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

WCD you the man, and I'll second that it's Leroy. Loved the guy but he could be very caustic at times

 

Bought this 8x10 glossy from Dick at Woodburn Or. in 1965

 

Is this enough motion?

 

That's funny right there.
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Wasn't trying to start a tiff, I guess I was looking for more of a when did it become popular. Swamp thing was originally known as Wild Thing II. It was built back in 62 by a couple of farmers up in Iowa. It's a ~48 Crosley, all steel body that is hinged at the rear with a big honkin' wing nut at the front. I was just curious when that became the thing to do.

 

HAMBer, "crosleykook" found this photo from San Gabriel Drag Strip in the early 1960's....I bought this car later after this photo was taken (I'd never seen this photo before until last week) for $300 when I was 14, 44 c.i. Crosley OHC .
...I took it apart, put Forgetrue pistons in it, experimented with different carbs, Wico magneto, Crosley 3-speed, no fuel pump, I had a pressurized Moon tank....and basically learned tons of stuff from tearing this thing apart and putting it back together. I used to drive it around the neighborhood and nobody cared. It wasn't exactly threatening...LOL.
I never ever made a full pass with this thing...there was always something that would go wrong. But at 14, it was pretty cool. At Fontana, all they wanted to see was seat belt, a helmet and leather jacket. They didn't care how old I was. This would have been in 1965.
I could get it started by myself by pushing it as fast as I could, then jump in, flip the ignition switch and put it in 2nd and dump the clutch.
I painted it green with a black frame and a pilot chute just for giggles.
When I got my "learners permit" at 15 1/2 I was moving on to having a street car so I sold this for $150.
Two guys could easily lift it into a pickup bed.
Very cool that crosleykook found this....I had a lot of fun, and learned much from this little car.
I also sat in it in the backyard and made "varoom" noises alot, no doubt.
I parked this under a tarp next to the stock Anglia I bought for $15.
Damn....most of you guys missed all the fun.




============================

after I bought it...







I had a spare rear end, the old pistons, etc.



Art Carr gave me a chute pack with a gold pilot chute to slow me down from those blinding 30 MPH runs down the street...)



My noogin was higher than the roll bar so I had tubing bent out and just welded it on and wrapped it with electrical tape with an in of foam rubber under the tape. I was 145 pounds and 6' 1" so I too tall.



this was just before I found the Anglia and six months before selling the little rail. The lettering on the car for the cubic inches is incorrect...it was 44 c.i.
I took this photo at the Western-Nationals at the Great Western Exhibit Center with my best friend, Leroy Smith's along Cadillac powered Fiat that we drove everywhere including Oregon. Leroy is Mike Smith's dad of California Hot Rods fame.
Today, 45 years later I'm retired and Leroy is working part time maintaining steam locomotives in Nevada.
And still my best friend.

(check out that twin-engined Porsche powered Indy car back there....didn't do well, but cool to look at...)

 

Mazooma-1,
Very cool story and amazing that you have all those pictures.

 

Wow, Doug, you (1) had $300 burning a hole in your jeans at age 14 in 1965? I was lucky to have a quarter; (2) you were 6' 1" at age 14? Got those Tall Boy genes, huh?

 

I'm 61 now and my drivers license still says 6' 1" and 145 pounds.
But now I'm 5' 11" and 168 pounds.
S H R I N K I N G......

 

Awesome story - that thing was like a toy!

 

Mazooma, this would have been declared what an X/Dragster? While the class had become extinct by the time I started following the sport, there were still remnents left over in the guise of the 4 Ever 4 club. My fav was Vic King's Midnight Spl and the Blue Monday 4 cylinder fuel burner. Attempts to bring back the spirit that is represented here was made by means of Car Craft's econo dragster class. What a great concept that was, but alas we know how the econo classes became anything but "econo." Oh, werent Crossley motor's popular with the T/Q class back then?

 

Here on the east coast Crosleys were used in midgets. I've even seen some that the head was sawed off and a aftermarket head installed.

 

WCD...
There was a very short-lived class of B/EGD....a carbed motor under 300 ci on gas that was probably AHRA.
There was dragster that was my "dream car" that ran at Irwindale a year or two later that ran a Tempest 4 that really was a dragster and was not only quick but very well done. I believe it's name might have been "Blue Monday".
My little car was just a combination of fun, learning mechanical workings and tools, and a lot of day-dreaming....and biding time before I got a drivers license.
There was no way that this thing was going to be a real race car, it just was great fun for what it was when I was pretty young.
Quite honestly, my heart was in street driven cars and photography. I never had any desire to fund a race car.
In those early years I watched some of my friends spend their money on real race cars. A few years later they didn't have the race cars or the money.

 

So true...

 

Pirates gutted the Nash plant in Franklin Tn. several years back. It was a fantastic plant with it's own in-house foundry.
Thomas Baker Jr, Nash's right hand man told me he is probably in the Cayman's. Is he still in business somewhere?
Tom S. in Tn.

 

undoubtedly posted several times before, but this pretty much sums up the mid-60's...all in one photo

"Stormin' Norman" at "the Beach"

 

MAZOOMA!!!!!!!! Love the stories. Talking about the three rolls of 12 shots you had in your pack for the big day and the opportunity to go back in time with a couple thousand shots on digital to retire big on... YEAH!!

Also digging that little digger you had. I can just smell the oil, fuel and melting electrical tape imagining sitting in that little car for hours daydreaming as a kid!!!

 

Wish I coulda went to Lions then

 

The Crosley digger is really a fun looking car. I think you might have picked up substantial HP gains by dumping the mag. Looks like it took most of the 44 inches to drive it. In 65 I was out of the Army, working at the airline, and playing with this at Fremont.

 

Mazooma; Who's green streamliner to the right and rear of your digger in the Western-Nationals Exhibit photo? Tom S.

 

I have no idea. Man, would I love to be able to walk through that show one more time. Out of the frame behind that green streamliner was the "Ultimate" '33 Willys gasser. It didn't seem to be a real consistent winner at the strip as I recall, but it sure was gorgeous. Pearl white with blue lettering...few people seem to remember it, but it was a regular at Irwindale.
That 4WD twin-engined Indy car in the background still intrigues me. What a conversation piece that would be today.

 

Wasn't the Ultimate Willys a Hot Rod magazine project car? Seems like it had all the tricks and was supposed to be a world killer, but just didn't run as well as it should have.

Don Long chassis and Keith Black (or maybe Ed Pink) smallblock maybe? CRS.

 

this is all you can see in the background...looks like a SBC, Larry...
I'd forgotten about the "Shelby-style" stripes along the bottom of the Willys...
geez...look at all the holes in the header mounting plate...

 

I was just reading about that car..Hot Rod Sept. '66.
said it was built by Don Long and owned by Don Eisner and they were building 2 more clones one for Big John Mazimanian..
featured a Pink built 327 and it had run 9's at 143 at that point.
paint by Watson,interior by Nancy this thing had it all,bet it was beautiful,as far as trick stuff article says it was allowed at one strip then turned away at another,alot of different rule interpretation went on in those days I guess.
wonder where it ended up?

 

Those really look like model cars

 

Is this the car,

 

Hmm ... just sayin' ... someone blurred out my credit on the Stahl '56 wagon photo ... took that picture in May of '64 at the NHRA Regional at Cecil Co., MD. Things get re-posted but cutting out the photographer's name is a cheap shot. here's the shot re-credited.
Joel