History Early drag racing photos

Kent Lenz, prototype K-88 Ch***is Research

 

Pushing with the hood, I knew those Buicks were tough !

 

What is the nose on this? Inverted midget tail or something fabricated?

 

Kind of looks to be based on the hood of a ‘40 Willys, but that’s just a guess. That front axle is Willys and it sure has an extreme caster angle.

 

Stan Hill and Jerry Rollema, GMC, Itow ch***is, later got upgraded to a blown Chevy

 

Dragmaster Dart. Wedge MoPar

 

Fred Dobney, Roll, Arizona...was a high school principal.

 

Owen Bowling, San Gabriel, CA, Arfons Green Monster in the rear. Glen Ward photo, 1958 NHRA Nationals

 

Twisters of Vista, former John Bradley flathead dragster, ran out of the Dragmaster shop. Glen Ward photo, 1958 NHRA Nationals

 

Joe Tucci, Lyndwood ch***is.

 

I believe that it is part of a former liquids tank.

 

The white '40 Ford coupe driven by Pete Mooney vs The gold '40 coupe driven by Bob Lindsey. These guys were good friends. Location was Savannah-South Butler, NYS. This venue was sanctioned by NASCAR. I took this photo prior to having a driver license ~ 1958.

 

Is he stretched out laying down in that car? I'm trying to imagine how his head could get so low with his legs going over the top of the rear end.

 

Just had to try juicing this shot up a little bit.

 

Hello,

Nice detail work on the old color. Now, if this photo were cut down to emphasize the racers and dragstrip, there is too much sky and ground to make things smaller. Go back to your up dated color shot and trim the top and bottom to emphasize the hot rods. If your computer program can focus a little clearer, it would be a killer shot. This was cut down to show the photo that gives you larger hot rods without going too much into the "blurry" world.

The photo does not lose much as it now centers on the two race cars going at each other. If the cut down photo is in its last available “re-focus” stage, then at least you are emphasizing the racers and not the sky/ground. For most eyes, this photo is in good focus, but the larger you or anyone makes any overall photo, the blurry effect comes into play.

Jnaki
A lot of early photos are/were point and shoot. They are difficult to enlarge without too much grain and becoming out of focus. So, with some computer photo programs in action, sometimes a simple cut, trim and redoing the program's detail clearing give more focus without going over to the "larger is better, blurry side."

It does not take long to re-do the photo parameters as if we are seeing a 1950s shot in person. Back then it was clear and usually a nice photo, even with those point and shoot cameras. So, making those old photos becomes a blurry mess in most cases as posted here and anywhere. Larger is not better, unless it is much clearer in focus.

As the old TV ad used to say, "try it, you might like it..." YRMV

 

The original photo uploaded here is 1600 pixels x1068 pixels. I downloaded it at that size and opened it in Photoshop at 1600 x 1068. I did nothing to change the pixel dimensions and re-uploaded it at its original size. Upsizing an image by any significant amount will reduce its quality and soften the image. So I avoid doing that.

The main goal of my editing was to improve the coloring and white balance and bring up a bit more detail. The fact that it was shot on an overcast day didn't make things any easier. I tried to brighten things up and add a bit more contrast. But mostly all that did was blow-out the highlights in the sky and wash out some detail in other areas. So I didn't want to push things to far and make matters worse. Once you lose any detail in a photo it's gone for good.

To the best of my knowledge their is no "re-focus" filter and no way to "re-focus" a soft, out-of-focus image. You can however apply an unsharp-mask filter, though this is typically only done when preparing an image for printing. It ***umes that your image is fairly well focused to start with and can add a little extra "pop" or crispness to your prints. But it is best applied conservatively. Go at it with a heavy hand and items can show obvious halos or dark outlines where they shouldn't be. And grain, noise and dust specks also become more noticeable. I do occasionally add just a smidgen of sharpening to some of my own photos that I'm uploading online. But if I look at my results and see any obvious signs of sharpening I know I need to back things down.

You're right that the cropping of the original image probably isn't ideal in all situations. But it is well proportioned to fill most monitors. It doesn't need to fit in a wide, narrow space in the forums. And once it's cropped those areas are forever gone. So I'll always upload as much of an image as I can and leave the cropping for your needs up to you.

 

Inaugural event from 1968, Firebird Raceway, Boise, Idaho.

 

Thanks, CLAYMART... just like to add, the timing folks and equipment were located in what appears as a chicken coop on stilts. Pete Mooney's standard coupe was powered by a like-new (power pack) 265 cu.in sbc.
Bob Lindsey's deluxe coupe also used an sbc of unknown displacement ?!