History Early drag racing photos

Tom and Kent Fuller built the twin and I never noticed it before but that car only has six pipes in the center. It’s just a matter of logistics, if Fuller couldn’t fit them all in nobody could.

 

Like 427 Sleeper said 2 pipes were pointed down.

Mick

 

The rear tire tells the story B/ Fuel Dragster.

 

Reath Automotive Glen Stokey
Hello,

When my brother was in his teenage cruising days, I was too young to go along. So, I had to wait to hear the “goings on,” from his high school group’s days and night’s worth of stories. I knew that in 5 years, I would be driving and going to the same high school, which leads all of us back to hot rod/drag race central, Bixby Knolls.

Heaven to a lot of young teens who grew up here and those that drove into the whole Long Beach area to cruise, race and tell great stories about the teen scene. Mostly, the kids were from Long Beach Poly HS, but other friends from Lakewood H.S. Milikan H.S. Wilson H.S. and Jordan H.S. were all a part of outlying friends when cars gathered at other locations. Needless to say, those schools had their own cruising grounds, but sometimes, they blurred together at various functions.

Our specific area had some big time names pop up over time and local legend status grew by leaps and bounds. Tom McEwen was well known and followed his friends from elementary school into high school. After each group of teens go through high school, they just seemed to know it was time to move on in the cruising grounds to further their future careers. So, the new crop of teenagers and their cars moved right into the scene and some also became legends in the area.

Jnaki

My brother used to tell me of the “older” guys that had countless races on the local cherry avenue drags location. Of course, his group were the next generation to start their hot rod/drag race adventures and looked ahead at how everything functions and where to go, etc.

Tom McEwen, Bruce Rasner, Bob Brooks all lived and frequented the Bixby Knolls area. They also happened to have some fast cars and competition race cars in their build histories. There is so much history in their drag race/fast car stories, some written in magazines and others passed on through word of mouth. As the years progressed we all know of tom McEwen’s drag race history and accomplishments.

Note:
Our (my) first encounter with Altered Coupes was the sight of the Red Fiat Coupe with an injected hemi motor at Riverside Raceway in 1959. In 57 and 58, we had seen some Altereds at Lion’s Dragstrip, but they did not have ties to our Long Beach area history. This Red Fiat Coupe was low slung, sounded great and was fast. It was sponsored by Reath Automotive, their location was from near our high school.
Bruce Rasner, Tom McEwen, Reath Automotive A/Altered Coupe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2eHol_N2iA

From that first sighting to the other months of Lion’s Dragstrip activities, the altered coupes and sedans made everyone stand up and watch some of the best looking builds to run at Lion’s Dragstrip.

In 1959, most of the Gas Coupes and Sedan/Street Roadster classes either drove to the drags or used a tow bar. The highly modified race car classes used two wheel trailers at first, then moved on to larger 4 wheel trailers to bring the excitement to the drags.

Note 2:
Glen Stokey Lion's Dragstrip

What would a record setting B/Dragster motor do in an A/Altered Fiat Coupe? Those Reath Automotive sponsored racers swapped motors, just to see what would happen. The Bixby Knolls racers had a powerful A/A Fiat Coupe that we saw at the huge 1959 Riverside Raceway East vs West drag race event. It was fast, looked great and had ties to the local speed shop, Reath Automotive.
A/A Fuel Altered 1959 Riverside Raceway

Glen Stokey 1959 Lion’s Dragstrip






Together, the power of the 671 supercharged motor in the lightweight Fiat Coupe body made perfect sense to set records at Lion’s Dragstrip, from the garage/shop of Reath Automotive. YRMV