Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

You and me both brother. When I got back to the pits an watched the video of the first launch I was thinking the exact same thing, here we go again! LOL

 

But I automatically knew it was something else. We applied what we learned from the bunny hop into the Cobra's suspension. For those of you who missed it, the Austin from the last build sort of launched the same way on day one. However it was about 100 times worse. It unloaded so hard that it bounced the rear tires completely off the ground. And I am not talking about just breaking contact, I mean 6" inches plus in the air. LOL


This is photo of the austin at 300 foot or so reacting to a gear change (if you look close you will see all four wheels in the air). LOL Off the start it was even more violent.

After posting photos and videos of the runs that day, an old gasser guy from California got in touch with me. He said he knew exactly what we had done wrong because he did it himself once back in the day; and he was right! We had a set of Posie quarter elliptic springs on the rear. Our mount point to the chassis and the mount point to the rear end housing were both above the axel line. That is a No No. Both points have to be right on or below the center point of the axles or the car will bounce like a Mexican Jumping Bean!

After we addressed the issue, the Austin launched like crazy and ran like a bat out hell! We made darn sure when we installed the same suspension set up on the Cobra that we didn't break this rule!

 

Do you know the 1/4 mile times the original cobras ran? I’m curious how much faster you are going to be!

 

That is a good question @AldeanFan and just so you know, all of the following information comes straight from Cobra World Registry history pages on the Dragon Snakes.

The first factory car CSX2019 made a ton of passes in 1963 all over Southern California. It was upgraded slowly along the way from the original 260 and wires to the fire breathing 289 and Halibrand wearing slick melting snake from the NHRA and AHRA Record books.

There is an early account of the car making a 12.26 run at 114.06 mph at Henderson. There were a ton of undocumented runs between then and the AHRA Winter Nationals at Beeline in February of 1964 where the car set the A/SSP record with a 12.81 pass at 108.95 mph. Just a month later in Fresno, the car ran 12.31 but the run was disallowed because the fuel cap was not sealed. A rule put in place to make sure no funny stuff could make its way into the tank. LOL

The best time recorded for the first Gen Factory Dragon Snake was 11.73 @ 119.20 mph. Then came the second factory car, CSX 2357. It was fast right out of the box with 12 flat at 114.83 mph. A bit later it set the NHRA A/SSP class record of 11.81 @ 116.27 mph. In 1965 it shattered both NHRA and AHRA sportscar records several times. Then the 1965 AHRA Winter Nationals at Beeline sort of turned into a Dragon Snake Show with three of them on hand. The Second Factory Car, The Costilow and Larson unit (magenta car) and the black "El Cid".

The first battle of the snakes was the factory car against Larson which the factory car won handily as reported. It continued to win right up to the final where it met "El Cid". That was a dead heat, both cars ran 11.51 on the nose! However a close look revealed the factory car by a whisker. And with the event and the National Title secured, that was essentially the last time the car competed. The Dragon Snake program officially was over, it ran from Labor Day 1963 through May of 1965.

Finally, unofficially, CSX2075 was an original street car that was upgraded to drag race specks. Its best run with a Hilborn Injected Gurney-Eagle engine was 10.43 @ 138 mph.

 

I hope you guys are all having fun and safe Holidays this year. It has been pretty busy around our house as Zoe brought home a new toy. She has been looking for Bug for quite a while and stumbled upon a very nice little '66 model and I have been supervising her ripping into it. Not really a great HAMB subject but I am proud of her.

On the Cobra front, she is sleeping right now (well actually I had it out last weekend for a spin around the neighborhood because it was 72 degrees! ...Can you believe that?!! Anyway its next outing is scheduled for mid February at the Daryl Starbird Show in Tulsa. If you are in the neighborhood come on down. This year we are going from the show floor to the Hooning arena and the Billy Bash downstairs! The car has a bounty on it that it can not pull the front wheels in the arena. I think that is going to be easy money, but I am not the first person to think so! LOL We shall see!

 

Randall, it was good seeing you a Zoe the other weekend at the pizza party. Guess next time we will have to make the trip down your way.

