When you truly love something and love what you do, you step up. This looks "crazy" at first, but is it really? Everytime one of us hops in our cars and takes to the street, we are commiting a little kind of "crazy". We get on the streets and (gulp) highways, surrounded by vehicles that weigh twice, and sometimes three times as much as ours. No airbags, no crumple zones, seatbelts that only make it easier for the paramedics to find the body, suspensions sometimes 50 years or more old and last, but not least, a HOPE that we tightened everything down correctly. "Crazy"? Yea, but it's what we love. So we step up. Personally, I think "crazy" can be good. It's a learning experience with risk and if it weren't for risk, we'd all be walking in "traditional" shoes. As for that guy and his car? Read my signature by a member here. It's the response that guy probably gave to everyone who thought that what he was doing was a bad idea.
I still like it. Mines never been near 170 but I'd love to have had a chance to ride that one. [/IMG]
I know and have known alot of men and women from this era. Times were simpler then and you could trust people on their word and a handshake. Today we have all been jaded by lawyers, insurance companies and safety commissions. This guy was looking at one thing it seems and that was, how can I go FASTER? In the end, may the man rest in peace, maybe he should have looked a little closer at his throttle set-up it might have saved his life but maybe not. I've always been a believer in when it's your time to go you will and God will call you home when he is ready.
Wow! I think the cop is about to shoot him. Ok, now that this has been established as "traditional" somebody is going to clone it. Simply Insane!
That is. In 1967 I was 26: I discovered drag racing among the pages of an italian Magazine (Auto Italiana). The previous year I and my brother Aldo and some friends founded the "DRAGoons CLAN" the first italian hor rod Club ever. The same year we found a Sponsor (Caltex) and so was possible to built the car: ugly, if you think so, heavy, according to my opinion, but it was showed at "Salone dell'Autombile" at Torino in November. I was not sotisfied because the car was heavy and at the first warm-up (Monza autodrome, old oval track with banked cornes, concrete surface) blowed the clutch (swapped from an italian truck). Now I'm sure: if it would be able to run .... During the following years I discovered a treasure in Safety Regulations, but ... damn... never able to repeat that thrilling experience... Thanks to Ryan and his ability to discover the old good times.
I got the "Life wasn't worth as much back then" speech from two of my elders who I respect very much... both hot rodders... and one who raced all over California in the 40's, 50's and 60's. Jerry started out racing motorcycles and was good friends with Gene Windfield in the 50's... Gene would help Jerry at Oakland Speedway when they came over the hill from Modesto to race and then Jerry would hang out with Gene at the various drag strips around Northern California when Jerry was racing his Harley and Gene was racing his dragster. Gene went on to customize cars and Jerry kept racing... One night at Oakland Speedway... a part fell off of a competitor's car... and his brother climbed over the fence and on to the track to retrieve the part. As he tried to climb the fence to get back on the other side of the fence, Jerry rounded the corner (not able to see him) and ran right over him, killing him instantly. Jerry told me "We stopped off at a nickel car wash on the way home to wash what was left of him out of the undercarriage of the race car." Back then, it was more commonplace for people to die... to die from disease, car crashes, racing... simple things such as an infection. I think because of the fact that people died more often then than now, at least in the developed nations... and that EVERYTHING is documents,******** in the courts, and built up... people put a higher value on life nowadays. Sam
With all due respect, listening to the guys that were doing it might not be the right way to measure that. I dont think the families that were left behind after a fatal crash in the '50s felt any better or worse than the families today. I agree with your courts remark, though... The added value you think there is, might just be from the lawyers that will try to convert any bad situation into a dollar amount for their own benifit.
I was having the same thoughts exactly as I read through this thread. I stopped at the Highlander's post because at last someone pointed out the obvious.
There is a little more to the Red Case accident. Vaca Valley was surrounded by farmland, and according to the section in the Robert Post book, way beyond the finish line of the strip that day a side delivery hay rake was parked, seemingly out of harm's way. When the throttle hung open it took Red way past the finish line where he ended up smashing into the hay rake. According to Don Jensen, he was driving a slingshot at the time, so it might not have been the car pictured that he perished in. I think the strips had as much to do with the danger of the era as the cars themselves. I think Sam is right in that back in those days no one expected to live forever- which in a certain sense was probably more liberating, because people were surrounded by the death of friends and loved ones early on. Even the infant mortality rate was still astonighingly high in the 1950's. Not that grief was probably lessened any more than it is today, it's only the last few decades that people started to believe that they are entitled to not only live forever, but to work hard at looking "young" forever and when that doesn't happen it's someone else's fault. Just living had more risks built in back then, so I'm sure what seems impossibly risky nowadays didn't seem all that out of bounds at the time. I think perhaps people just felt that when your number came up, your number came up and not a moment before, and there wasn't anything you could do about it. Heck, I remember even as a kid in the 1970's, when the safety thing started to gain traction in all areas of society, regularly riding in the back of a pickup truck on the freeway and it was no big deal. The only rule was to not stand up- that was deemed too risky. While I understand the danger now, I can't say that I regret it, and do feel a little bad that my kid can't experience the same sense of freedom, although I have to confess I'd have second thoughts about letting him do that even if it were still legal.
