Vintage shots from days gone by!

Got a good response from the photos with history and I found More for today all these from the early 60's.

One of Eric Rickman’s earliest photo excursions of the new year was to Rocky Childs’ classic San Fernando Valley backyard. The young assistant is John Guedel, who recalls helping move boxes in the family garage to make room for the silver C/GS ’37 Chevy that the future Childs & Albert cofounder campaigned with his R&R Racing Engines partner, L.A. sheriff’s deputy Ron Winkel. Both men eventually graduated to AA/Fuelers. Guedel grew up to drive the Art Linkletter House Party fueler in partnership with Bill Holland (a deal that abruptly ended after the TV host’s teenage daughter leaped or fell to her death, reportedly under the influence of LSD). Seeing these 52-year-old photos for the first time, Winkel commented that his old friend and partner lived in the Mission Hills tract home until his 2010 passing.





What, you thought every winning gasser in SoCal was show-car shiny? Beast definitely trumped beauty in the Winternationals A/Gas trophy dash between heavily favored Floyd Grist and underdog Jack Bible, whose huge hole shot and 11.93/115.53 held off the national record holder.





You know we couldn’t pass up another opportunity to share Floyd and Ralph Grist’s shortened, Ford-powered Willys, perennially the world’s quickest and fastest unblown gasser. Later this season, Floyd Grist would puncture the 10-second barrier for unblown, full-fendered cars. The famous gasser is currently enjoying a second life as a street rod (see “Then & Now,” Nov. ’13 HRD).





Inducting Tony Nancy into NHRA’s California Hot Rod Hall of Fame, emcee Steve Evans said of the Loner, “He never had an ugly car, and he never had an ugly woman.” HRM readers saw for themselves on the all-Buick-powered Aug. ’62 cover introducing wife Lillian and a stunning Kent Fuller modified roadster. Tony’s midseason switch to Dodge’s new wedge improved both ends of Drag News’s Standard 1320 A/MR world record to 8.90 and 174.41.





Brock Yates and little-known Bill “Maverick” Golden (nicknamed after James Garner’s TV character) waged a private Super Stock/Stock Automatic war within NHRA’s Nationals, trading victories. First, HRM’s Suddenly Too 413 Plymouth prevailed in preliminary SS/SA class action at 12.83/114.35, then fell to Jim Thornton’s Ramchargers Dodge. Golden got even in Stock Eliminator’s quarter-finals before also falling to Thornton (the eventual runner-up, to Hayden Proffitt’s 409 Chevy). The friendly rivals from SoCal also split overall SS/SA performance honors: Brock set low e.t. of 12.37, while Golden turned top speed of 114.90.





Brock Yates doing a little tuning.





Every type of early ’60s American V-8 found its way into the lightweight slingshots produced by Dragmaster Co. founders Dode Martin and Jim Nelson. So did at least one Slant Six, then standard equipment in Dodge Lancers. This oddball combination was good for mid-10-second e.t.’s and the national D/Dragster record.






Switching from nitro-burning 392 Chryslers to a Dodge wedge just for Indy, Don Garlits put the unfamiliar gasoline combination into the Top Eliminator final, but couldn’t hold off busy Jack Chrisman’s 8.76/171.75 charge in the one of the three Dragmasters that Jack steered for Mickey Thompson. The winning AA/Dragster and a fraternal twin were both equipped with “experimental” Pontiac aluminum blocks and Chrysler-based Hemi heads that M/T adapted to Pontiac’s bore spacing and bolt pattern, while retaining Chrysler rocker assemblies. The controversial, 432ci combination was the first nonproduction V-8 accepted by NHRA.





The HEMI Pontiac Heads






The fuel ban initiated by SoCal strips in early 1957 and quickly adopted by Wally Parks was intended to slow speeds and save money by reducing breakage. However, the resulting twice-motored combinations were more expensive to build and repair, plus harder to stop at comparable speeds, being several hundred pounds heavier. They also overpowered the skinny slicks of the era. By 1962, the advantage had switched to lightweight, single-engine slingshots that rarely ran top speed, but often took low e.t.—and, consequently, the win.


Mickey Thompson & Christman double Pontiac double note front mounted single blower




Perhaps the biggest news of this pivotal season involved a temporary end to one unpopular ban and the beginning of another. They affected the hottest, fastest spectator attractions of the early ’60s. Although his seven-year-old, pump-gas mandate would still be in effect for open competition at NHRA-sanctioned strips and the ’63 U.S. Nationals, Wally Parks shocked the sport by adding an invitational, “experimental” Top Fuel Eliminator to his only other national event, the Winternationals.

He did it again by outlawing jet propulsion. While aircraft powerplants had been banned from actual competition since 1960 but allowed to make exhibition runs, these new “weenie roasters” were strictly forbidden, despite a solid safety record to date. NHRA’s controversial verdict was reached after 84 percent of its track operators voted in agreement with president Parks, according to HOT ROD.Another unprecedented Winternationals experiment forbade Super Stock hoods from opening, for any reason, during eliminations. The intent was to discourage illegal modifications by ever-present factory engineers and savvy sponsored racers. Unintended consequences included overheated engines, automatic transmissions, and tempers.

Sneaky Pete Robinson perfected the lever-actuated “jack start,” which enabled elevated slicks to spin up to speed prior to launching, until pressure from his landlocked competitors (including an impassioned letter to Drag News from Don Garlits) eliminated that advantage. Eelco ads announced the acquisition of cantankerous Scotty Fenn’s pioneering Chassis Research Co., promising friendlier customer service. Minimal dragster weights imposed by NHRA ranged from just 800 pounds (for GM’s new, 215ci aluminum V-8s) up to 2,200 pounds (for dual-Hemi combinations). In a replay of the sport’s original ’50s’ labor movement, Southern California teams founded the United Drag Racers Association to pressure Lions Drag Strip manager C.J. Hart into increasing cash purses—just as UDRA’s predecessor, Drag Racers Inc., had lobbied “Pappy” to post larger savings bonds at his Santa Ana Drags.






UDRA Ad 1963





Pissed off Bill Fredrick took out an ad about other jet cars

 

I just thought this was hilarious and needed to be shared even though there is no auto in it but maybe the WW2 tank counts?