History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Lots of memories in this shot. Gas Ronda in his maroon 63 R Code Galaxie just before he got his Thunderbolt. In 64 he moved with his Tbolt to Russ Davis Ford in Covina to be close to Les Ritchey who prepped his cars. The backwards traction bars are a Ritchey trick. Can't forget the Blair Speed shop car either. Don Blair lived around the corner from me. My neighbor kept his trailer at Blair's house and I loved going with him to pick it up. It always turned into a 1-2 hour BS session about the old days.
When he left Downtown the Tbolt got the orange color that somewhat became his trademark. The Tbolt is in the corner of the second pic. In primer and for sale - nothing older than last years race car. On the trailer sits one of the first 10 A/FX (car that shall not be mentioned here) that Gas crashed in testing. Since it was not his fault (axle broke) Ford gave him another car. The second one had been slated to be the Ford PR car but was rerouted to Gas. This is behind Les Ritchey's shop in Glendora CA.

 

That Coupe looks killer with that chop!

 

Someone straighten me out on this one. As I remember (questionally) the Coupe has 4-Doors doors in it which changes the chop from Willys Coupes.

 

Good read


https://topfuelwormhole.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/the-epic-saga-of-the-surfers-2/

 

I can't comment of height of roof between the two, but the 4 doors where called Sedans and the 2 doors were called Coupes. Also that Coupe does appear to be chopped to me, as door windows don't appear as high as I recall. But then again I sometimes can't even recall my own name .

 

the window height between the coupe and sedan is the same also same for the pickup at least from 37-42 I’m not sure on the earlier 33-36 style

 

Here's perhaps the most famous example to compare.

 

I guess I'm just weird!
Speaking purely on a visual basis, I prefer the Willys unchopped, same with the Anglia and Austin (Google "Football Austin").

 

SWC one of my favorite cars. Whenever we heard where they were running we went. I quit following them when they "upgraded" to funny car because living in Covina Gas got all the attention in all 6 local high schools. At least they kept their old style of lettering. Their Willys history - https://www.motortrend.com/features/still-cookin-october-1982-982-1162-68-1/

 

The Grist Brothers Willys Coupe that ruled the A/Gas class at the So Cal dragstrips, also during this time.

Painter's truck B/Gas + Doug Cook C/Gas + Bones Balogh D/Gas


The only non black and white photo we’ve seen shows Ralph (far right) and Floyd with “parts-washer and coffee-maker” Eddy Grist, who toured the SoCal strips with his uncle and father, respectively. More than half a century later, Eddy’s tribute Web site (GristBrosRacing.com) shares many great shots of the world’s quickest and fastest unblown gasser.

little Eddie Grist at age 9 from the Grist Family Collection


"They purchased a 430 cubic inch Lincoln engine and started building on it. They bored and stroked it to 501 cubic inches. They ran a stock “nodular” crankshaft. In the early days Joe Malliard helped with the machine work. After Joe Malliard passed away, Joe Reath started helping with machine work and parts … like a set of Hilborn mechanical fuel injectors. “

“Dempsey Wilson ground all of the camshafts with his "special" grind and Mickey Thompson helped with some aluminum pistons and rods (the compression ratio was around 13 or 14 to 1). A Joe Hunt magneto provided the spark. A guy named Dale Klienhand arranged to have some Headman Headers custom built. The local Autolite and Valvoline distributorships supplied weekly doses of plugs, oil and filters delivered straight to the house.”

“It wasn’t known exactly how many horses were under the hood, but it more than a handful and the track records were dropping most every week. And, Dad and Ralph were right in the middle of it. I’ve still got some of the NHRA certificates of some of their record-breaking runs.”

“At first they had a lot of trouble with spinning bearings. Dad and Ralph learned from Ted Cyr and Leland Kolb about drilling the main oil galleys and drilled them out with a special long drill."



Hello,

I will be forever grateful for the help in the night of August 6, 1960 around 9:30 p.m. My brother had just stomped on the gas, took almost a 2 car lead against the class record holder in C/Gas class at Lion’s Dragstrip. All day, from the start of the time trials to the eliminations, my brother was concentrating on better starts. He kept it up against all competitors during the eliminations during the late afternoon into the dinner hour. By 9:00 p.m. we were lined up for the finals of the C/Gas eliminations.

In the same staging area was the record setting Albertson Oldsmobile Top Eliminator FED trying to continue the winning streak of 12 straight wins. But, our C/Gas Class Final elimination race was given the first call to clear the staging area.

Jnaki

We had just seen the A/Gas chopped Willys Coupe of the Grist Brothers in front of us making the winning run in their class. Then it was our turn. With a great start, Atts Ono and I were standing at the starting line and watched my brother take the lead through all gears. It was headed for a final win for the trophy that night. But, things happen and the clutch blew up just before the lights. It looked as if a ball of fire shot out of both windows, below the Willys Coupe and then the driver's door. It looked as if the door opened and another ball of flames came shooting out from inside. We were shocked.

The aspect of fire is terrible and many years later, I was in a conversation with Eddie Grist. He was 9 at the time and he told me of the harrowing sight of a race car blowing up right in front of their chopped Willys A/Gas Coupe and whole family coming back down the return road.

It had to be his dad and uncle that came over to our Willys Coupe with a fire extinguisher. By the time we got there with our fire extinguisher and another spectator jumped the fence with one other large extinguisher, everything went by so fast… They all told me to go back to the finish line lights as that is where the ambulance was picking up my brother. He had jumped out going around 60 mph, as per the conversation from Eddie Grist. It was a sight he said he would never forget.

Thanks for your help at the time…

Note:
My brother had tried to use our own clipped in fire extinguisher, but from his conversation much later, he said it was like using a squirt gun on a beach campout fire. Later that night, Atts Ono stayed with the burning Willys Coupe until the fire burned itself out. There were many large red fire extinguishers on the ground all over the area in the next day clean up and tow away...YRMV

The whole Grist family was always present when they raced at Lion’s Dragstrip during our days racing. Many times, we were in the pits, together, during the race days.

Note 2:

The Grist Brothers chopped Willys Coupe ran in the race just before our last Willys 671 SBC C/Gas race at Lion’s Dragstrip. They left the starting line just ahead of our staging time for our final elimination race for our class. They were on the return road right at the spot where our explosion and fire happened. They were first hand to view and first responders to the incident. We probably stood next to each other spraying the large red extinguishers on our burning Willys.

 

A Willys coupe with modified Willys sedan doors.

 

Grist Brothers Willys was pretty unique. The doors are, in fact sedan doors (which are shorter than coupe doors) with cut-up coupe door segments forming the window surrounds. The net effect was a slightly shorter wheelbase, which at the time gave more bite. But the fact is, those guys made a lot of power with that big Lincoln. The car still exists, now in Georgia.

 

No, the 55 is not a BelAir!

 

Eddie Hill.

 

The background cars keep me looking at pics for a long time. That is a sweet and rare '55 210 Sport Coupe behind the twin flattie powered dragster.

 

Frye Brothers

 

Frye Brothers first twin.

 

George Vinas - another Buick twin.

 

More Buicks but this one unidentified .

 

Not to forget the Ivo built - campaigned by many Buick in-line.