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

not vineland, it's york US-30,***** belfattie's "shadow #3" vs swamp rat III best out of three match race 1963.

 

bobby vodnick driving***** belfatties "shadow #4" dragster at Island dragway nj 1964

 

Ewald & Smith, Don Ewald driving, now the manager of one of the best dragster sites on the planet..well, the best.


Gary Cagle lights them up, from the Sherm Porter Collection. Later he went over in this car, got hurt, but kept on racing.


Bobby Langley at Green Valley, TX...I think it is a housing development now.


George Gilmore ran a Chrysler in this Willys gasser...Caddo Mills was one of the earliest Texas drag strips, the landing field is still there, but no more drag racing.


Phil Freudinger leaves the starting line in his roadster, normally ran the lakes but they ran it at a SCTA meet at Colton. The car ran a flathead with a front-mounted blower, ran over 130. Photo from the Claude Hampson collection--- I give the collectors credit as they are the ones who preserve these old photos.


Sometimes track roadsters did a side trip to run straight, this one at Pomona. Photo by Norm Grudem.


Prudhomme takes a ride in the former Ivo single Buick car after installing Dave Zeuschel's Chrysler.


Even customs ran, this is Jim Seaton's Barris-build Chevy at Santa Maria, photo perhaps by Karen White. Jim also ran a the ex-Tony Nancy roadster with a blown Olds.


This seems pretty uneven, with Cal Rice in the J.E. Riley fuel dragster taking on a roadster, Santa Ana.


Ollie Morris and Harold Dawson ran this roadster, from the R&C collection. Harold would later run the "Tortoise" competition coupe and Ollie the "Smok'n White Owl" rear-engine dragster.

 

Great photo, Beardon, Tapia, and Hoffman take on the Green Monster at Lions, and won. The Beardon car was an early version of the Chassis Research TE-440, with an unusual frame arrangement forward of the firewall. Bobby Tapia would go on to drive several top fuel cars, including for Larry Stellings. He was a computer engineer, which was a rare profession for those days.

 

I was also on the starting line, Junji, and you got it exactly right. Garlits pulled up to the painted line, Chrisman pulled up short of it. Before throwing the flag, the starter pointed it at each driver to signify that they were ready. I was surprised that Chrisman nodded, as did Garlits. He then threw the flag and Garlits left with the lead, and won the race. He beat Chris Karamesines for the final race, as the Greek had beaten Ted Cyr in the other semi-final.

 

Like this?

 

Couple more - sorry if reposts but 1920 pages a lot to go through.

 

Hey TT,
The frame rails were not parallel. They were odd in design and not on a lot of race cars back then. The Tapia Brothers ran at Lions a lot during those times. The design almost made the driver lay back down to see/steer. (perhaps it is also a "legs under" scenario.)

Jnaki
The design always had comments like: Head protection? What protection? I guess one could duck down to let the bars do the protection. But, that FED was very quick in their class at Lions. It took all kinds of "bravado" in the early days of drag racing.

Tapia Bros at Lions 1959-60

 

Sort of...notice how the tube cross in front of the engine.....so many TE-440s, so many different set-ups. These are great pictures, Cyr & Hopper (Ted Cyr at left) and Jimmy Nix (forgot he had a TE-440), may I repost these on the Chassis Research page with credit to you?

 

A little trivia, does anyone know why they are named 440.

 

Hello,
Could it be that they are only going for a quarter of a mile? 440 yards = 1/4 mile...

Jnaki

 

They may have thought 1320 was too long.

 

Bingo - That was quick

 

Yes sir, 440 yards

 

Never doubt that Jnaki will always have the answer !!!
He is like a library.

 

You’re so right, I always learn something & enjoy his posts

 

I concur, 1320=one thousand three hundred and twenty feet=1/4 mile=440 yards.
Glad we're all on the same page, you guys on the other side of the big water can do your own conversions.

 

Junji is right..and TE stood for Top Eliminator...but that was pretty obvious!

 

So, why was the other Chassis Research frame labeled K 88?

 

They are all from the Internet.

 

Hey Dean,
That is a difficult question. The early dragsters were short in length compared to the later 60s long wheel base cars. But, 88 inches seems rather shorter than we all saw at the time. So, the K88 is either the chassis length or a circumference of a drag racing slick, early Bruce Slick or M&H. The early chassis research catalog products were kits. K=Kits? It can't be that simple, could it? K-88 "Kit-88 inches?"

Junji
That is my suggestion. (facts or reality) One of Tommy Ivo's early cars was 88 inches and everyone else thought that was the right length for a fast race car. But, as time moved on and more research provided better answers, the lengths grew and grew.

 

I posted this first picture on the "Vintage Shots" thread some time back then found the second picture that looks to be from a magazine and the same car. The first picture was listed as Pure Hell's first outing two week's before it's paint job. The second picture looks to be the same car and no mention of it's name in the writting about it, calling it "This Car"

 

IMO, That has got to be the GREATEST Fuel Altered EVER!!! Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of Great's, but Pure Hell is my all time favorite!!! [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G892A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I agree, and although this is not in motion and has been seen many times I want to show it again.

 

Always amazed me how the driver's head protected the roll bar in case of a roll-over. Not just this roadster (a favorite of mine, too), but so many drag cars of the era.

 

Not only is that a great fuel altered, but Rich Guasco is a great person too. He still has his show winning, and driven 1929 Ford hot rod roadster that he built more than 50 years ago.

 

In the case of the shot of Pure Hell Rich is well out of his normal driving position in this photo--notice that his shoulders are wedged against the front of the roll bar. Check out the earlier B & W shot to see how he (and Dale) sat during a run. That is not to say that many of the earlier cars were lacking in roll bar height.

Roo