Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

In the June 1959 edition of the Drag News weekly paper, this large advertisement was shown.

Note:

My brother and I already were weekly racers at Lion’s Dragstrip and decided to just be spectators for this unusual big-time event. It was the first of its kind. When our dad heard us talking about the “aircraft” powered race car, he, too, was interested and attended Lion’s Dragstrip just for that appearance.

Our dad with his hand on his famous Dobbs Fedora Hat he always wore. 1959 gathering on the spectators side at Lion’s Dragstrip.




Hello,

One of the most popular and long standing record holders in drag racing, let alone with an Allison airplane motor came out West on their first touring adventures. It was a big deal for most as we read about some crazy guy in the Midwest building these funny looking race cars. From the early days of a funny looking frame and sitting on top to the most consistent of all of the variations of the Green Monsters was built in Number 11. That was the one that showed up in 1959.

July 11th Vol 1 No 2
Published by Dan Roulston who functioned as the publisher and editor. Previously editor of Drag News until 1959.
Drag News
In 1959, the best and fastest of all “Green Monster” race cars presented itself at Lion’s Dragstrip. It was the first time traveling West for the Art Afrons group and they brought Green Monster #11 or for the appearance. For the Roman Number fans: XI.

The anticipation for the Westcoast arrival and watching it run was pretty cool. It was noted that of all "Green Monsters" that were built, number 11 was the most consistent and fastest.

The day at Lions and the resulting film satisfied the need to see and hear the Allison powered race car. Impressive as it was, there were other drag racers that made their own versions of an Allison powered race car. It will forever be in the history books and archives as anything Allison, means the different Green Monsters throughout the years.
total

Everyone stopped what they were doing and came to the viewing area to see this “cool” race car run. The first thing everyone noticed was that it did not have a lot of quickness off of the line and took a while to get moving. But, moving it did, sounding like the airplanes that flew over our house from the Long Beach Airport, on the way to Catalina.
The first thing we all saw was the largest 4 wheel trailer (90% of trailers were two wheel tilt trailers at the time) ever seen in our location at Lion's Dragstrip. This red heavy duty trailer was towed by the light blue Ford pickup truck all across the USA.

We were impressed with the unusual look of the Allison powered race car. The whole show brought people into the dragstrip that normally would not go. It was a show piece of a different kind. We all saw airplanes with their distinctive sounds, but no one on the Westcoast ever saw a race car that had an Allison motor as the power source. This was a first for all that came to see the race car in action.

No one was disappointed, although we wanted the race car to instantly go super fast. It started out with the firing up of the airplane motor and then slowly rolled out of the starting position. Then it took off like an airplane on take off at the nearby Long Beach Airport, heading West over our houses.
sound

 

Didn't take too long to find it, guess I got lucky...

Now back to our previously scheduled program, already in progress...