All of the shots in this Cobb's batch of photographs are excellent, but the one that really caught my attention was this one,
I wonder if that is the same 4 carb setup that ended up on the roadster later? the baby shoes hanging from the rear view mirror are a nice touch....
Hello, Nice old photos of early So Cal drag racing. The background looks like the old hangars at the Santa Ana drag strip location. This old photo was taken on the area of the old Santa Ana Dragstrip location, across the airport runways. Behind this location across the tarmac of the OC airport in South Santa Ana, were a row of hangars similar to the above photos. Thanks to @Dan McPherson …for the old map image https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/members/dan-macpherson.358126/ Jnaki Here is an old story I posted last year. It shows some hangars on the other side of the racing area. different angle, same location... return road Hello, Even in Black and White, the bright orange roadster is/was owned by Dave Marquez, Ventura Motor Monarchs. It was an outstanding build and won “America’s Most Beautiful Competition Roadster” at 1956 Oakland National Roadster Show. old Friday Art This location was on the old Santa Ana Dragstrip area, near where the current huge OC Airport is located. Martin Aviation is well known in these parts and its aviation history is documented everywhere. The yellow line is most likely where the old dragstrip was once laid out and had/has changed over as the racing activity grew up until 1959, when it closed. Today, that area of OC near the western edge of he airport is heavily fortified with industrial buildings and offices. Many years later, this was the site of a cool Photo shoot at a now, defunct restaurant location across the airport runways, where the above B/W photo of the “#880 Dave Marquez Roadster” could have been taken. Jnaki “…73 years ago local legend the late C.J. "Pappy" Hart in Santa Ana, California, created the first drag strip. Yes, there had been other strips here and there before that, but those were temporary, often illegal stretches of empty road that came and went. Santa Ana was permanent, commercial establishment, or as permanent as history and SoCal development allowed.” “It was built on the periphery of what was then Orange County Airport, and it is now etched in drag racing lore. Now the land that once was the drag strip is home to the Lyon Air Museum, founded by developer and Air Force veteran the late Gen. William Lyon.” Among all those planes sit the original drag cars from the glory days of Santa Ana’s founding years, from 1950 to 1959.” Dave Marquez B&W Photo by Pete Garramone
I would guess so... In the early 50's Tom was so young... And it's hard to imagine him having enough resources to run multiple setups. BUT, Tom was financed by his old man. And I've been told more than once that without Tom Cobbs and his dad's vested interests, So-Cal Speedshop probably wouldn't have fielded nearly as many race cars in the late 40's and early 50's. So, money was around. Also, Tom's number one influence in the early years.... his mentor... was Stu Hilborn. And Stu was known to test products and ideas through multiple development branches. He'd make three different variations of the same intake idea and test them all to see which performed better. Trial and error in bunches... So, who knows?
Looks like the plates read '51, so I think you're spot on. How rad was it to have a blown drag car in 1951?!!
So interesting thought... In 1949, Fran Hernandez and Tom Cobbs raced each other in the first ever organized drag race in Goleta, CA. Two years or so later, these images capture what drag racing was like just after it was born. Pretty cool.
More amazing images. Man, the history..... Maybe I missed it - do we know if any of the people in the photos have been identified?
These are fantastic. 1950's in Fresno had lots of Baby shoes hanging from the young guys mirrors. Then came the fuzzy dice, after that, the Polar Bear asshole, we used to call it. On the rear view and the steering wheel.
The headlight and grille louver covers are pretty slick. Makes me wonder why the gas filler wasn't filled.
Dam, color me stupid. See it now. Metal gas line around carb base with lines up to carbs. Tks for enlightening me
Good stuff! Neat Weiand decal on the Vicky hood, Weiand heads on the flatty, too. That 40 must've been a dedicated race car sporting a single air craft seat and belts. I dig the cool big gauges installed in the dash and the under dash accessory panel. There appears to be a ratchet and possible spark plug socket behind the seat in one of the pics. Either way, the ingenuity required to fit that GMC blower and 4 carb setup on that flathead and seemingly make it work is very impressive. Thanks as always.
@Ryan - how far can you possibly be taking this? I wish I had all of this in the biggest fattest most ridiculously huge and unmanageable coffee table book ever, printed on papyrus sourced from the shoreline of the Nile. Each photo rendered at a fidelity only a magnifying glass would do justice. So huge that no glass coffee table would be safe. Thanks dude.
Definitely the Buddy Fox '40 coupe Don Montgemery emailed these 2 photos to me 10 years ago, we were discussing the coupe after I posted a photo of it at Saugus drag strip. This looks like Santa Ana El Mirage Saugus 1951 or '52 Near lane custom looks like Jesse Lopez '41 built at Barris, never seen the 3w '41 Ford likely another Barris creation
@Runnin shine has a vintage 4x2 setup like that...I wonder.... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ribute-to-gramps.983704/page-86#post-15502488 ...I'm thinking not...inspired and perhaps period to that time...and no doubt a challenge to perfect mechanically...
Quite the headlight covers on that 40 Coupe along with the side deluxe grille covers...were those grille deletes custom or off a standard model?
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