History Early drag racing photos

vw front axle "beam" suspension
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miss you dad

 

CYR AND HOPPER 1959


Hello,

I was fortunate to be able to attend the 1959 East Vs West Drag Race meet at the Riverside Raceway dragstrip. This was the first time the top racers came from all over the USA for a drag race against the top West Coast racers.
in the pits, Riverside Raceway
Who in their right mind would go against Ted Cyr in his record setting FED at any meet? Bill Colburn of the Colburn Glaze Coupe makes it an all-out “in the dirt” effort to beat the usual, top eliminator.

Riverside Raceway, 1959 East vs West Championships.


The only movies recorded of this historic event in 1959.
Jnaki

Soon after that historic event, we all got to see a crazy ad with the ***le of “FASTEST SINGLE ENGINED CAR IN THE WORLD.” What???

It was an impressive ad and we had seen the actual race car in person. YRMV

In March of 1960, the Cyr and Hopper FED was ever present at the 2nd annual March Meet in Bakersfield.


The two brothers in the early morning Pits and staging area of the Bakersfield Smokers March Meet 1960.

 

Thought I'd try to squeeze a little more color into this shot.

 

Harvey Richardson holding ears, Eldon Sy Sidebotham holding the back of the car, Dave Creehan in the seat. All friends of mine and from the same town where we all grew up, Reading, M***achusetts. S-R-C A/Gas Dragster with olds power. Saw this car run many times at Sanford, Maine.

 

In 1963, I watched Gene Snow driving a Chevy II at Wichita Falls, TX. If I'm not mistaken, the Chevy II was powered by a 409. He brought all four wheels off the pavement leaving the line. I used to have a picture of that, and I've searched the web, but I can't find that particular picture. If anyone has it, please post it. Here's his '65 Dart, Rambunctious.

 

“On February 2, 1957 the slide rule experts were of the opinion that the hot dragsters had "gone about as fur as they can go" — 160 mph was the theoretical limit to be attained from a standing start to that 1320 foot line.

Of course, these same experts had set 140 mph as the optimum limit just two years earlier — and how time does bring changes! On February 3, 1957 the theories went over the fence again — because here charged the Isky-U-Fab Special at an astounding 166.97 miles per hour! This was at L.A.D.S.

Subsequent top times have been registered by the Special at Bakersfield — 163.35; Saugus — 158.42; Inyokem — 155.17; Phoenix — 163.63; with the climactic 168.85 timed at Colton on May 5, 1957. These are all strip records. Strip E.T. records in this period include: L.A.D.S. — 9.28; Pomona — 9.20; Colton — 9.45; and the peak E.T. record set at Bakersfield — 8.89! At this writing Emory and the Isky-U-Fab Special had never been defeated for cl*** or top eliminator since that February 3 date.”

This was the ad that got my brother headed to the friend in los angeles who had contacts in the hot rod/drag race industry and could get us a set of Bruce Slicks, which we used on the 58 Impala for time trials, street drags and later on, inside of our 40 willys 671 SBC motor coupe.


Hello,

The image of the Cook and Bedwell Dragster is iconic. It bleeds drag racing in the 50s, leading up to setting the world’s record for dragsters. Of course, using the famous Bruce's Tires Slicks with their compound for quality and traction.
WDIFL
February 1957 the drag race fans were in awe at the record set for the team of Emery Cook and Cliff Bedwell. It was a time stopper with speeds and E.T. at almost every local So Cal dragstrip they ran during that time period. Impressive to say the least.
WDIFL
The world record feat was honored by having a re-creation in plastic model form. For kids and avid hot rod/drag race folks, this was so cool. No more making frames out of wooden rods and wax tubes. It was right there, stuck to the usual plastic frames with all of the parts stuck on them.
Our dad bought two of them, one for each of the brothers. On our initial build, my brother’s model was glued together. I left the headers off of the motor and I wanted to use the hemi motor in other models of the same scale. So, I used some blue wax jeweler’s rods to create some individual down tube headers and the ends were parallel to the ground, just outside of the slicks.
When it was not warm/hot outside or inside the house, the wax rods painted silver stayed in good shape. The minute it got warm/hot in the summer, the wax rods started to drop its shape. So, I put in some small needles to keep the shape as constructed.
from the early art files...
Cook and Bedwell 1957 The original color and stance…
After being sold to Midwest guys and a Flathead installed. old Friday Art...

Jnaki

The famous Cook and Bedwell Dragster was on display of the original 2017 grand opening of the Lion’s Dragstrip museum. It was splendid in the recreation completed by Dode Martin and others. A Dragmaster guy doing a Ch***is Research Dragster has some chuckles here.

Since I was not at Lions for the historical top record run in 1957 (I may have been standing in the dirt of the next door neighbor, farmer’s field, looking during all of 1957,) this race car represented that time period well. Now, it was available for all to witness a world record holder in person.

 

This photo is at Colton.

 

At 168.85 timed at Colton on May 5, 1957 they had to go in the boonies. Colton was still 1/4 mi in 57