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

Dammmm Tim your wheels are bent....also you guys are on fire.

 

Here are some more.

 

Neat shot of Woody's spaceship. He was razed about it looking like a spaceship but the aerodynamics were ahead of it's time. Vanderwoude would sometimes twist the wheel a bit if he was trailing his competitor and say "wow, did you see that, I was ahead of him until she got sideways and I almost lost her". He was a real showman even if he stretched the story but always a good guy.

 

Great shot of the 71 vega. It was the corvair underneath. Here is early photos of the vette at Lions taken by Dennis Doubleday.

 

This thread is pretty amazing, especially for guys like me who were way too young to have seen the stuff firsthand. All I ever got to see was pics in the mags and maybe seeing the Winternats on Wide World of Sports about six - seven months after the fact.

Two questions:

One, Cole Foster says his dad (Pat) drove a funny called The Chicago Patrol or something like that for a while. Any of you guys got pics of that one?

Two, I thought back in the day funnies had to run bodies that at least somewhat resembled production cars. How did Van Der Woude get away with that torpedo lozenge body on the Flying Dutchman? What car was that supposed to resemble?

 

Al always marched to a different drummer.Do a Google,pretty amazing guy.

 

I watched this car in Englishtown NJ at the Summer Nationals. It ran out of Chapman Automotive in Chicago if I remember right.

 

my sons chevelle great lakes dragaway union grove wisconsin!!!

 

Howdy, new to the board, great stuff, makes me feel old...............

Thought I throw in one of my favorites, Dave Benjamin. This car was destroyed on its maiden run at Tucson Dragway, AHRA Winternationals, 1980 if I remember correctly. Car went over the guardrail at mid-track, wasn't much left. Benjamin was airlifted out but returned before the end of the season in the Sno-Town Shaker Arrow.....again, if I remember correctly.

 

JW welcome aboard If I remember correctly you are the creator of 70s Funny Car site

 

What ever became of the Vette's? I recall seeing a couple of injected gas funnies/AA-gas supercharged cars 69-70 that while not blue, still featured what appeared to be the same size demensions and configurations as found with you and brothers series of Corvettes.

 

I believe the Maverick was the same car,no? Just the loss of weight alone rendered by the body replacement alone resulted in better handling and performance.

 

According to Tom Johansons son the Maverick was the same chassis rebodied.Al built the swoopy car to compete with the Vette.Here is some pics plus one of the body hanging at Mr Norms,brandy new.
It appears it was pretty evil handling around 200 so on went the Maverick.

 

Forgot the hanging body.

 

I recall the AHRA being more tolerant of the use behind non traditional body styles. Replicas of mass produced American bodies was an but one option, or prototypes like Vanderwoudes being the other.

 

Jeff,it makes you feel old because we ARE...Oh,never mind.<g> I'll speak for myself. Dennis Doubleday

 

The Fuel Cuda was from the Pacific Northwest,run by Walt Austin and Dave Grassi.As you can see it was a one -piece body on a front engine dragster chassis

 

We ran the 66 vette with a blown 327 stroker. The set up was all wrong, short wheel base 98inch motor too far up and the weight transfer was poor. It seldom went straight and gave our dad chest pains. Ronnie didn't seem to mind and often kept his foot in it. The 66 became the 67 with a 427 longer wheel base, wheelie bars (after a huge wheelstand) and the engine was lowered and set back several inches. It handled alot better. I never drove the 66 but drove the 67 a few times. Ronnie sold the 67 to Gervase Oneil who called it King Rat. Gervase was a real good guy and he and his cousin ran Johnnie's Cheveron in Gardena Calif. His cousin later ran a mean alcohol funny. You may have heard of him "Wild Wilfred" Botlllier.Thanks for asking. Mike

 

Fred Hagen also had one of these. Dennis Doubleday

 

Thanks guys.Thought it was one of the Austins from the nothwest.

 

Trojan Horse, NHRA Summernationals 72. If I remember correctly, ran the quickest and fastest flopper times to date, 6.42 at 228 at the race. Hard to argue that is wasn't one of the prettiest floppers ever built.

 

Have to agree with you there.

Welcome to the site,JW

 

Bares overtones of the REVELL funnycar kit from the late 60's kit dubbed Revelloution

 

Welcome JW.

Glad to see you here.

Plum

 

Thanks Plum, been lurking for a long time, thought it was time to add something..................

East vs West AA/FA meet at the Grove, 71 I think. Really kind of lopsided, the only east coast car was the Bad Habit, west coast cars were Pure Heaven, Willie Borsch and Rat Trap. And the Bad Habit car kicked a**.

Not the best picture, hard to hold the camera still when your heart is about to beat out of your chest......altereds have always had that effect on me.

Those were the daze..............

JT

 

I guess the picture would help............

 

That is a kick ass picture.

 

I have to agree and welcome.