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

A couple more shots of Panic for you. From the altered thread.







Best for last

 

As noted when this shot was posted here a couple of weeks ago this is Tim Beebe's motor in McEwen's (at one time) Tirend sponsored car. After John Mulligan's fatal accident at the US Nationals Beebe had some match race contracts to fulfill so he put his late hemi in McEwen's car and finished out the season that way.

Roo

 

Wes Autobody






Stark hickey



Speedmasters



Safford Gaide

 

Dick Brannan's "Goldfinger" A/FX Mustang in its original form and so labelled because the James Bond movie of the same name had just been released. This is actually the very first of the A/FX Mustangs and was originally painted red. It was one of two prototypes built by DST for Ford and the second (white) one was used as a template by Holman and Moody when they built the remaining 10 cars. Later in stretched wheelbase configuration and with GT350 style rear quarter windows it raced as "Bronco".

Roo

 

"Speedmasters" may have been a backer but the car is the Fireside Inn AA/C and the driver is Larry Dixon Sr.

Roo

 

Kent Fuller chassis with a body by Arnie Roberts. The body is similar to the Adams and McEwen "Shark" car but Fuller never referred to it as such. Photo is likely from 1965 as Safford, Ratican and Gaide were still running the old Sour Sisters car at the March Meet in 1964. You probably can't see it in the photo but the Donovan valve covers have Oldsmobile engraved in them as a nod to the previous car's powerplant.

Roo

 

Does Bruce Walker still own it ? I remember him running it in the 80's, before he built a new Nostalgia Top Fueler.

 

Thanks Roo
All the little (and big) tidsbits you contribute to this thread really helps put the people involved at the forefront, not just the cars.
If anyone following this thread has not perused the "We did it for love" website, you will really find the back story's of many of the 60's cars and people quite insightful.
I recently read the tribute to Pat Foster and was highly enlightened and entertained.
The personal replies at the end are quite lengthy but worth saving and going back to as time allows.

http://wediditforlove.com/Foster.html

 

This car and "Bronco" were to separate cars.

 

Bucky has the Fireside Inn car Marty

 

Hodges Dodges

EDIT: from Dean Lowe it's the RAMCHARGERS CAR



Phil Bonner Daddy Warbucks

 

Hodges Dodges was just a sponsor. That is the Ramchargers car.

 

Thanks fixed it.

 

Not only is it the Ramchargers car but it is at Pomona (at the Winternationals) and Connie Kalitta's "cammer" Ford powered car is in the other lane and that is Buster Couch between the cars. This photo was posted on March 6th with a follow up comment on March 18 regarding the identity of the driver so this time around it is really just a waste of bandwidth as no further information has been added (apart from my comment above about Buster), The same applies to the repost of the McEwen shot which dates back to March 18. The two Lions shots that open the most recent post have also been up in the last few months as well. I understand that there are a huge number of shots in this thread and some will inevitably get re posted over time but seeing again them a few weeks later with no added information is just a waste of time and space.

Roo

 

And the famous moment that Don Garlitz invented the rear engine dragster!




I love this shot. Note the clutch disk flying toward the stands.

 

The first shot is of a model diorama and in the case of the real action shot the actual "invention" did not come until a bit later.
And to be truthful "Big" did not really invent the rear engine dragster as there were many built well before he did it including a bunch that were quite successful for their time. What he did was iron out a few of the problems that had plagued the most recent prior efforts, primarily by slowing the steering down.

Roo

 

Roo
I think I read that BIG conferred with Pat Foster on that steering issue correct.

 

He may have (as Foster had back motor experience) but Connie Swingle was the one who suggested slowing it down as he, Big and TC were headed home from a test.

Roo

 

This is the story I read Roo.


From WDIFL
Test Pilot




Lions - December, 1969. Pat Foster in the first Woody (RCE) rear engine dragster. As Patty explains it below, the car had some flaws and although he doesn't expound on the subject, it almost cost Foster his life. I witnessed the incident from the starting line and it was so bad that I just knew he was dead. When the car crossed the track at 200 mph it literally leaped over the guardrail and flew a good 100 feet in the air about 10 feet off the ground. It struck a wooden light pole in flight and disintegrated. Luckily the car hit the pole just behind Pat. Had it hit another 2 feet (or less) further forward - well, I would have been right. As it was, the cage stayed in tact and the engine continued on through the field, over a fence and into the far end of the parking lot. Foster was in bad shape but alive. It took him nearly a year to completely recover and I would bet he still has some aches on cold days.











In his own words, here's how Patty answered the question: "How did the ill-fated Woody car come to be?"

