Motion Pictures Mystery Movies of the Week: Color 8mm Drag Racing in Texas!

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Mystery Movies of the Week: Color 8mm Drag Racing in Texas!

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Paging @jnaki to the front desk.

 

The black Studebaker coupe (168 B/G), belonged to R.D. Thomas. He mentioned that he used to run it at a strip in Childress, Texas. It had a 301 Chevy, and was very compe***ive.

 

Paging @KKrod

 

That was neat. Took me back to my teenage years. I was impressed at the number of spectators in some of the footage.

 

That was one of the better done 8MM movie camera jobs I have seen of drag racing.

 

Thanks, @chryslerfan55



Hello,

Thank you for thinking about me and drag racing in the 1958-60 era. Those were the years we did most of our builds and racing. But, that purple Willys Coupe would have been flagged early on in the tech inspection. There were some good builds somewhat recognizable, too.

This Willys Coupe should be in a Gas Coupe Cl***. But if he rolled into the the So Cal Lion’s Dragstrip tech committee area, It would have been automatically placed in the Altered Coupe Cl***. Why? The back window was modified and missing. Also, the bumpers seem to be missing... an advantage, so not stock for the Gas Coupe Cl***.

Then, at 5:40, the modified roadster looks like the second coming of San Diego’s Jess Van Deventer’s record setting roadster.
“The white roadster is Jess Van Deventer or his brother,,,, they both drove the car in the very late 1950's & early 1960's. The number on the car never changed ... It is #502 California Penal Code for drunk driving.”


Jnaki

The odd thing is going over the film several times and at 6:29, it looks like the early version prior to the U.S. Nationals of the So Cal team of Ratican, Jackson, Stearns, Dark Blue Fiat.
1960
They could have been on tour, going back or coming home from the nationals that year.

But, at 6:40 in the next round, they are on the losing end of the next round. That normally does not happen, so the Fiat looks like the original, but, probably not R-J-S from So Cal.


Note: But, as I stopped watching the films, something back in my brain said this coupe was also in a quick flash back scene.
So, I was tired and could not decide if I saw it or happen to see it in my own filles on my laptop... Old age and afternoons are not as clear as back when we were 20s...Ha!

 

The Willys Coupe was named Rowdy Willy and the owners were either from Texas or New Mexico depending on what year it was.