History WHO COINED THE TERM "ZOOMIES" AND WHEN?

Who coined the term "Zoomies" and when? I don't remember hearing it until the 70's.

 

I don’t know who gave them the name but the first use I remember reading about was in late 1964. They were built for a different guy’s dragster but they wound up on Frank Cannon’s Hustler V.
Back in those days Popular Hot Rodding often scooped Hot Rod Magazine with the latest innovations and they had a feature on the Hustler V when it broke 200 with zoomies.

 

Rob Zoomie?

 

Sounds about right. That's when I first heard it as a kid.64 is when most dragsters went from weed sweepers to zoomies.

 

Tommy Ivo talks about it in the Lions dvd.

 

But did he call them "Zoomies" prior to the invention of DVDs.

 

I would certainly hope so.

 

No, what I mean is that Ivo may have been using the DVD era term "Zoomies" to describe pipes that weren't ref'd to as Zoomies back in the day. I dunno. Just raising the question.

 

I've been familiar with the term since about the late '70s, I think?

 

Hello,
Straight from the historian's webpage: WDIFL:

"When Art parked the Hustler, Cannon took up the cause with Hustler II and campaigned it throughout Southern California. A succession of improved ch***es, each one carried the Hustler name, were raced. Hustler V introduced Zoomie headers to the drag racing world and promptly became the first car to run 200 mph on the West Coast."

In 1959-60, the Chet Herbert sponsored twin SBC motor FED of Lefty Mudersbach had Herbert's version of those upswept pipes, similar to the so called "zoomies" on the later model Hemi powered FEDs.

"Chet Herbert also developed the zoomie-type exhaust header, which blew the smoke away from a dragster’s rear tires in order to achieve better traction."

Jnaki

 

I thought it was weed burners.....

 

Leave it to jnaki to inform us.I wish I was so lucky to have experienced the life he has enjoyed. He was there through most of the cool stuff ! What a ride his life has been.

 

I really believe he should write a series of books. With his knowledge and his photo archives, it would substantially do***ent the great and initial days of this culture. I am originally from SoCal and raced at the beach, OCIR, Irwindale, and so on, but my knowledge and memory are no place near the master.
Jnaki, please consider this as I am not the only one who needs your memories .

 

Good stuff, I remember that it was to get the exhaust away from the tires at the time. For a lot of years out was good and they didn't put much theory or thought into the header pipes on diggers as long as the exhaust got away from the engines.

 

I was always under the impression that they were to provide an element of downward thrust to gain some traction.

 

I thought it was a place to lay your tools while running the valves.

 

You probably have tool trays that fit on the upsweep headers just for that purpose. I'm thinking that I saw a photo of that setup many years ago.

 

I thought zoomies referred to those extra long headers used on funny cars rather than the simply up swept used on dragsters. I first read about them around '68/69. So the concensus is that any up swept headers are called zoomies?

 

Pure Heaven II (Reed-Fitzgerald-Rockman) had a small tool tray that fit right on the hat. The center was for tools and had 4 holes on each side for plugs and there was a flap to cover the ****erflies. R T Reed's son worked at Fender guitar and made it.

 

Not the first mention but here's an article from an Arizona radio newsletter, Dec.'65.

 

Hey Guys,
I appreciate the fact that there are people on the HAMB that like my research and facts from back in "those early days." I have to thank my parents for moving to Long Beach where I grew up. Also, right during this critical time, my mom wanted a huge 4 bedroom house with three bathrooms. She got tired of sharing a single bathroom with two growing teenagers and our dad. She found a house on the outskirts of Los Angeles, near Monterrey Park.

She was all set to move. Both my brother and I were obviously against it. We kept at it until she realized that our friends that grew up with us all lived nearby and were a great bunch of kids. We stayed in that 1953 house until 1998 when we had to sell it.

We have all been told to keep active and this is one way to keep the brain moving in the right direction. Remember the history of the neighborhood is/was important. The fact that our neighborhood just happen to be in the center of drag racing and hot rod building shops was an added plus.

Jnaki
Thanks for all of the great comments and support... I can continue with other stories as they pop up. There are some triggers from all of you that make them come to light.

I don't want to get older, but the facts that I can remember work with " a little help from my friends..."
"Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends"

Getting older and watching everything around, change is inevitable, but at least we can make our brains work as long as they can. Thanks again...

 

I always thought the idea (in 1964) for directing the exhaust that way was originally to blow rubber bits away and keep the slicks clean. Don’t forget that the first zoomie headers were introduced before the days of the slipper clutch and dragsters pretty much boiled the tires all the way down track. Pretty soon guys figured out that another benefit was the thrust generated by the angle of the pipes, both upward and back, planting the tires downward and pushing the car forward.
The early funny cars were a different animal, they got the exhaust away from the car in whatever was the easiest manner. Naturally, as things progressed f/c headers got the upward and rearward curves but I wouldn’t consider them zoomies because they were never directed at the slicks.
When I was on a fuel altered crew and we were in the staging lanes if a f/c brushed the wall and s****ed the headers the comment was this - “Uh, oh, he just knocked the curb feelers off that thing.”

