of angled aluminum on the trunk about 2x2 worked well to disturb the air. i also had a piece of aluminum bent to match the grille to block it off.to further hide it i painted it black. with these mods i could go 190mph. with one hand on the wheel. i never had high speed handling problems. i never had a tech guy bitch about not having a hood.
now you have me thinking about this stuff mr norm did not run a back window (late 65) he said the car went faster without it. i originally ran one then took it out and my car also ran faster. i also kept the inner fender panels for added strength. those are big shear panels up there. i also blocked off the directionals on the front bumper. there is a repro a/fx-nascar bubble windshield available from pro glass in illinois for b-bodies. it was designed for nascar originally and adopted by drag racers back in the day. they are lexan and look cool. when viewed from the side the area closest to the cowl is pushed out like a bulge. they have a totally different radius. the 65 dodge is the most aerodynamic of the 60's mopars made exept for the daytona. remember lee roy yarbrough ran 181.818mph on a closed course. he could have gone faster but the tires wouldn't handle the speed. they only lasted three to four laps. this was with a very stock bodied car. if readers on this site are interested in building these cars or have awb cars now heed these warnings. its not a game when you start to get after it in these cars. these tip could save your ass.
Out here in California, longtime Comet racer Roy Poole's fiberglass hood flexed so much from the deformation of air trying to push its way out, the unit delaminated on the track at the big end!! He now runs more hood pins !!! No screws though (I actually love that idea !!) Recent pics of his car at speed, going through the traps at Bakersfield still show that these lightweight hoods can deflect an enormous amount... Like racer-x says- - - "Be careful".. Dale
In years past I can recall wanting to make us run an altered class if we left the hood off. Never got us on raising the motor though A 190 mph Dodge....... man I'd love to see it. I miss drag racing so much. Tom S. in Tn.
So right! Everybody forgets where these things came from and what kind of surface and what kind of (sometimes Carlisle recapped) tires they were made to use. Compounds...... huh ?? All we knew they didn't have many treads and the wider the better and the more dust they'd kick up when they left. The cars were grossly overpowered, but so what, they wouldn't hook either. The guys here in the south who first built these things might have grown up driving on strips that could have been dirt, and the pavement of the time was pea gravel asphalt like any county road. Certainly not concrete/VHT. And I can recall how the game changed after the first touring pro's put on their show, complete with the time consuming crowd escalating process of sweeping in gym/dance floor rosin the announcer called traction forming gold dust. And back then to tell the truth, nobody actually knew exact trap speeds because the races were all about busting somebody else in another brands ass. Like the flagman who started races, tracks had a trustable track employeed witnesses at the finish line....... there were no lights, let alone clocks. If there was actually a trophy involved, it made it all appear it wasn't anything persponal about the other guy or his parrot mouthed girlfriend in the stands. I could easily digress about the operators constant intrinsic fear of a fight breaking out at some of these Saturday night edge of the county line tracks....... but I won't I've seen a highway patrolman called in once to escort a car to an interstate truck weigh station in a weight protest dispute. Again, I digress......... damn. I wonder how many people know NASCAR and some of it's star drivers was responsible for bringing altereds claiming to be stockers into public recognition? I could go on for days, but believe it or not I've actually seen arguments where a Hilborn should be a Rochester FI replacement if Fords were allowed a Mcollough supercharger. I miss this stuff so bad, once I get started I just can't stop. At this point all I can do is say drag racing was a lot more than sanctioned beach blanket bingo championship style you've grown up with on TV. Tom S. in Tn.
SUPER JIM I have alot of respect for the MOPAR boys and they're drag program of the 60's but is there any plan on making a "Daddy Warbucks" Falcon or "Seaton shaker" Chevelle and especially the Malfunction chevy II in minature
teddisnoke i originally had four pins holdind the hood on. when i saw the hood flex in the middle i added two more pins in the middle. this kept the hood mostly flat but the front edge started to curl up. i could see the edge where the trim would be facing me. it was at this time the front wheels started coming off the ground.i tried to hold down the hood further at this point using straps like landies car but it bowed in the center then. i took off the hood and all the lift problems were gone. an added benifit was i could see after i pulled a wheelie. with the front valance gone i could see out between the bumper and grille. with todays tires and more power its very easy to get in trouble as speeds increase. im not looking to grand stand here i just dont want anyone to get hurt. its a pretty short list of drivers who have gone over 175mph in a awb car. the amount of factual info out there is very small on how to run one of these cars.
I heard that Phil Bonner lost a race in the Falcon while being a half car length ahead of the other guy because the rear tires tripped the lights. That takes some serious huevos to get in knowing that is a real possibility.
with the help of funny car we posted some cool pics shot at great lakes drag way union grove wi. my home town track. they are from 65-66. there are some cool afx pics there. search great lakes drag way. enjoy
Love Landy's dodge! That car brings back some good memories of San Fernando Drags, Tony Nancy, Tommy Ivo, and Dick Landy were my favorites at that place
Landy's Dodge was the first car I had seen with a Keystone styled wheel that I liked them on. I wish more guys would run them now.
The Jalopy Journal
