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

Anyone ever go here ? . . .

 

Early Lefty with carbs.

 

Wednesday Wheels-Up edition...Dragster-style!

 

I think that the photographer in the first picture was looking the wrong way.

 

After touchdown...

 

Looks like touchdown wasn't so good, I read somewhere it crashed in '66.

 

Legends...

 

Never saw this shot before, anyone know if it was a Bonneville car testing at the drags?

 

Ambassador's Car Club from Orinda, CA, at Fremont, two blown Algon injected Chevies

Ollie Morris' rear engine dragster, first run with a flathead, then with Fred Offenhauser's Chevy V-8. Photo from the American Hot Rod Foundation.


K.S. Pittman at the Nationals, Dave McClelland photo


Steve Reyes caught Pure Hell in another smokey run....Pete Ogden built the chassis, Rich Guasco owned the car, and Dale Emory drove.


Twisters car club of Vista, CA ran this unusual dragster, running an Olds engine, Don Bennett driving. Photo from Life Magazine, April 1957.


Rod Stuckey ran this car, one of the first to use a 3-point roll bar. I'm not going to get into the debate over whether Kent Fuller or Rod Stuckey developed these chassis types, 3-point roll bar, torsion bar front end, that became the standard for dragsters. Stuckey positioned the fuel pump behind the blower, and so when the blower blew at HMB, it severed the fuel lines, and Stuckey was badly burned. Manuel Maldonado photo.


Lefty at Lions, 1966. I don't know whose photo this is. Lefty was a builder, and a racer, sadly losing his life while driving Dick Goss' fueler.


After being in motion: Jim Miles steel bodied altered after rolling at Ramona. He would live to race again, also suffered bad burns in a Lions pit fire. Jim was a racer. William Corbet photo


Gene Mooneyham at Colton. Gene started out with a sedan, but after crashing it at Santa Ana, he replaced the sedan body with this 5-window. Carl Johnson chopped the top. Gene started out with a fuel flathead, later went to a carbureted Chrysler, and then the final version with a blower and Al Sharp aluminum heads. I remember standing on the strip after Gene rolled down on his alcohol clean out run, and got out of the car, saying "I just can't afford to run it anymore." That was the last we saw of it, as it went through several owners until its journey to the Don Garlits museum. It was blue in its final version, here it is green and gold. Hot Rod photo.


I've posted this photo here before, hoping that someone can identify the AH racing Tony Nancy, at Santa Ana. Nancy was running the Sparks & Bonney blown flathead, and was able to beat a lot of overhead powered hot roadsters at the time. ("hot roadster" was the former designation for fuel roadsters).

 

No, it was Lefty's attempt to stay competitive with the blown Chrysler fuelers. Chet Herbert had ordered him to get rid of his twin Chevy (I heard him say "I told him to get rid of that thing" after Nick Van Wagner beat him at San Gabriel). The problem was that this 3-engine car was too heavy to compete, and the 4-wheel drivetrain was too subject to breakage. But give Lefty credit, he was always trying something different.

 

One of the best…

 

It looks like it had a rough Re-entry.

 

Note the very early Mickey Thompson Pontiac valve covers on Eddie and Ercie's twin engine dragster. This dragster burned a hole in the starting line at Connecticut Drag-way.

 

Not a Bonneville car. Lefty was having some success with his twin, so he decided to try it as a triple. Was too heavy.

 

Actually 2 of the best....
...and then there is Wild Willy...

 

Big...

 

My old stomping grounds...

 

Mine too.

 

I put some laps down that track also.

 

Do you mean...a "pair" of the best...or are you picking...just one ?

Mike

 

Riverside...Nancy far lane, beautiful digger!