 

Yes sir, thanks for the invite. It was a good education for Zoe, I spent the entire 3 hour drive home answer 348/409 questions. LOL!

 

that's great, is she looking for one to put in that Bug?

 

Happy New Year boys and girls, all our best wishes to you and your families for a safe, happy and prosperous 2022!

 

Just came across this:

 

FYI, Yellow Drag Snake sold for $1.25m at Mecum today.

 

That crazy Austin video is 4 years old! It basically debuted here on the HAMB on the Dragnasty Thread. It had a few hundred views, about normal. AND then around 2 months ago, the thing goes viral! We are currently headed to 750,000 views on that crazy video. I have no idea how. I saw in one of the 800 comments (LMAO) that they saw it on some blog somewhere??? I think it may be Dad's "Pulled the wheels in second gear" comment that is driving it more than the car! LOL

 

Well I just got my confirmation from the Brew City Gassers, the Cobra is headed to Great Lakes Dragway in June for the 2022 Out of Sight Drags! We are really excited. This is one of those bucket list tracks for me. ARE YOU LISTENING LARRY? Hope you can come over and see us...

 

Great to see you are coming to my home town track. Im sure you will enjoy the event.

 

Just happened across this thread and couldn't help, skip from beginning to end. What a fantastic machine.!! Nice to see something a bit out of the ordinary, on these pages. saw this one at Mecums last week.

 

I knew we would see you there Brian, good to hear from you. Looks like you got your craziness all squared away again! LOL We are pretty excited to go.

Our Schedule is pretty full this year, hoping we get to hit everything we have on the list:
February 18-20 - Daryl Starbird Show - Tulsa OK
March 20 - Spring Hot Rod Reunion - MOKAN Dragway
May 27-29 - Mid-America Street Rod Nationals - Springfield, MO
June 11 - Midway Drags Battle At Midway - Ark City, KS
June 24-25 - Out of Sight Drags - Union Grove, WI
August 20 - HAMB DRAGS or SPAM DRAGS - MOKAN Dragway
September 2-3 - Funny Car Chaos - MOKAN Dragway
September 16-17 - Thunder Valley Rumble Drags - Bethany, MO
October 2 - American Hot Rod Reunion - MOKAN Dragway
October 8 - Apple Butter Makin Days Car Show - Mt. Vernon, MO
October 15 - Maple Leaf Festival Car Show - Carthage, MO
November 19-20 - Hot Rod Holiday Car Show - Springfield, MO

 

Hope you got that thing tuned up good Randall because this year I’m stepping it up a bit Brian is really gonna like the new tune up I’m gonna be nowhere near his level but gotta start somewhere lol see ya in a month or so at Starbird

 

So you are saying I just need to let you race it once then I won't have to worry about it?!!! LMAO. Sorry couldn't resist. That sounds pretty exciting, I mean what's an AFX car with out some blue flames shooting, right?!!!

 

Dragon Snake mades a a few passes and the little old lady from Pasadena is getting scared looking at tipping the can to even things up

Lets see if Salty spits out his pipe on this one

 

Oh I’m not tipping the can on the afx but the dragster on the other hand has already been nursing the can and it’s getting very very addicted or maybe that’s me with the addiction to the horsepower lol. Randall make sure you make it by when I fire it up in Tulsa just don’t stand to close to the pipes the flames will burn you lol

 

I am totally ready for Billy Bash Cacklefest! Can't wait!

 

Oh, Hey Jackson, We got excepted for the Midway Drags too! LOL
Can't wait for Summer!

 

Except - you were accepted.. Could not resist & no, I am not an English teacher

 

no he was excepted Lmao. And yes we are glad to have the world infamous drag snake at the midway drags this year and yes I’m gonna use Randall’s thread to advertise a skosh

 

Pump it up Jackson. Oh when I show up with my digger, you had better pour in the the lid label and all if you even want a chance.

 

Bring it on James lol now back to the show lol

 

You know I will.

 

I accpect a few grammar issues once in awhile! Thanks for keeping me straight. LOL

 

Everything ok with you? You been quiet over a month and that is not like you