I've never been able to drive a car to the edge of its performance capabilities without having to admit that it scared the devil out of me, and because of that I haven't done it but a handful of times in my life. That being said, the pictures of this car give me the same feeling - I couldn't imagine being in it at 170 mph.
Not crazy. It was a time when you could build your ideas and race them. Unlike today where most classes are spec classes and innovation or originality is forbidden. I may be wrong but today a lot of people want to be badass racers but with absolutely no chance of injury. And if an injury does happen its somebody else's fault and they have to be sued.
'Shapes, thanks for a couple more pictures of one of my favorite cars. I may have one or two others that aren't generally out if you're interested. Case died in an FED as mentioned, not the middie. I don't know what became of the middie. While not that well built, it was hardly the only marginally engineered car of its period. I'd drive it in a heartbeat. Now, if you're soft in the heart, forego reading the rest ........ As to the "morality" of it, several have already mentioned what I feel's the actual underlying thing. Your life (and death) was more in your own hands then than today. Folks still thought you were personally stupid of course, but personal stupidity was a right fairly earned by adulthood, yours to indulge. Though that's steadily changing in favor of a "Disneyland" safe world, some of us still think that way. Don't sweat it, we'll die out in due course and you can have as much of it as you're willing to trade for the freedoms we've bought you. Just keep your*****in hands off my freedoms, I've earned'em, and I'm not giving'em up to your*****.
Exactly.My Brother-in-Law races dragsters almost every weekend from April through October.It's so safe now,you'd stand a better chance of getting hit by a bus.She gets more worried when he takes the rodster or one of the ratrods to a far away car show.Racing now is like switching from steel to aluminum beer cans...Now every guy gets to be a hero....as long as you have enough dough.
How true firingorder1 and Old6rodder...Seems like people think that everything in life should be "safe" and we shouldn't do anything that involves any risk whatsoever. I'd rather actually live my life and enjoy the experience, than spend the time in a padded cocoon without any chance of injury. I have had the pleasure of crashing automobiles, motorcycles and even an airplane without injury but shattered my elbow tripping while walking. Life is meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest, not to be observed from a "safe perch" without chance of harm. For those who feel different, fine, you live your way and I'll live my way.
There once was a guy without a drivers licence who wrote a book condemning a certain automobile. And for some inexplicable reason, it became a bestseller. People of that ilk will never agree to you living your way. Just imagine if it didnt exist yet, and Dragracing was invented today. Or a motorcycle, or a divingboard, etc...
I've given that very concept thought from time to time. All it does is lead to me wondering how the hell we got this far off the road anyway, not a good topic for depression prone folks. Perhaps we should ban shoelaces, you can't trip over loose velcro as easily. Never mind, I have relatives who've managed that already .........
Red Case lost control of this back-motored dragster (or a slingshot, according Don Ewald), at Vaca Valley and slid on the grass next to the track, and then hit a hay bailer, which was in the field next to the track. This car looks dangerous partly because it has no body to cover the safety issues, but in reality a lot of us drove stuff that was just as dangerous...bubble gum welds on roll bars, aircraft surplus seat belts (mine came undone in the lights at San Gabriel), farm implement front tires,*****-welded drag links (yes, me again), wrong bolts (bolts broke on rear end mounts, chained it in with a logging chain and went racing).....rubber fuel hoses clamped with war surplus clamps, etc, etc...before we criticize NHRA too much, their safety standards were inspired by cars like this and idiots like me who didn't think very much about safety............
One thing good about the SCTA rulebook is that sidecars have about a page and half of rules. You're pretty free to do what you want. I've had all the remarks. "seriously unhinged" "Got the lunacy dial turned right up" etc. I've often wanted to ask these people if they know how many people die in beds every day and you are going to get in one tonight?
Roger that Shapes...I combined the best of those and drag raced a motorcycle. Coming from a man who wears pull on boots. To paraphrase a country song..."I'd rather spend ten seconds in the saddle, than live a lifetime in the stands".
Knowing what I know now about the important things in life, what are you doing in a car like that when you have a family to take care of until adulthood? Seems to me that's a tough question to answer, especially when all our heros did it. I guess the best news is most of them lived through it.
There are a lot of different things in life that can kill you and you can live in a padded room and still trip and break your neck. Make your own judgments and decide what risks you are willing to take, but don't impose your decisions on those who would make other choices. Our existence is filled with hazards in everything we do. They keep making "safer cars" with multiple air bags, auto parking , traction control, anti-lock brakes and "collision avoidance systems" and people still figure out ways to kill themselves in them... Just my $0.02 after 65 years on this planet, but than again I believe that we all are in control of what we do and how we chose to do it.
No wonder rear engine cars were so long catching on. This example of the concept set the sport back decades. #4; bat*****........ ))) Tom S.
Thank God they did take the chance. Fortunately you don't get to know then what you know now. Otherwise cars may not have been built for fear of getting a paint chip. What was supposed to happen? Build the perfect handling rear engined dragster from to word go? That was a perfect example of the day. Short wheelbases were the norm. And above all the NHRA wasn't big enough to have turned drag racing into a circus of performing clowns with identical cars and forbidden innovation.
I think most of us here have expressed our opinions after careful thought. I'm sure that is how you got to your conclusions as well, and not due to high levels of estrogen. Dismissing opinions you disagree with as macho posing is a bit too easy. You could give people the benifit of the doubt...
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