I forgot to post this at the time so here we go... Around the middle of last year I became the temporary custodian of the Charles Bang flathead dragster. I have known the owner, Dean Butler, for a few years now and every time I visit him I try to convince him to drag the car out of retirement. Dean is still a very busy businessman and has an enviable collection of vehicles which mean the dragster is way down on his list of priorities so his solution was simply to tell me to take it away, go through it, get it running and potentially race it! Not ideal timing as I'm trying to get my coupe built but there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to tinker with such a piece of history so the 32 was put on the back burner for a little while. The rough history is that Charles Bang was from Cincinnati and a talented engineer. In the 60's he decided he wanted to go drag racing so built himself this flathead powered rail. He ended up being very successful in the Cincinnati area during the late 60's early 70's going on to set the D class record at 10.39seconds at 132mph before retiring the car. Dean got to know Charlie years later while Charlie worked on and tuned some of Dean's cars. Talk turned to the dragster if he still had the car. He did but it had been dismantled after Charlie had stretched it to go dirt drag racing. Dean wanted the car so commissioned Charlie to rebuild it just as he had it in the 60's although the motor isn't quite as 'built' as the original. Quick spec now is the engine 276ci, has a 4 inch crank, forged pistons, isky 400 cam, vertex mag and 4 Stromberg 48's. Gearbox is a side shift early 3 speed, 1st isn't used, and the rear end is a narrowed banjo but with later half shafts. It has been in Dean's collection since the rebuild but has occasionally seen the light of day. In 2004 Dean flew Charlie over to the UK, while now in his 70's, to drive the car at the Nostalgia Nationals where he ran a best of 11.26 at 124mph, lifting the wheels on every launch. In 2006 it took part in the historic dragster display at Goodwood and was fired up during the daily cackle fest. Other than being displayed a couple of times at events around 2008 it hadn't been ran. Pics from when I picked it up The plan now was to go through the car and get it to the point that it could be raced again at the Hot Rod drags at Santa Pod raceway last September. A few issues arose during the rebuild like 1st gear being smashed, airheart brake calipers were corroded, carbs needed rebuilding, etc etc. The spider gears were also no good so I asked my good friend Pete (nutrocker) to weld them up so we had a 'Lincoln locker'! By this point Pete had also jumped on board to help with the car at the track, loan a trailer etc so I asked Dean if Pete could co-drive which he agreed to. First fire up, brake and gears check. So how did we do? Pretty good but we couldn't better Charlie's performance from 2004. We put 11 runs on the car over the weekend with Pete running a best of 11.7 at 116mph and me a 11.8 at 116mph. Of course we were both acutely aware that it wasn't our car and that it is pretty historically significant so side stepping the clutch off the line and pulling wheelies wasn't going to be an option! The coolest part was that we got to match race with the only other flathead dragster currently competing in the UK owned by Bradley and Ken Cooper. Ken is THE flathead guru over here and was running 10's in his own flathead dragster back in the 60's. Their car now runs high 10's on methanol so had us covered on every race but it was fantastic to have the cars side by side. The whole weekend was an incredible experience and a real bucket list item ticked off. It wouldn't have happened though without Pete's help and Dean's generosity. The car is now back with Dean but we will hopefully run it again in the future.
WOW! Thanks for sharing. what an opportunity, and you took it forward. Congrats. hope that it will be on the track again.
Man that would be awesome. Unfortunately a rather large expanse of water and limited funds probably means it will never happen.
It's shocking to me that the guy was pulling wheelstands with this car through a regular '48 Ford side shift trans and never broke it, that is the definition of someone who's one with his machine. The sideways mounted radiator is neat too, not sure I ever saw that before, but it makes sense. Great car with great history, thanks for sharing.
Yeah, both me and Pete can't work out how he managed to race all those years and not smash a trans. Sadly Charlie is no longer with us to share his secret. The radiator and cooling system was an addition during the restoration purely to make the car more user friendly at the track. No need for a tow car, just drive it back to the pits.
One year on and Pete and myself found ourselves once again racing at the Hot Rod drags in the Charles Bang special. Huge thanks to Brett for loaning us his trailer and to Damon who ably assisted in running the car all weekend. Slight bit of drama on the Thursday as the airheart caliper's that I had to strip and rebuild numerous times last year to get them to stop leaking decided they didn't want to hold fluid again after sitting for 12 months. 3 hours and numerous rebuilds later we had brakes that worked, sort of. Once again we had the honour of match racing Ken and Brad cooper although engine woes put them out on the Saturday. During the Friday we were also able to pair up with Azza and Eff's Topolino. Another rear deal, flathead powered, built in the 60's dragster that hadn't seen a drag strip for many many years. Times were down on the previous year with a best of 12.2 but we think the clutch has seen better days and is slipping on the launch, backed up by slower 60 foot times. Still a great weekend and hopefully if we get to run the car next year we can spend a bit of time sorting the little issues out.
Way to go! I enjoyed this thread . . . and this dragster is doing pretty well for a small flathead motor.
Thanks for sharing @ukgav...pretty cool what you fellas did there...and that's pretty awesome performance for babying it... Yeah the Coupe...I'm popping over to see where you are with it...
Here you go. A feature on Bradley and the current dragster and also a 5 part interview with Ken detailing his racing exploits from the early days. Bradley Cooper's story (eurodragstereventcoverage.com) Ken Cooper's story and history - Part 1 (eurodragstereventcoverage.com) Ken Cooper's story - part 2 (eurodragstereventcoverage.com) Ken Cooper's story - Part 3 (eurodragstereventcoverage.com) Ken Cooper's story and history Part 4 (eurodragstereventcoverage.com) Ken Cooper's story - Part 5 (eurodragstereventcoverage.com)
The Jalopy Journal
