Folks Of Interest The Glory that is the Hemi, picture thread

Original photo by @Dean Lowe

Hello,

One of the first FED race cars we saw at Lion’s Dragstrip in 1958-59 was the Kenny Lindley/Don Hampton white streamlined Hemi powered dragster. It was listed as one of the quickest FED race cars every weekend, we were there racing and filming.

One day, after my brother had just taken off from the starting line in his 58 black Impala, I was walking back to the pits. Upon standing on the staging lane for pushed-in race cars, I noticed the Kenny Lindley /Don Hampton FED at the end of the lane. Some folks can start their motors here to the starting line, instead of pushing down the track in front of the Orange timing tower.

I just stood there frozen, as I saw the FED race car and push truck just starting its run to the starting line. My point and shoot film camera did not have a telephoto lens, so, I started filming from my spot. The FED fired up and came blasting right at me. Luckily, the lane curved into the starting line staging area and the FED turned slightly. “Here’s coming at you…” was named when the teenagers saw this portion of the films at our house the following week.


Jnaki

The Lindley/Hampton FED flew by and proceeded to stage for their timing run.
Fast Company, indeed...
So, what does the fabulous looking FED race car sound like when firing up?

It took me a long time to find an original 1959 recording of the Kenny Lindley/Don Hampton FED racing at a dragstrip. All this time, I had it in my bookcase waiting its turn since December of 1959. My brother and I were the only teenagers sitting in the glass booth at Lakewood Center, Wallich’s Music City record store not listening to a 45 rpm disc.

We had just found the LP album and the sounds of drag racing at the 1959 U.S. Nationals from Detroit was blasting in the small booth. It was like being there at the starting line in 1959. The sounds inside of that booth, turned up was "Music to our ears..."


The original December 1959 LP album of the best recordings in drag racing era. Clear start ups, plus identification of each racer individually and in competition was great. No babble from the announcer as the drag racers, fired up, staged, and took off with a fury.

Information was the best as there were plenty of races and at the time, no one else had the actual recordings. Yes, there has been other drag racing sounds blasting at a drag strip in the hundreds of albums depicting drag racing, but in listening to all of those copies that came after this original dragstrip version, they may sound good, but who knows what motor or FED racer is depicted in the loud motor sounds.

My films taken from the Summer of 1959 at Lion's Dragstrip, plus the original recording of the Lindley-Hampton FED at Detroit, one month later, fit perfectly in the editing portion of my laptop. A real, original sound heard weekly at the races during the Summer at the local So Cal dragstrip was "music to our ears..."

Here are other days of filming one of the original streamlined FED race cars in drag racing during the So Cal years of 1958-60. YRMV

 

Baby Elephant, DeSoto 276.

 

You are driving one, I'm not. However, the early 392 hemi was a whale, the second gen was an elephant.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/where-did-the-nickname-rat-motor-come-from.663875/

 

My ‘53 241 hemi I tore down in Oct 2020 to first start up sept 2024. About 10k invested not including some fancy intake manifolds I had to have for ‘someday’ purposes.

 

Lifting with a steel wire seem`s sketchy !

 

Great to see this thread is still going strong! Thanks for the input everyone! These are great pictures!

 

After a long absence due to the engine swap problems on my 40 coupe, I’m threatening to get back on this.
Fresh Desoto in my patiently waiting 41 pickup.

 

@Tat2Neil , somehow I missed your photo array, your engine is perfect but man, those valve covers are exceptional. Your plater is an artist.

 

That be Big Wille Robinson.

 

Thank you! I love my little hemi, and you’re not kidding the valve covers came out perfect. They were done by Metro Plating here in Mesa, sadly the owner passed a year or so after they were done and the shop closed down.

 

Hello,

I had known the owner of my first 1040 Ford Sedan Delivery with the 348 motor since junior high school days during 1956 to 59. He lived closer to Lion’s Dragstrip than our house and was a great mechanic. The bantering always was there and he moved on to further his involvement in record setting FED race cars with our friend from high school. Doug Fisher, we also knew each other in high school classes.

So, we had known each other since then. The name of Jerry Bivens and Doug Fisher is well known in So Cal drag racing circles.

Their connection to the Baney family and Tom McEwen has been documented over the old historic articles and here on the HAMB. Teams come and go and history does leave an imprint on those that were there.

Jerry Bivens and I go way back to our 1959-62 Bixby Knolls and Long Beach Poly High School
hot rod/drag race years. His mechanical/pit crew partner, Doug Fisher and I go farther back to the Westside of Long Beach Junior High School days. Add in Tom McEwen (Bixby Knolls and earlier, LB Poly HS) as a part of that team and sooner or later top results started showing up at the drags. (Doug Fisher was the one that built the 348 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery back in 1960, before I bought it as a flathead powered hot rod)

So, as the years rolled on, jobs change and businesses get started, teams change hands and sometimes, things just start clicking for great results. Jerry Bivens from Bixby Knolls, racing with his team of Doug Fisher and Tom McEwen was featured in an advertisement for a Neil Leffler supercharger and support. It is and was a small world in So Cal drag racing circles.

You meet the nicest people in drag racing circles… Bivens and Fisher “Checkmate” AA/FD

Caption:
“…I am glad everyone is having a great time at Lion’s Dragstrip. BUT, I need some help here…”


and still here:

The Long Beach connection in one of its stages of Drag Racing… Tom McEwen, Jerry Bivens, and Doug Fisher. The late, Doug Fisher is in the blue jacket across from McEwen. They started racing in Long Beach in the early 60’s and had a progression of race cars through out their careers. My high school friend, Jerry Bivens still campaigns his newest Bivens and Fisher (tribute to Doug Fisher) AA/FD, Checkmate, at all of the So Cal Cacklefests.

Jnaki

What a great hobby and continued interest in drag racing, all with a Hemi Motor…YRMV

thumbs up, indeed…

Turn it up!

 

You made me look him up. Glad I did. Thank you.