This was pretty cool. Dean, the owner, sent over these pages from the August 1973 copy of rod and custom magazine that featured coverage from that years antique nationals. That year saw Charlie trailer the dragster from Cincinnati to California to compete. A journey that took him 3 days and which bagged him a $25 prize for the ‘longest tow’. Whilst there he also set low et of the meet with a 10.65 which should have seen him take home a further $100 except there was a rule that this needed to be set before 12 noon. Unfortunately he also went out out in round 2 with a slow reaction time. Pretty incredible that he was lifting the wheels and running those times with all early Ford running gear. Most of the other flathead dragsters were already fitted with more modern trans and rear ends. The car ran a bigger motor than it does now at 306ci. Exact details are a little sketchy but Dean believes it ran 450 thou lift on radiused lifters and a ‘special’ Isky ground cam. Apparently he also preferred to run 21A rods, fairly low compression at around 8 to 1 and swore by 48 carbs. Whatever his speed secrets were yet certainly worked.
So here is an update on the Charlie Bang Special Dean, the owner, is getting a kick out of us racing the car and people having a chance to see it so agreed to us having another year of fun! To this end, earlier this year, I went over and pulled the trans to confirm if the clutch was the culprit of our slower e.t's Not every day that you get to wrench on an original 60's digger sat next to a 50's Indy car! Safe to say the clutch had seen better days! The car uses a stock 10 inch flatty clutch so a new kit was ordered from Rock Auto and I had the flywheel skimmed. While I was at it I deleted the radiator and fitted a smaller battery in order to lose the unsightly box up front. We also picked up a pair of Hurst recap slicks as the whitewalls we were running were rock hard. These were a smaller diameter so time would tell if they would help or hinder. With the car back together we entered the Dragstalgia event in July and had decided to up our game so had T shirts designed and printed. These have proved very popular. The car went well although now running a clutch that had some bite getting it off the line took some getting used to but we were excited to see a little air under the front wheels on launch. As suspected the smaller slicks resulted in sacrificing some top end speed but it was made up with quicker 60 foot times. Best e.t was an 11.8 by Pete so comparable with our previous best. We also had Pete's killer sport coupe as tow car which resulted in us winning best appearing car of the event. Damon had now caught the racing bug and has plans to build a car along with Pete. Race transport was now handled by the box van he had bought. With the car in one piece after the event thoughts turned to the next one which would be the Hot Rod Drags again in September. The only work carried out prior was to replace the HT leads as they were pretty old and brittle. I also put together an info board detailing the car's spec and history as people are often intrigued by it. Pete had also decided that tow cars aren't cool enough and wanted to push the car instead. He knocked up a push bar and fitted a board to the front of his model T modified which just so happens to run a blown, overhead converted, dry sumped etc etc 4 banger! Needless to say the combo drew plenty of attention over the weekend! We had a busy weekend as not only were we competing in our usual Wild Bunch class which runs a dial in format but we also decided Damon should get some seat time and race in the resurrected Flathead Meltdown. The car ran well again with me and Pete both running 11.8's and Damon, getting used to the car, eventually ran a 12.8. Unfortunately half way through Sunday the clutch once again threw in the towel and started slipping BAD. Damon managed to nurse it through to the win in the meltdown final slowing to a 14.9 but we had to retire the car from further competition. All in a great weekend though as we collected our trophy for best appearing from the previous event, won the Meltdown competition class and also set fastest flathead e.t of the event. Plans now are to look at a better alternative to stock Ford clutch parts and fit these over winter and have some more fun next year. The subject of methanol has been discussed!
Now this is about as cool and as much fun as you can get. I want to play in your sandbox! Thanks for sharing. That engine wound up sounds amazing.
For a clutch recommendation. I went through A couple of store stock clutches in a couple cars that just seemed to be junk or chattered. Ended up getting one from fort wayne clutch And it's awesome.
Be safe on the clutch! The thread on clutches explains why. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/clutch-evolution.1323078/#post-15357876 That said, the car, team and shirt all look great!
