History WHO COINED THE TERM "ZOOMIES" AND WHEN?

More like a zombie.....

 

Nuclear engineers (and some physicists) refer to high-speed subatomic particles as "zoomies".

 

This. From Motor Trend "Top Fuel By the Numbers":

"...12,000 Downforce, in pounds, generated by the rear wing at 325 mph. The downward thrust made by the exhaust gases escaping the headers alone generates 800 pounds of downforce..."

source: https://www.motortrend.com/news/top-fuel-numbers/
This of course refers to a modern T/F 11,000 HP car. A HAMB era car would be less but not none and probably measurably better than weed burners..

 

In 64 when I was running my altered at Fremont, The Frantic Four came up from SoCal and everyone was talking about their "Zoomy" headers. So when they ran I was on the fence along with everyone else to see what it was all about, When he hit it, the tire smoke blew straight up. Instead of smoking the driver in. Everyone was really impressed with how the column of smoke looked and agreed it looked pretty "Zoomy". And helped the driver see where he was going. I think that was the idea in the beginning.

 

Yep, the BIG names were at Beeline..Wallace and Ladmo and Gerald...great times were had...

 

I grew up with Wallace and Ladmo, and the tower at the Beeline dragway was still standing last time I went by.

 

[/QUOTE]

"...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."

Hello,
Are you referring to Lefty Mudersbach/Chet Herbert collaboration of the twin SBC dragster?
Lefty Mudersbach twin Chevy FED (little, Dennis Mudersbach enjoying the most popular food item at Lion’s Dragstrip 1959-60)

This twin SBC motor FED was a winner from the first day it arrived at Lion’s Dragstrip. It drew the attention of racers and the whole spectator section on every run. There were a few, if any, twin SBC dragsters and this particular one was a winning combination from the beginning.

We were all amazed when it fired up during the push starts and the power it generated was pretty outstanding. This twin SBC motor was close to home for us as we had just started the 1940 Willys build with the 6 Stromberg SBC 283 motor. That single motor was pretty powerful. But in seeing two SBC motors in a dragster was pretty outstanding.

Jnaki


We thought it was powerful in the straight line runs, but one time it surprised all in attendance with a “wheelie” from the starting line. That was totally impressive. It was one of the rare moments in the history of the twin SBC dragster with what everyone was calling the headers “upswept pipes.”
Mudersbach wheelie at Lion's Dragstrip

As we all know, terms have been generated from anyone making a statement. Then as more people use it, however silly it may sound, later, people tend to think that was how it always was called in the early days, not in 1965 onward. Time periods have different ways to interpret the facts from early times. So, as far as the zoomie fashion in later race cars were the king of the day, it was shown for an SBC motor in 1959-60.


One of the absolute top drag race matches was always the twin SBC of Lefty Mudersbach against the powerful twin SBC side by side howard cam twin dragster. These matches always drew the instant attention of the fans and people in the pits dashing forward to get the best viewing of the match race. The push truck factor was the fabulous preview of what was to come and it is too bad I did not have sound. Two dragsters with twin SBC motors going against each other made the day for everyone.




Howard Cam TWIN vs Lefty Mudersbach TWIN

 

I once had the opportunity to read about it in one source. It talked about different types of origins of terms. I searched and it turned out that. I was writing an essay on the topic of racing cars and this term was suggested to me by Papersowl writers because before that I read a review of them on this page and I liked the writers of this site because they were able to write about it. And they understand this topic. It's hard for the person to understand but you can find out there I think.

 

"...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."

Hello,

For all of us that did not use the big Hemi motor, exhaust pipes were created at will for best results on the race car. For us, it had to be street legal in the Gas Coupes and Sedan Cl***es. Those that you see in some photos with individual exhaust pipes would be cl***ified as "altered coupes or sedans." The individual exhaust pipes were not street legal, as the early rules stated. So, before they disappeared from drag racing compe***ion, there were all sorts of additions for those funky elimination races.

Even in the other cl***es, when the individual hot rod/drag race guy or teams used SBC, Buick, MEL motors or even flatheads, headers were made to fit the need of the build.

1959-60 version 2 of Tommy Ivo’s single Buick engine FED.

Tommy Ivo at Lions in 1959-60


Jnaki

1955-56 early header design
This photo was one of the first times a custom set of hemi headers was created by Chris Karamesines and became almost a standard equipment for big hemi motors in the years that followed.
1959 Riverside Raceway
As the design of the big Hemi Motors in the later years of A/FD cl***es and into the AA/FD cl***es the “zoomies” were almost standard equipment.

But, there were plenty of experiments going on with a variety of drag racers during the late 50s and early 60s.
@HenryJGuy 1958
1959-60
Ivo Twin
Even early Flathead motors in different cl***es had their turn with back and upswept exhaust pipes, like early versions of the so called “zoomies.”
1958-59:


It is almost a difficult task to pinpoint the exact term of “Zoomies” as they were in early development and for lack of a better name, the era of A/FD had used the term liberally. As we all know, terms used in the early days get turned over and/or modified, with a different group of nickname users in more recent times. This all tends to confuse the origin of such popular terms. YRMV