"There was no particular reason that Woody and I decided to build a back motored car. It began as lunch talk and grew from there. We decided to do the car with Woody supplying the materials and me donating the labor. We approached John Bateman to use his running gear and one of his 392's. He agreed, so the work began. We felt to be able to achieve the balance of the better running front motor cars of the era we needed to get the static load on the rear as high as possible so we inverted the rear end, used a small gear drive off the pinion to reverse the rotation, came back through the rear housing to the bell housing. Back of block to centerline of rear ended up about 18 ".

Some how, John and Woody had a falling apart and Leland Kolb ended up the motor supplier. After two outings with the piece, both marred by poor handling, we slowed the steering from the regular 6-1 ratio to 10-1 and headed to the Beach for more testing. The car hooked hard and made a very nice, straight hard run until entering the lights, at which time it picked up the front end violently, got on the fifth wheel just behind the seat, tipped on to left rear and catapulted the car over the right lane guardrail where it struck a light pole. By the way, we started in the left lane.

Garlits called me a week or so later in the hospital and asked my opinion was the accident, as he was thinking of building a similar car after his accident at Long Beach. I told him to put a wing on the front, no fifth wheel and to slow the steering, the rest is history."

Pat Foster

More to The Story from Foster...

Woody and I built the car and used Leland Kolb's engine and clutch. We thought it was time to get the driver out of harms way, so did the car as a spec project. This was before Garlits and Swingle did his. Soon after crashing the original car Woody made the changes needed and did another for Duane Ong, that performed well.

The car I crashed had the engine too far to the rear and needed a front. wing. Also prior to the night at Long Beach we had made a couple of attempts at OCIR and Irwindale, where we determined the steering had to be slowed considerably. That handled, we went to the 'Beach' convinced we had it figured out. On it's initial run that day it hauled ass, straight as an arrow to the 1100-1200 ft mark then violently started a blow-over. A single fifth wheel, close to the axle centerline caused it to tip onto the left rear slick and launched it over the opposite guardrail, where it hit a phone pole about eight feet from the ground.

Myself and the front half of the car dropped to the bottom of the pole while the rear half with the engine went through the spectator parking lot and ended up almost at Willow St.

Gar called me in the hospital after two weeks and asked if I had any suggestions for his back motored car he and Swingle had on the jig. I told him to slow the steering and not locate the engine as far to the rear as we had done and to consider a wing on the front.

 

I don't "love" the shot of the clutch disk flying towards the crowd. The woman it hit would have surely bled to death had starter Len Sutton not ran into the stands and held off the bleeding until the medical staff got to her. The result for her was the loss of an arm. She was the looser in this case, not Garlits. Parts flying a the crowd is never cool.

 

Yes it took a little thinking while he was recuperating in the hospital to finalize the ide. For sure, folks had been building rear engine dragsters for years prior to that but Don's main contribution to his success was making the nose of the car really long so he could aim it and slowing down the steering ratio so it wasn't so goosey. I loved the picture, not the flying disk. Never heard what happened with that flying disk, that wasn't a happy ending. Reminiscent of Big Daddy Roth's experience with his hover show car Rotar. He powered it with a couple of Triumph motorcycle engines laid on their side, turning a couple of turbine propellers. He didn't make provisions for lubing the crank so an engine seized and exploded the prop while running it at a car show, prop blew up and injured a lady spectator. That incident resulted in a ban of stating engines on any car at a show.

 

I was at the car show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium setting up a go-kart display on the small mezzanine over the entrance to the show room at the rear of the facility when Roth tried to start it. I heard it start and looked over the railing only to see fiberglass flying everywhere. I don't know if this was the same incident but it was pretty exciting for a 12 year old kid. I didn't know anyone was injured.

 

Hey guys, new here.
just seen all these cars from years gone bye.
had to put some of my dad's old dragster on here. Please forgive the quality of the pics. They were developed in 1966

 

The guy on the left is my dad, Bob Hamilton, have no idea who the guy on the right is.

 

The engine was a 392 and the intire car, frame and all was built by my old man.

 

Any of you guys out there remember the alley oop iii he raced it all over California until 1965.
my mom made him retire from racing when I was born . Alley oop stayed in our barn until 1972 when it was stolen in Merced Ca. And never heard from again.

 

Your first post started great but your last one...not so much.
Sorry that the car was stolen.

 

Here is my dad back in 1963 in his old Henry J. He later broke the world record in the AHRA C/GAS multiple times.

 

Yea, we were on vacation and came back to an empty barn.
they stole the dragster, my grandparents 43 caddy, a 23 REO, and my dad's open wheel Ferrari indy car. He didn't race indy but loved the cars. I would like to think that they're still out there somewhere, but I guess that's just wish full thinking.
I'm hoping someone out there might have some pictures of alley oop going down the track, in the 60's or might know something about my dad back then. He died In a plane crash about 20 years ago and we never talked about those days. I didn't even know these pics existed until I found them about a year ago.