Absolutely love this thread. See isn't this better than cackle cars, and just think of all the memories you guys are getting!! Wish you guys can make it over the pond to Eagle Field the Flathead V8/6 Cylinder Clash is a great fit for you!!! Course I'd love to get over there and run with ya but that probably won't happen anyway "Keep em between the Whites" and enjoy. Oh and I'm going to steal some pics ok......
Try putting a stainless steel sleeve in the calipers to stop them leaking. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/f...caliper-with-a-stainless-sleeve/182206/page1/ Here are some links to the 2024 Antique Nationals. Maybe you can make the 2025 event.......
Feel free to use any pictures you like. It would be great to play with some other flathead dragsters. At the moment there are just 2 actually racing in the UK and that other one hasn't run this year. There are another 2 or 3 in the works though so next year may see a slightly increased field. What sort of E.T.'s are you guys running over there?
Thanks. Fingers crossed we have cured the caliper issue as they have been fine this year. We would love to attend the Antique Nationals but the cost of shipping the car to the US would be very prohibitive.
Amazing how Irwindale is still going. I was crewing for a nostalgia SS car years back and it was "this is the last year" every year. I hope it can continue, always had a great time there.
The shopping center deal fell through. I heard they are bleeding money with only their Thursday race nights @ $40 a car isn't covering their costs. Once it closes they'll have to start running Pomona to keep the street races down. The noise restrictions at Pomona are the main reason it's not used more often.
For a home built It suits me fine and I don't break too much on it between runs. Have fun and stay Flat!!!!
With race season just around the corner it was time to, once again, remove the clutch from the Bang dragster and assess the damage. Well, if the last one wasn't worn enough we certainly made sure this time! Not wanting to repeat this process every 15 or so runs we decided an upgrade was needed. Pete resurfaced the flywheel and also machined it for a steel insert. Meanwhile the pressure and friction plates were sent to Orca Clutch in Hants who couldn't have been more helpful. What they returned was a 6 pad sintered friction plate using the flathead centre and a refurbished pressure plate. Interestingly Wayne at Orca was surprised that Charlie had obviously built it with 3 different springs pressure's so that it has a bit of a 'progressive' nature to it. Another one a Charlie's secrets revealed it seems. A couple of weeks back I went over and refitted everything, while doing so and out of curiosity, I pulled the intake off the as we hadn't looked inside the motor before. Bare in mind that when Dean commissioned Charlie to rebuild the car there was no real intention at the time of it ever racing again and that the flatty needn't be anything special but it seems Charlie couldn't resist a bit of porting while it was going together. So it's all back together and we will wait and see how the clutch performs in a couple of weeks.
Ahh! the ol' test the race car on the street! Love it, brings back memories of similar hi-jinks! With the harsh nature of road law over there, it's good to see a bit of the hooligan still exists and it looks like no harm was done.
Back from another successful weekend of racing with the Charles Bang Special. With me and Pete racing the car in the Wild Bunch class and Damon in the hot seat for the Flathead Metldown competition it was once again a case of hot lapping the car to make sure we got to run with each group. Friday was a RWYB/test kind of day and after the first run we found the new clutch was biting well but the old Hurst recaps not so much so I went to a local tyre shop and had the pair of Hoosiers Damon had brought fitted to the mag wheels. Pete had the first run straight after and the results were dramatic! The car pulled a huge wheelstand with Pete keeping his foot in to run a 11.8. The rest of the weekend was a case of experimenting with launch RPM to try not to repeat that amount air under the front end but to carry the wheels for a bit and maintain momentum. By the end of the event Damon had put a new PB on the car, for us, of 11.666 seconds at 116mph. We also won trophies for the meltdown competition class and fastest flathead of the event. Next run out will be Dragstalgia in late June where we hope to keep chipping away at the times and try to match what Charlie ran in 2004. We may also have the car on methanol by then.
The Jalopy Journal
