History The 1958 NHRA Nationals

if you didn't have a stroker cap,you couldn't be in the pits.....

 

@patsurf - Is that a question, a statement, or just sarcasm?

 

Hopefully it's a statement!

 

Just glancing through the program to see Don Garlits name. It seems he raced under Don's speed shop name and ran a dragster out of Tampa, Fla. with a 57 Pontiac engine. Hmmmm, that's the very same engine I'm running in my trusty old 34 ford coupe. Maybe he has some forgotten speed secrets for me.

 

Bob Mcnutt 1939 ford was there in 57/58 and 59 in Detroit
Here it is in Oklahoma
I’m the present caretaker

 

SPEED ENGINEERING from So Cal

Hello,

Someone asked the other day if the door logo called SPEED ENGINEERING was a local speed shop in So Cal back in the 1958-60 era. We were involved in drag racing during this same time period and were located several blocks away from an industrial tract just across PCH Coast Highway in our Westside of Long Beach neighborhood. This shop was just around the corner from the old Clay Smith Shop/warehouse.

During this time period, there were a lot of little shops and some big name shops within a mile or so of each other. Lion’s Dragstrip was just about two miles away. There were plenty of empty industrial streets and the harbor location freeways late at night to use as testing grounds. Joe Mailliard, Mickey Thompson, Clay Smith Cams, and a myriad of other small shops that were all part of the hot rod/drag race history from the location, the Westside of Long Beach.
1958 OKC

1959 SOUND Jr. Thompson Speed Engineering

Adding Speed Engineering to the mix was a way for a couple of guys from Bixby Knolls to start up their own hot rod/custom car/drag racing business, all while building their own arsenals.

Also, two guys from Bixby Knolls opened a shop called Speed Engineering during 1958 in the Westside of Long Beach. (a few blocks from our own Westside home.)

Ronnie LeGrand in a 1955 Chevy and his business partner/friend, Tom McEwen in a 1956 Chevy. The advertisement says so… that they have the Home of the “World’s Fastest “D” Gas Coupe/Sedan Chevy… and super stock record holder...”

Tom McEwen/Ronnie LeGrand/Marauders Long Beach 56 CHEYV D/GAS WINNER 1957

And in the Green, our friend, Butch Taylor, who ran the famous concession stands at Lion’s Dragstrip. *denotes a class record

 

Stumbled upon this fantastic COLOR film narrated by Alex Xydias:

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How cool is that? At about 9:14 I could see the two cars in line to run that were raced by the Redondo Beach Drifters car club. We made the trip to OKC with them in my friend's chopped Merc.