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

HORSEPOWER ENGINEERING. FREMONT. MAR. 10, 1963.................................TOM

 

Dover?

 

Thanks a ton, Gary & Tommy and others for these images!!!!!

 

That's a great vintage shot! You cudn't stage a shot that was any better than that one. A '55 Chevy droptop with a chick sittin' on the hood; a channeled deuce 5W with whitewalls, hairpins, and zoomie headers; an injected shorty rail; an early '60s Chevy PU with exhaust stacks, Moon decal, tool boxes and spare parts in the bed; a guy working on the engine in his race car; and some dudes standing around in the background. Way cool.

 

And a rare Professor Doubleday appearance! Awesome to have you again, DD!

I was racking my brain on the Kuecker car; I knew I'd seen it before, but couldn't recall the details.

 

The dragster in the background is Hells popping which was driven for years by Ron Abbot.
Jimbo

 

From Two to Go...not many drag races with 6 engines...Ambassador's Car Club twin Chev versus Ivo.


Another shot of the Ambassador's Car Club, from Orinda, CA.
Early Mooneyham, still carbureted at this time, Pomona


the way it used to be, smoke them to the lights.. spectacular but not very efficient, slipper clutches would come soon.


The Wailer, Frank Martinez, from NoCal...Frank also billed himself as "the World Fastest Mexican," though Frank Pedregon also claimed the title...

Anyone??


When twins were king of top gas dragster...Peters near lane, don't know who the other car is


Art Malone...maybe Bakersfield?


Boyd Penington...this Bantam-bodied altered might have been the former '29 roadster that Boyd ran prior to this car?


Kelly Brown at Lions


Earlier Ambassador's Car Club car, not sure where this is...corn fields in background (?)...the X indicates that the track is a former airstrip...Vaca Valley?


Bill Traylor's "Animal" competition coupe at Lions...aluminum frame, beautiful body by Dave Stuckey, candy red paint, often set records wherever it raced.


Can't get the photo any bigger...Benham & Eichner, with half of a Hispano-Suiza engine to make a 4-banger...both Ron and Paul worked at Blair's for years...Ron has passed away, lost track of Paul Eichner years ago...this car has been restored.


Calvin Rice in the J.E. Riley Construction fueler at Lions, '55...the track had just opened, one of the first appearances of this car with Doug Hartlett's blown Chrysler in place of Melvin Dodd's fuel flathead...this car would go on to win the first NHRA Nationals in '55, but with the flathead as they blew up the Chrysler.

 

Is the Horsepower Engineering guy still around? Would like to talk to him or see pictures of his headers.

 

Yes Doug Robinson is still around. 626-440-0440 in Pasadena

 

This one for you Ebert.

 

Thanks, Tommy!!!! You ROCK!

 

Awesome Pics

 

These two pictures are of Dean Lowry's dragster at Colton in 1955. Pretty early in drag racing history and yet Dean is running a front-mounted blower on his Chrysler...looks like 5 carburetors on the side...all homemade.




Jim Dunn is still racing today...here is his gas altered, early '60s at Pomona


For those of you who remember early Hot Rod Magazines, you may remember Ted Cooper's Lincoln-powered A coupe, with the headers curving down in front of the engine, the caption was "pipe dream," as the car is labeled here. Ted was from the San Diego area, but here he is racing in NM.


This shot is from Jim Sorenson's altered site...Tom Walsh at Bakersfield, bad fire that I think put him in the hospital. The Fiat was once a coupe, top cut off to make it a roadster. Sponsors S&S Automotive (Santos was one of the "S's") would go on to field a top alcohol champion some years later. Tom would go on to set many Bonneville records. I remember the car at Bakersfield, maybe '62 (?), glad I didn't see this fire.


M&S, not sure where this is...


Art Chrisman at Fremont (I think this is an old photo, but can't swear that it is not of the recreated version??)


Gene Adams at the '57 NHRA Nationals, where he set B/G record but lost on a disputed start in the class final. I saw this dark blue Olds the first time I went to the drag races at Santa Ana in the summer of '57. It was deafening, big 371" Olds engine with a blower and Hilborn injectors under the hood scoop.


Later Gene Adams put his engine in this car, Scrima, Smith, and Adams...I saw it run at San Fernando. It had a spooled rear end, and Mort Smith had a hard time getting it to go straight. Mickey Brown offered to take the wheel, having already broken the gas record at 157 in the Brown, Frank, and Harryman dragster. Unfortunately the car crashed, killing Mickey at Lions.

 

Ted Cooper's headers....