 

Quote from RichFox ten years ago here on the HAMB:
"Some years ago I was at Fremont drags and everybody was talking about the Frantic Four Top Fuel car and their new Zoom headers. I looked at them and thought they were nice but when they left the line, I was floored. In those days fuel cars smoked the tires for the full quarter. Sometimes the drivers would get smoked in at the start and loose sight of where they were going. When Zoomies replaced Weed Sweepers the exhaust blew the smoke up in the air away from the drivers line of sight. The point of this is I notice younger people calling regular indivual tube headers Zoomies. Look at a nostalgia Top Fuel car. Those are zoomies."

Weedsweepers, weedburners, same thing. It's 64-65 guys.

 

Just; Open pipes,8 tube,Bluppers,Cracklers or Poppers,are names I herd used before Zoomies,that seem to show up in the early 60s

 

Zoomies came in one flavor for me. Upward curved and slanted toward the rear of the race car. Intention was to clear tire smoke for improve visibility and heat the tire for better traction. Downward and forward thrust benefits were invisible and ***umed to be beneficial although we had no way of measuring the effect. Seat of the pants feel was no different with or without this style of zoomie.

My recollection is that the first pair were made by Paul Sutherland when he worked for Woody Gilmore and was based on Woody's idea/design. Time period was late '63 or early to mid '64.

 

I got out of the USAF (Jet Engine Mechanic on C-133s and RF-101s) in 1967 and settled in Van Nuys CA., where I began attending Pierce Junior College. Worked part timer on Van Nuys Airport for Ralph Payne on P-51 Mustangs and a Spitfire. After a year or so . . . I had met and was working for Dave Zeuschel building Merlins for Reno and Mojave Air Races and for Parco O-Ring Miss Unlimited Hydroplane and also engines for Notre Dame and the Atlas boat. Zeuschel was all about Rolls Royce and Packard built Merlins in those years. A**** our many discussions were the exhaust stacks on Merlins, and how much they contributed to the Mustang's thrust as noted in several NACA Papers, and Post WWII ****ysis. He knew all of those references.
I saw this thread and it occurred to me that Zeuschel and Cannon worked together on Cannon's Hustler FEDs. I do not know the date of the several Hustlers, or of just what years Z did the Hustler's engines, but Hustler V was noted here as maybe having the first Zoomies in 1964. I can't say for certain, but will suggest that Dave Zeuschel had something to do with the first Dragster Zoomies from his RR/Packard Merlin and P-51 Mustang interest.
I was lucky to fall in with that Air Race crowd at Van Nuys Airport. Zorro was one of the most fun guys I was fortunate to know. I still miss Dave (RIP 1987), Spot, Randy Scoville (RIP 2002), the Dooner, Don Alderson (RIP 2001), Darryl Greenamyer (RIP 2019), Bill Yoak (RIP 2017 ?), Joe Anahory and Spider at Milodon Engr, JAWS, Jim Kamboor, Secret Pete, Law, and my pal Ralph Payne (RIP 2002) . . . and many others . . . Gentlemen all. Not only was Southern Calif the heart of Drag Racing, it was also the Heart of revived Unlimited Air Racing starting at Fox Field, then Reno and Mojave. It continues to this day at Reno. And . . . all AA/FDs still use ZOOMIES for good reasons.

 

Hi Hemi..the history is interesting. Clipped this from a cacklefest.com post.

The history on this car is a short one. It was built as the second Race Car Engineering (Woody) factory car. The first was Paul Sutherland's Charger. The people involved were Woody Gilmore owner of Race Car Engineering, Frank Cannon, Amos Satterlee employee of Cannon, Pete Ogden, employee of RCE and current owner Don Prieto also an employee of RCE.

This article would lead you to believe that the "first" car...Sutherland's.....had the zoomies also. I do know that around this time Sutherland was driving a Woody car and it had zoomies. I can't speak to the exact timing.

Now a twist. I recently saw an article that Chet Herbert is said to be the original creator of zoomies. He designed and built a pair for his car but didn't like them and removed them from his car. Gilmore picked up on the idea and made them popular and is widely regarded as the inventor.

Interesting stuff. During this time period it was normal to see 20 AA/FD's in the pits on a Saturday night at Lions.

 

Dang for once guys actually added some real interesting stuff to an old thread.
If a guy goes back to older dragster photos from the 50's into the early 60's a lot of them had headers that were minimal and out and away from the engine was just about the only criteria with the tubes turn down on most to keep the hot exhaust away from the guys standing beside the engine doing the final tweak before it made a p***. No exhaust pipe tuning going on at all in those days and probably the concept that out was good was pretty close to the total theory at the time.

 

Until recently that is what the modern funny cars were doing. Tipping he headers up for more downforce on slicker tracks or angling them back for less downforce. NHRA caught on to it and set limits as to how many degrees they could be swept back. They were getting close to 340 mph and more unstable.