I would like to see the pic I remember of a drag car on the starting line with motor parts lying underneath. If i remember it was taken at pomona in the sixties. But its been years since ive seen it and im probly wrong. i think it may have been a crosley or perhaps an anglia. I love it its the best "OH ****" moment!
You are probably referring to the Magic Muffler Fiat at Lions... There are two angles of it...here's one
Seriously, how do you, or what has to happen to dump an entire bottom end like that? I have seen the destroyed motor at the garlits museum and that fiat looks worse!
i been using that pic for years. ---it's blown up to life size on the wall of the room housing the photo archives at Peterson Publishing. Jim had a Bantam the year before, lol. He sure had some issues making clean p***es, it seems lol
Jim was a good guy, but not a lot of luck...also got badly burned in a pit fire, but kept on coming back, I remember him in the pits after the fire with some bad scars...still wrenching on his car...
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU thats it and learning some history makes it better This is one hell of a site
It appears to be still spinning. Nice PR fpr C&T Strokers! Does anyone here know the whole story? Why did the oil pan come out - was it on a girdle that may have disentegrated? Look at the belt still "in place" as if it were waiting for the crank to return.
The oil pan came out because it had a whole blower motor pushing on it !!!!!!!!What caused the explosion is the question . beside the racing fuel and spark . Something broke big time.It would be interesting to know what it was.
I was a friend of Jimmy Miles back in the 1970s (and remember the night even earlier than that when the Fiat dumped its ba*****t!), and if I recall the story the bottom end just kind of blew out of the block. I can't recall if it was the bearing caps or what. Apparently the reciprocating ***embly was still salvageable and ended up in someone else's engine. Again, it's been decades since I heard the story but I gather that this was a stroked 354 which was then replaced by a 392-based mill with "pistons 1/8" down the bore" that really hooked up. The story of how he survived some major burns was a real tale of courage. I remember his wife telling me about it. FYI, I was told a couple of years ago told that Jim's building a replica of the Topolino, but as I haven't spoken to the guy for nearly three decades, I'm not sure if that's the case.
about ten years ago there was a 3 shot sequence of the blowup. I think Killer may have posted it? It is maybe lost on a computer of mine that umm, went through a flood.
God that looks bad,,,real bad. I blew some up and bad too, but whooooaaaa, never like that. Wonder if he had to change fire suit pants?
That there was some good reading. I have a glossy 8X10 of the first picture and I always wondered what happened. Knowing the the stuff might have made it into another engine and raced again??? That's awesome!
Now there's your problem! kinda reminded me of a jerry ruth story i hear a couple weeks ago "********! you Cant weld a main back in a motor!!"
There was a picture of a corvette I think Ault was on the side,They blew the motor ,red light and took out the tree.
That is the "Gold Standard" of engine explosions. Always brings to mind a couple of old racing sayings, "Oil pan failure", and "driving over the crankshaft".
Well, He really made that one count. I saw this picture a long time ago but I was in a rush when i saw it, now having a chance to actually look at it it blows me away. Literally the entire bottom end is on the ground, haha. I love the "what the fu**" expression of the driver, hahaha. Great picture
Actually, this car came after the Fiat body. In '68 Jim traded the Fiat body for the Bantam body and put the Bantam body on the same ch***is / eng etc. Car went 198 first run. This picture is when the ch***is was destroyed coming down. Jim then built another car ... It was end of an era for this ch***is.
I renemember an altered coming fully 'unlglued' one night at Lion's Throwing sparks all over mid to end track...... one guy says there a chunk as red hot stuff hit the ground going by us. I looked down next to the fence and said'There's A Jioint' We managed to fish it out between and under the fence Never would hve seen that if the altered hadn't come undone so hard. Yup I love drag racing!!
The Jalopy Journal
