George, awesome site. I started to read it but don't have time right now to finish. I Bookmarked it so I can finish later. A lot of good history and memories. Thanks
WOW!! I'm a MoPar guy and the color pictures you have there are fantastic!! Thank you!! Marty Marysville, OH
Altered Wheelbase Hillman Husky. Set on a '67 Datsun pick-up chassis, thats been heavily modified. 90 1/4" wheelbase. Yet another journey begins. Hoping to have it set up for a 70's-ish OCIR vibe.
If I had one, for sure. But that tree stopped growing years ago! I'm going to install the 11.60 e.t 289, from my altered wheelbase Comet, as its getting a new more potent engine. Compact, fast, crazy.... I'm going to try to set it up for high-tens, and big radiator to puddle around the street on. Cruise nights will never be the same...
That chassis looks like it was done awhile ago what with the patina chrome on the rear end, that didn't happen to come from a chop top red white and blue Datsun pick up did it? I saw that one run at Lions when I was 5-6 years old, almost tipped it over on the burn out. I later saw it for sale no motor/trans at the OCIR Hi Perf swapmeet when I was a teen ager.
The pick-up was raced here in SoCal, throughout the 70's, up until recently, when the owner passed away. The truck was purchased by a friend, who revived it, made a couple passes about six month's ago, at Irwindale. But the engine let go, and most of the rollbar was a bit unsafe. Body was showing signs of its age, so I salvaged parts some of which Mooneyes purchased ,and could have not asked for a better chassis to mount the Hillman on, that I bought from a guy who stored it for decades at the old Riverside airport... So -the chassis is a solid foundation, and should do fine The big Pontiac rearend is so cool to see from the back of the car, its HUGE!!!
needed a LOT of backspace to make a wheel work. Advertised in the Wanted section of HAMB classifieds and got VERY LUCKY to buy some NOS custom built CRAGAR S/S wheels with 7" backspace. Still in the old boxes and never had a tire on them. Also, those 7.10 Firestones are NOS from the day. Also found on HAMB
did anyone catch the new awb car out on its maden passes last sun at byron drag way. i sold john grinwald a 65 dodge a few years back with all the fiberglass. john just finished it this spring. it has a injected hemi on gas. on the fourth pass he hit a 8.83 not too bad for the first time out. ran straight as a string. its called the gold digger. the plan is to switch to methanol soon. i may be able to talk him into some nitro. there is some huge potential in this car. john also runs the asphalt elephant 62 dodge.
my friend Steve Rice altered the car for John. He has built cars for me. As usual, his work is spot-on and the car went straight. I think high 8's is plenty darn fast for a AWB car. Much faster than "in the day" My AWB may get into the 9's, but then it will get de-tuned to run mid-10's. Safe, simple, easy.
You should do some research before you star typing. Both Arnie Beswick and Gary Dyer ran in the 8's in 1965. "MELTDOWN DRAGS" July 20, 21 2013 at Byron Dragway Byron Ill. www.meltdowndrags.com
In fact Arnie did that with a stock wheelbase GTO with a 300 lb ballast bumper and stiff recapped Bruce's slicks. And I say Gary Dyer and not Mr.Norm because Dyer was the talent and Norm was just a money guy who got all the credit. "MELTDOWN DRAGS" July 20, 21 2013 at Byron Dragway Byron Ill. www.meltdowndrags.com
He did say AWB cars though, and thats on old technology . Im sure that new dodge has some way better engine parts and Byron has a real sticky track . So I would say 8's is hauling, but not near as dangerous as it was in the 60's The Tasca MYSTERY 8 mustang ran in the 8's and so did the fliptop mercury comets eventually. "MELTDOWN DRAGS" July 20, 21 2013 at Byron Dragway Byron Ill. www.meltdowndrags.com
Still, I think it was the Ramchargers who first ran in the 8's with their AWB car... injected, not blown.
I think your right. Anyone who runs that fast now or in the past has a serious set of huevo's "MELTDOWN DRAGS" July 20, 21 2013 at Byron Dragway Byron Ill. www.meltdowndrags.com
The ranchargers did it with hydrozine with their nitro. They had the most consistant and fastest injected car. As for the blown cars several were into the eight sec zone the kingfish cuda and gay pontiacs also mercury had the christman comet these are a few that come to mind. I agree its easier to go faster now. John was able to hit the eights on gas the first time out where the rams took a season. Its just the evolution of the breed. Im not taking anything away from the original drivers. Beswick told me once if you really want to know how it was to drive these cars back then run some unsactioned tracks down south. So I did and had a great time. Look up geoffe stunckerts quarter milestones site. Under nitro hallucination you will find the unedited hot rod mag story. Those guys enjoy their legendary status for good reason.
Lyle that comet looks good. The original tom coward. Tom catter comet is very close to my house and all restored. It has never been out in the public. The original hubert platt comet in unrestored condition was at the hot rod reunion a few years back. One of my all time favorites. Platt is a trip to talk to.
Dyno Don got into the high 8 second bracket late in '65 with his injected AWB Comet, running nitro. Brian ... just a note ... Platt ran a Falcon, not a Comet ... I know you're a Mopar guy so that's ok! (just kidding) Joel
thanks for the support. my comment was directed towards the "typical" racers of "the day", not the absolute best. but if it makes somebody feel superior, then I stand corrected.
I would say the better than average injected cars ran low to mid nines. The candies and hughes awb car I drove ran mid nines on a load of nitro injected. The you had the gas injected cars that ran high nines and low tens like the lee smith car. There is also the big spread in ets from early 65 to late 65. The ets dropped quite a bit.
Bob wop is that awb the one that was for sale in franksville. A guy from here had a black one for sale on race junk. They ran it at the grove for several years. I wanted to discuss this car at torque fest. I saw your car for sale but you were not around.
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