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

The "football" chassis was used under the Opel body but the Austin body survived with Wilford and then Miike Guffey who sourced the parts to restore/re-create the car for Ralph Whitworth and is now on a re-creation of the original frame that was built in Muncie Indiana. The car made its debut at the 2011 CHRR.

There is a thread here in the HAMB about the rebuild.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=410394

Roo

 

This is how "Big John's" Austin looked when Tom Willford picked it up in '89.

 

Omg!!

 

All these pictures and not one of my cars posted. Sorry for the whining, guys, but I lost all my memorabilia in the Yarnell Hill Fire and was hoping someone out on the left coast or Division 7 might have liked at least one of my cars to have taken a picture or two.
In the early '70's I had a blue '69 C/MP Road Runner. In the mid '70's, it was an A/SM black hemi Cuda. In '79 a black G/Gas '72 Vega. In the '90's and into 2010 a yellow, then black big block '74 Colt. And my favorite was the injected hemi front engine dragster I ran from '95 through 2000.
Any pictures posted would be greatly appreciated and I would like to own or buy pictures if possible.

 

This thread is the history of drag racing from it's inception to 1968...which, if I read your post correctly is a couple years before your time.

 

I'm sorry. I didn't realize that. My front engine dragster was originally the Penho & Pellar Jr. Fuel car built by California Chassis Engineering. The tag welded on the frame was Chassis # 000109 built in '68.

 

Do you still have the Olds? I worked one the crew when Lynn Welfringer owned it - in fact the b/w picture is one I tool at Seattle.
Good to see it back together again - please post updates!

 

Both hands on the wheel? Must have been a mild run!







Trying HARD not to post repeats, don't remember these posted before, but if they have I will delete, searched before I posted but not all the search terms work all the time...

 

Hundreds of new photos have been added over the last couple of months. Just short of 3,000 photos are now on the site.

http://georgeklass.net/index.html

If you've looked at it in the past, might be time to look at it again. An excellent opportunity to waste a few hours of your life and not get any work done...

Regards,

George

 

Georges site is truly amazing. The street roadster section alone is worth the time.

 

I have a feeling, Dean, that I have more S/R photos all in one place than anywhere else on the net. For whatever reason, this is one NHRA class that has never seemed to have gotten the attention it deserved...

 

This collection just gets better!! Thanks, George! Is it ok to post some here with captions?

 

Pomona this weekend.......new memories begin!

 

Absolutely...

 

THANKS!, (hope I get them right!)


Westerburg and Bill (think I got the names right!) strong running flathead that ran SoCal strips in the early '60s


Owen Bowling, from San Gabriel, CA, one of a very few to use the Plymouth wedge, ran Open Gas, think this is from the '57 Nationals (Note Jr Thompson's Stude gasser in background)

Hashim, Hylton, & Crossley, from Bakersfield, at Riverside. The car started out with a flathead, then an Ardun, and finally this trademark front-blown Chrysler that Ernie Hashim ran in his roadster at Bakersfield.


Fritz Voight's gas burner at Pomona. Fritz went on to be Mickey Thompson's main engine guy for the Challenger.

Think this is Rod Stuckey in his then-Buick powered digger


Think this is Ed Losinski's purple fuel burner. The car later was modified into a slingshot with a blown motor, Jack Chrisman drove



I think this flathead powered digger was once the Cook & Bedwell world record setter after Cook sold it to a guy in Kansas who fitted it with a flathead.



Either Stan Hill or Jerry Rollema GMC powered Itow chassis car racing Ono, Lew, and Gonzales Olds-powered car in the far lane.



Kenny Ellis's "trigster," Scotty Fenn chassis, Kenny was from the San Gabriel area and was a regular with 3-wheeled dragsters, starting with a Scot-blown flathead. Later raced a twin motored gas digger.



Ansen & Pink Itow chassis'ed dragster, Tom Dyer drove.

George, Thanks for letting me repost pictures from this incredible collection! HAMBers, spend some time looking at this history, altereds, street roadsters, etc...

 

The "Gasser Wars" kind of took the thunder from us street roadster guys George.

 

One of the neat things about looking at the cars in the photos is also looking at the cars in the background, or anything in the background for that matter. For instance, on the last photo (the Itow digger), note the long line of guys waiting to use the "facilities". I thought that was funny as hell. Sort of...

 

Hensley and Cook, lots of history here. Car first owned by Paul Scheiffer, then the Bean Bandits, then Emory Cook and Red Hensley got the car (Holly Hedrich was also involved). One of the first drag cars with high-gear only, started off slow but about half way down the track almost always passed the car it was racing...Red Hensley was apparently killed in an industrial accident, not sure if this is him driving, but it looks like Emory Cook (another photo from the George Klass collection)

 

So here's the question: did the Henslee and Cook roadster go on to become the Hedrich and McClure roadster pictured here? Don't know, but Holly Hedrich worked for Scheiffer, was once a partner in the Henslee and Cook roadster. The Hedrich and McClure roadster also had a Plymouth front axle (pretty rare), a steel body, and, if I recall, a PBY strut frame just like Paul Schieffer used on the first version of the H&C car...anyone know? (Holly was a Pasadena resident like me, and came into Blairs to get nitro for this roadster when I worked there)

 

Joe Itow ran Itow's Automotive in the LA area and was a buddy of Eric Rickman of Hot Rod Magazine fame. Joe appeared in HRM often as he did projects for E. Rick Mann.

 

Here's something a little different.Its not "in motion" but worth the look.I hope you guys like it This is what it looked like sitting in the Hunt Bros. Hemi powered FED. This pic was taken during the filming of More American Graffiti at Fremont Dragstrip.

 

I would agree, what a great collection. Thank you for the link.

 

George,

Probably not too funny for the last guy in line!